Unit 8: Topic 6 - Civil Rights Movement Flashcards
Who was Thurgood Marshall?
Thurgood Marshall was the chief counsel of the NAACP during the 1950s. His legal team won the Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) cases. He argued that racially segregated facilities were demonstrably unequal, in opposition to the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruling that allowed racial segregation on the basis of “separate but equal”.
Marshall went on to become the first African American Supreme Court justice in 1967.
Describe the significance of the Sweatt v. Painter decision.
The Sweatt v. Painter decision, in 1950, ruled that a Texas law school purporting to offer black students an education equal to that which it offered whites was not equal, as measured by funding, faculty, and facilities.
The decision was one of the first successful legal challenges to racial segregation. Following the decision, lawyers from the NAACP found new legal methods to challenge segregation more generally, rather than in one Texas law school, which would culminate in the Brown v. Board decision four years later.
Describe the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an organized movement in which the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride the city’s buses in protest over the bus system’s policy of racial segregation.
The boycott began after Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat so that white passengers could sit in it, on December 1, 1955. The boycott was the first mass-action of the modern civil rights era and it served as an inspiration to other civil rights activists across the nation.
In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional, after which the boycott came to an end.
Who emerged as leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to become a prominent figure in the broader civil rights movement?
Martin Luther King Jr.
King was a Baptist minister who endorsed nonviolent civil disobedience. Drawing on his study of nonviolent civil disobedience in the teachings of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi, King delivered a message of nonviolent protest against racial injustice in sermons and speeches. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), one the most prominent civil rights groups from this time, would be formed by King and other leaders from the boycott.
What was the Southern Manifesto of 1956?
The Southern Manifesto was a statement issued by 101 southern congressmen in response to the Brown v. Board decision, accusing the Supreme Court of a “clear abuse of judicial power,” and vowing to use “all lawful means to bring about a reversal” of the Court’s decision.
Resistance to desegregation meant that the process of integration was gradual and proceeded slowly.
Who were the Little Rock Nine, and what was President Eisenhower’s response to their situation?
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black higher school students who, on September 3, 1956, were turned away from Central higher School in Little Rock, Arkansas by a crowd of white citizens and members of the Arkansas National Guard.
In response, President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered federal troops from the 101st Air Force Division to walk the Little Rock Nine to school. The troops remained for the rest of the school year.
In further resistance to desegregation, Governor Orval Faubus closed Little Rock’s public schools the following year. This trend of the federal government forcing desegregation against the resistance of state governments in the South is a continuous theme across the civil rights movement.
What was Executive Order 9981?
Executive Order 9981 was issued by President Truman in 1948 to desegregate the military.
Previously, African American members of the military experienced discrimination including hostility from their white comrades-in-arms and being relegated to menial jobs as janitors and cooks.
What was President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights?
The Committee on Civil Rights was established in 1946 to strengthen and safeguard the rights of the American people. The committee’s reports recommended protections for African Americans including desegregation of the military, abolition of poll taxes, and protections against lynching.
Explain the significance of the case Brown v. Board of Education.
The Supreme Court ruling in Brown. v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) overturned the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), ruling that segregated schooling violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
Brown v. Board began as a case against the segregated school system in Topeka, Kansas, and was later combined with with four other similar school segregation cases. Following the decision, segregation was no longer legal. However, southern states would ignore this decision for years, keeping segregation in place where they could.
