21.1 Taking on Segregation

The Segregation system ■The Civil Rights Act of 1875 had outlawed segregation in public facilities ■In 1890 Louisiana passed a law requiring railroads to provide “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races”

Plessy Vs. Ferguson ■The Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” did not violate the 14 th amendment which guarantees all Americans equal treatment

Jim Crow Laws ■Laws aimed at separating the races ■Forbade marriage between blacks and whites ■Separate schools, streetcars, waiting rooms, railroad coaches, elevators, witness stands and public restrooms

Brown Vs. Board of Education ■Addressed segregated education in four states, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware ■The Supreme Court unanimously struck down segregation as unconstitutional

Resistance to School Integration ■The Ku Klux Klan reappeared ■“with all deliberate speed”

Montgomery Bus Boycott ■Rosa Parks ■“So I refused to move” ■For 381 days, African Americans refused to ride the buses in Montgomery ■In late 1956 the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

Dr. King ■Nonviolent resistance ■Mohandas Gandhi-the leader who helped India throw off British rule ■Shootings and beatings ■King steadfastly preached the power of nonviolence

Sit-ins ■African American protesters sat down at segregated lunch counters in Chicago and refused to leave until they were served