Early Civil Rights Movement
Background
Reconstruction Amendments
 13th Amendment- abolish slavery,
freedom
 14th Amendment- citizenship for
former slaves
 15th Amendment- voting rights, vote
Plessy v. Ferguson- 1896, “separate but
equal”
Jim Crow Laws- state laws and practices
discriminating against African Americans,
kept them from having equal rights
Desegregation of the Military- President
Truman, 1948. Executive Order 9981
Sweatt v. Painter- 1950 UT law student
challenged separate but equal and WON.
Influenced Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education- 1954
desegregation of schools, overturned
separate but equal, key turning point in the
Civil Rights movement
Chief Justice Earl Warren- ordered states
to desegregate schools with “all deliberate
speed”
Southern Democrats-wanted to keep
things the same status quo
Montgomery Bus BoycottRosa Parks- member of NAACP,
refused to surrender her seat,
arrested, began boycott of the bus
system
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.- pastor
in Montgomery, leader of the
boycott, brought attention of the
world to the problems in the South
Boycott- successful in using
economics and unity to bring about
change. Gets inspiration from
Gandhi
Civil Rights Act of 1957Purpose- increase African
American voting in the South
Unsuccessful but set a pattern for
future laws
Little Rock, ArkansasGovernor Orval Faubus and other
state governors fought Brown
ruling on the state level
Arkansas National Guard
attempted to prevent the Little
Rock 9 from entering school
Eisenhower sent in federal troops
to force desegregation