The Movement Begins

Plessey vs. Ferguson (1896) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html

• set up a separate but equal policy– Legally segregated African Americans as long as

equal facilities were provided for them

• “Jim Crow” laws were most popular in the south

• In the North, there was de-facto segregation – Segregation by custom or tradition

Court Challenges Begin

• NAACP supported court cases that dealt with overturning segregation.

Push for Desegregation

• African Americans began using their political power with the foundation of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).– They used sit-ins as a form of protest in order to

integrate many public facilities in Northern cities

The Civil Rights Movement Begins

• Thurgood Marshall: chief counsel of the NAACP.– Focused his attention on

desegregating public schools

Brown vs. Board of Education http://crdl.usg.edu/events/brown_vs_boe/

• (Topeka, KS) 1954

• Linda Brown; denied admission to her neighborhood school based on her race

• Her parents and the NAACP sued the school board

Brown vs Board of Education

• The supreme court ruled in their favor– Making public school segregation illegal

• Many school systems (especially southern ones) resisted the ruling and kept their schools segregated for years.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott• In 1955, Rosa Parks was

arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.

• In response, African Americans in the city started a boycott of the bus system

• The boycott was a huge success– In 1956 the Supreme Court

would rule that laws requiring bus segregation were unconstitutional

The Montgomery Improvement Association

• Formed to negotiate with city leaders in order to end segregation– Martin Luther King , Jr., was the leader

Martin Luther King , Jr.

• He believed that the way to end segregation and racism was through nonviolent resistance– He urged followers to

peacefully disobey unjust laws.

African American Churches

• Very important to the success of the boycott

• 1957, African American ministers set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)– Worked to do away with segregation– encouraged Africans Americans to register to vote

Eisenhower and Civil Rights

• Eisenhower opposed segregation but believed it should be ended gradually

• The movement was happening at the time of the Cold War – he believed that

segregation would divide the nation in a time when they needed to pull together.

Crisis in Little Rockhttp://www.history.com/videos/little-rock-nine#little-rock-nine

• September 1957, Little Rock AK school board won a court order to allow 9 African American students to a school of 2000 whites

Crisis in Little Rock

• Due to violence Eisenhower sent the US army to stand guard at the school for the rest of the year.

The Civil Rights Act of 1957

• Intended to protect African Americans’ right to vote

• This law created a civil rights division within the Department of Justice to investigate when voting rights were denied.