U.S. History CH. 21 Notes

Segregation in America

Plessy v. Ferguson
*Seperate facilities for blacks and whites does not violate the 14th Amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law for all Americans. As long as the facilities are equal


Jim Crow Laws
*Passed in the South which separated the races by law. Separate restrooms, restaurants;blacks and whites could not marry, etc


Black facilities were always inferior
*The U.S. spent 10 times as much money educating a White child as it did an African American child


NAACP Led by Thurgood Marshall
*Decided to challenge laws:blatantly segregated and unequal education and other facilities in court

(1950) Sweatt v. Painter
*State law schools must admit black applicants


(1946) Morgan v. Virginia
*Segregation on interstate buses is unconstitutional









Segregation and Civil Rights

(1896) Plessy v. Ferguson
*"Separate but equal" treatment does not deny "equal protection of the laws" (14th Amendment)


(1954) Brown v. Board of Ed.
*Legal segregation causes harm. Separate is inherently unequal

*1955- States must implement this "with all deliberate speed."

Southern Governors refuse to comply


Central High School, Little Rock (1957)
*President Eisenhower calls in the 101st Airborne troops to escort African American students


Rosa Parks (1955)
*Segregation on city buses

*Arrested for not giving seat to a white person


Dr. Martin Luther King
*Leads bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama


1956
*U.S. Supreme Court outlaws segregation on city buses









The Emerging Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s strategy
*Protest peacefully and with dignity, then Americans and the world will be on your side. . . laws will change.

*King is inspired by the nonviolent methods of Mohandas K. Gandhi in India.


Anti-black violence
*In the south

*Whites seek to keep blacks "in their place."

*14 year-old Emmett Till id brutally murdered in 1955



Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
*Founded by M.L. King to use nonviolent means to fight segregation


Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
*College students willing to put their bodies on the line in nonviolent protests to end segregation



Lunch counter sit-ins (1960)
*SNCC members refuse to leave segregated lunch counters. Lunch counters in 48 cities and 11 states become desegregated









The Struggle for Equal Rights


Freedom Riders
*CORE and SNCC volunteers (whites and blacks together) ride on interstate buses into the South to test the law banning segregation on interstate buses

*Riders are fire bombed and beaten with lead pipes by white mobs. Southern police do not protect the riders

*TV news publicizes the events arounf the world. People around the world are outraged

*Kennedy calls in 400 U.S. marshals to escort the riders

*The Interstate Commerce Commission orders all interstate bus stop facilities to be desegregated



James Meredith
*Is escorted by troops to attend the University of Mississippi amidst violent protests by whites



Birmingham, Alabama
->Dr. King uses nonviolent means to desegregate one of the most racist cities in America

->Negative media publicity around the world results in a victory for desegregation


March on Washington (Aug 28, 1963)
->250,000 protesters gather peacefully to urge Congress to pass a new Civil Rights act. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his "I Have a Dream" speech.


July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed
->Bans segregation in all public places









Votiing Rights

Freedom Summer
->SNCC and Core seek to register voters in Mississippi

->90% of African Americans unable to vote in Miss.

->Volunteers suffer death, beatings, bombings



Selma Campaign
->M.L.K. supports voter registration in Selma, Alabama

->Protest march grows to 25,000

->President Johnson backs protesters

->A few weeks later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965-eliminates literacy test


24th Amendment
->(1968) Prohibits poll tax


Malcom X
->Whites are cause of black peoples condition
*Civil rights "by any means necessary"

*Blacks should separate themselves from white society

*Devout Muslim


Stokely Carmichael
->Helps start the Black Power movement


Black Panthers
->Armed revolutionary group. Also started daycare centers, breakfast programs









Civil Rights-Urban Poverty and Violence

De jure segregation
*Martin Luther King and the non-violent civil rights movement end legal segregation in the United States


De facto segregation
*Segregation still exists in the U.S. because, in fact, whites move to suburbs, leaving African-Americans together in poor urban areas


Race Riots
*Aug. 11, 1965- 5 days after President Johnson signs the Voting rights act, blacks in the Watts district of L.A. riot:34 killed, $30 million damage

*1966-more riots than ever before by poor African-Americans living in cities

*1967-Riots in 100 American cities-urban blacks frustrated by lack of jobsm decent housing and education

*1968-in April, after Martin Luther King is assassinated riots break out in 125 U.S. cities


Kerner Commission
*Studies causes of black riots:white racism-separate but unequal America


Unfinished work
*housing and job discrimination, educational inequality, poverty, racism