civil rights

• The American System has a federal system of government divided into states which can grant their own laws, but each state also comes under the umbrella of the federal government in Washington DC, which passes federal laws that cover the whole country
• This system can cause problems because different states often want different things. States can pass their own laws, but the Supreme Court can overrule them
• The government has 3 branches which in theory balance each other out, so no one branch is too powerful. This is known as 'checks and balances'
• Black People in America

  • Africans were first brought to America as slaves
  • America was a British colony until it became independent in 1776
  • New states were created as America expanded west, raising the question of whether they would be free states or slave states
  • The American Civil War broke out between the anti-slavery northern states and the pro-slavery southern states
  • The South was defeated and President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Declaration, ending slavery
  • The next Presidents/governments either decided not to help African Americans, or were actively racist. Blacks were forced into poverty and there was increasing discrimination
• Segregation


  Being separated from whites
• Discrimination

  Being treated unfairly because of their race
• In the North, segregation was caused by discrimination. Black people had the worst jobs and houses
• In the South, segregation was enforced by law. There were laws which said black people must have separate facilities to white people
• Jim Crow Laws

  Segregation laws which worked on the theory of 'separate but equal'
• The Plessy v. Ferguson court case in 1896 backed the 'separate but equal' principle
• All public facilities had separate sections for white people and black people. Black people could be thrown out or even arrested if they didn't stay in the 'colored' section
• Many Southern white people saw black people as inferior and unintelligent. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a racist group who attacked non-whites. Many police officers and judges were members
• Millions of black Americans fought in WW2 and worked in the war factories. They hoped for more equality when the war ended
• Ways white people in the South stopped black people from voting

  • White gangs attacked black people at voting places
  • Most states had a literacy test to register to vote. Black people were given a much harder test than white people
• Civil rights activist

  Someone who campaigns for equal rights and encourages others to do the same
• Reasons why the civil rights movement grew in the 1950s

  • Television made people more aware of news events and racial inequality
  • WW2 persuaded some people that blacks deserved more rights. Black soldiers wanted the integration they saw abroad
  • Research showed that segregated education harmed black children
  • Communities changed as poor blacks moved North and more liberal whites moved South
  • New industries in the South brought more jobs for black people
  • The Cold War made the US government more sensitive to criticism from other countries
• The NAACP focused on fighting for civil rights in the courts
• The NAACP knew it was vital that the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling was overthrown
• The NAACP won most of the court cases they fought in the 1950s, but winning a case didn't mean it was always enforced
• NAACP

  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• CORE focused on fighting for civil rights through non-violent protest, using boycotts, pickets and sit-ins
• CORE

  Congress of Racial Equality
• Black church leaders were often good speakers and could organise events well. They stressed non-violence and forgiveness
• Other groups fighting for civil rights

  • The Regional Council of Negro Leadership
  • Universities
• Emmett Till was a black teenager from Chicago who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly making sexual comments to a white woman's wife
• Till's mother insisted on an open casket viewing of the body, leading to huge publicity and shock
• The murderers were cleared of all charges, but later admitted to the murder
• Some historians say that Till's murder started the rapid growth of the civil rights movement
• Political opposition to civil rights

  • Dixiecrats (Southern Democrat politicians who strongly believed in segregation and states' rights)
  • Many local politicians (governors, mayors etc.) who supported segregation
  • No black judges or juries, making it difficult for black people to get fair treatment or justice
• Linda Brown was a black girl from Topeka, Kansas who had to go to a 'black' school that was much further away than the nearest 'white' one
• In 1952 the NAACP took Linda Brown's case to the Supreme Court, arguing that segregated schools went against the 14th Amendment
• In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional and schools must desegregate
• The Brown ruling did not set a timescale for desegregation, so many schools in the South refused to desegregate or did so very slowly
• Limitations of the Brown ruling

  • Schools in the South refused to desegregate
  • Some people set up White Citizens' Councils to fight for segregation
  • Membership of the KKK grew, leading to more violence against black families
  • 11 Southern states signed the Southern Manifesto, which rejected the Brown ruling and argued for segregation
  • There was racism in integrated schools, meaning black children's education often still suffered
  • Many areas only desegregated their schools partially, or very slowly
• In 1957, 25 black students were due to start at the newly-segregated Little Rock High School in Arkansas, but only 9 were willing to go - known as the 'Little Rock Nine'
• The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, was against desegregation and sent state troops to stop the black students from going into the school
• President Eisenhower was forced to send in over 1000 federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine and enforce desegregation
• The following school year, Faubus closed every school in Little Rock in order to stop integration from happening
• The publicity around Little Rock made the government more concerned about the image of the USA abroad
• In 1955-56, a series of events led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama