The Civil Rights Movement under The Civil Rights Movement under Prez Eisenhower’s AdministrationPrez Eisenhower’s Administration

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Way of legalizing segregation. States that segregation is legal as long as facilities were equal.

• Did not work and discouraged black Americans.

• Good for white Americans in the south b/c they did not uphold ruling.

•Segregation is separation by race of class in society.

•Integration is to join or open to all racial groups or classes.

Jim Crow in the SouthJim Crow in the South

a. 1950: 15 million African-Americans in the U.S. – 2/3 still lived in the South

b. Only about 20% of Southern blacks were registered to vote

c. Segregation still prevailed legally since the 1896 Supreme Court Case of Plessy v. Ferguson

d. Remember, this established “separate but equal”

By what methods were Southern blacks denied the

right to vote?

•Poll taxes•Reading Tests•Grandfather clauses

Remember…•We said that President Harry

S Truman passed the legislation that the Military and the Federal Government were desegregated…

•That began the Civil Rights movement we know today.

(6) Brown v. Board of Education of (6) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KansasTopeka, Kansas – Warren Court – Warren Court

a. Earl Warren became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1953

b. May, 1954 - most important decision of the Warren Court

c. In a unanimous decision, Brown v. Board overturned the Plessey v. Ferguson case by stating that segregation in public schools was “inherently unequal.”

Chief Justice Chief Justice Earl WarrenEarl Warren

(10) Brown part II decision declared that the South should desegregate in a comfortable time frame for them… desegregation must go ahead with “all deliberate speed”

e. Eisenhower was not a major force in desegregation - stated that this case had upset “the customs and convictions of at least two generations of Americans.”

(11) Death of Emmett Till(11) Death of Emmett Till

-Supposedly whistled and called the wife -Supposedly whistled and called the wife of a local (white) store owner “Baby.”of a local (white) store owner “Baby.”

-Till was taken a few nights later by the -Till was taken a few nights later by the store owner and his brother-in-law.store owner and his brother-in-law.

MONEY, MS

a.a. August 1955 – 14 year old Chicago boy visited relatives near Money,MS

d. Trial failed to convict the men accused of the crime – even with eye witnesses (jury trial…)

g. Huge impact on ALL African-Americans – North/South

- Body of Till was found three days laterin the TallahatchieRiver – Corpse was un-recognizable. - The Mother of Till insisted on an opencasket funeral – so theentire world could seewhat happened to her

son

From PBS’s timeline of the murder:September 21: Moses Wright, Emmett Till's great uncle, does the unthinkable, accusing 2 white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stands up, points his finger at Milam and Bryant, and accuses them of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett.September 23: Milam and Bryant are acquitted of murdering Emmett Till after the jury deliberates only 67 minutes. One juror tells a reporter that they wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't stopped to drink pop. Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam stand before photographers, light up cigars and kiss their wives in celebration of the not guilty verdict.Moses Wright and another poor black Mississippian who testified, Willie Reed, leave Mississippi and are smuggled to Chicago. Once there, Reed collapses and suffers a nervous breakdown.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/timeline2.html

1956: January 24: Look magazine publishes an

article written by Alabama journalist William Bradford Huie, entitled “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.” Huie has offered Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam $4,000 to tell how they killed Emmett Till. Milam speaks for the record.

(12) Montgomery, AL Bus (12) Montgomery, AL Bus BoycottBoycott

a. Beginning: December 1955 b. Rosa Parks, a college-educated

black seamstress, boarded a bus, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white.

c. She was arrested for Violating the city’s Jim Crow laws

d. This action sparked a year-long busboycott of the city’s buses. (notice the empty city

bus)

e. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. became the noted Civil Rights leader by organizing the bus boycott.

f. King followed the principles of India’s Mohandas Gandhi– nonviolent resistance

g. The boycott ended in Nov of ’56 when the Supreme Court Declared AL’s bus segregation illegal.

(a photo of MLK jr on an integrated bus in late 56)

(20) MLK, Jr will become the leader of the nonviolent Civil Rights movement

1. first civil rights bill passed in U.S. since Reconstruction!!!2. organized to investigate the

abuses of “civil rights”:  the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to United States citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress

3. aimed to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote

(21) Civil Rights Act of 1957:

(22) Little Rock Crisis(22) Little Rock Crisis

a. The South refused to abide by the new Brown Decision- “to desegregate at all deliberate speed”

b. Several “private” schools were created

c. September 1957 – Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine black students from enrolling in Little Rock’s Central High School- this lasts 3 weeks

d. A federal court orders the governor to allow the "Little Rock Nine" to enter Central High. When a mob of angry white citizens gather there, the Little Rock police are unable to control them.

e. e. Eisenhower was forced to send troops Eisenhower was forced to send troops to escortto escort

the students to class. The soldiers stay 2 monthsthe students to class. The soldiers stay 2 months

and the National Guard was put back in chargeand the National Guard was put back in charge

e. Little Rock High School e. Little Rock High School closed in 1958 to avoid closed in 1958 to avoid integration.integration. The school remain closed until the fall of 1959 when a group of parents succeed in reopening them to all students.

(23) Southern Christian (23) Southern Christian Leadership Conference Leadership Conference

(SCLC)(SCLC) a. a. Organized in 1957 by Martin Organized in 1957 by Martin

Luther King, Jr.Luther King, Jr.b. Churches were the largest and best-b. Churches were the largest and best-

organized black institutions allowed to organized black institutions allowed to be successful in the segregated be successful in the segregated society.society.

c. This movement thus c. This movement thus aimed to mobilize the vast power of the black churches on behalf of civil rights.

(29) Sit in demonstrations

Began in Greensboro, NC at a Woolworth's “white only” lunch counter. African

American’s sat and waited for service and instead of being served… restaurants shut

down the counters- losing $

• This made a statement and inspired many young blacks to sit in. Non-violent resistance to the white’s only laws

• Being arrested became liberating.