Download African-American Civil Rights Movement

The 1950s: the Civil Rights
Movement
The not so Happy Days
Civil Rights Movement
The African-American Civil Rights
Movement (1955–1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the
social movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial
discrimination against black Americans and restoring voting rights to
them. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil
resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil
disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government
authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and
communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that
highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest
and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the
influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as
the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range
of other nonviolent activities.
Civil Rights Movement
• In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme
Court case determined that "separate
but equal" was constitutional.
• The opinion of the Supreme Court
stated, "A statute which implies merely a
legal distinction between the white and
colored races -- a distinction which is
founded in the color of the two races, and
which must always exist so long as white
men are distinguished from the other race by
color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal
equality of the two races, or re-establish a
state of involuntary servitude."
Civil Rights Movement
• The Plessy v. Ferguson legitimized the numerous state and local laws that
had been created around the United States after the Civil War.
• Across the country, blacks and whites were legally forced to use separate
train cars, separate drinking fountains, separate schools, separate
entrances into buildings, and much more. Segregation was the law.
Civil Rights Movement
Until the 1950s, America was a segregated society.
• Major League Baseball was segregated until 1947; African Americans played
in the Negro Leagues.
• Hollywood played its part, limiting African Americans to roles as domestics
or making "all-Negro" films that were shown in segregated movie theaters.
• The practice of segregation moved beyond the South into other parts of the
country, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
• African Americans were also denied the right to vote.
• Southern states set up poll taxes, literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and
property qualifications, all of which reduced the number of eligible AfricanAmerican voters to insignificance outside of the most urban areas.
Jackie Robinson
Segregation Ruled Illegal
• On May 17, 1954, the law was changed. In
the landmark Supreme Court decision of
Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme
Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson
decision by ruling that segregation was
"inherently unequal."
• Although the Brown v. Board of Education
was specifically for the field of education,
the decision had a much broader scope.
• Although the Brown v. Board of Education
decision overturned all the segregation
laws in the country, the enactment of
integration was not immediate.
• In actuality, it took many years, much
turmoil, and even bloodshed to integrate
the country.
Desegregating
Schools
Civil Rights Leaders
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s challenged racism in
America and made the country a more just and humane society for all.
Although the movement towards equality began before the Civil War,
the following leaders were instrumental during the 1950s at bringing
awareness and change to segregation in our country’s South.
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•
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Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thurgood Marshall
The Little Rock Nine
Rosa Parks
• On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Parks,
while sitting in the black section of the bus,
refused to obey a public bus driver's orders to give
up her seat to a white man and move to the back of
the bus to make extra seats for whites. Rosa was
tired of being treated as a second-class citizen and
stood firmly.
• She was arrested, tried, and convicted for
disorderly conduct and for violating a local
ordinance.
• Afterwards, Parks became an icon of the civil
rights movement.
• At her brother's urging, she moved to Detroit in
the early 1960s and served on the staff of U. S.
Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) from
1965 until 1988.
Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4,
1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and
prominent leader in the African-American Civil
Rights Movement, and he has become a national icon
in the history of modern American liberalism.
• He is best known for his role in the advancement of
civil rights in the United States and around the
world, using nonviolent methods following the
teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
• He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and
helped found the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first
president.
• King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington,
where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
• He established his reputation as one of the greatest
orators in American history.
Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Thurgood Marshall
• Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993)
was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991.
• Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first
African-American justice.
• Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who
was best known for his high success rate in arguing
before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown
v. Board of Education.
• He argued more cases before the United States
Supreme Court than anyone else in history.
• He served on the United States Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit after being appointed by President
John F. Kennedy and then served as the Solicitor
General after being appointed by President Lyndon
Johnson in 1965.
• President Johnson nominated him to the United States
Supreme Court in 1967.
Thurgood
Marshall
The Little Rock Nine
• The Little Rock Nine were the nine AfricanAmerican students involved in the
desegregation of Little Rock Central High
School.
• Their entrance into the school in 1957
sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas
governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a
federal court order, called out the Arkansas
National Guard to prevent the Nine from
entering.
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded
by federalizing the National Guard and
sending in units of the U.S. Army’s 101st
Airborne Division to escort the Nine into the
school on September 25, 1957.
• The military presence remained for the
duration of the school year.
Little Rock Nine
Assignment
1. In groups of 2-3 read the descriptions of
segregation cases that came before the Supreme
Court.
2. Make a ruling within your group.
3. Have one person within your group write down
the ruling.