Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Desegregation in Tennessee
In its landmark 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. Clinton High School in Tennessee was ordered by a federal judge to be the first to integrate. Photographer Robert W. Kelley, sent by Life to document the first day, encountered this scene in front of the school.

• Last Days of Dr. King