Chapter 21 Section 1 Taking on Segregation

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Outlawed segregation in public facilities.

“All persons shall be entitled to the full and

equal enjoyment of the accommodations,

inns, public conveyances on land or water,

theaters, etc.

BUT….

The Supreme Court declared the law

unconstitutional in 1883.

Plessy v. Ferguson• Louisiana passed a law in 1890 requiring railroads to

provide “equal but separate accommodations

for the white and colored races.”

Plessy v Ferguson case

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled:

Louisiana “Separate but Equal” law DID NOT

violate the 14th Amendment (equal protection)

Result: The states passed “Jim Crow”

laws aimed at segregating the

races

Jim Crow Era Signs of Segregation

Then World War II came along…

The demand for soldiers created a shortage of

white male laborers…opened up new jobs for blacks, Latinos, white women

Charles Hamilton Houston

• Dean of Howard University Law School• Chief legal counsel for NAACP- 1930s

• Legal strategy: Focused on inequality

in the black/white public schools

How did he prove the schools were

NOT “separate but equal”?

He looked at the government record of what it spent on

educating students:•U.S. spent 10 times more educating white students•1938 - He chose Thurgood Marshall, one of his

students, to head a team of law students to prepare

several cases.

Thurgood Marshall Lawyer for NAACP Won 29/32 cases before Supreme Court over 23

years Won Brown v Board of Education (desegregation of schools) The first African-American Supreme Court justice appointed by LBJ -1967

Morgan v. Virginia (1946)• Supreme Court case that declared

unconstitutional those state laws mandating

segregated seating on interstate buses. (“between states”)

States could still segregate buses within the state.

Sweatt v Painter (1950)• State law schools must admit black applicants, even

if separate black schools exist.• McLauren v Oklahoma State Univ. - (another case

right after this one) – graduate schools could no longer

segregate.

Brown v Board of Education

Linda Brown - 9 year old 3rd grader o She had to walk past a dangerous railroad yard and

then take a bus to the “black”school 21 blocks awayo The “white” school was 7 blocks away

The Supreme Court Unanimously Struck Down“Separate but Equal.”“Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State

solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such

segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of

the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment – even

though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro

schools may be equal.”

A 2nd Brown decision…

• A year later in 1955, a 2nd decision was handed down.

• This decision was the “remedy.” (how it was to be carried out)

• The district courts were ordered to implement

school desegregation “with all deliberate speed.”

BUT…• Neither Congress NOR President Eisenhower put “teeth” into it.• The“Southern Manifesto”(1956) - 90 Southern congressman issued this declaration which denounced the Brown decision and called on the states to resist it “by all lawful means.”

Little Rock“The most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War.”

Three years after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, which officially ended public-school segregation, a federal court ordered Little Rock to comply. September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus defied the court.He called in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students—"The Little Rock Nine"--from entering the building.

Little Rock“The most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War.”

• Ten days later in a meeting with President Eisenhower, Faubus agreed to use the National Guard to protect the African American teenagers.

• BUT on returning to Little Rock, he dismissed the troops, leaving the African American students exposed to an angry white mob.• By noon, local police were forced to evacuate the nine students.

Elizabeth EckfordOne of the Little Rock Nine

• Ministers volunteered to escort the nine students, but Elizabeth Eckford did not receive the call because she had no telephone. She walked to school by herself!

Eisenhower sent the ARMY• Called out the 101st Airborne to escort the 9

students.• “Federalized the National Guard.”

Civil Rights Law of 1957 Passed

• During this time, Congress passed a Civil Rights Law - gave the attorney general greater power over school desegregation • Senator Lyndon B. Johnson sponsored this law• Sen. Strom Thurmond sustained the longest filibuster ever 24 hours and 18 minutes.

Rosa Parks• Dec 1, 1955• A seamstress (and NAACP officer) refused to

give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

• She was arrested.• Montgomery Improvement Association

formed to organize a boycott of the Montgomery bus system

• 26 year old Dexter Ave. Baptist Church minister Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected to lead the group

Martin Luther King, Jr. • Jan 15, 1929 – born• April 4, 1968 – assassinated • Baptist minister and Civil Rights activist• SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference• The March on Washington, 1963 - “I Have A Dream” speech