History civil rights

• Plessy vs Fergusson


  Supreme Court ruling that said Segregation was legal if "Separate but equal"
• Supreme Court is the highest and most important court in the USA
• Literacy Test


  Black's had to prove they could read in order to vote
• Employers would prevent blacks from registering to vote and would threaten to sack them if they tried to vote
• Black's were prevented from voting in the South
• Discrimination faced by African Americans


  • Worse wages
  • Lived in ghettos
  • Worse schools
  • Worse hospitals
• Segregation


  In the South, Whites and Blacks were separated in the "Jim Crow" laws
• Reasons why Civil rights movement began

  • Education
  • Migration
  • The Cold War
  • Southern city's grow
  • WW2
  • New ideas
• Civil rights Groups


  • NAACP wanted equal political, Social, educational and economic rights, and used courts to achieve this
  • SNCC was university White + black students who fought to desegregate using non-violent tactics
  • CORE used non-violent methods like Sit ins to highlight Segregation
  • SCLC fought to end Segregation using non-violent methods, organised through Southern Black Churches
• Opposite Groups


  • KKK: persecuted/lynched anyone who was not white, many members were in the police or court System
  • WCC: was a local group of White Supremacist across the South, made up of local politicians and members who wanted to prevent black people from intergrating and to keep them Segregation
  • Dixiecrats: were Democrats politicians who opposed any desegregation laws
• Emmett Till, a 14 years old boy visiting his cousin in mississippi, is murdered. The accused walked free.
• Montgomery Bus Boycotts causes

  • Short term: Rosa Parks, arrested for not giving up her Seat on a bus
  • Long term: Jo Ann Robinson + WPC had fought to end Segregation on the buses
• Causes of Montgomery Bus Boycotts

  • Short term: Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus
  • Long term: Jo Ann Robinson and WPC had fought to end segregation on the buses
• Reasons for success of Montgomery Bus Boycotts


  • Publicity: first day of boycott - leaflets, church services, MIA links to the press and blacks
  • Organisation: MIA organised everything from publicity and car pools to help those get to work
  • Commitment: Boycotters suffered threats, loss of jobs and earnings, going to jail and bombings
• Ann Robinson +WPC led calls for changes to the Seat rule + requesting black men to be employed as bus drivers


  1950
• Rosa Parks, arrested for refusing to move seats


  1st Dec 1955
• Calls for a 1 day boycott. The mongomery Improvement Association is Set up. (MIA)


  5th Dec 1955
• First car pools begin to enable people to travel


  12th Dec 1955
• NAACP filed Browder vs Gayle against bus Segregation


  1st Feb 1956
• Supreme court upholds decisions and the MIA Stops the boycott, Boycott had lasted 381 days


  20th Dec 1956
• Civil rights act allowed federal Courts to prosecute states that prevented all people voting


  9th Sept 1957