Mitchell v. United States was a landmark Supreme Court case in Black history that took place in 1951. The case centered around the wrongful conviction of Isaac Woodard Jr., a Black World War II veteran, who was brutally beaten and blinded by a South Carolina police chief shortly after being honorably discharged from the military.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund took on Woodard's case and argued that his civil rights had been violated, leading to the Supreme Court hearing the case of Mitchell v. United States. The Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the federal government did have the authority to prosecute cases involving civil rights violations under the Fourteenth Amendment, rejecting the argument that these were solely within the jurisdiction of the states.

The Mitchell v. United States decision paved the way for greater federal involvement in protecting the civil rights of Black Americans and was a crucial step in the fight against segregation and discrimination in the United States. It highlighted the importance of federal intervention in cases where state authorities were unwilling or unable to uphold the rights of Black citizens.