"Prudence Crandall was a schoolteacher who fought in the early nineteenth century to integrate her school in Canterbury, Connecticut, and educate black women. When Crandall accepted a black woman as a student, she unleashed a storm of controversy that catapulted her to national notoriety and drew the attention of the most prominent pro- and antislavery activists of the day. The Connecticut state legistlature passed its infamous Black Law in an attempt to close down her school. Although Crandall was arrested and jailed, her legal legacy had a lasting impact--Crandall v. State was the first full-throated defense mounted for civil rights in United States history. The arguments by attorneys in Crandall played a role in two of the most fateful Supreme Court decisions, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. In Prudence Crandall's Legacy, the author and lawyer Donald E. Williams Jr. marshals a wealth of detail concerning the life and work of Prudence Crandall, her unique role in the fight for civil rights, and her influence on legal arguments for equality in America."--Jacket.