Plessy v. Ferguson decision created the “separate but equal” doctrine, the equality of public facilities, including schools, was seldom achieved. As the NAACP lawyers began challenging this inequity in courts, a few residents of King George County courageously sued the local school board in 1946. The premise of Civil Action #631 was inferior “construction, equipment and facilities, instructional personnel, libraries and transportation service,” in black schools compared to their white counterparts. Civil rights attorneys Oliver W. Hill, Martin A. Martin and Spotswood W. Robinson III of Richmond, Virginia masterfully won the litigation despite the King George School Board’s fierce opposition. In July 1948, U.S. District Judge Sterling Hutchinson determined that “the defendants have unlawfully discriminated … against Negro school children.” This decision led to the opening of Ralph Bunche High School on September 2, 1949. The school was named for Ralph Bunche, an African-American educator, diplomat and Nobel Prize winner.
