. >> ifill: he describes the conditions at his overcrowded all-black high school in farmville, virginia"deplorable," with no running water or indoor plumbing, and a potbelly stove that leaked soot into the classroom. >> we knew we were being programmed for failure, it was very obvious. we could not only see it, we could smell it, and when that soot settled down from that flue, we could taste it. we could actually taste it. so we knew we had to do something to make a change. >> ifill: after stokes helped organize a schoolwide walkout, the n.a.a.c.p took notice, asking the more than 100 students involved to join the broader suit. chief counsel thurgood marshall, who would later become the supreme court's first african- american justice, led the oral arguments before the court. on may 17, 1954, in a unanimous decision crafted by chief justice earl warren, the high court declared: >> ifill: when the ruling came down, stokes celebrated, cautiously. >> i said, "the war has just begun." i said these folks are not going to sit down and take this lightly. and they didn't. >> segregation now, seg