The Civil Rights Era

Reading #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…Post Civil War...•The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)...•13th Amendment (1864) - Abolished slavery

•14th Amendment (1868) - “Reconstruction Amendment” ...Addresses citizenship rights & equal protection under the law ... Addresses needs of former slaves following the Civil War.

•15th Amendment (1870)... Prohibits denying a citizen the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

• The Great Migration…

• Double V Campaign…

Background to CR the Movement…

Post WWII: President Truman… – HST: E.O.9981 - Desegregates the military– HST: President’s Committee on CR…

- The report: To Secure These Rights

Recommendations…

- Ending racial inequality

- Voting rights protection

- Ending segregated housing

- Federal anti-lynching laws

- CRs Div. in Justice Dept.

Background to CR the Movement…

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”

What are Jim Crow Laws?

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

theaters & cemeteries

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

of Colored People

The oldest civil rights organization in the US.

The early goals of the NAACP….

- Ending racial prejudice

- Promoting equal rights

- Gaining the right to vote

- Gaining justice in the courts

- Gaining equal access to education & employment

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

citizens by… Using the courts 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

A symbolic first…• Jackie Robinson

– 1947 broke the color barrier in major league baseball

Robinson reports to the Dodgers Rookie of the Year

Lloyd Gaines – (1930s)

• Denied admission to the U. of MO Law school • Refused an offer to attend a law school in another state.• The SC ultimately ruled in his favor... “separate, but

equal doctrine” required that MO either admit him or set up a separate law school for AAs.

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… 1956: 700 of 10,000 schools were compliant.

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