In the mid-20th century, one prominent means of effecting social change in the United States was use of the judicial system. In 1954, for instance, the landmark decision by the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education dealt a powerful blow against racial segregation in public schools. In the decades that followed, federal courts issued integration orders to scores of school districts, particularly in the South. By the early 1970s, the majority of black students in Southern districts…

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Read more stories by Corinna Wu.