1. Segregation: Legalized Discrimination
Brown v. Board of Education Little Rock 9

2. EQ: What effect did Brown v The Board of Education have on segregation in the Southern States and African American Society?

4. Law at the Time: The Jim Crow Laws
Civil War Abolished Slavery but didn’t end legal Discrimination based on Race
th Amendment Gave People of Color Equal Rights Under the Law
th Amendment granted POC the legal right to vote
1890’s Jim Crow Laws enacted on State and Local level -are the foundation of legalized Segregation
Mostly a southern occurrence, but discrimination still happened up North
Separate Schools, Hospitals, Public Facilities, Transportation, Beaches, cemeteries, etc

5. Plessy v. Ferguson Regarded as one of the Worst Supreme Court Rulings
In 1896 Southern Jim Crow Laws are challenged on the National Stage
Case was over seating in Railway Cars in Louisiana (
Was a blow to anti-segregationist
Courts upheld that racial segregation was legal if it was equal
This was the start of the Doctrine of Separate but Equal that lasted until start of Civil Rights Movement
Homer Plessy v Judge Ferguson
Regarded as one of the Worst Supreme Court Rulings

6. Brown v. Board of Education
May 17, 1954 Brown v Board of Education of Topeka
13 Parents filed Lawsuit with NAACP
Was actually a combined ruling of five cases with same merits from different states that started in 1952
Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
Court Ruled that Separate But Equal had no place in public education because segregated schools are inherently unequal
De Jure Segregation officially ruled a violation of 14th Amendment
Paved way for Desegregation & Integration and the Civil Rights Movement

7. The Little Rock Nine
Even though court mandated, States were still very hesitant and slow to desegregate –Had to be forced by Feds
NAACP started planning integration in Little Rock, Arkansas for Sept. 1957
Nine Students Volunteered
Governor Orval Faubus resisted Federal Mandate to Integrate Little Rock Central High School
Brought in Arkansas National Guard Troops to block students- it worked
Emergency Court Ruling on day before school Sept. 3, 1957, said Students could Proceed.
Blocked on Sept. 4 First Day of School
On Sept. 20 President Eisenhower used 101st Airborne to remove National Guard
Sept 25th Students finally attend full day
School Year Cancelled By Faubus to prevent further Integration

8. September 1957 Diary Entry
You are to write a one page diary entry of how you feel about the volatile situation at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. You may write from any perspective you choose, a white student, a student of color, a parent of either side, an administrator, a National Guard Soldier, a 101st Airborne Soldier, or a bystander watching from the sidelines either in Arkansas or another state. Be sure to include what emotions you may be having over the situation, how you feel about the issue of desegregation and integration and the changing of a way of life. You may even include your hopes for the future or if you think it will work out or if it was a mistake.