The Jim Crow Era (1870s – 1960s)

1) After Reconstruction, many Southern state governments passed “Jim Crow” laws forcing the separation of the races in public places (segregation)

The Jim Crow Era (1870s – 1960s)

2) “Jim Crow” laws were laws that legally segregated African Americans and prevented them from voting, going to white schools, riding in white trains, etc.

3) Jim Crow laws segregated white society and black society

4) Some African Americans sued that segregation was unconstitutional

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

1) African Americans said that segregation was a violation of the 14th Amendment

2) This case went all the way to the Supreme Court

3) The Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of public facilities was legal as long as the facilities were “separate but equal”

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

4) This Supreme Court decision would uphold the “Jim Crow” laws that predominated in the South until the 1960s

5) This continued inequality would eventually lead to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s

A New Slavery

1) Congress freed the slaves but they failed the ensure their freedoms

2) With Jim Crow laws, segregation, and very few opportunities for education, African Americans had very few places to turn

A New Slavery

3) Most African Americans became “tenant farmers’’ and “sharecroppers” to rent and share the land of wealthier whites

A New Slavery

4) African Americans were still tied to the white power structure

5) Without federal protection, emancipation resulted in a new kind of slavery

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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 1955-1965

1953-61 1961-63 1963-69

Supreme Court Cases

1) Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

was overturned by

2) Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

A)This case decided that segregation of the races in public accommodations and institutions was legal

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

B) This court ruled that this was legal as long as the facilities were “separate but equal”

**The following pictures are of the ‘separate but equal’ schools is Prince Edward County, VA

Peaks Elementary School for Blacks

Rice Elementary School for Whites

Epps Elementary School for Blacks

Worsham School for Whites (1-12)

Felden Elementary School for Blacks

Felden Elementary School Bathroom

Darlington Heights Elementary for Whites

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

C) NAACP (Nat’l Assoc. for the Advancement of Colored People) - this organization sought change mainly through the courts

D) During the 1930s the NAACP tried to outlaw segregation by overturning the Plessy vs. Ferguson case

E) By 1954 the NAACP was successful

2) Brown vs. Board of Education

A) NAACP lawyers argued that segregated schools were unequal and unfair

B) Attorney Thurgood Marshall led the NAACP legal defense team

2) Brown vs. Board of Education

C) This supreme court case overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson and forced schools to integrate

D) It also made segregation of all public facilities illegal

2) Brown vs. Board of Education

E) Many states ignored this new law (Including Virginia)

The response in Virginia

1) Massive public resistance – The state even closed public schools for over a year

2) Many private academies were established for whites only

3) This caused “White Flight” from urban school systems

Worsham Baptist Church

Worsham Academy for Whites

Oliver Hill

1) Oliver Hill led the NAACP legal defense team in Virginia

The response nationwide

1) Most resistance occurred in the Southeast

The response nationwide

2) In Little Rock, Arkansas, the Governor used the state National Guard to prevent Black students from entering white schools

The response nationwide

3) President Eisenhower sent the US Army to force the school to integrate

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

1) Rosa Parks refused to give a bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama and was jailed

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

2) African Americans organized a massive boycott of the city buses

3) This protest lasted over a year

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

4) Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized this protest

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

5) The Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was illegal

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK)

1) After the bus boycott he became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement

2) MLK taught “non-violent protest”

EX - Freedom rides

1) Black and White civil rights activists would ride buses together though the South as a form of protest

EX - Freedom rides

2) Many buses were attacked in the deep South

EX - Sit-ins

1) Sit-ins were designed to integrate public facilities

2) Many of these places were reserved for “whites only”

EX - Sit-ins

3) In Greensboro, North Carolina three Black college students took a stand and went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter

4) All of them were arrested

5) This sparked a wave of sit-ins across the South

EX - Marches

1) The most famous march took place in Birmingham, Alabama

EX - Marches

2) “Bull” Connor was the racist police commissioner of Birmingham

EX - Marches

3) He attacked protesters with fire hoses, tear gas, and attack dogs

EX - Marches

4) MLK jr. organized the march

5) MLK jr. chose Birmingham because it was one of most racist cities in the South

March on Washington (1963)

March on Washington (1963)

1) Over 200,000 blacks and whites marched on the nation’s capital to protest

2) MLK delivered the famous “I Have a Dream Speech”

March on Washington (1963)

3) This demonstration was televised and many more Americans began to support more Civil Rights laws after this event

4) The march demonstrated the power of non-violent, mass protest

Civil Rights Act (1964)

1) This act prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender

2) It also made it a national law to desegregate all public facilities (hotels, trains, restaurants, etc)

Civil Rights Act (1964)

3) Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) played an important role in passage of this civil rights law

Voting Rights Act (1965)

1) This act outlawed literacy tests to vote (Jim Crow laws)

2) Federal officers were sent to the South to register voters

Voting Rights Act (1965)

3) This resulted in dramatic increases in African American voters

Voting Rights Act (1965)

4) Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson also played an important role in the passage of this civil rights law

MLK was assassinated in 1968

Malcolm X

1) Converted to Islam

Malcolm X

2) He taught self-defense, violent protest, and segregation

3) He later admitted that he was wrong and said that the hatred of white people was wrong

4) He was assassinated in 1965 by radical Islamic Blacks

Malcolm X

5) Malcolm X heavily influenced groups like the Black Panthers

6) The Black Panthers split into two factions: one violent and one peaceful