1. Roots of the Civil Rights Movement
US History * Mr. Marinello

2. Life After Slavery
After the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, African-Americans were full citizens (on paper)
Under Northern, Federal control the south elected the first African-American members of Congress
Once reconstruction ended power shifted back to former slave owners.
Many White Americans were uncomfortable with the shifting dynamic of power in the south
Some used elected office to “re-balance” the power in their favor and some used violence.

3. Racial Terrorism
Former Confederate Officer, Nathan Bedford Forrest founds the Ku Klux Klan.
Focused on Southern power against newly freed slave and northern whites running Reconstruction.
The group goes through several iteration from 1865 through the 1950s
By the 1950s the Klan was a collection of loosely affiliated local organizations.
They formed alliances and connection with elected state and local officials in the South, allowing them to act with impunity.

4. Jim Crow
After Reconstruction a climate of separation began to take hold in the south.
Not the law
Not equal
Many southern state officials did not want African-Americans to exercise their rights to vote
Poll taxes
Literacy taxes
Grandfather clauses
States began to adopt laws designed to separate White and Black citizens
Jim Crow Laws
Many of these laws centered on voting
What is the impact of “disenfranchising” black voters?

5. Segregation
Jim Crow laws increasingly divided the South into “Whites” and “Colored” areas.
Schools, libraries, transportation and restaurants were all segregated.
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.

6. 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