Fear and Fearless in the 50’s

Part II -The Battle for Civil Rights

• Jim Crow Laws
• Separate but Equal is Constitutional-Plessy v. Fegunson-1896
• NAACP (National Association for Advancement of Colored People) attempt to use the courts to end segregation led by Thurgood Marshall
• Brown v. The Board of Education---Overturns Plessy and legally ends segregation—
• The Warren Court and judicial activisism?
• Massive Resistance---KKK and White Citizens Council
• President Eisenhower refuses to take a position on the Brown decision.
• Federal law prohibits discrimination, but states intentionally break the law and don’t comply

• Little Rock School Board attempts to obey the law based on the Brown decision.
• Nine African American attempt to attend Central High School on September 2, 1957—The Little Rock Nine
• Governor of Arkansas ends in State National Guard in an attempt to stop integration.
• Governor Faubus and President Eisenhower meet.
• Eisenhower hopes to avoid federal intervention.
• State Rights v. Federal Law
• The Little Rock Nine attend school without protection
• Riots break out and student are escorted out of the school.
• Eisenhower reluctantly sends in hundreds of federal to protect the students at school.
• Next year, Little Rock Public School close and white students attend private school while black student have no school to attend.
• Another Supreme Court decision opens the school in 1959.

• Rosa Park-Symbolizes the power of non-violent protest.
• Martin Luther King learns of Park’s action.
• MLK helps to mobilize bus boycott.
• Bus company loses large amounts of money.
• Frustration leads to anti Black backlash.
• MLK’s house was bombed.
• 88 African American leaders arrested for the boycott
• South Christian Leadership Conference and Fellowship for Reconciliation partner to actively engage in non-violent protest based on Gandhi’s
• Civil Right Movement is officially launched under King’s leadership.
• Not all agree with King’s tactic—Malcolm X