February
An angry mob prevents Autherine Lucy, a black student, from being admitted to the University of Alabama. Lucy is nearly lynched. President Eisenhower declines to employ federal force or power to secure her admission. She is eventually expelled from the University for allegedly bringing false contempt charges against a member of the Board of Trustees of the University.
March
Twenty-two Senators and 82 of the 106 Southern Representatives issue the Southern Manifesto, a declaration charging that the Court’s opinion in Brown was “a clear abuse of judicial power” that substituted the Justices’ “personal political and social ideas for the established law of the land.” They pledge to “use all lawful means to bring about the reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution.” Meanwhile, The Georgia state legislature votes to adopt as its new state flag a design that includes the Confederate battle insignia.
The Supreme Court refuses to decide a challenge to miscegenation laws in Naim v. Naim, 350 U.S. 891 (1956), arguing that the record was insufficient.
November
On the13th, the Supreme Court rules that the city ordinances segregating seating on the Montgomery city buses violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision is implemented on December 21st, finally bringing the Montgomery Bus boycott to an end.