One year after the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Robert W. Kelley, an American Black, was lured away from East High School when he attempted to enroll on September 1, 1955. Kelley's father, A. Z. Kelley, represented by attorneys Z. Alexander Looby, Thurgood Marshall, and Avon N. Williams, Jr., filed a class action suit to end school segregation in Nashville. Their 1956 victory forced the city to develop a desegregation plan by 1957. Known as the grade-a-year plan, the Nashville strategy became the model for other communities across the South. Designed by the architectural firm of Marr & Holman, East High School opened in the fall of 1932. Four years later, the junior high school building was constructed by the Public Works Administration, a Depression-era jobs program. To honor alumni killed in World War II, the memorial clock tower was added to the high school building in 1946. Notable graduates of East High School included mayors, civic leaders, and internationally acclaimed entertainer Oprah Winfrey.