Post Civil War Tensions Black Codes Laws passed to restrict the freedoms of African Americans Examples included laws that prevented African Americans from owning guns or property Jim Crow Laws Laws that encouraged segregation Examples included creating separate schools or separte dining facilities

Legislating for Equality Post Civil War 13th Amendment: forbids slavery 14th Amendment: defines citizenship and promises equal protection under the law regardless of race 15th Amendment: protects voting rights regardless of race Civil Rights Act of 1875: outlawed segregation in public facilities

White Power Strikes Back Civil Rights Act of 1875 is overturned in 1883 by Supreme Court Blacks Codes and Jim Crow laws again heavily used throughout the South African Americans begin to leave South to escape discrimination As more African Americans come North, they are met with similar hatred

Plessy v. Ferguson In 1890, Louisiana passes a law requiring railroad companies to provide separate but equal seating accommodations for whites and colored races Convinced that the law violated that 14th Amendment, a group of prominent African American convinced Homer Plessy to violate the law Ultimately, the court ruled that the doctrine of ”separate but equal” was constitutional As a result of the ruling, segregation becomes legally sanctioned by the judicial branch

NAACP Response Beginning in 1909, the NAACP, under the leadership of law professor, Charles Hamilton Houston, began to fight segregation In 1938, Houston placed a team of his best law students under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, the future first African American Justice of the Supreme Court Together, Houston, Marshall, and their team of lawyers laid down the foundations for overturning the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson

Brown v. Board of Education In 1951, Oliver L. Brown filed a class action lawsuit against the board of education of Topeka, Kansas His daughter, Linda Brown, had to walk 6 blocks to catch the bus that went to the segregated school a mile away; meanwhile, a white schools was located just 7 blocks from the Brown home On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled that the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place in schools

The Power of Precedent In law, the term, “precedent,” refers to principles or rules that are established by earlier court cases According to the concept of “stare decisis,” judges follow precedents when deciding court cases In this way, laws and legal beliefs change over time as the result of incremental changes The ruling of Brown v. Board can be seen as the result of legal precedent and stare decisis

Reaction To Brown More than 12 million children across 21 states were integrated into white schools White some states, such as Kansas and Oklahoma, followed desegregation with little problems, other states, such as Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia, fought integration No state better exemplifies the fight against desegregation than Arkansas

Arkansas and the Little Rock Nine In September or 1957, Governor Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away nine African American students who volunteered to attend the previously all white Central High The NAACP arranged to drive 8 of the students to school The ninth, Elizabeth Eckford, never received the phone call and attended in spite of violent crowds To quell the violence President Eisenhower took command of the National Guard and sent paratroopers to protect the Little Rock Nine

Legacy of Brown v. Board On September 9, 1957, Faubus shut down Central High to prevent integration As other states attempted to undue segregation, the federal government stepped in Texas Senator, and future president, Lyndon B. Johnson helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 The Act gave the federal government authority to oversee integration and pursue violations of African American voting rights More importantly, the success of integration made others believe that integration could be achieved on a societal wide basis