Browder v. Gayle

Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956), is a landmark federal court case that ruled that segregation on public transportation is unconstitutional. The case was heard before a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on the segregation of Montgomery and Alabama state buses. The panel consisted of Middle District of Alabama Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Northern District of Alabama Judge Seybourn Harris Lynne, and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Rives. The main plaintiffs in the case were Aurelia Browder, Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith. Their attorney, Fred Gray, also approached Jeanetta Reese to join the suit, but intimidation by segregationists (including threatening phone calls and pressure from a senior police officer for whom she worked) caused her to withdraw.

On June 5, 1956, the District Court ruled 2–1, with Lynne dissenting, that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The state and city appealed, and the decision was summarily affirmed by the United States Supreme Court on November 13, 1956, effectively banning segregation on public transportation federally.