Civil Rights In The 1950s

Question 1

Context of segregation & discrimination

Answer 1

• ‘Jim Crow Laws’ in many states meant African Americans attended separate schools, had to use separate areas in restaurants, libraries, cinemas and parks
• Wages for black people generally half than what a white American would earn for the same job

Question 2

Plessy vs Ferguson

Answer 2

‘Separate but equal’

Question 3

Brown vs Topeka causes and events

Answer 3

• Linda Brown rejected from summer school on the grounds of race
• NAACP and her parents took it to local court where it was rejected due to Plessy vs Ferguson
• NAACP persuaded her parents to take it to Supreme Court and in 1954 it was ruled that segregation in educational facilities was unconstitutional and Plessy vs Ferguson had been broken and schools had to desegregate ‘with all deliberate speed’ a year later

Question 4

Brown vs Topeka impact & significance

Answer 4

• Despite NAACP celebrations segregation was very slow, especially in the Deep South where there was deep rooted racism
• Black pupils often found integration hard as they faced anger and bad feeling, and their education suffered
• Black teachers loss at their jobs and many black school that had provided a very good education were forced to close
• White flight occurred, making integration longer and inefficient

Question 5

Murder of Emmett Till events - 1954

Answer 5

• 14 year old African American from Chicago supposedly touched and flirted with a white man’s wife in a shop in Mississippi
• As a result the husband of the woman and his half brother took Emmett from a relative’s house in the middle of the night, beat him, shot him in the head and threw his body into the river, where it was later found
• Mother insisted his body to be sent back home to Chicago where she left the coffin open so the public could see what had happened, he was very badly beat
• Trial of the killers took just over an hour for them to be innocent by an all mall, all white jury
• A few months later they admitted to killing Till in a magazine but couldn’t be tried again because under US law, they couldn’t be tried again for the same crime

Question 6

Murder of Emmett Till impact & significance - 1955

Answer 6

• Open coffin gained huge publicity as black and white Americans were shocked at Till’s injuries
• Many Americans angered by the lack of justice, especially after the brothers confessed to the crime later on

Question 7

Montgomery Bus Boycott causes & events - 1955

Answer 7

• Rosa Parks refused to stand for a white man in a bus, the driver called the police and she was arrested
• Her case was chosen to be the one to start a boycott, Rosa was already a respectable member of the NAACP in Montgomery
• Boycott for buses called, 70% of all passengers were African Americans and around 90% boycotted the buses, civil rights activists realised they had found a useful method that could bring about change
• Activists called for: drivers to equally respect African Americans, black drivers should be used for routes with mostly black passengers and African Americans shouldn’t have to leave their seat in the ‘coloured’ section so whites could sit
• Maintaining the boycott would be difficult so a car-pooling system was created as minimum taxi fares rose and whites couldn’t give African Americans carpools as they would be scrutinised by the white community

Question 8

Montgomery Bus Boycott challenges for the boycott - 1955

Answer 8

• Minimum taxi fare was increased, whites couldn’t give lifts to African Americans as they would face pressure from the white community
• African Americans verbally and physically harassed while waiting for cars to arrive, drivers were often arrested fr minor driving offences and there weer laws implemented that prevented crowds from gathering were used to arrest groups of people waiting for shared cars

Question 9

Montgomery Bus Boycott impact & significance - 1955

Answer 9

• As boycott went on, the media became more interested and awareness was raised of the problems with segregation
• NAACP stepped in and challenged the issue of segregated public transport, just like in Brown vs Topeka with education
• 1956, a year later Supreme Court desegregated buses
• Provided a successful form of protest, influenced the Tallahassee Bus Boycott
• Huge racial backlash

Question 10

Little Rock causes & events - 1957

Answer 10

• All-white high school in Arkansas was ordered by a Federal Court to commence integration, the community and the governor, Faubus were in uproar
• To obey the federal court the school accepted 25 applications from African Americans, only 9 were left after being the victims of threats from white racists in the area
• To prevent the 9 students from enrolling, Governor Faubus announced on TV that day that he had ordered state troops to stop the students from entering the school ‘for their own safety’
• First day of school Little Rock Nine were surrounded by by an angry mob of white Poole, hurling insults at them, this was captured by reporters and photographers and shown throughout the world, and throughout the USA
• President Eisenhower stepped in due to the mass publicity and troops were ordered to be removed by a federal judge, instead police accompanied the students and this caused a riot and the students were sent home again, this was broadcasted and shocked the world
• Eisenhower then sent 1,200 federal troops to Little Rock in order to protect Little Rock Nine
• 3 weeks after term had started Little Rock Nine were able to go to class

Question 11

Little Rock impact & significance - 1957

Answer 11

• only occasional where the president directly intervened to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision to integrate schools
• Showed the Federal government could overpower state governments
• Huge publicity, millions saw the racism in the South and America’s reputation was damaged

Question 12

Civil Rights Act 1957 - clauses

Answer 12

• Set up the US Commission on Civil Rights, which began investigating how African Americans were prevented from voting in different places
• Allowed federal courts to prosecute states who tried to prevent people from voting

Question 13

Civil Rights Act 1957 - impact & significance

Answer 13

• Little immediate impact and was not very significant in improving civil rights for African Americans
• Influenced more activists to bring about change

Question 14

Revival of KKK

Answer 14

• Deep South the KKK was revived after the Brown vs Topeka verdict, many white southerners were furious and determined to maintain segregation
• KKK grew in numbers, however not to the same amount or influence
• Targeted civil rights protestors, black or white
• Grew in numbers as the civil rights protests gained momentum across the USA
• Radical methods, beating, lynching, shooting and bombing after the Montgomery Bus Boycott