After the First Baptist Church meeting on May 3, 1951, Hill and Robinson filed a lawsuit in the federal courts for the NAACP. The case known as Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County challenged the constitutional legality of segregated schools. 

It took two years for the case to reach the United States Supreme Court, along with four other legal challenges to segregated schools.

The NAACP legally challenged segregated schools, arguing that “separate but equal” was inherently unconstitutional. Their strategy aimed to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruling that had legalized segregation. In 1954, the Supreme Court faced a pivotal question: Could they reverse Plessy and strike down segregation in public education?

In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously decided to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren, speaking for the court, declared, “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.”

The Davis case, which originated from the Student Strike at Robert Russa Moton High School, was the only one of the five cases in Brown v. Board of Education initiated by a student-led protest.

The students of Robert Russa Moton High School, inspired by Barbara Johns, achieved a legal victory for public schools throughout the nation.

The walls of legal segregation were tumbling down and the Civil Rights Movement would soon come marching through.