Le Journal

In December 1953, Thurgood Marshall, an attorney who headed the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that racial segregation in America was an attempt to keep the formerly enslaved in "as near that stage as is possible." Bill Whitaker reports on how a long-standing legal doctrine was ended.

Tobacco had been cultivated and smoked by Native Americans for centuries before Christopher Columbus introduced it to Europe. Jane Pauley reports on how growing tobacco became America's first cash crop – and ingrained in the nation's culture for generations.

The contest has been taking place for nearly 50 years, organizers say.

When the Switchback Railway debuted at New York's Coney Island in 1884, it signaled the arrival of the amusement park. Correspondent Tracy Smith looks at the origin and evolution of an American institution.