Segregation Chapter 21:1

BACKGROUND TO CIVIL RIGHTS IN 1950s Supreme Court decisions 1880s-90s Inherent tension within federalism Gradual evolution of federal power Blacks look to FEDERAL COURTS FOR HELP

MAIN IDEA By the early1880s the segregationists of the South had successful enacted a racist society based upon Jim Crow laws. For approximately 100 years blacks in the South lived under fear of violence and in a totally segregated world. Those blacks who sought a better life in the North and those who had fought for their country in W.W. II encountered prejudice and discrimination in education, housing and employment.

JIM CROW LAWS AND SOCIETY VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSmCBvsXyMk PHOTO IMAGES http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/gallery.cgi?collection=hickman

MAIN IDEA #2 The NAACP was the principal organization that challenged segregation in the South. Consistently the legal team of the NAACP won cases that chipped away at the underpinnings of segregated society. When Charles H. Houston, recruited Thurgood Marshall the organization became even more successful at legally challenging racial discrimination. Finally in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, the Warren Court overturned the principal of “separate but equal” and schools were forced to integrate.

THURGOOD MARSHALL http://www.thurgoodmarshall.com/home.htm Sweatt v. Painter: law schools must admit black students McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/clark/sweatt_long.html

MAIN IDEA #3 The Brown ruling was praised by most Americans, particularly African Americans. However Southern leaders were resistant to clearly hostile to the order to desegregate their schools. A few governors and state legislatures vowed to resist by all means necessary. The major test came in Little Rock, AK. in 1957. Forced to take action President Eisenhower nationalized the National Guard of the state who provided protection to blacks students in a most hostile environment. The crisis galvanized the nation and helped build support for the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

LITTLE ROCK NINE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH-eC4LgZT4 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/44_little_rock.html

MAIN IDEA #4 The Montgomery bus boycott was the first major organized resistance by blacks in the South to segregation. With Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the top leader, the NAACP engineered a nonviolent boycott that crippled the Montgomery transportation system. It demonstrated that African Americans could stand together and create change through the use of nonviolent methods.

Video Montgomery Bus Boycott http://wn.com/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott

MAIN IDEA: #5 Dr. King advocated and practiced a philosophy that focused on creating change through nonviolence and non-cooperation. Along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957) Dr. King sought to create a network that would organize and demonstrate to the nation and world, the injustice of racial discrimination. A sister student organization SNCC (1960) would utilize the talent and courage of college students to directly confront racism and racists using the philosophy of Dr. King.