1950’s Civil Rights Movement A Jack Marty and Paul Elliott Presentation

Origins of the Civil Rights Movement In the 1930s the NAACP and United Negro Improvement Association started challenging racial segregation through a series of Supreme Court cases. WWII fought racism abroad which caused Americans to condemn racism at home. After WWII, the black middle class grew which produced many Civil Rights Movements. The role of the television exposed Americans to violence of white supremacy.

 The 1950’s Civil Rights Movement started the progression into major advances towards equality brought by Supreme Court cases, new activist leaders, and presidential approvals into the next decade. Thesis Statement

 Causes: segregation in schools, public places, and the bus systems  Inequality in pay, voting, jobs, and other rights  “separate by equal”  Southern resistance in public schools; not allowing blacks into white schools Cause of the 1950’s Civil Rights Movement

Truman’s sudden support for the Civil Rights Movement shocked many people He was outraged by the dozens of murders of black veterans of WWII. Made Civil Rights a national issue in started a 15 man committee to produce new legislation that would protect everyone from discrimination First to address the NAACP He promised African Americans that the federal government would act now to end discrimination, violence, and race prejudice in American life. Truman and the Civil Rights Movement

 1950-:Sweatt v. Paintor and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents-the Court struck down segregation of African American students in law and graduate schools. The Justice Department, in its brief to the Court, said it believed Plessy was unconstitutional and should be overturned. NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall, began to devise a strategy that would force the Court to re-examine the constitutionality of the separate-but-equal doctrine.  1954: In Brown v. Board of Education  1955: In Brown v. Board II- the Supreme Court held that school systems must abolish their racially dual systems, but could do so "with all deliberate speed.“ Supreme court Decisions

 1956: The Supreme Court, without comment, affirmed a lower court ruling declaring segregation of the Montgomery bus system illegal, giving a major victory to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the thousands of anonymous African Americans who had sustained the bus boycott in the face of violence and intimidation.  1958: The Supreme Court upheld the rule of law in Cooper v. Aaron, stating that official resistance and community violence could not justify delays in implementing desegregation efforts.  Source: cases.html Supreme Court Decisions Continued

 May 1954  Linda Brown was forced to go to an all-black rather than a nearby white elementary school.  Brown denied equal protection of the laws. (14 Amendment)  Overturned the separate but equal doctrine from the Plessy v. Ferguson case  Sparked a new rise in the Ku Klux Klan and the White South to declare all out on Brown  Eisenhower accepted the Brown decision but thought it was a mistake Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

 Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957  Nine African American students attempted to enroll in the all white school.  The governor of Arkansas Orval Faubous sent the National Guard to bar them.  This sparked angry white mobs to taunt the students  Eisenhower was forced to act by sending 1,000 Federal troops to protect the black students  Little Rock showed that they were going to follow the local custom rather than the law. Little Rock Nine

 1955  Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man sparking nonviolent resistance  The black community appointed Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the boycott  African Americans had carpools or walked to work to avoid the bus system  The boycott worked because the Transit Company feared bankruptcy  1956, the Supreme Court ruled desegregation Unconstitutional Montgomery Bus Boycott

 In 1957, Rev. Ralph Abernathy and dozen of black ministers founded the SCLC  Based in Atlanta  This black church moved transferred their moral and organizational strength to the Civil Rights Movement  In this church, women were influential in their fight for civil rights  SCLC quickly joined the NAACP at the leading edge of the Civil Rights Movement Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

 Eisenhower supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960  These acts created the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department  This Commission gave federal authority to register black voters  ory/chapter19section4.rhtml Eisenhower and the Civil Rights Movement

 Developed new activist leaders: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X  Ended racial segregation in schools, bus systems, and other public transportation  Brought to the beginning of new activist groups: NAACP and the SCLC  Presidents Truman and Eisenhower approved of Civil Rights Acts and the protests of the Movement Effects

 Plessy v. Ferguson-1896, Homer Plessy was ordered to leave a first class car and sent to a colored car on a Louisiana train.  The court ruled this did not violate the 14 th Amendment's “separate by equal” clause.  During the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the court ruled over the “separate by equal” ruling in Synthesis

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