History - America and Vietnam War

• This is a lesson covering the USA conflict at home and abroad from 1954 to 1975, specifically the civil rights component
• The aim is to use evidence to investigate racial segregation in the USA
• The instructor is a white European man talking about the issue of civil rights in the United States
• The instructor acknowledges their privilege and the need to refer to certain instances of racism and use racist language within the context of the study of this period
• The instructor hopes the course will be enlightening, interesting, and help evaluate attitudes towards race and how far we've come since the 1950s and 1960s, as well as how far we still have to go
• Blackface


  White performance who have put on black makeup and are parodying black performance
• The "Black and White Minstrel Show" was a British show from the 1960s that used blackface
• There was racial tension and hatred in the UK, and many examples of racism seen in the US were also true to an extent in the UK
• The UK had laws to prevent racial discrimination, but not laws designed to enforce racial discrimination like the US Jim Crow laws
• Jim Crow laws


  Segregation laws that existed in the deep south of the US
• Deep south


  The states of the USA in the south which are most associated with slavery and racism
• Segregation


  The process of separating people into different sections
• The image shows white supremacist groups like the White League and Ku Klux Klan terrorizing and killing black people
• The image depicts the "lost cause" mentality of the Confederacy and the idea of the US government being a "white man's government"
• Jim Crow


  A racist music act where white performers wore black makeup and mocked black people
• The Jim Crow laws gained their name from this racist character
• The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the deep south from 1876 until the 1960s
• The Jim Crow laws claimed to provide "separate but equal" treatment, but this was not the case
• Segregation meant keeping black and white people separate in all aspects of life
• Sources show examples of segregated drinking fountains, seating on buses, and other facilities that were separate but unequal for black people
• These segregation measures had a negative impact on the lives of black people and made them feel dehumanized and oppressed
• is is separate yes but is it equal take a moment to complete the columns in your table now what do these sources show what this mean in the lives of black people and how would this make them feel
• This issue is something that's going to become very important to us in a future lesson when we look at an event chord at the Montgomery bus boycott
• Segregated public bus in Alabama

  Sign says "for colored patrons only" - back of bus was for non-white passengers, sign could be moved to restrict seating
• In the 1950s and 60s, launderettes were common and some had "white only" signs, but would allow black maids working for white families
• Greens diner served white customers only, black customers had to sit in a separate section if allowed to be served at all
• Many black schools had smaller budgets and second-hand resources compared to white schools, some black students had to travel further to attend better-equipped schools
• Unconstitutional


  Any law that breaks the rules of the Constitution
• Describe what happened to Emmett Till

  He was from Chicago, murdered in Money, Mississippi, accused of "talking fresh" to a white woman
• Supreme Court


  The highest court in the USA that decides whether the Constitution has been broken or not
• The US Constitution is the list of the most important rights and laws that apply to all states within the United States of America
• Changing the US Constitution takes a lot of consideration and time, and is not something Americans take lightly
• Why weren't Till's murderers convicted despite later admitting their guilt?

  The all-white jury acquitted them, and the "double jeopardy" law prevented them from being retried after they later confessed
• Plessy vs. Ferguson case (1896)

  The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal as long as the treatment of black people was separate but equal
• Emmett Till's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral to show the brutality of his murder, which was not unique but gained attention due to his northern background and his mother's actions
• Segregated facilities were rarely equal, they were just separate
• The Jim Crow laws kept people separate but did not treat them equally
• Aspects of Emmett Till's murder that would be most shocking to the USA


  He was young, from the North where segregation didn't happen, his murderers confessed but got away with it
• Brown vs. Board of Education case

  1. The NAACP challenged the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling, arguing that segregation made black children feel inferior

  2. The Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregated schools were unconstitutional

  3. The Supreme Court ruled in 1955 that desegregation should be carried out with "all deliberate speed"
• How could shock tactics lead to change during the civil rights era?

  Shock tactics were often a powerful force for change, but change was often painfully slow