On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The decision was pivotal to the struggle for racial desegregation in the United States. This online version of an exhibition held at the Library of Congress from May 13 to November 13, 2004, commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark judicial case. The exhibition features more than one hundred items from the Library's extensive holdings on this subject, including books, documents, photographs, personal papers, manuscripts, maps, music, films, political cartoons, and prints.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.