 Reform movements dedicated to abolishing discrimination in the United States  Struggle to be free, achieve equality and rights  Starts with African Americans ◦ Leads to women’s rights movement ◦ Gay Rights Movement

 Plessy vs. Ferguson ◦ 1896  “Separate but Equal” ◦ States respond by passing Jim Crow laws  Forbade interracial dating and marriage  Separate schools  Separate public facilities

 Segregation Continues into the 20 th Century ◦ African American response  Great Migration – move North to escape discrimination ◦ Prejudice and discrimination exists in the North  All-black neighborhoods  White workers resent job competition from blacks

 WWII Sets Stage for Civil Rights Movement ◦ Demand for soldiers in WWII created shortage of white workers  Opened new opportunities for minorities ◦ Discrimination ended in military  Soldiers return determined to fight for own freedom

◦ During War, Civil Rights organizations campaign for voting rights and challenge Jim Crow laws ◦ FDR responds  Issues presidential directive prohibiting discrimination in the workplace

 NAACP fought to end segregation ◦ Trained African-American law students  NAACP Legal Strategy ◦ Focus on desegregating public schools ◦ Assembles group of young law students to prepare cases to take to SC ◦ Thurgood Marshall placed in charge  Win 29 of 32 cases

 Brown v. Bd. of Education, Topeka, KS ◦ May 17, 1954  Segregation deemed unconstitutional  “separate is not equal”

 Resistance to School Integration ◦ 500 schools desegregate within a year ◦ Areas of African American majority  Whites resist, fear losing control of schools  KKK reappears  White Citizens Council boycotts desegregated businesses ◦ Brown II – 1955  Desegregation “with all deliberate speed”

 1948 – Arkansas becomes first state to admit African Americans to state universities Gov. Orval Faubus – ◦ Ordered Nat’l Guard to turn away black students ◦ Fed. judge ordered Faubus to let students into school

◦ Little Rock 9 (1954)  Eight of nine students agree to go to school together  Elizabeth Eckford doesn’t get phone message ◦ Eisenhower acts  Placed Nat’l Guard under federal control  Ordered 1000 paratroopers into Little Rock  Protect Little Rock 9

 Civil Rights Act of 1957 ◦ Gave attorney general power over school desegregation ◦ Federal gov’t jurisdiction over violations of African-American voting rights

 Boycotting Segregation ◦ Jo Ann Robinson writes letter to Montgomery, Alabama  Asked that bus drivers not be allowed to force riders in “colored” section to give up seats ◦ Dec 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to get up ◦ Montgomery Improvement Association  Organized boycott of buses  MLK, Jr. chosen as leader of group  26 yrs old

 Walking for Justice ◦ Boycott lasts 381 days  African Americans refuse to ride buses  Car pools and walk  Nonviolent in face of violence ◦ 1956 – SC outlawed bus segregation  Dec 21 – MLK sits in front seat

 Changing the World w/Soul Force ◦ Nonviolent resistance  Teachings of Jesus, Thoreau, A. Philip Randolph, Gandhi ◦ Philosophy questioned  Extreme violence aimed at blacks in the South  Emmett Till

 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ◦ 1957 ◦ Civil Rights leaders and 100 ministers ◦ “carry on nonviolent crusades against evils of second-class citizenship” ◦ Wanted support of ordinary African-Americans ◦ MLK is president  SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ◦ SCLC’s pace too slow for college students

 Demonstrating for Freedom ◦ SNCC stages sit-in  Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, NC  TV captures images of white violence  Sparks sit-ins across South