Unit 9

Gateway to US History Chapter 14

Postwar Prosperity and Civil RightsPart 2

III. Roots of the Civil Rights Movement

A. “Jim Crow” laws had created a system of legally enforced racial segregation throughout the South. Some African-Americans tried to escape by migrating to the North.

B. African-American organizations, like the church, the NAACP, the National Urban League, and CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) as well as African-American universities, such as Howard, worked to improved conditions and mobilize African Americans in the early 20th century.

C. WW II contributed to the mobilization of African Americans.

1. Black soldiers fought in the military, though in segregated units.

2. many worked in jobs previously barred to them.

3. horrors of Nazism revealed the dangers of racism to all.

D. After the war, anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa inspired African American Civil Rights leaders.

E. The Cold War made American leaders realize the need to curb racism to act as the champion of democracy.

IV. The Struggle against Racial Segregation: 1945 – 1956

A. Beginnings1. The Civil Rights Movement began in the postwar era and

continued into the 1960s.2. Combination of grassroots activism and federal intervention

produced great changes, especially in the South.3. Pres. Truman desegregated the Military in 1948 and

prohibited job discrimination in the federal government.

4. Jackie Robinson became the 1st African American to play Major League Baseball the year before.

B. Education and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas1. In 1954, the Supreme Court decision in

Brown v Board of Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had permitted “separate but equal” facilities.

a. In Brown, the NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall used evidence from a psychologist to show that segregation created feeling of inequality.

b. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion of the Court.

c. The Court held that segregations had no place in public education because it led to facilities that were inherently unequal.

C. The Court ordered states to desegregate their school systems with “all deliberate speed.” In some cases, busing was used to desegregate schools.

D. Southern reactions to Brown were violent.1. Senators swore not to enforce the decision.2. Murders, like that of Emmett Till, increased.3. KKK membership increased.4. Some schools closed rather than integrate.

E. Little Rock, Arkansas 1. The state governor ordered the National

Guard to prevent 9 black student from attending an all-white school.

2. President Eisenhower then sent federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” and protect them throughout the year.