The Civil Rights Movement Chapter 29 Section 1 The Civil Rights Movement

Objectives Understand how a Supreme Court decision helped African Americans in their struggle for civil rights. Explain why Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement.

Plessy vs. Ferguson-1896 This Supreme Court case ruled that separate but equal public facilities were legal. Separate but equal basically meant segregation, the separation of races, in schools, housing, restaurants, city buses, and other public facilities.

Plessy Vs. Ferguson On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car. Plessy went to court and argued, in Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The judge at the trial was John Howard Ferguson, a lawyer from Massachusetts who had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states" [3] . In Plessy's case, however, he decided that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that operated only within Louisiana. He found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car [4] . Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which upheld Ferguson's decision. In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Plessy's case and found him guilty once again.

NAACP By the 1950’s, the NAACP was working to eliminate segregation in the US. NAACP lawyers searched for cases that they could challenge by proving that segregation was illegal and violated the Constitution. Thurgood Marshall, chief lawyer for the NAACP, decided to challenge “separate but equal” or segregation, in public education.

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Linda Brown, a seven year old, was denied entry into an all white school blocks from her house because she was black. The Brown family sued the school system but lost. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Outcome of Brown Vs. Board of Education Reached the Supreme Court in 1952. Marshall stated that separate schools based on race violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which stated that all citizens are guaranteed equal protection under the law. 1954:The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.

Integrating the Schools Brown Vs. Board of Education called on all public schools to integrate, bring races together. In some parts of the country this happened easily and quickly. In other parts of the country this process caused riots and violence.

Little Rock, Arkansas 1957-Federal judge ordered High School in Little Rock to admit African American students. Governor Orval Faubus did not agree. Gov. Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent he AA students from entering the school. A federal Judge ordered the troops to leave and Eisenhower sent federal troops to the school to protect the students. The students were allowed to enter the school.

Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School

Montgomery Bus Boycott Dec. 1, 1955 Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery city bus. She found an empty seat in the white section of the bus and was ordered to get up. Rosa Parks did not give up her seat and taken off of the bus and arrested. This led the residents of Montgomery to organize a bus boycott and they refused to ride city buses. The boycott lasted for more than a year. The bus company lost thousands of dollars. The Supreme Court ordered that discrimination on city buses was unconstitutional. The boycott ended in Dec. 1956.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was a young minister who spoke at the bus boycott in Montgomery. He was not well known but he made an impact on the crowds. With the victory in Montgomery Dr. King became leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was influenced by Mohandas Gandhi of India who believed in nonviolent protest.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference Organized by King and 60 other ministers. They believed in nonviolent protest to gain civil rights for African Americans. The SCLC helped organize African Americans and prepared them for the struggle for civil rights.