Two African-American women, Berline Williams and Gladys Hedgepeth, determined that their children should receive equal educational opportunity, filed suit against the Board of Education, Trenton NJ. Their children were denied entrance to the neighborhood public school and were instead required to attend an all-Black school several miles away. In 1944 the NJ Supreme court found in their favor, the first State court decision in the nation to order schools to desegregate their enrollment. Ten years later, when Thurgood Marshall argued Brown vs. The Board of Education, he applied the Hedgepeth-Williams case in the successful litigation strategy that overturned "Separate but Equal" nationwide. This state court precedent also led to fair employment and anti-discrimination decisions. In 1991, the school to which their children were denied enrollment, was renamed in their honor and is now known as the Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School of the Arts. http://www.trentonk12.org/aboutus9179.aspx