Origins of the Civil
Rights Movement
Objective: Identify factors that contributed
to the Civil Rights Movement; Explain the
significance of Brown v. Board of Education
How did WWII change attitudes
about segregation?
• Americans began to see racism as evil
• War had made African Americans more
determined to win equality at home in jobs,
housing, and education
• African Americans gained important resources
to help fight segregation.
CORE
• Congress of Racial Equality founded in 1942 in
Chicago
• Carried out protests in public places that refused
to admit or serve African Americans
• Helped end segregation in restaurants and other
public places in many Northern cities
Explain Plessy v. Ferguson
• Louisiana law called for ‘equal but separate
accommodations for the white and colored
races’ on trains.
• June 7, 1892 – Homer Plessy took a seat in a
train car reserved for whites. Conductor told
him to move, and he refused.
• Plessy convicted of breaking the “separate car”
law.
• Supreme Court decision – “separate but equal”
facilities for blacks and whites did not violate the
Constitution.
• State governments across the south applied
decision to all areas of life.
• “Jim Crow” laws forced African Americans to
use separate restaurants, hotels, train cars, parks,
schools, and hospitals.
Brown v. Board of Education
• Read pages 815 – 816
• Brown v. Board was an important event in the
civil rights movement. As you read, list
information about the event in a bubble map
containing the following information:
People, The Argument, The Ruling, Results of the
Ruling
• People: Thurgood Marshall (chief lawyer for the
NAACP), Linda Brown and her family
• The Argument: “Separate but equal” schools were
inherently unequal; segregated schools denied African
Americans the “equal protection of the laws”
guaranteed by the 14th Amendment
• The Ruling:. unanimous court ruled that segregation in
education was unconstitutional
• Results of the Ruling: schools must integrate; Court
ordered public schools to desegregate “with all
deliberate speed”
Describe the process of school
desegregation in Little Rock
• Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus was against
integration
• orders National Guard troops to prevent
African-American students from entering
Central High School
• Federal judge ruled governor had broken the
law; Faubus removed the National Guard
• Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect the
students
• Show The Civil Rights Movement video
Activity and Summary
• How did the Plessy ruling contribute to segregation?
• How did Brown v. Board of Education challenge
discrimination in schools?
• Why were the actions of Governor Faubus important
to the federal government?
Activity: Illustrate what the ruling in Brown v. Board of
Education called for or what happened at Central High
School