This paper will examine the rise of Brown v. the Board of Education commemorations starting in 1955 and chart their initial popularity with leaders and organizations in the Civil Rights movement. For the first ten years, from 1955 to 1965, the day of May 17, 1954 was embraced with great esteem as a watershed moment in the history of African-Americans. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., institutions such as black churches, as well as ordinary blacks celebrated the achievement of Brown, particularly during the height of the Civil Rights movement. But by the latter part of the 1960s and the 1970s, new black holiday commemorations, like Kwanzaa, began to emerge and ascend in popularity. This paper will address the shift in holiday and commemorative priorities of certain segments in the black community, and grapple with the question: why did May 17, 1954 decline in popularity after signaling the beginning of an end to Jim Crow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]