The 1950s: the Civil Rights Movement

The not so Happy Days

Civil Rights Movement

The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the social movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and restoring voting rights to them. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)

Civil Rights Movement

• In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case determined that "separate but equal" was constitutional.

• The opinion of the Supreme Court stated, "A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races, or re-establish a state of involuntary servitude."

Civil Rights Movement• The Plessy v. Ferguson legitimized the numerous state and local

laws that had been created around the United States after the Civil War.

• Across the country, blacks and whites were legally forced to use separate train cars, separate drinking fountains, separate schools, separate entrances into buildings, and much more. Segregation was the law.

Civil Rights Movement• Major League Baseball was segregated until 1947; African

Americans played in the Negro Leagues. • Hollywood played its part, limiting African Americans to roles as

domestics or making "all-Negro" films that were shown in segregated movie theaters.

• The practice of segregation moved beyond the South into other parts of the country, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

• African Americans were also denied the right to vote. • Southern states set up poll taxes, literacy tests, the grandfather

clause, and property qualifications, all of which reduced the number of eligible African-American voters to insignificance outside of the most urban areas.

Until the 1950s, America was a segregated society.

Jackie Robinson

Segregation Ruled Illegal

• On May 17, 1954, the law was changed. In the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision by ruling that segregation was "inherently unequal."

• Although the Brown v. Board of Education was specifically for the field of education, the decision had a much broader scope.

• Although the Brown v. Board of Education decision overturned all the segregation laws in the country, the enactment of integration was not immediate.

• In actuality, it took many years, much turmoil, and even bloodshed to integrate the country.

Desegregating Schools

Civil Rights LeadersThe civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s challenged

racism in America and made the country a more just and humane society for all.

• Rosa Parks• Martin Luther King, Jr.• Thurgood Marshall• The Little Rock Nine

Although the movement towards equality began before the Civil War, the following leaders were instrumental during the 1950s at bringing awareness and change to segregation in our country’s South.

Rosa Parks• On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery,

Parks, while sitting in the black section of the bus, refused to obey a public bus driver's orders to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus to make extra seats for whites. Rosa was tired of being treated as a second-class citizen and stood firmly.

• She was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and for violating a local ordinance.

• Afterwards, Parks became an icon of the civil rights movement.

• At her brother's urging, she moved to Detroit in the early 1960s and served on the staff of U. S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) from 1965 until 1988.

Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King, Jr.• Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 –

April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and he has become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism.

• He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

• He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president.

• King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

• He established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thurgood Marshall• Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January

24, 1993) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991.

• Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice.

• Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education.

• He argued more cases before the United States Supreme Court than anyone else in history.

• He served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy and then served as the Solicitor General after being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

• President Johnson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1967.

Thurgood Marshall

The Little Rock Nine

Little Rock Nine

• The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

• Their entrance into the school in 1957 sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a federal court order, called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering.

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the Nine into the school on September 25, 1957.

• The military presence remained for the duration of the school year.

Assignment1. In groups of 2-3 read the descriptions of

segregation cases that came before the Supreme Court.

2. Make a ruling within your group.3. Have one person within your group write

down the ruling.