Civil Rights Movements 1950’s
1950’s
-Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka
-Segregated schools unconstitutional
-NAACP
-Martin Luther King
-weak voting laws
Slavery (1865)
-Missouri Compromise(1820)
(Fugitive slave Act)
-Dred Scott Case (1857)
-Emancipation Proclamation
Great Migration (1920’s)
-NAACP (1909)
-Ku Klux Klan (1920’s)
-Harlem Renaissance (1920’s)

!960’s
-CORE
-Civil Rights Act 1964
-Radical groups
-Desegregation
-Voting Rights Act 1965
-Kerner Commission
-Assassinations
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
-13th Amend. (1865)-slavery illegal
-Military Reconstr (1867)
-14th Amend. (1868)- equal rights
-Disenfranchise (no voting)
-15th Amend. (1870)-voting rts.
-Literacy exam
-Black Codes prohibited mvmt.
-Poll tax
-The Freedmen Bureau (1865)
-Grandfather clause
-Civil Rts Act 1866-to combat blk codes
-Jim Crow laws
-Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) “Separate but equal”
World War II (1939-45)
-Segregated Troops
The Civil Rights movement started after World War II by W.E.B Dubois (NAACP)
South = Jim Crow
North = Housing discrimination
A. Harry S. Truman
1. Executive Order ending segregated troops
2. Est. Fair Employment Board – equal opportunity for holding a civil service job.
3. Proposed laws but not enacted by Congress:
i. Abolish poll tax and outlaw lynching
4. Effects of Truman’s efforts
i. paved the way for future laws
ii. Historian, Arthur Schlesinger, jr. “ Truman’s repeated efforts to make progress
in civil rights represented his “boldest initiatives in the domestic field”.
B. Breaking Down Barriers
In the 1940’s African Americans were chiefly responsible for breaking down barriers. They fought for
democracy in WWII, but did not have equal rights @ home.
i. Union Membership- 1st to break barriers 1935=190,000 to 1945= 1million
ii. Higher education- 1948 Universities in the South changed their admission policy
+ allowed Afr. Amer. (ex. Edith Mae Irby-Medical School @ Univ of Arkansas)
iii. Sports- 1947 Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Still
experienced segregated facilities however he won the admiration of millions of
Americans. 1949 MVP (Nat’l League and 1962 BB Hall of Fame).
C. Brown v. Board of Ed. Topeka, Kansas (1954)
Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren ---unanimous decision.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) previous case est. “separate but equal” rule. School systems use this
principle to segregate.
1. Facts: Linda Brown enrolled in a white school, which was the closest to where she
lived. The School denied her. Father sues + loses in lower federal court. NAACP takes up the
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Main lawyer: Thurgood Marshall. Main argument: Kenneth
Clarke, used empirical data/ studies to show the negative psychological effect on African
Americans living in a segregated society = inferiority complex.
2. Decision: “Segregated schools could not be equal” because of the psychological
damage that is inflicted on minority children. Segregation deprived minorities of equal
opportunities. Therefore, it violated the 14th amendment, which guarantees equal protection under
the law.
3. Results: The country’s school systems are to become racially desegregated with “all
deliberate speed”. Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.
D. Two Kinds of Segregation
1. Dejure Segregation—laws that require segregation are now unconstitutional
2. DeFacto Segregation—customs that require segregation are also unconstitutional.
(Admitting students that live in the neighborhood) Must be instituted integration.
E. Crisis in Little Rock (Arkansas) 1957
Arkansas’s Governor, Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to stop Afr. Amer. Students from
entering a white dominated high school.
President Eisenhower saw the gov’s actions as challenging the authority of the federal govt. +
Supreme Court.
President. Eisenhower call the National Guard to secure the passage + safety of the Afr. Amer. To
school.
Gov. Faubus backs off
F. Protests in the South
Civil Rts. Movement effected other aspects of society besides schools, such as lunch counters,
movie theaters, and buses.
1. Bus Boycotts in Montgomery (1955)
-Montgomery, Alabama rule (like many in the South) that all Afr. Amer. Sit in the rear of buses.
-NAACP official Rosa Parks reused, arrested, and charged with violating the segregation laws.
-Martin Luther King Jr. protests arrest with boycott of the bus system—lasted 1 year.
-Montgomery Alabama agreed to desegregate it transportation system.
-This led to boycotts in other cities.
2. Martin Luther King jr. philosophy
-nonviolence
-civil disobedience- disobeying an unjust law (Henry David Thoreau advocated
civil disobedience as a method for opposing slavery + the Mexican War). Mohandas Gandhi used
it to oppose British rule.
3. Students Sit Ins
-SNCC (Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee) -1960 organized demonstrations
-Method: sit @ counter of restaurant that would practice segregation. When they were refused
service- the students would refuse service- the students would refuse to leave.
-combined with boycotting became a powerful tactic. Dallas, Atlanta, and Nashville soon
followed.
4. Civil Rights Acts passed in 1957 and 1960 were weak + failed to provide appropriate
protection.