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Civil rights movement timeline 1950s and 1960s
Civil rights movement timeline 1950s and 1960s
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1868 marked a proud year for African Americans with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to Constitution. It proclaimed that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”1 This essentially color blinded government, and granted all citizens (a category which finally included African Americans) what is described in the document as indisputable equality. While this was a milestone in the progress for Black rights, this seemingly problem-solving legislation for former slaves did not prevent future hardships by any means. Efforts were made in the southern states to keep blacks from reaping the benefits given to them by the Fourteenth Amendment by maintaining blacks’ position at the bottom of the social hierarchy thus keeping the idea of slavery alive without actually keeping slavery alive. An example of this is the 1876 Jim Crow Laws which called for the organization of separate restrooms, waiting facilities, restaurants, prisons, schools and textbooks, militia, and transportation. It also denied intermarriage, among many other hindrances inflicted by this legislation. 2 While Jim Crow was blatantly incongruent with the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of the full benefits of citizenry, it was justified by the Plessy vs. Ferguson Case of 1896 in which the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s Separate Car Act, requiring racially segregated railroad facilities, under the condition that such facilities were equal. This “separate but equal” doctrine was quickly, and legally, applied t... ... middle of paper ... ... analyze historical significance without me telling them what to think. This way the students could possibly see the argument in a more tangible way, see how and why the two sides differed, and both sides’ basis of justification. The students could then independently decide which side they actually favor. Finally, for homework I would assign the reading of excerpts of “Warriors Don’t Cry”, the memoir of Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine. I would ask the students to pretend that they were a student at Central High in 1957 and write a page long diary entry about what one would be seeing and how one would be feeling at this time. All of these activities would promote student-centered learning in that they are free to arrive at their conclusions independently, and they would help develop Formal Operational skills through hypothetical deductive logic.
Whites never gave total freedom to African Americans. Blacks were forced to endure curfews, passes, and living on rented land, which put them in a similar situation as slaves. In 1866, the KKK started a wave of violence and abuse against negroes in the south, destroying their properties, assaulting and killing them in different ways, just because angry white people do not want the blacks to stand up and join in political or any kind of issues or freedom. The Fourteenth Amendment did surely constitute the biggest development of government force following the approval of the Constitution.
...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
Both Acts aimed to protect the basic human rights of African-Americans, using federal law in the wake of the American Civil War. However this in itself is a major area of controversy, as the acts did merely aim to grant minimal rights to blacks, immediately suggesting their effectiveness was limited from the outset. Although indeed in contrast to this, it can be argued that the 14th Amendment to the constitution, embodying the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was a ‘step in the right direction’ and no matter how minimal that movement was, it was an essential starting point. The 1866 Act, defined all people born in the USA (except untaxed Indians) as national citizens, and this measure asserted the right of the federal government to intervene in state affairs should any discrepancies arise. This was a major advancement for the black community in terms of official social standing, especially having this act woven into the constitution, signifying a sense of security. However as shall be seen, it was not the idyllic, harmonious start many envisaged, supported by the introduction of the 1875 Act, which was designed to stop segregation.
On December 6, 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the United States constitution was ratified (Archives). This amendment effectively abolished slavery with the exception of a punishment for a crime (Archives). This was a great victory for blacks, who had been the preferred target for slaves. For many, however, the passage of the amendment failed to change the attitudes of white Americans. Blacks were clearly not welcome in many cities across the nation, with laws allowing blacks to work within a city’s limits, but requiring them to leave before sundown.
The case of brown v. board of education was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into white society at the time. Brown vs. Board of education to this day remains one of, if not the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the better of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education was not simply about children and education (Silent Covenants pg 11); it was about being equal in a society that claims African Americans were treated equal, when in fact they were definitely not. This case was the starting point for many Americans to realize that separate but equal did not work. The separate but equal label did not make sense either, the circumstances were clearly not separate but equal. Brown v. Board of Education brought this out, this case was the reason that blacks and whites no longer have separate restrooms and water fountains, this was the case that truly destroyed the saying separate but equal, Brown vs. Board of education truly made everyone equal.
... Over the course of the next century, the 14th Amendment would be used by the Federal government, particularly the Supreme Court, to integrate African Americans and other cultures into the society. This was and is a major step in the evolution of the United States into the melting pot of freedom that it has become known to be.
... many other things! “The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute quality of the two raves before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinction based upon color, or to enforce social as distinguished from political quality, or a commingling of the two raves upon terns unsatisfactory to either.” This is a quote from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court thought that the two raves should be separate but equal. But even though the two races were separate, it was still not equal because there were much less public restrooms, restaurants, and other things for the blacks in America.
On the seventeenth day in May 1954 a decision was made which changed things in the United States dramatically. For millions of black Americans, news of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education meant, at last, that they and their children no longer had to attend separate schools. Brown v. Board of Education was a Supreme Court ruling that changed the life of every American forever.
New Orleans, Louisiana was a place of many races and mixed raced people. Interstate train travel was segregated there, called “Louisiana's Separate Car Act.” Many people didn’t think this was fair not only because was it discriminatory, but because there was no way to tell if a person was truly white or black because there were so many mixed people. In 1891 a group of Creole professionals in New Orleans formed the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law. In 1892, Homer Plessy, a ⅞ white and ⅛ black man, bought a train ticket and took a seat in the “white” car. Plessy was asked to get off the train or move to the “black” car. When he refused, he was arrested. This planned incident was to question the fourteenth
The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case (163 U.S. 537) began on April 13, 1896 and ended on May 18, 1896 when the court made their decision; this case is between Homer Adolph Plessy and John Ferguson. The main issue in this case was racial segregation; Plessy was told to sit in the section of the train that is meant for African Americans, but he refused. The question that is being asked is if “Louisiana's law mandating racial segregation on its trains [is] an unconstitutional infringement on both the privileges and immunities and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment?” (Oyez). The amendments that are being violated are the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause.
Moral reflections turn political when they “prompt us to articulate and justify our moral and political convictions, not only among family and friends but also in the demanding company of our fellow citizens” (Justice, Pg. 29). This is true for the case of segregation, which started with the enactment of the Jim Crows laws in the 1880’s legalizing racial segregation of public facilities, including railroad cars. As illustrated in 1896 with Plessy v. Ferguson when Plessy, a 7/8 white man was arrested for refusing to move from the white seating area back to his assigned seat in the African American seating area. This case upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine in it’s decision, stating that racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment (Dalton, Week
This case was brought to the Supreme Court with Plessey’s argument being that his 13th and 14th Amendments was being violated. But Louisiana argued that the 14th Amendment states that everyone is to be treated equally and that is exactly what happened. They said that the cars were separate but equal and that abided by the Constitution while keeping the Jim Crow laws. The Supreme Court decided that no law was violated and took the state’s side. The Court upheld Plessey’s conviction, and ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees the right to “equal facilities,” not the “same facilities.” In this ruling, the Supreme Court created the principle of “separate but equal,”(“Judicial Review”,
The Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment in favour of segregation was a clear hindrance to the development of civil rights. This is because it sets a precedent for segregation to be enforced across the country and set a precedent of normalisation of racist views. While it may be argued that such laws existed before then, it cannot be denied that such laws became more rampant and widespread as a result of the ruling. This can be seen clearly in the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 which, among many things, instituted separate schools which "shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race" [1]. This particular example
It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....