Civil rights

Brown vs Board of Education

• 1896 – Plessy vs Ferguson– “separate but equal” public

accommodations• 1951 – parents of Linda Brown sue the

school board of Topeka, Kansas for not allowing admission for their daughter– All-white school is miles closer to her

home– Forced to attend segregated

elementary school • May 1954 – Supreme Court rules that it

is unconstitutional to separate schoolchildren by race– Reverses Plessy vs Ferguson

• Jumpstarts 1950s Civil Rights Movement

• Brown vs Board

The “Southern Manifesto”

• Ruling led to integration of schools in many border states

• South remained heavily segregated• Governor of Virginia threatened to

close schools and send all white children to private schools

• 101 southern members of Congress sign the “Southern Manifesto”– States that the Supreme Court’s

ruling is an abuse of judicial power– “all lawful means to bring about a

reversal of this decision”

Montgomery Bus Boycotts

• December 1955 Rosa Parks arrested– Well-respected seamstress from

Montgomery, Alabama– Perfect candidate to use to fight the

segregation laws• Parks convicted and fined $10• 26 year old Montgomery church minister,

Martin Luther King Jr. chosen to head up bus boycott

• King and over 100 other black leaders were arrested for sponsoring an “illegal boycott”

• 1956 – just over 1 year later, Supreme Court rules that segregation in public transportation is illegal

• Sparks national attention of MLK

The Little Rock Nine• September 1957 – federal court ordered

that nine African American students be admitted to the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

• Governor Orval Faubus sends in National Guard troops to prevent the students from attending

• Eisenhower persuades the governor to remove the troops and let the students in

• Angry white mobs form, so Eisenhower calls in 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne along with all 10,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard to surround the school to protect the students

• Troops remained at the school the entire year

• Little Rock Nine