Roots of the Civil Rights Movement US History *

Life After Slavery Flashback: The Civil War and Reconstruction ends and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, make African- Americans were full citizens. After Reconstruction a climate of separation began to take hold in the south. State by State: The Federal gov’t was exhausted by the war and Reconstruction and left it to individual states to decide how to move forward. Many Southern states adopted laws that enforced segregation of races & 2nd class status of Af. Am. Courts, police, and groups like the KKK all enforced these discriminatory practices.

Jim Crow Many southern state officials did not want African-Americans to exercise their rights to vote Poll taxes, Literacy tests, & Grandfather clauses What is the impact of “disenfranchising” black voters? States began to adopt laws designed to separate White and Black citizens (Jim Crow Laws) Jim Crow laws increasingly divided the South into “Whites” and “Colored” areas. Schools, libraries, transportation and restaurants were all segregated.

Segregation The aim of Jim Crows Laws was to create “separate, but equal” facilities This was far from the truth In 1892, a black man named Homer Plessy boarded a “Whites Only” car on a railroad. He argues that the facilities were not equal and there for his 14th Amendment rights were being violated.

Plessy vs. Ferguson The case goes to the Supreme Court The Court decided that the statue of “separate but equal” is constitutional. As long as the facilities are equal This decision makes Jim Crow laws constitutional This would be the law of the land until 1954