On May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education of Topkea struck down the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Renowned hotojournalist Alex Rivera discusses the importance of the Brown decision and the impact that it had on Black communities in North Carolina:

“You see, that was one of the greatest cases in the history of this country because it completely changed the lifestyle of the nation, white and Black. See when it said all then legally Plessy versus Ferguson was dead. That was the case that allowed segregation, and it was dead. It’s just no more. So it meant that the restaurants and hotels and everything were all open. At first I think there was shock, and then people tried to accommodate to the law, Black and white. Black businesses took hit, a real hit because for once, Blacks could go in or eat anywhere they wanted to or live anywhere they wanted to. Immediately, almost immediately, small Black businesses went out of business. That’s what was expected. That’s what we were fighting for. Even the Black newspapers that were fighting just lost out. Those of us who had these pretty good jobs with Black newspapers, we no longer had a job.”