Kelley vs. Board of Education of Nashville / East High School

Kelley vs. Board of Education of Nashville: One year after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Robert W. Kelley, an American Black, was lured away from East High School when he attempted to enroll on September 1, 1955. Kelley's father, A. Z. Kelley, represented by attorneys Z. Alexander Looby, Thurgood Marshall, and Avon N. Williams, Jr., filed a class action suit to end school segregation in Nashville. Their 1956 victory forced the city to develop a desegregation plan by 1957. Known as the "grade-a-year plan," the Nashville strategy became the model for other communities across the South. East High School: Designed by the architectural firm of Marr & Holman. East High School opened in the fall of 1932. Four years later, the junior high school building was constructed by the Public Works Administration, a depression era jobs program. To honor alumni killed in World War II, in 1946 the memorial clock tower was added to the high school building. A number of notable Nashvillians graduated from East High School, including mayors, civic leaders, and internationally acclaimed entertainer Oprah Winfrey.