Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
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.