Unit 5 Flashcards
Sweatt v. Painter
1950
Heman Marion Sweatt sued the University of Texas for denying him admission to its law school because state law prohibited integrated education (between blacks and whites). Texas tried to make a separate law school for African Americans, but this was rejected by the court because the school’s facilities would not be equal and did not provide the ability to form relationships with other lawyers that a professional school would provide
Alice Coachman
1948
Competed in track and field at Tuskegee University and was the first Black woman to win an olympic gold medal in 1948. Was also the only American women to take a gold medal in the games at that time.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1952-1954
Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel of the NAACP at the time, successfully argued his case that segregation in public schools made African American students feel inferior, and even if the facilities provided were equal, the whole fact that the students were segregated by race was unconstitutional.
Thurgood Marshal
Chief counsel of the NAACP in 1952, sucessfully ardued the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Aggressively defended black people in the court system.
Little Rock Nine
1957
First 9 African Americans accepted into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus had asked the National Guard to prevent the 9 students from taking their classes, and when the kids persisted, were subject to mob violence, Eisenhower made the National Guard escort the students to and from classes. Faubus had ordered all Little Rock public schools to be closed, but Supreme Court ruled that school had to be reopened.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955-1956
Rosa Parks refused to hive up her seat to a white man, and was arrested by the Montgomery police. Following this, Women’s Political Council (group of African American female activists) organized a boycott of Montgomery buses, news of the boycott spread, and eventually 40,000 African Americans didn’t take the bus on the first day of the boycott
Southern Christian Leadership Committee (SCLC)
1963
Was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and mounted protests in 186 cities throughout the South in order to reveal the inhumanity of the Jim Crow laws and their supporters. The campaign in Birmingham (that was a peaceful protest) was met by violence by the police as thousands of people were assaulted and arrested.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Worked towards (in response to Ella’s efforts) desegregated cities with the use of sit-ins,