Look at the next two slides of
Supreme Court Cases, and answer the questions:
 1. What do you think Plessy vs. Ferguson established?
 2. Why do you think that?
 3. What do you think Brown vs. Board of
Education established?
 4. How do you think it changed America?

Brown vs. Board of Education 1954

Social Change Movements from 1945 to 1970
1. Racial Equality
2. Rights for Women
3. Environmental Awareness



The Supreme Court decided in
Plessy vs. Ferguson that if institutions are equal they had to be separate for the races.
“Separate but Equal”
 Jim Crow laws required African
Americans to have separate facilities.

Jim Crow Laws

President Truman ordered the military to integrate in
1948, but it does not really happen until 1963.

Brown vs. Board of Ed.
 Linda Brown was not allowed to attend an allwhite school and challenges that ruling in the
Supreme Court
1.
2.
Overturned
Plessy vs.
Ferguson
Starts integration in schools

Brown vs. Board of
Education 1954


Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
Rosa Parks was arrested for violating the segregation laws of Montgomery,
Alabama.

 For over a year, African
Americans boycotted the buses.
 They carpooled and walked through all weather conditions

http://www.africanaonline.com/Graphic/rosa_parks_bus.gif
 While the NAACP fought in the courts, MLK’s organization led the boycott.



“Violence never solves problems. It only creates new and more complicated ones.”
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 King was arrested thirty times in his
38 year life.
 His house was bombed or nearly bombed several times
 Death threats constantly

March on Washington 1963
 President Kennedy was pushing for a civil rights bill.
 To show support over 200,000
African Americans went to
Washington D.C.

MLK, Jr gives “I Have a Dream” speech

March on Washington 1963


Civil Rights Organizations
SNCC SCLC campuses churches
 Student led MLK led
 Protested protested
 Non violent non violent
 Wanted equality wanted to change the laws that would result in equality

Protest Tactics : SIT INS

This was in Greensboro, North Carolina

They were led not by MLK but by college students!

 Dress in you Sunday best.
 Be respectful to employees and police.
 Do not resist arrest!
 Do not fight back!
 Remember, journalists are everywhere !

 In Selma, pro-vote marchers face
Alabama cops
.

Many were arrested.

Birmingham, Alabama 1963

Birmingham

Birmingham
 When America saw 500 kids get arrested and attacked with dogs, there was much support for civil rights legislation.

White and Black volunteers, got on buses and sat inter-racially on the bus.
 They went into bus station lunch counters

Freedom Riders attacked!

Mobs also attacked them at the bus stations.

Voter Registration
 Volunteers came to
Mississippi to register African
Americans to vote.

These volunteers risked arrest, violence and death every day.

 If African
Americans registered to vote, local banks could call the loan on their farm.

 This man spent 5 days in jail for carrying a sign that read, “Voter
Registration
Worker”

 Banned segregation in public places such as restaurants and buses.

Voting Rights Act of 1965
 Outlawed literacy tests in order to vote.

2. Rights for Women
Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine
Mystique in 1963 which led to creation of NOW and feminist movement
National Organization for Women founded in 1966

3.
Environmental Awareness