The South Carolina NAACP used direct protest and lawsuits to dismantle the foundations of racial segregation. The organization’s legal team successfully argued cases to equalize teacher salaries, end the “whites only” Democratic Party, and abolish segregation in public schools and transportation. Following the emergence of the student protest movement in the spring of 1960, NAACP lawyers provided legal assistance to arrested students. The United States Supreme Court heard four sit-in cases from South Carolina. They established precedents striking down state-enforced segregation, affirming protesters’ right to free speech and access to public spaces, and helping secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.