1. Section 1

2.  After decades of segregation, African Americans decided to put an end to it  Demand for equal rights  Very difficult struggle, but achievable  Supreme Court had declared segregation constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896  Separate-but-equal was the ruling ◦ Laws segregating African Americans were legal as long as equal facilities were provided for both whites and African Americans

3.  After Plessy decision laws on segregation spread quickly  Laws were given the nickname “Jim Crow”  Jim Crow laws segregated buses, trains, schools, restaurants, swimming pools, parks, and other public facilities  Very common in the South but did exist in other states as well  Local communities usually decided on segregation laws  De facto segregation- segregation by custom or tradition

4.  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)  Supported court cases intended to overturn segregation since 1909  1935 won Supreme Court case Norris v. Alabama ◦ Exclusion of African Americans from juries violated right to equal protection under law  1946 Court ruled in Morgan v. Virginia that segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional  1950 ruled in Sweatt v Painter that state law schools had to admit qualified African Americans, even if parallel black law schools existed

5.  During WWII African Americans began using their power to demand more rights  Efforts helped to end discrimination in factories  Increased opportunities in military as well  1942 James Farmer and George Houser founded Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)  Began using sit-ins as a form of protests that started by union workers in the 1930s

6.  1943 CORE attempted to desegregate restaurants that refused to serve African Americans  If refused service they would sit and refuse to leave  CORE successfully integrated many restaurants, theaters, and other public facilities in Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and Syracuse

7.  African Americans were welcome in military but only if they were segregated  They were placed in their own units often with white leaders  After WWII President Harry S. Truman began evaluating the situation more closely  With the Holocaust fresh on everyone’s mind and how the German’s racism towards Jews escalated so quickly, many began to rethink thoughts on racism here in the states

8.  Threatened with the fact that African Americans would stop volunteering for the armed forces if something wasn’t done  Truman decided to integrate the armed forces in 1948  Worried Congress would pass such a bill, Truman used an executive order to end military segregation  Executive Order 9981 was signed on July 26, 1948 ◦ Forbade discriminating against military on basis of race, color, religion, or national origin

10.  NAACP continued to challenge segregation in courts after WWII  Thurgood Marshall- NAACP’s chief counsel and director of its Legal Defense and Education Fund  Focused on ending segregation in schools  Supreme Court in 1954 decided to combine several different cases and issue a general ruling on segregation in schools  Linda Brown was an African American girl how was denied admission to her neighborhood school because of her race

12.  Her parents sued the Topeka school board with the help of NAACP  May 17, 1954 Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and violated the equal protection clause of the 14 th Amendment  Chief Justice Earl Warren summed it up this way: “In the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

13.  Brown decision reversed ideas expressed by Plessy v. Ferguson  Ruling threatened the entire system of segregation  Convinced African Americans the time was right to challenge other forms of segregation  White southerners were even more determined to defend segregation, regardless of how the Supreme Court ruled

14.  Some school districts integrated schools immediately  Others were angry and opposed the decision  Hundreds of thousands of whites come together to pressure local governments and school boards to defy the Supreme Court  Southern Manifesto- 101 members of Congress signed it, denounced Supreme Court’s ruling as “a clear abuse of judicial power” and pledged to use “all lawful means” to reverse the decision

15.  Rosa Parks made decision to challenge segregation in public transportation  African Americans decided to boycott Montgomery buses on the day Rosa Parks appeared in court  Rise of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dec. 5, 1955 a meeting was held at King’s church, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church  He urged African Americans to continue bus boycott

17.  King expressed that protests must be peaceful  Only moral way to end segregation and racism was through nonviolent actions  King was certain that public opinion would soon force government to end segregation  African Americans listened to King and continued protest  African Americans refused to be intimidated but refrained from violence  Boycott continued until Dec. 20, 1956 when Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses unconstitutional

19.  King wasn’t the only pastor behind the bus boycott  Boycott wouldn’t have been successful with out support of African American churches in Montgomery  Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ◦ Set out to eliminate segregation from American society  Dr. King served as president  Challenged segregation at the voting booths and in public transportation, housing, and accommodations