The One Woman Show: A New Voice in the Desegregtion Movement

Mrs. Esther Brown, a White Jewish woman, led the movement to desegregate public education in the early 1950s. Thurgood Marshall called her the One Woman Show. Unfortunately, very few people know her name. This historical narrative establishes her role in the development of desegregation policy in public education in the contemporary public narrative on desegregation policy in the early 1950s, the challenges to the implementation of the desegregation of public education, and the local context that led to the national fight against desegregation. The significance of this historical narrative is to highlight the struggles that activists, many of whom are unsung heroes, went through to navigate the struggles and processes that enabled the desegregation of public education in America.