Civil Rights Flashcards
Define Jim Crow Laws
series of laws to enforce segregation as long as services were ‘separate but equal’
Court of Law in Southern States (3)
- Racist white officials such as police and judges were members if the KKKs
- Investigations into the assaults of black people were not properly investigated
- Black people couldn’t sit on juries
Voting Rights (3)
- Georgia passed laws making it harder for blacks to vote (unfair literacy tests)
- Southern States used ‘grandfather clause’ where they had to prove their forefathers had voted
- Some white employers sacked blacks if they attempted to vote
NAACP (5)
- National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
- Set up in 1909
- Fought using the legal system
- Defended blacks who had been unfairly convicted
- Focused on overturning ‘separate but equal’
CORE (3)
- Congress of Racial Equality
- Set up in 1942
- Used non-violent direct action
Summary of Brown Vs Topeka
Linda brown’s school education was used in a legal case which was taken to the Supreme Court by the NAACP in 1954. Argued that the principle of ‘separate but equal’ in schools was unconstitutional as it damaged black children. She had to walk past her local white school to get to her black school.
Timeline of Brown Vs Topeka using the dates: 1952 Dec 1952 May 1954 July 1954 May 1955 1957
1952: NAACP took school segregation cases to Supreme Court claiming they broke the 14th Amendment as black children felt inferior
Dec 1952: Judges ask to hear more legal advice. Ear Warren became new Chief Justice
May 1954: Supreme Court ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional however no time limit was set
July 1954: In the deep south the WCC were set up to stop desegregation using violence
May 1955: Second court ruling said desegregation of schools should happen with all deliberate speed
1957: 723 school districts had desegregated education
Short Term Significance of Brown Vs Topeka (5)
- Overturned 1896 Plessy vs Ferguson decision
- KKK membership increased
- Black students and teachers faced threats
- Some good black schools were shut down
- Many southern states avoided the court rulings
Long Term Significance of Brown Vs Topeka (3)
- Awareness of civil rights issues increased
- Rulings were inspirations
- Whites moved away from blacks forcing segregation
Describe the formation of the Little Rock Nine
- 75 black students applied to join little rock and the board accepted 25.
- People were threatened if they took their place at the school and so at the start of the 1957 school year only 9 were still going to join. They were called the Little Rock 9
Governor Orval Faubus (3)
- He was a state governor of Arkansas
- Opponent of school integration
- 1958 he tries to close every school in Little Rock to stop racial integration but it only lasted 1 year due to pressure from parents
Write a narrative of the Little Rock Nine 1957 (6)
- 3rd September Little Rock High desegregated due to Brown Case and the start of the new school term
- 4th September the NAACP made sure blacks arrived together
- Faubus sent 250 state troops in attempt to ‘keep the peace’ but it was really to block the blacks’ entrance
- Elizabeth Eckford didn’t get the message and arrived alone targeted by the crowd
- NAACP challenged Faubus which forced him to withdraw the state troops
- 24th September Eisenhower sent in federal troops to protect the black students
Presidential Intervention (Little Rock High) (3)
- Caused by worldwide media coverage of events at little rock
- Eisenhower sent in 1000 federal troops
- He used a presidential order
Significance of events at little rock (4)
- Hundreds of reporters produced coverage that shocked everyone
- Continued resistance to school integration after 1957
- First black student from Little Rock graduated in 1958 but fellow white students refused to sit with him
- Even 10 years later black students were still subject to violence
Name 3 long-term causes of the Bus Boycott
- Womens Political Council in Montgomery focused on bus discrimination since 1950
- Montgomery bus company forced black passengers to sit at the back of buses and vacate their seats for white people
- Request to change bus company rules were ignored