Brown v Board of Education White Resistance Brown
Brown v. Board of Education & White Resistance
Brown v. Board of Education: Breaking Down the Barriers ▪ Warren Court (Chief Justice Earl Warren) – Warren court known for expanded civil rights, civil liberties, judicial power – Mapp v. Ohio: Exclusionary Rule ▪ 1954: Brown v. Board of Education – NAACP (Thurgood Marshall) – Separate but equal is inherently unequal ▪ Violates Equal Protection Clause of 14 th Amendment – Outlaws segregation in public schools ▪ Paves the way for integrating society
Reaction to Brown Decision ▪ Brown II – Desegregate schools with “all deliberate speed” ▪ The Southern Manifesto: – 100 Southern Congressman – Pledge to oppose Brown ruling thru “lawful means” ▪ Leads to reorganization of KKK – Operates in South alongside police/politicians ▪ White Citizens Council formed – White supremacist group which used violence and intimidation to counter civil rights goals; sought to economically and socially oppress blacks.
Little Rock Central High School ▪ Local Officials throughout South Resist Brown Decision ▪ By 1957, minimal steps towards school desegregation… ▪ “. . . I was disappointed not to see what 1957: 9 Young A. A. Voluntarily is inside Central High School. I don’t Enroll at Little Rock Central High understand why the governor [of Arkansas] sent grown-up soldiers to School keep us out. I don’t know if I should go – Gov. Orville Faubus calls in AK back. But Grandma is right, if I don’t go state National Guard to block back, they will think they have won. They will think they can use soldiers to – Sept. 4, 1957: 1 st day of school frighten us, and we’ll always have to ▪ Little Rock 9 denied entry obey them. They’ll always be in charge ▪ Elizabeth Eckford doesn’t get memo… if I don’t go back to Central and make the integration happen. . . ” Melba Patillo Beals
Photo Analysis
Federal and State Governments Clash: Little Rock, AK ▪ Sept. 24, 1957: Little Rock 9 finally enter LRCHS…confronted by mob calling for their lives ▪ Eisenhower federalizes Nat’l. Guard/sends army to protect students and enforce decision – Southern schools would continue to resist desegregation – Governors begin shutting down schools to block desegregation ▪ Gov. Faubus would shut down all L. R. high schools in 1958 -1959 school year ▪ Battle States Rts. v. Federal Govt.
Movement Gains Ground ▪ Role of Students – Upset with slow progress after Brown, many youth A. A. began to challenge segregation with new vigor
SNCC ▪ Sit-ins mark birth of new militancy among AA youth. – Change happening too slow ▪ Spring, 1960 --New Civil Rights Org: – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) ▪ Major Civil Rights Organization formed in 1960 ▪ Involve all classes of AA in struggle to defeat white racism and bring equality ▪ Played major role in the sit-ins, freedom rides, 1963 March on Washington, & Mississippi Freedom Summer ▪ Major contributions in organizing voter registration drives all over the South, especially in GA, AL, and MS. – Side Note: Late 1960 s, led by fiery leaders such as Stokely Carmichael, SNCC focused on black power, and then protesting against the Vietnam War.
Woolworth’s Lunch Counter: Greensboro, NC ▪ 4 AA students stage a sit-in to challenge refusal of diner to serve them ▪ Sit-ins erupt throughout the country – Wade-ins at public beaches – Read-ins at public libraries ▪ Write newspapers/public officials
Greensboro, NC Sit-Ins
Sit-Ins Spread Baltimore, MD. Morgan State students arrested for protests at the segregated Northwood Theater.
Sit-Ins Spread Students busted for protesting segregation fill the Nashville jail to overflowing
Sit-Ins Spread Gasping for breath, James Bevel and John Lewis are trapped inside a Nashville restaurant filled with insecticide gas when the manager turns on a fumigating machine to disrupt a sit-in. C. T. Vivian, Diane Nash, and Bernard La. Fayette leading protest march in Nashville, 1960. With Curtis Murphy they confront the Mayor on the Courthouse steps
Sit-ins, Swim-ins, Read-ins, Pray-ins, Marches, and Other Protests Erupt Janice Jackson, Evelyn Pierce, and Ethel Sawyer under arrest for the crime of reading in a "white only" library. Jackson, MS
Orangeburg, MS, 1960 Kress 5&10 store removes stools to prevent students from integrating the lunch counter with a sit-in, 1960. Orangeburg, SC.
Sit-ins Spread Farmville, VA. Student sit-ins being dragged away from the College Shoppe Restaurant
Woolworth Sit-in Jackson, MS 1963
Woolworth Sit-in—Jackson, MS 1963 ▪ "This was the most violently attacked sit-in during the 1960 s and is the most publicized. A huge mob gathered, with open police support while three of us sat there for three hours. I was attacked with fists, brass knuckles and the broken portions of glass sugar containers, and was burned with cigarettes. I'm covered with blood and we were all covered by salt, sugar, mustard, and various other things. Seated, left to right, are myself, Joan Trumpauer, and Anne Moody. “ ▪ “Our initial picket demonstration on Capitol Street on December 12, 1962, had launched the Jackson Boycott Movement, — and our Woolworth Sit-In now transposed the Boycott Movement into the massive Jackson Movement. "
Sit-Ins “Slowly, — too slowly, — victories are won at great cost. ” Matthew Walker, Peggy Alexander, Diane Nash and Stanley Hemphill eat lunch at the previously segregated counter of the Post House Restaurant in the Greyhound bus terminal. This is the first time since the start of the sit-ins that Blacks are served at previously all-white counters in Nashville.
Marching Against Segregation (South Carolina--1960)
Police Brutality Police attack the marchers with tear gas and fire hoses, and force them into the "stockade. ”
Georgia Arrested for demonstrating in Americus, Georgia, teenage girls are kept in a stockade in the countryside near Leesburg. They have no beds and no working sanitary facilities.
Testimony of Lois Barnum Holley ▪ “I am 13 years old and was in Leesburg stockade from August 31 to September 8. There were 32 kids in there with me. There were no beds, no mattresses, no blankets, pillows, no sheets. The floor was cold. “ ▪ “The smell of the waste material was bad. I urinated where the water from the shower drains down. Some of the girls used a piece ot cardboard that came from the boxes, the cardboard boxes, that the hamburgers were brought in. “ ▪ “The water was hot and it was running all the while. The man gave us 3 cups for the 32 of us. “ ▪ “There was a shower but it wasn't clean enough for you to bathe in. “
Part I Summary Questions ▪ Summary Questions: – What strategies did African Americans begin using to combat racial discrimination? Provide 3 different examples. – What strategies did white segregationists use to combat the fight for racial equality? Provide 3 examples.
- Slides: 24