Segregation

1. Segregation Civil Rights Era Power point created by Robert Martinez Primary Content : History Alive! Images as Cited.

2. The segregation of public accommodations got its approval from the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. This railroad case gave rise to many state laws legalizing segregation in public accommodations, theatres, restaurants, parks, and public transportation. http://www.people.vcu.edu/~toggel/399h

3. Jim Crow laws established separate facilities for whites and blacks across the South (examples: waiting rooms, restrooms, train cars, buses, theaters, restaurants, and park benches.) http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/progress/plessy_2

4. Although the Plessy decision stated that separate accommodations for the races must be equal, the reality was quite different. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/58iron/58visual3.htm

5. Southern states spent far more on white schools than on black schools. Teachers in black schools got lower salaries and worked under more difficult conditions. They often lacked books and supplies, and their school facilities were frequently substandard. http://www.amerika.nl/politiek/html/persoonlijkheden/marshall.htm

6. In some schools, students had to gather firewood to heat their classrooms in the winter. Although white schools had bus systems, black students often had to walk miles to get to school. http://brownvboard.org/trvlexbt/pnl10/pnl10.htm

7. African Americans experienced housing segregation. This came in two main forms. One was defacto segregation, which was established by practice and custom (tradition), rather than the law. http://www.wou.edu/las/socsci/history/mulligm/outlines/202outlines/lec9mout.htm

8. The other was de jure segregation, or segregation by law. De jure segregation occurred mostly in the South. Separate But Equal ?

9. Many white residents used informal measures to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods. One practice was the restrictive covenant. This was an agreement among neighbors not to sell or rent to African Americans or other racial minorities. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexadan/211923546/

10. Restrictive covenants forced blacks into poor neighborhoods that were farther from jobs, public transport, or good schools. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexadan/211923546/

11. Segregation by Law De jure segregation was accomplished through racial zoning. These local laws defined where the different races could live. http://www.pbs.org/fromswastikatojimcrow/racism.html

12. Segregation & Marriage Between 1870 and 1884, eleven southern states passed laws against miscegenation, or interracial marriage. The “purity of the white race” was the key concern regarding mixed marriages. http://www.uniquecaketoppers.com/wedding%20cake%20toppers%206_inches_tall_most_popular.htm

13. Few blacks held white-collar jobs, or jobs that do not involve manual labor. Most worked in agriculture or services. Their wages were much lower than those of whites. In 1940, the median income level of black men was less than half that of white men. http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~aas405a/historicala.html

14. Southern whites found ways to disenfranchise, or deny voting rights to African Americans. In the years after Reconstruction, poll taxes and literacy tests kept many blacks from voting. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mcountry/KennedyCivilRights.htm

15. Many southern states discourage blacks through use of the white primary. This was a primary election in which only whites could participate. http://www.glynn.k12.ga.us/BHS/academics/junior/hunt/dantea24411/home2.html

16. Texas was one state in which the white primary was used extensively. Texas Democrats used it to limit black participation in politics. In 1944, the Supreme Court declared white primaries unconstitutional. http://www.hist.umn.edu/~sargent/1308/out%20week%209_04.htm

17. Gerrymandering is the practice of redrawing the lines of a voting district to give one party or group of voters and advantage. http://www.flickr.com/photos/saranut/290333347/

18. Voting district lines were gerrymandered to break up large African American voting blocks. The goal was to dilute the black vote into a large white voting pool. Through gerrymandering, black voters were denied political influence (voice.) http://pinkdome.com/archives/2006/07/redistricting_f.html

19. Jackie Robinson would become one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game. In 1944, as an army lieutenant stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, he was ordered to move to the back of a bus. Robinson refused and was later arrested, and nearly court-martialed for his actions. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/filmnotes/negrosoldier2.html

20. Over the course of his life, Robinson came to represent both the struggles of African Americans and their gradual advances in white-dominated society. http://www.jackierobinsonwest.org/

21. Jackie Robinson began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues after World War II. At the time, baseball was divided by the color line, a barrier created by custom, law, and economic differences that separated whites from nonwhites. http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/jackie/photo4.html

22. In 1945, Robinson crossed the color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers hired him. Being the first black major league baseball player was not easy. Fans taunted him, and some of his own teammates resented playing with a black man. Players on opposing teams sometimes tried to “bean” him with the ball or spike him with their cleats.

23. “Plenty of times I wanted to haul off [and fight] when someone insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to hold to myself. I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.” Robinson overcame these challenges and eventually led his team to six league championships and one World Series victory. http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--12330114/sp--A/Jackie_Robinson.htm

24. Despite the valuable contributions of African American soldiers during World War II, the military remained segregated after the war. Many GIs returning from combat continued to face segregation at home, especially in the Jim Crow South. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/korea/b6.html

25. President Truman knew that desegregation in the armed forces was necessary, not only on moral grounds but also for political reasons. Like many Americans, he recognized that it was hypocritical to fight Nazism and anti-Semitism abroad while maintaining a color line at home. http://www.flickr.com/photos/deedeeq5724/1308144255/ http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/rr/s01/cw/students/leeann/historyandcollections/collections/exhibitpages/afamkoreaexhibit/afamkoreaexhintro.htm

26. Executive Order 9981 On July 26, 1948, Truman signed Executive Order 9981. With this order, desegregation became official policy in the armed forces. http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/hsa/us_history/desegregation.html

27. The fight to end segregation would never have succeeded without the determined efforts of civil rights activists. Many Americans worked tirelessly for various organizations dedicated to achieving equal rights.

28. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded in Chicago 1942, by a group of students, was committed to nonviolent direct action as a means of changes. http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/PhotoAlbum/civil_rights.cfm

29. The National Urban League, formed in response to the Great Migration of blacks to northern cities, focused on helping African Americans achieve success in the North. It promoted educational and employment opportunities for African Americans. During WWII, the Urban League helped integrate defense plants. http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/PhotoAlbum/civil_rights.cfm

30. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest major civil rights organization, founded in 1909, continued its efforts to promote civil rights legislation. In 1939, the group established a legal arm for civil rights to promote civil rights actions, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/PhotoAlbum/civil_rights.cfm

31. In 1940, Thurgood Marshall became the head of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which focused on defeating segregation through the court system. Its main weapon was the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This clause prohibits states from denying any person equal protection of the laws. Thurgood Marshall (center). http://brownvboard.org/trvlexbt/pnl10/pnl10.htm

32. Thurgood Marshall was denied admission the University of Maryland because he was not white. He went on to earn a law degree from Howard University. In one of Marshall’s first legal victories, he sued the University of Maryland for its race-based policy. Marshall later served on the Supreme Court. http://www.law.du.edu/chen/Constitutional%20Law/ConLawSyllabus.htm http://www.uscourts.gov/ttb/feb03ttb/newstamp.html

33. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Supreme Court began to strike down Jim Crow laws. In 1935, the Court ordered the University of Maryland to admit a black student. Later it declared white primaries unconstitutional and barred segregation on interstate transport (example: buses).

34. In 1947, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not enforce restrictive covenants. As a result, many city neighborhoods became desegregated. http://www.queervisions.com/protect.html

35. The NAACP’s legal campaign triumphed in 1954, when the Supreme Court issued the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This ruling declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional (14th Amendment) and undermined the legal basis for segregation in other areas of American life. http://brownvboard.org/trvlexbt/pnl10/pnl10.htm

36. In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, supporter of segregation (separation of races), ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine” – nine African American students who had volunteered to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/history/hsty3080/3rdYr3080/ClementHSTY3080

37. A federal judge ordered the governor to let the students into the school. NAACP members called eight of the students and arranged to drive them to school. http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc/kidslc/kllr.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/38952296@N00/1432714363/

38. They could not reach the ninth student, Elizabeth Eckford, who did not have a phone. Outside Central High, Eckford faced an abusive crowd. Terrified, the 15-year-old made it to a bus stop where two friendly whites stayed with her. http://www.glynn.k12.ga.us/~pwilliam/BHS/academics/junior/hunt/johnathonh26222/home.html

39. The crisis in Little Rock forced President Eisenhower to act. He placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and ordered a thousand paratroopers into Little Rock. Under the watch of soldiers, the nine African American teenagers attended class. http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/99-4_00-1NR/Ashmore_South.html

40. But even these soldiers could not protect the students from confrontations in stairways, hallways, and the cafeteria from unruly white students. At the end of the year, the Arkansas governor closed Central High rather than let integration continue. http://www.thelostyear.com/

41. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the “colored” section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled, the driver ordered Parks and three other African American passengers to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down. http://www.blogexplosion.com/click.php?BannerID=11382

42. “It was time for someone to stand up – or in my case, sit down,” “I refused to move,” recalled Rosa Parks. As Parks stared out the window, the bus driver said, “If you don’t stand up, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested.” The soft-spoken Parks replied, “You may do that.” http://bball.over-blog.com/article-1073901.html

43. News of Parks’s arrest spread rapidly. The leaders of the African-American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to organize a bus boycott. They elected a young 26-year-old pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead the group. http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1592

44. King’s passionate and eloquent speech pulled the black community together. African Americans filed a lawsuit and for 381 days refused to ride the buses of Montgomery. In 1956, the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation. http://www.pestaola.gr/2006/04/20/martin-luther-king-jr-quote

45. The Montgomery Bus Boycott proved the power of nonviolent resistance, the peaceful refusal to obey unjust laws. The famous bus of Rosa Parks.

46. “We will not hate you, but we cannot…obey your unjust laws…We will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

47. After the bus boycott ended, King joined with ministers and civil rights leaders in 1957 to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. African American churches became a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. http://www.medaloffreedom.com/MartinLutherKingJr.htm

48. There was no denying the ugly face of racism. Day after day, news reporters captured the scenes of whites beating, jeering at, and pouring food over black students who refused to strike back during sit-ins. The media coverage sparked many sit-ins across the South. http://www.glynn.k12.ga.us/~pwilliam/BHS/academics/junior/hunt/johnathonh26222/home.html

49. Store managers called in the police, raised the price of food, and removed counter seats. But the movement continued. The students endured arrests, beatings, suspension from college, and tear gas and fire hoses, but the army of nonviolent black students refused to back down. http://www.enclave-nashville.blogspot.com/