A Victory for Democracy - NAACP v. Alabama and Freedom of Association

In a landmark First Amendment case that Martin Luther King Jr. called "a victory for democracy," NAACP v. Alabama (1958) established the right to form groups to share and promote ideas without government interference. Charles W. Eagles traces the case from its origins in local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) activism and in white segregationist politics, through battles in state and federal courtrooms, to four decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court. He explains the obstruction by Alabama officials, the NAACP lawyers'' persistence, the Justices'' deliberations, and the case''s unexpected impact on later Court decisions.