"I think there has been no more heroic episode in American law than the work of southern federal judges in ending racial discrimination in the South. Jack Bass has brought this recent history to life, telling us much that we had not known." --Anthony Lewis, New York Times Unlikely Heroes is a gripping and readable account of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the watershed 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended racially segregated schools. The "unlikely heroes" whose lives and decisions that Jack Bass traces are the federal judges--primarily on the U.S.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals--who vigorously and skillfully implemented the Brown decision in six southern states. These rich profiles show the character of the men who gave up prosperous lives, popularity, and friends to see that the constitutional rights of all U.S. citizens were protected.