Fight for Desegregation Flashcards
Brown v. Board of Education: How many justices agreed with the decision?
All 9 of them
Brown v. Board of Education: What did they decide?
That intentionally segregated classrooms were unconstitutional
Brown v. Board of Education: What did they base their decision on?
The 14th Amendment: Equal protection of the Laws
The system enforces a feeling of inferiority for black children
The doll test (white doll was associated with positive characteristics by children)
Brown v. Board of Education: Who was the Chief Justice?
Earl Warren
Brown v. Board of Education: What was the criticism of the decision?
Strict constructionists – wanted judges to look at only the basic meaning of the text, no insinuations or drawing inferences
Judicial activism – when rulings are based on personal/political reasons instead of law
Rosa Parks (what did she do?)
Refused to give up her bus seat for a white person in 1955, and was arrested
Montgomery bus boycott (who was the leader, what ended it?)
Leader = MLK, 26 years old
The supreme court ruled that segregating public transportation was unconstitutional.
The boycott went on for more than a year
Little Rock Nine:
A group of 9 African American students getting ready to integrate into white school
Carefully chosen to begin integration at Central High School
They were trained to respond to hostile situations
State Governor Orval Faubus called in Arkansas National Guard to “protect” the black students by not letting them enter the school
Little Rock Nine: What happened?
Angry mobs formed and insults were shouted at the students. They were all together except for Elizabeth Eckford.
Eckford didn’t have a phone so she did not get the message of where to meet so they could walk together.
She was surrounded and harassed until a white woman pulled her away and to a bus stop where she got on a bus to her mother’s workplace.
The mobs didn’t stop even after Eisenhower ordered the schools to allow integration.
The federal govt finally had to get involved and have troops escort each of these students to class.
The district was closed the next year by Faubus, but Little Rock citizens voted 70% against segregation
What was the significance of the events?
The first time that the govt. Intervened in an integration situation.
Sit-in Campaigns
In Nashville, a ton of college students organized a sit-in at local lunch counters that were segregated. They were nonviolent protests
The students would get arrested, but then a new wave of people would sit down
They would get beaten up for it
Black customers boycotted businesses until segregation in restaurants and such were removed
SNCC
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
Founded by MLK among others so they could coordinate civil rights protests in the South.
Wanted churches to be involved in the politics of it all.
SCLC:
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Formed so that young blacks could have their own voice.
More radical. Ella Baker helped them set it up.
Did a bunch of stuff in the south for black voting rights and set up Freedom Rides (on buses) and the Freedom Summer
Four steps outlined in MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Collection of facts (is there injustice?)
Negotiation
Self-purification (motivations and methods correct?)
Direct, nonviolent actions
Main influences on MLK’s approach to protest
Gandhi – non violence and a moral obligation to resist systems who don’t treat you like a person
His dad
Christianity
