Download Legal Challenges to Separate But Equal

The Civil Rights Movement
Segregation and Early
Challenges to “Separate But
Equal”
1
Segregation
The civil rights movement was a political, legal,
and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights
for African Americans.
The civil rights movement was first and foremost
a challenge to segregation, the system of laws
and customs separating African Americans and
whites.
Segregation
Common in Southern
states following the end
of Reconstruction in
1877.
These states began to
pass local and state
laws that specified
certain places “For
Whites Only” and others
for “Colored.”
Segregation
African Americans had
separate schools,
transportation,
restaurants, and parks,
many of which were
poorly funded and inferior
to those of whites.
Over the next decades,
Jim Crow signs to
separate the races went
up in every possible place.
Disenfranchisement
The system of segregation also included the
denial of voting rights, known as
disenfranchisement.
Between 1890 and 1910, all Southern states
passed laws imposing requirements for voting.
These were used to prevent African Americans
from voting, in spite of the 15th Amendment,
which had been designed to protect African
American voting rights.
Voting Requirements
Voting requirements included literacy tests,
property ownership, and paying a poll tax
Segregation in the North
Conditions for African Americans in the
northern states were somewhat better,
though up to 1910 only ten percent of
African Americans lived in the North.
Segregated facilities were not as
common in the North, but African
Americans were usually denied
entrance to the best hotels and
restaurants.
African Americans were usually free to
vote in the North.
Challenges to Segregation
In the late 1800s, African Americans
sued to stop separate seating in railroad
cars, states’ disfranchisement of voters,
and denial of access to schools and
restaurants.
One of the cases against segregated rail
travel was Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in
which the Supreme Court of the United
States ruled that “separate but equal”
accommodations were constitutional.
Plessy Facts
In 1892, Homer Plessy
took a seat in the
“whites only” car of a
train and refused to
move. He was
arrested, and convicted
for breaking
Louisiana’s segregation
law.
Court Ruling
The Supreme
Court ruled that
separate-but-equal
facilities for blacks
and whites did not
violate the
Constitution.
Homer Plessy
Supreme Court Justice
Henry B. Brown ruled,
“the object of the 14th
amendment … could not
have been intended to
abolish distinctions based
upon color… or a
commingling of the two
races.”
Harlan Dissent
Justice John Marshall Harlan
dissented from the majority opinion,
“In respect of civil rights, all
citizens are equal before the
law…the seeds of race
hate…planted under the sanction
of law…the thin disguise of ‘equal’
accommodations…will not mislead
anyone, nor atone for the wrong
this day done.”
NAACP
The NAACP (National
Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People) became one of the
most important African
American organizations of
the twentieth century. It relied
mainly on legal strategies
that challenged segregation
and discrimination in the
courts.
Charles Hamilton Houston
Dean of Howard University
Law School (1929-1935)
Head of NAACP legal team
from 1935-1940
Called “The Man Who Killed
Jim Crow”
Determined that NAACP
would fight segregation in
graduate schools first
Murray v. Maryland
On January 24,1935 Donald Gaines Murray applied
to the University of Maryland School of Law.
He was denied acceptance not because he did not
meet standards, but solely because of his race.
Murray's denial letter stated, "The University of
Maryland does not admit Negro students and your
application is accordingly rejected.“
As a form of justification the University used the
Plessey vs. Ferguson doctrine of separate but
equal to find Murray education at another school
Murray v. Maryland
Murray appealed the decision to the board of
education. His appeal was denied. Murray then
filed a law suit against the University.
Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston
represented Murray in this case.
They argued that denying Murray the right of
attending the university because of his race is a
direct contradiction of the Fourteenth Amendment
No other Law school could provide the education
that the University of Maryland could
Murray v. Maryland
The Maryland Supreme
Court ordered the
President to admit Murray
to the University of
Maryland.
The NAACP used this case
as one of the first of many
strategic attacks against
the separate but equal
clause in the Fourteenth
Amendment.
Gaines v. Missouri
The Law School of the University of Missouri
refused admission to Lloyd Gaines because he
was African-American.
Missouri had offered to pay for Gaines’ tuition at
an adjacent state’s law school, which he turned
down.
At the time there was no law school specifically
for African-Americans within the state. Gaines
cited that this refusal violated his Fourteenth
Amendment right.
Gaines v. Missouri
The US Supreme Court held that when the state
provides legal training, it must provide it to every
qualified person to satisfy equal protection and it
cannot send them to other states
This decision is very significant because it
marks the beginning of the Supreme Court's
reconsideration of the “separate but equal”
standard made by the Plessy decision in 1896.
Sweatt v. Painter
Heman Marion Sweatt was a
black man who was refused
admission to the School of
Law of the University of Texas
on the grounds that the Texas
State Constitution prohibited
integrated education.
At the time, no law school in
Texas would admit “Negro”
students.
Sweatt v. Painter
UT argued that separate law schools for blacks
were opening soon.
The state created a law school only for black
students, which it established in Houston, rather
than in Austin. The “separate” law school and
the college became the Thurgood Marshall
School of Law at Texas Southern University
(known then as “Texas State University for
Negroes”).
Sweatt v. Painter
The Supreme Court ruled that the separate school
failed to qualify, because of quantitative differences
in facilities
The Court also held that, when considering
graduate education, experience must be
considered as part of “substantive equality.” The
Court's decision includes the following differences
identified between white and black facilities:
UT Law School had 16 full-time and 3 part-time
professors, while the black law school had 5 full-time
professors.
UT Law School had 850 students and a law library of
65,000 volumes, while the black law school had 23
students and a library of 16,500 volumes.
McLaurin v. Oklahoma
George W. McLaurin, who already had a
master's degree in education, was first denied
admission to the University of Oklahoma to
pursue a Doctorate in Education degree.
McLaurin successfully sued in federal court in
Oklahoma to gain admission to the institution
basing his argument on the Fourteenth
Amendment.
At the time, Oklahoma law prohibited schools
from instructing blacks and whites together.
McLaurin v. Oklahoma
The University admitted McLaurin but provided
him separate facilities, including a special table
in the cafeteria, a designated desk in the library,
and a desk just outside the classroom doorway.
McLaurin returned to the US District court and
petitioned to require the University of Oklahoma
to remove the separate facilities allowing him to
interact with the other students fully
The court denied McLaurin's petition.
McLaurin v. Oklahoma
This case together with Sweatt v. Painter,
which was decided the same day, marked
the end of the separate but equal doctrine
of Plessy v. Ferguson in graduate and
professional education.
These cases paved the way for Brown v.
Board of Education 4 years later
McLaurin v. Oklahoma
McLaurin then appealed to the US Supreme
Court. On June 5, 1950, the United States
Supreme Court ruled that a public institution of
higher learning could not provide different
treatment to a student solely because of his/her
race as doing so deprived the student of his/her
Fourteenth Amendment rights of Equal
Protection.
School Desegregation
After the Sweatt
and McLaurin
decisions, the
NAACP
determined that
the fight should go
to public schools
Desegregate the schools! Vote Socialist Workers : Peter
Camejo for president, Willie Mae Reid for vice-president.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C.; LC-USZ62-101452
Setting the Stage: The Facts
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
began as six cases, brought by parents on behalf of
their children in coordination with the NAACP.
Parents tried to enroll their children in their closest
neighborhood school in 1951, which were all-white
schools.
Each student was denied enrollment and forced to
attend the closest all-black school.
Setting the Stage: The Court
The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Fred
Vinson, heard the case for the first time in 1953 but
was unable to decide the issue.
The Court asked to re-hear the case in the fall of
1953, with a special emphasis on the Equal
Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Chief Justice Vinson died of a heart attack in
September 1953, and the new Chief Justice Earl
Warren presided over the re-hearing.
The Case
The issue before the Supreme Court was
only that the idea of “separate but equal”
itself was unconstitutional.
Should the justices follow the earlier cases
and keep segregation in schools, or should
they start a new policy and stop segregated
education?
Key Player: Chief Justice Earl
Warren
Appointed by President
Eisenhower
Former republican governor
of California and vice
presidential candidate with
Thomas Dewey.
He convinced the other
justices that a unanimous
decision was necessary to
send a strong message to
the public.
Key Player: Thurgood Marshall
Attended all-black schools growing
up in Baltimore
Denied entry into the law school at
the University of Maryland
Attended Howard University instead
Helped win Murray v. Maryland
which forced the University of
Maryland to integrate its law school.
Chief Counsel for the NAACP who
argued the Brown case to the
United States Supreme Court.
The Children in the Case
Left to Right: Vicki Henderson,
Donald Henderson, Linda Brown,
James Emanuel, Nancy Todd, and
Katherine Carper
Linda Brown continued to fight
segregation as an adult. She
worked with the ACLU to reopen the
case in 1979, because the Topeka
public schools were still segregated.
The courts agreed and eventually
three new schools were built as part
of integration efforts in the early
‘90s.
Key Player: Oliver Brown
Oliver Brown joined the case because
his daughter Linda, a third grader, had
to walk past an all-white elementary
school, through busy intersections, and
cross railroad tracks to her school bus
stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, an
all-black elementary school.
He was a minister and a welder.
Brown, as the only male parent of any
of the children in the case, was
designated the lead plaintiff, so the
case bore his name.
The Result
In a unanimous 9-0 decision written by Chief Justice
Earl Warren, the Supreme Court held that segregated
schools were unconstitutional.
“…in the field of public education, the doctrine of
‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal.
Therefore, we hold that plaintiffs and others
similarly situated for whom the actions have been
brought are, by reason of the segregation
complained of, deprived of the equal protection of
the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth
Amendment.”
-- Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education
“TO SEPARATE THEM FROM OTHERS OF
SIMILAR AGE AND QUALIFICATIONS SOLELY
BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE GENERATES
FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY AS TO THEIR
STATUS IN THE COMMUNITY THAT MAY
AFFECT THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS IN A WAY
UNLIKELY TO EVER BE UNDONE.”
What happened after the Supreme Court made its
decision?
BROWN: THE AFTERMATH
School Desegregation
Protesters against integration in Little Rock, Arkansas
In 1955, the Supreme Court heard
arguments on how the Brown
decision was to be implemented.
In what became known as ‚Brown
IIƒ,the Court stated that schools
must be desegregated ‚with “all
deliberate speedƒ.”
Few schools in the South
desegregated their schools in the
first years following the Brown
decisions.
School Desegregation
By 1955, white opposition in the South had
grown into massive resistance, using a
strategy to persuade all whites to resist
compliance with the desegregation orders.
Tactics included firing school employees who
showed willingness to seek integration,
closing public schools rather than
desegregating, and boycotting all public
education that was integrated.
Various Reactions to Brown
Southern states passed laws allowing
segregated schools
Some states passed laws prohibiting money to be
given to desegregated schools
Virginia passed a law that would closed any
school who attempted to desegregate
Even those who had been order by a federal court
One county kept its public schools closed till 1964
Little Rock Nine - 1957
Little Rock Nine
In 1957, nine students enrolled in Little Rock
Central High School, a segregated all-white school.
Governor Orville Faubus defied a federal court
order to admit the 9 African American students
President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard
to escort them into the school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oodolEmUg2g
Little Rock HS, 1957
Little Rock
After the Little Rock Nine, Arkansas passed a
law that closed Little Rock’s 4 high schools for
the following school year
Majority of white students went to other public or
private schools
Only about half of the black students found a
place at another school
Schools reopened for the 1959-60 school year
after the US Supreme Court ruled in Shelton v.
Tucker that the Arkansas law was
unconstitutional
School Desegregation
As desegregation continued, the membership of
the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) grew.
The KKK used violence or threats against anyone
who was suspected of favoring desegregation or
African American civil rights.
Ku Klux Klan terror, including intimidation and
murder, was widespread in the South during the
1950s and 1960s, though Klan activities were not
always reported in the media.