The Civil Rights Movement
- Students will evaluate the EVENTS LEADING UP TO Plessy vs. Ferguson supreme court case and how it created “Separate but Equal” Separate but Equal, as the “Crow” flies
Nominated as the “Grand Wizard” which was the Klan’s national leader 1865 Meeting to compose a formal membership of the KKK. The Klan sought to control the political and social status of the freed slaves Specifically, it attempted to curb black education, economic advancement, voting rights, and the right to bear arms”
Post Civil War: 6 middle-class Veterans of the Confederate Army founded the Ku Klux Klan. December 24, 1866: Ku Klux Klan established. Modern day Fraternal Organization: expressing their beliefs of a supreme race White Power.
Definition: A secret society organized in the South after the Civil War to reassert White supremacy by means of terrorism Strength: less than 500 members President Ulysses Grant demolished the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870’s under the Civil Rights Act.
In 1915, William J. Simmons (Grand Wizard) re-established the second era. Simmon’s was inspired by the movie “Birth of a Nation” by D.W. Griffith Politics: More organized and focused on political and social reform. Membership: 4 million at peak in 1920s By 1923, the KKK treasury brought in $45,000 a day in membership dues.
In addition to anti black efforts they also were anti- Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-communists and anti- immigrant Used Lynching, Whippings, Murders, Tar and feathering, bombings and other intimidation methods to suppress rights. Source of Income: Membership dues and sales of KKK paraphernalia.
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT (1868) Four principles were asserted in the text of the 14th amendment. 1. State and federal citizenship for all persons regardless of race both born or naturalized in the United States was reaffirmed. 2. No state would be allowed to abridge the "privileges and immunities" of citizens. 3. No person was allowed to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without “due process of law."“due process of law." 4. No person could be denied "equal protection of the laws."
"Come listen all you galls and boys, I'm going to sing a little song, My name is Jim Crow. Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.“ - The song and dance of Rice, “black face” Highly stereotypical and exaggerated Black figure that was subject to white humor.
Series of states’ laws passed throughout the nation (most notably in the South) aimed at separating the races. Separate facilities provided were always inferior, sometimes absolutely horrific.
What happened? o Homer Plessy, a 1/8th black man, was arrested because he sat in a railroad car that was designated for “whites only” in the state of Louisiana. o Plessy claimed that the state law of separating trains violated the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment. o John H. Ferguson, the judge presiding over the case, convicted him. o Plessy appealed it and went to the state supreme court which upheld Ferguson’s ruling. o Plessy then appealed it again and took it to the U.S. Supreme court.
Supreme Court Ruling o Justice Henry Billings Brown gave the majority opinion. o This majority opinion interpreted the fourteenth amendment as “separate but equal.” o States can pass laws of racial segregation but only if what they are segregating is “equal” o Created “Jim Crow” laws
Bla blA BLAState passed laws after Plessy v. Ferguson that mandated segregation in public facilities. The conditions provided to African American tended to be inferior to what the white American Received.
What were JIM CROW LAWS? What was the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, and what was its significance? What, in your own words, did Justice John Harlan say in his dissenting opinion to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Plessy case? The Plessy case decision was based on the Court’s interpretation of what amendment to our Constitution? What was the relationship between Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall, and what was the significance?