November 2, 1966
A Federal Court District Judge ruled that the Girard College Board of Trustees could not deny admission to seven African American applicants solely on the basis of race. The college was founded in 1848 by Philadelphia merchant and banker Stephen Girard, who stipulated in his will that it was to be for the education of fatherless white boys between the ages of six and ten. In 1965, Cecil B. Moore, a criminal defense attorney, announced that the NAACP would file a lawsuit challenging a previous court rulings that upheld the exclusion of African American students from Girard College. Picketing began in May, 1965; the Philadelphia Police Department, having received word that protesters might attempt to scale Girard College’s ten-foot high walls, sent 1,000 officers to patrol the scene. The officers were met by thirty-eight demonstrators. After more than three years of nonviolent actions — including a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — the first African American Boys were admitted in 1968. (The school started admitting girls in 1984.)
