U6L4 Civil Rights Flashcards
Mexican Americans were not subjected to segregation, however, what other discrimination did they face?
In the Southwest, all-white schools closed their doors to Mexican American children. Instead, poorly equipped “Mexican schools” served them. Custom kept Mexican Americans from living in certain neighborhoods or using certain hotels or restaurants. Often, better-paying jobs were not open to them.
What does NAACP stand for?
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
What does NAACP do for African Americans?
For African Americans, the NAACP led the drive against discrimination.
How did the members of NAACP rise during WW2? How did this help?
During World War II, NAACP membership rocketed from 50,000 to 500,000. Under Thurgood Marshall, its Legal Defense Fund mounted several court battles against segregation. It also helped blacks register to vote and fought for equal opportunity in housing and employment.
How was Jackie Robinson significant in the fight against segregation?
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was even named rookie of the year.
How was Moses Fleetwood Walker significant in the fight against segregation?
Moses Fleetwood Walker had a black player joined the major leagues. Walker was the first African American player to join a major league team in 1884.
Why did President Truman order integration in the armed forces?
Pressure form civil rights groups.
What is integration? How did this play a part in the Korean War?
Under pressure from civil rights groups, President Truman ordered integration, or the mixing of different racial groups, in the armed forces in 1948. During the Korean War, black and white soldiers fought side by side.
What was the Civil Rights Movement?
They took their cases to court but also protested in the streets. Their efforts became known as the Civil Rights Movement.
What did lawyers of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, say about the outcome?
During the 1940s, the NAACP did not attack this idea head on. Instead, its lawyers argued that schools for African American students were not equal to white schools.
Lawyers argued that schools for African American students were not equal to white schools. What change did this bring?
Such a legal strategy might improve black schools and other segregated facilities case by case, but those cases did little to end segregation. By the early 1950s, laws in 21 states and the District of Columbia still enforced separate black and white public schools. Virtually all of the black schools were inferior to the white ones.
What did Oliver Brown do that brought him to court?
Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, decided to challenge the Kansas school segregation law. He asked the local school board to let his daughter, Linda, attend a nearby white school rather than the distant black school to which she had been assigned. When board members refused, Brown filed a suit against the school board with the help of the NAACP. The case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court.
Why did Oliver Brown hire Thurgood Marshall as his lawyer?
He specialized in civil rights cases
What ties did Thurgood Marshall have with NAACP?
Marshall had served as legal director of the NAACP for more than ten years.
How did Thurgood Marshall challenge the idea of “separate but equal”?
Segregated schools, he argued, could never provide equal education. By their very nature, said Marshall, segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave “equal protection” to all citizens.
Who won the ruling? In the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case?
Oliver Brown
A year later, after the Brown v. Board of Eduction of Topeka case, the Court ordered the schools to be desegregated “with all deliberate speed.” How did segregated school feel about this?
In a few places, schools were integrated without much trouble. In many others, officials resisted. White politicians in these places decided that the phrase “with all deliberate speed” could mean they could take years to integrate their schools. Or, perhaps they would never obey the decision.
Why did Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus call out the National Guard in 1957?
to keep African American students from attending the all-white Central High School in Little Rock
What did President Eisenhower do when Kansas didn’t allow blacks into the all-white Central High School?
President Eisenhower finally sent in federal troops because the Arkansas governor was defying a federal court order. Under their protection, black students entered Central High.
How did President Eisenhower’s action to send troops to the Kansas Central High school show progress in the civil rights movement?
Eisenhower was the first President since Reconstruction to use armed troops in support of African American rights. The action showed that the federal government could play a key role in protecting civil rights.
What does AGIF stand for?
American GI Forum of the United States
Why was AGIF created?
Mexican American veterans founded the AGIF in 1948 in order to campaign for equal rights.
What did AGIF do?
Similar to the NAACP, the AGIF supported legal challenges to discrimination.
What was the Hernández v. Texas case about?
Pete Hernández, a Mexican American, had been convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Texas. Among the lawyers who appealed his conviction was Gus Garcia, one of the leaders of the AGIF. Attorney James DeAnda, another Mexican American, also helped. Hernández’s lawyers argued that Mexican Americans in Texas were denied equality under the law because they were excluded from juries. The Supreme Court agreed. It overturned the conviction and ended the exclusion of Mexican Americans from Texas juries.
How did the Hernández v. Texas help the civil rights movement?
It overturned the conviction and ended the exclusion of Mexican Americans from Texas juries. In the future, other minority groups would use this decision to help win their civil rights.
What was President Truman’s 1948 response to pressure from civil rights groups?
He ordered the integration of the armed forces.
What landmark Supreme Court case determined separate is not equal in schools?
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
What group did Mexican-American veterans form to fight for equal rights?
American GI Forum of the United States
Why was Rosa Parks put in jail?
She was riding home from work on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The driver ordered her to move to the back of the bus so that a white man could have her seat, as Alabama’s segregation laws required. Parks, a well-known activist and a former secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP, refused to leave her seat. She was arrested and put in jail.
After Rosa Parks was put in jail, what did African American people start doing?
That night, several women from the NAACP composed a letter asking all African Americans to boycott, or refuse to use, the buses. The boycott, they hoped, would hurt the city financially and force an end to segregation on the buses. The women distributed thousands of copies of the letter to the African Americans in Montgomery.
Who lead the new organization, Montgomery Improvement Association?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
How long did the bus boycott last?
The boycott lasted from December 5 to December 20 of the next year. MIA carpools took some 20,000 African Americans to and from work each day. Many people simply walked. One elderly woman coined a phrase that became a motto of the boycott: “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.”
How did white people react to the bus boycott?
Angry whites fought back. Employers threatened to fire African Americans if they did not abandon the boycott. Police handed out traffic tickets to harass boycotters, and they frequently stopped African American drivers and demanded to see their licenses. They arrested King for speeding and kept him in jail for several days. King’s house was bombed. Still, the boycott continued.
Why did King tell his followers to limit their actions to civil disobedience?
King insisted that his followers limit their actions to civil disobedience, or nonviolent protests against unjust laws. He said, “We must use the weapon of love. We must have compassion and understanding for those who hate us.”
How did churches play a big role in the bus boycott?
Churches played a central role in the lives of African Americans across the country. In Montgomery, mass meetings were held in black churches. There, boycotters sang together, prayed together, and listened to stories of sacrifice. The churches kept morale high, provided leadership, and helped boycotters give each other courage and inspiration.
When did the government finally acknowledge the bus boycott?
Finally, the MIA filed a federal lawsuit to end bus segregation in Montgomery. In 1956, almost a year after Rosa Parks had refused to move to the back of the bus, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Alabama buses was unconstitutional. The Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate the buses and to hire African American bus drivers.
What does MIA stand for?
Montgomery Improvement Association
How did the effect of the bus boycott in Montgomery influence other people?
The boycott brought national attention to the Civil Rights Movement. It launched nonviolent protest as a key tactic in the struggle for equality. Finally, the boycott introduced the nation to a new generation of African American leaders. Many were ministers from African American churches.
Who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)?
King and other African American leaders
What is the SCLC consist of?
The group, consisting of nearly one hundred black ministers, elected King president and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy treasurer
What did the SCLC do?
The SCLC urged African Americans to fight injustice by using civil disobedience.
What was the type of protest called sit-ins?
Anne and her friends were using a form of protest called sit-ins, in which people sit and refuse to leave. The first sit-in took place at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. During the 1960s, thousands of blacks and whites were conducting sit-ins at public places across the South.
(If you wanna understand the Anna story, go to page 826 is history textbook)
What did polices use respond to black protesters?
Police sometimes responded by using attack dogs or water hoses against protesters.
What happened to houses and churches of black leaders?
They were bombed
