Civil Rights Legislation from Reconstruction to early 1900’s
Black codes limited physical and economic rights of newly freed African Americans.
The 13th Amendment bans slavery in the U.S. and all of its territories.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 authorized the use of Federal troops to enforce African Americans civil rights.
The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and equal protection under the law.
The 15th Amendment ensures all citizens the right to vote.
Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the doctrine of separate but equal.
Civil Rights Legislation from WWII to 1965
Brown v. Board of Education overturns separate but equal and orders desegregation of schools.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or national origin.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 reinforced the 15th amendment and made poll tax, literacy tests and grandfather
clauses illegal
May 18, 1954
High Court Bans School Segregation; 9-to-0 Decision Grants Time to Comply
1896 Ruling Upset
'Separate but Equal' Doctrine Held Out of Place in Education
By LUTHER A. HUSTON
Special to The New York Times
Washington, May 17 -- The Supreme Court unanimously outlawed today racial segregation in public schools.
Chief Justice Earl Warren read two opinions that put the stamp of unconstitutionality on school systems in twenty-one states and the
District of Columbia where segregation is permissive or mandatory.
The court, taking cognizance of the problems involved in the integration of the school systems concerned, put over until the
next term, beginning October, the formulation of decrees to effectuate its 9-to-0 decision.
The opinions set aside the 'separate but equal' doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court in 1896.
"In the field of public education," Chief Justice Warren said, "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal."
The court's opinion does not apply to private schools. It is directed entirely at public schools. It does not affect the "separate
but equal doctrine" as applied on railroads and other public carriers entirely within states that have such restrictions.
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws." The Fifth Amendment says that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."
The seventeen states having mandatory segregation are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming have permissive statutes, although Wyoming never has exercised it.
South Carolina and Georgia have announced plans to abolish public schools if segregation were banned.
The justices obviously were aware that no court since the Dred Scott decision of March 6, 1857, had ruled on so vital an
issue in the field of racial relations. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom on the ground that he had lived in a territory
where slavery was forbidden. The territory was the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, from which slavery was excluded under
the terms of the Missouri Compromise. The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen who had a right to sue in the
Federal courts, and that Congress had no constitutional power to pass the Missouri Compromise.
Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who led the fight for racial equality in the public schools, predicted that there would be no
disorder and no organized resistance to the Supreme Court's dictum. He said that the people of the South, the region most heavily
affected, were law-abiding and would not "resist the Supreme Court."
1896 Doctrine Demolished
The "separate but equal" doctrine, demolished by the Supreme Court today, involved transportation, not education. It was the
case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, decided in 1896 that said segregation was not unconstitutional if equal facilities were provided for each
race. Today, however, the court held the doctrine inapplicable under any circumstances to public education.
Looking at New York Times article:
1. What was the decision in Brown v. Board of Education?
The court outlawed racial segregation in public schools
2. What previous decision did Brown v. Board of Education overturn?
Plessy v Ferguson
3. Who was the lawyer who argued for racial equality in public schools (and would later become the first
African American member of the Supreme Court?)
Thurgood Marshall
Significance: The Court ruled that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a
violation of the 14th Amendment and was, therefore, unconstitutional.
Various southern legislatures passed laws that imposed sanctions on anyone who
implemented desegregation, and enacted school closing plans that authorized the suspension of
public education, and the disbursement of public funds to parents to send their children to private
schools.
In Virginia, Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. supported the policy of Massive Resistance that
included the closing of schools rather than desegregating them.
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Consider the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 and answer the questions
using the graph below. The graph traces the number of black Southern legislators during two 32-year
time periods -- from 1868 to 1900, and from 1960 to 1992:
Number of Black Southern Legislators, 1868-1900 and 1960-1992
Question: How would you explain each of the two
graphs?
1868-1900 (squares): __After the Civil War,
African Americans were allowed to hold
public office for the first time. The number
starts to go down in the 1870s because of
the rise in “Jim Crow” and other
segregation laws.
1960-1992 (circles):_As the Civil Rights
movement succeeded in having legislation
passed to end segregation in the United
States, more African Americans are elected
to public office.