7th Grade Ch. 28 Sec. 1 Notes

Ch. 28 Sec. 1: The Civil Rights Movement Takes Shape
Battling School Segregation
        The 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson established the “separate-but-equal” doctrine, stating that federal, state, and local governments could allow segregation as long as separate facilities were equal. As a result, some schools maintained separate facilities for white and black students. Government officials often claimed that though the schools were separate, they were equal in quality. This was often not true, with most schools for black children receiving significantly less funding. Early civil rights leaders led by members of the (NAACP) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, focused on ending segregation in America’s public schools.
- Brown v. Board of Education
        The NAACP’s attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg led courtroom battles against segregation. In the early 1950s, five school segregation cases from Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington D.C., came together under the title of Brown v. Board of Education. The “Brown” in the case referred to seven year old African American Linda Brown from Topeka, Kansas. Brown lived near a school for white children, but had to travel across town to go to a school for black children. Linda’s father and the NAACP sued to allow Linda a chance to go to school closer to home.
        On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on Brown v. Board of Education, stating that segregation in schools and other public facilities was illegal. The court ordered the next year that public schools desegregate, or integrate.
-Little Rock Nine
        In the South, only three school districts began desegregating in 1954. Some schools implemented gradual integration plans such as one school in Little Rock Arkansas. The school board in Little Rock allowed nine outstanding black students to attend Central High School; these students became known as the Little Rock Nine. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus tried to prevent this by ordering National Guard troops to block the students from entering the school.
        On September 4, 1957, eight of the nine students arrived only to be turned away by the National Guard. The ninth student, Elizabeth Eckford, arrived alone and was also blocked. When she turned to leave she was surrounded by a mob chanting “lynch her!” and she was guided to safety.
        The governor refused to allow them to attend Central High School, until President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the students into school. The Little Rock Nine attended classes, but were insulted and harassed by other students. Eight of the nine students remained there, and in 1958 Ernest Green became the first African American to graduate from Central High.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
        Most facilities in the South such as public transportation remained segregated. This led to the NAACP continuing the battle of segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Black passengers there were required to sit in the back of city buses and if the whites-only front section filled, black passengers had to give up their seats.
        On December 1, 1955, a seamstress and NAACP worker named Rosa Parks boarded a bus and sat in the front row section reserved for black passengers. When the bus became full, the driver told Parks and three others to give their seats to white passengers. Parks refused and was taken to jail.
        In response to the arrest, African American professor Jo Ann Robinson organized a boycott of Montgomery buses. Local leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to help strengthen the boycott. Thousands of African Americans stopped riding the buses in what became known as the Montgomery bus boycott.
        To lead the MIA, African American leaders turned to Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister who inspired and motivated listeners. Leaders also planned a carpool system to help people find rides around the city.
        Some people who were against ending segregation resorted to violence during this time. King’s home was bombed, while he received hate mail and death threats. Even police harassed and arrested carpool drivers. The boycott still gained national attention, and even sparked similar boycotts in other cities.
        In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was illegal, and a month later King joined other ministers to ride the first integrated bus in Montgomery. This bus boycott helped make Martin Luther King Jr. a nationally known civil rights leader. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which led campaigns for civil rights throughout the South.
Sit-ins and the SNCC
        Many private businesses in the South remained segregated. In Greensboro, North Carolina, four students decided to challenge this. At Woolworth, a popular department store, black customers had to eat standing up on one end of the counter and white customers sat down at the other end.
        On February 1, 1960, the students went into Woolworth and staged a sit-in—a demonstration in which protesters sit down and refuse to leave. They sat in the whites-only section of the lunch counter and ordered coffee. They were not served, but they stayed until the store closed, and returned the next day with more students to continue the sit-in.
        This sparked sit-ins in other stores, and soon the whole country was reading newspaper articles about the Greensboro sit-ins. These students and others continued to protest using the strategy of nonviolent resistance. They were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. that no matter how much they were insulted or threatened, they refused to respond with violence.
        Over time these restaurants and businesses began the process of integration. To continue the struggle for civil rights, the leaders of the student protests formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the spring of 1960. The SNCC activists trained protesters and organized civil rights demonstrations. Bob Moses, a leader of the SNCC, helped organize sit-ins and voter registration drives.