1950’S Education Voting Desegregation

15 mil blacks in US in1950 2/3 in South Separate schools—separate Everything!

 Truman-”To Secure These Rights” report on rights of blacks  Get equality in Armed Forces thru executive order  Desegregate federal civil service (gov’t jobs)  Continue with plan to gain equality  Ike not interest in civil rights/equality  “social harmony not social justice”  1950-Sweatt v. Painter  Separate but equal professional schools not equal  Need to integrate  IKE-no action Jim crow laws Keep blacks without Political & economic Power!

 Chicago teenager visiting his relatives in Mississippi  Lynched—brutally killed because he talked to a white woman  White men tried but not convicted  Case reopened in 2003  Charges filed, but not enough  evidence

 Supreme Court more liberal  Run by Justice Warren  Congress won’t legislate integration so SC has to  “judicial activism”

 Plessy v. Ferguson 1896  Separate but equal is ok  Brown decision  “separate but equal is inherently unequal”==segregation is unconstutional  Must desegregate with all due speed!  By 1964—only 2% of blacks were integrated  Hard fought fight to integrate

Little Rock School Crisis 1957 Key Players: Gov. Orval Faubus -no integration -brings Arkansas National Guard to prevent integration Little Rock 9 9 students selected to attend Little Rock HS in the fall of 1957 Ike -doesn’t like integration But doesn’t like Fed. Gov’t to be ignored

Ike’s Response Sends troops to protect the Little Rock 9 Faubus’ actions- Direct challenge to federal authority Results: Brutal treatment Some last the year Some graduate

 Ike-”the mildest civil rights bill possible”  Commission to investigate violations of Civil rights  Fed gov’t to protect voting rights  Doesn’t happen  20% of eligible black voters registered to vote  Less than 5% registered in Mississippi & Alabama

 Leader-Martin Luther King jr.  Mobilize power of black churches on behalf of black rights  Strengthen community & the ability to fight back  Peaceful protests—not violence

Montgomery Bus Boycotts 1955 Key players: Rosa Parks Martin Luther King Jr. Help publicize boycott & help keep the calm Reasons for boycott: Blacks must sit in the back of the bus Blacks must give up their seat to a white person

 Lasts almost one year  Bus company almost goes bankrupt  City leaders refuse to negotiate  Finally-start integration

 Feb 1960-lunch counter sit ins to protest segregation in Greensboro NC  April 1960-SNCC-Student Non violent Coordinating Committee  Sit ins across the country—espec. South  Protest segregation in restaurants/transportation etc