Howard University, Main Yard (Andrew Rankin Memori - View this location on map  These three buildings on Howard University s main yard are nationally significant as the setting for the institution s role in the legal establishment of racially desegregated public education, and for its association with two nationally recognized leaders of that fight Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall as well as many others. Through Houston s vision, beginning in 1929 Howard Law School became an educational training ground for activist lawyers dedicated to securing the civil rights of all people of color. In 1936, the nation s first legal course in Civil Rights was established there. Howard University also provided critical support to Marshall and the Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as they developed the legal strategy that culminated in the historic Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education, thus ending segregation in public education. 2365 6th Street, NW, Washington , DC Historical |