The Civil Rights Era

HC #1:

Challenging Jim Crow -Brown v. Board of Education

Objective… Summarize the evolution of Jim

Crow and the legal challenge to segregation in public schools

Background to CR the Movement…

• The Great Migration…

• Double V Campaign…

• E.O. 8802 - Prohibited discrimination in defense industry

• The NAACP…

• Congress for Racial Equality (CORE)…

HST: Post WWII 1947…

• HST: E.O.9981 - Desegregates the military

• HST: President’s Committee on CR…

- The report: To Secure These Rights To Secure These Rights recommends…

- Ending racial inequality

- Voting rights protection

- Ending segregated housing

- Federal anti-lynching laws

- CRs Div. in Justice Dept.

Symbolic firsts…• Jackie Robinson

– 1947 broke the color barrier in major league baseball

– Rookie of the Year

• Ralph Bunche– Wins the Nobel Peace Prize for peace policies

in Middle East

N.A.A.C.P.National Assoc. for the Advancement

of Colored People (1909)

The oldest & most influential civil rights organization in the US.

The early goals of the NAACP were to advance the interest of colored

citizens by… Using the court system to…

- Ending racial prejudice

- Promoting equal rights

- Gaining the right to vote

- Gaining equal access to education & employment

C.O.R.E.COngress for Racial Equality

• Founded in 1942 – James Farmer

• Goal: Promote better race relations & end racial discrimination in the US

• Tactics: Non-violent civil disobedience

What are Jim Crow Laws?

Laws supporting segregation in schools, parks, public buildings, hospitals, transportation , movie

theaters & cemeteries

Plessy v. Ferguson– In 1892 Homer Plessy is arrested for sitting

in the “For Whites Only” section of a railroad car.

– In 1896 the Supreme Court decides that “Separate, but equal is equal”

Brown v.

Board of Ed.

Argued 1952 – Reargued 1953

Decided 1954

Brown v. Board of Ed.

• Linda Brown lives 3 blocks from a white school… Travels 21 blocks to a black school

• Denied registration at the white school• “Brown”1 of 5 cases challenging segregation

Linda &Terry Brown walking to

school

Protesting the issue…

Thurgood Marshall

- Argued cases for the NAACP

- Becomes the first AA appointed to the Supreme Court

Chief Justice Earl Warren

“We conclude that in the field of

public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no

place.”

The Second Brown ruling (1955)…

• Assigned responsibility for desegregation to local school boards

• Desegregation must proceed “with all deliberate speed”

The Brown case did not resolve the issue…

In 1956 700 of 10,000 schools were in compliance.

The significance of Brown…The Brown case demonstrates that the

courts can be used as an effective weapon against discrimination.

The southern reaction…• Private all white academies created• The Southern Manifesto – 101 congressmen

urged states not to comply

DDE’s view of the Brown decision…

• Privately opposed the decision…

“I don’t believe you can change the hearts of men with laws or decisions”- DDE