Opening Assignment

• Turn in your crossword to Mr. Croft• If you faced the threat of violent retaliation by the government or other citizens would you peacefully protest for a cause?•Discuss with someone around you why liberty and equality, core American values, are jeopardized when one or more groups of people are denied equal rights.

Section One: Taking on Segregation: Objectives:

• ESSENTIAL LEARNING GOAL: • The Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950’s with the

NAACP’s courtroom efforts to end legal segregation, then became a peaceful protest movement involving the SCLC, and finally splintered into several movements during the late 1960’s including the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers.

• LEARNING TARGETS:• I can explain how legalized segregation deprived African

Americans of their rights as citizens.• I can summarize civil rights legal action and the

response to the Plessy and Brown cases.• I can trace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights

activities, beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott and ending with his assassination.

• I can describe the expansion of the civil rights movement through; SNCC, SCLC

The Segregation System:

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed segregation

• In 1883, all-white Supreme Court declares the Act unconstitutional

• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling: separate but equal is constitutional

• Many states pass Jim Crow laws separating the races

• Facilities for blacks always inferior to those for whites

A Developing Civil Rights Movement

• WWII creates job opportunities for African Americans• The need for fighting

men makes armed forces end their discriminatory policies• 1941 Pres. FDR ends

government discrimination in the war industries• Returning black veterans

fight for civil rights at home• 1948 Pres. Truman ends

segregation of the armed forces.

Challenging Segregation in Court: The NAACP Legal Strategy

• The NAACP legal defense fund worked to legally challenge segregation thru court decisions• Focuses on most

glaring inequalities of segregated public education• Places team of law

students under Thurgood Marshall

- win 29 out of 32 cases argued before Supreme Court

First African-American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

Brown v. Board of Education

•Marshall’s greatest victory is Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)• In the 1954 case, the Supreme Court unanimously strikes down public school segregation

Reaction to the Brown Decision Resistance to School Desegregation

• Within 1 year, over 500 school districts desegregate• Some districts, state officials, pro-white groups actively resist• Court hands down a second decision in the case called Brown II, orders desegregation at “all deliberate speed”• Eisenhower refuses to enforce compliance; considers it impossible to forcefully integrate schools.

Brown vs. The board of Edu.

• “To separate them (African-Americans) from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

• Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a [racially] integrated school system.

• We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”- Chief Justice Earl Warren

Evaluation of the Case:

• Discussion Questions:• 1. Do you agree with the opinion of the Court in this case? Do you think that it is possible to have segregated schools that can actually offer equal educational chances?

• 2. What effect do you think the Brown decision had on related issues such as women’s rights, equal opportunities for other minorities, or opportunities and access for the handicapped?

• 3. Imagine that you were given the task of planning the desegregation of a city school system that had always had dual schools for blacks and whites. How would you go about it? Outline the plan that you would follow.

Crisis in Little Rock• Since 1948, Arkansas

integrating state university, private groups

• Gov. Orval Faubus has National Guard turn away black students

• Elizabeth Eckford faces abusive crowd when she tries to enter school

• Eisenhower has Nat. Guard, paratroopers supervise school attendance

• African-American students harassed by whites at school all year

• 1957 Civil Rights Act —federal government power over schools, voting

The Montgomery Bus Boycott Boycotting Segregation

• 1955 NAACP officer Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus• Montgomery Improvement Association formed, organizes bus boycott• Elect 26-year-old Baptist pastor Martin Luther King, Jr. leader

Walking for Justice

• African Americans file lawsuit, boycott buses, use carpools, and walk• Get support from black community, outside groups, sympathetic whites• 1956, Supreme Court outlaws bus segregation

Martin Luther King and the SCLC Changing the World with Soul Force

• King calls his brand of nonviolent resistance “soul force”• civil disobedience, massive non-violent demonstrations• King remains nonviolent in face of violence after Brown decision

The Movement SpreadsDemonstrating for Freedom

• Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee adopts nonviolence, but calls for more confrontational strategy

• Influenced by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to use sit-ins: - refuse to leave segregated lunch counter until served

• First sit-in at Greensboro, NC Woolworth’s shown nationwide on TV and creates sympathy for the movement

• In spite of abuse, arrests, movement grows, spreads to North

• Late 1960, lunch counters desegregated in 48 cities in 11 states

From the Grassroots Up

• King, and others found Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) – Nonviolent protest organization

• By 1960, African-American students think pace of change too slow

• Join Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – national protest group

Daily Review

• Consider this map, why do you think segregation was allowed in so many states outside of the South? • Why do you think

the map is divided in these ways?

• Red= Segregation Required

• Green= Segregation Prohibited

• Yellow/Blue= Segregation allowed or not legislated.

HOMEWORK

•Chapter 21 Section 1•Read Pages 700 – 707

Main Ideas A – H Skillbuilder #1 – 2 page 701

Awesome job Can-struction!