The first Buena Vista School opened in 1888 and was demolished in 1936, and the Jacobean-style school designed by Marr and Holman opened in 1931. Three African American first grade students desegregated Buena Vista School on September 9, 1957, when about 100 protesters surrounded the school, but all students and parents made it safely inside. Members of the Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, visited parents in the area, supporting those already enrolled and encouraging others to join them. In Brown v. Topeka (1954) and Brown II (1955), the U.S. Supreme Court ordered public schools nationwide to end racial segregation with all deliberate speed. Nashville failed to comply, leading to Kelley v. Board of Education in 1955 and to a 1957 grade-per-year plan that began with first grade. In 1963, Maxwell v. Davidson County (1960) was merged with the Kelley case, and in 1998 the court deemed the Metro school system desegregated.
