Roberts v. Boston centered on
Sarah C. Roberts, a five-year-old
African-American girl. She was enrolled in
Abiel Smith School, an underfunded all-black common school, far from her home in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father,
Benjamin F. Roberts, also African-American, attempted to enroll her at closer, whites-only schools. After Sarah Roberts was denied on the basis of her race, and was physically removed from one school, her father wrote to the state legislature to seek a solution. Eventually, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts heard the case, in which Benjamin Roberts listed his daughter Sarah as the Plaintiff and the City of Boston as the Defendant. Not all African-Americans supported Roberts; most believed in "separate but equal" schooling and questioned the kind of education their children would receive from a white teacher. The defendant's attorney was
Peleg Chandler, the plaintiff's attorneys were
Charles Sumner and
Robert Morris (one of the country's first African-American lawyers), and the judge was
Lemuel Shaw. Sumner noted the distance that Sarah had to travel and the
psychological trauma the girl would experience having to go to an all-black, sub-standard school. Shaw ruled for the defendant. Roberts brought the issue to the state legislature with Sumner's help and in 1855, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts banned
segregated schools in the state. This was the first law prohibiting segregated schools in the United States. ==Legacy==