In 1941, Kenneth Miller was born deaf. When he became old enough to attend school, his mother, Louise Burrell Miller, tried enrolling him at the Kendall School, their city’s school for deaf and/or blind children. Unfortunately, this school only accepted white students. Black students could attend the Maryland School for the Blind, but they had to ride a bus two hours each way to do so. This would be a hardship for five-year-old Kenneth. The Miller family initially hired tutors to oversee Kenneth’s education. Eventually, they paid for him to attend the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, an expensive option closer to home. In 1952, the American Veterans Committee helped the Millers, and families in similar situations, sue for their children’s right to attend a public school in their city. The court, relying on Gaines v. Canada (1938) out of Missouri, ruled that a state could not provide educational facilities within its boundary for one race and send the other outside the state to receive the same instruction. Therefore, the Millers won the case. However, the court also upheld racial segregation saying the constitutional separation of races in public schools in the District had been preserved in Carr v. Corning (1950). After the court’s ruling, Black students were admitted to Kendall School. Unfortunately, they were segregated and forced to take their classes in the school’s basement. White teachers refused to teach them. They were not provided the school’s curriculum at the same pace as white students, and were consistently left behind. This case shows that you can change the law, but you cannot always change people. The Kendall School finally desegregated in 1954 after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision. [282 words]