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1929  Charles Hamilton Houston becomes Dean of Howard University Law School.

1931  Margold Report is issued. The report is the basis for NAACP's initial legal strategy against segregation, with focus on fighting segregation in schools.

1933  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launches a campaign to introduce massive government social welfare reforms, known as the New Deal, to aid Americans suffering from economic deprivation.

1933  Hocutt v. North Carolina. NAACP challenge fails to desegregate higher education in North Carolina.

1935  Hollins v. Oklahoma. U.S. Supreme Court overturns the death penalty of an African American convicted of rape on grounds that no African American had served on juries in the county within living memory.

1935  President Roosevelt refuses to back an anti-lynching bill for fear of losing the votes of Southern Democrats. He also fears the controlling influence in Congress of senators from the South.

1938  Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada. U.S. Supreme Court ruling requires the University of Missouri Law School to integrate.

1939  NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is established. It aims to use the courts to fight discrimination and segregation.

1939  In Alston v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, a federal court declares that African American teachers cannot be denied equal pay.