Central High School Little Rock Arkansas Desegregation

13th Amendment

The amendment ratified in 1865 that abolished slavery and forced servitude in the United States

14th Amendment

The amendment ratified in 1868 that gave birthright citizenship and citizenship to former slaves. It also gave all citizens equal protection under the law

The 15th Amendment

The amendment ratified in 1870 that prohibited the government from denying the right to vote to one because of their race or previous conditions of servitude/enslavement

Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

A supreme court case that ended in the ruling “separate but equal.”

Separate but Equal

Black and white people would remain segregated however they would have equal resources and opportunities.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that legalized segregation and restricted African Americans civil liberties. They are most commonly known for taking effect in the South, however almost every state had one of these laws passed.

Ida B. Wells

Author of the Red Record - an influential novel about lynching.

What is the NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an organization that tries to ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality for citizens and eliminate discrimination based on race.

W.E.B Du Bois

Founded the NAACP.

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Overturned Plessy v Ferguson and said that public schools should be integrated with all deliberate speed.

Legal Precedent

A rule/law established in a previous court case.

Thurgood Marshall

He was the first African American man to serve on the Supreme Court and he was also an active member in the NAACP. Known for his stance on Brown v Board of Education and helped it get passed.

All Deliberate Speed

Meant that public schools had to integrate deliberately, but they could take the time they needed. Schools didn’t have to desegregate overnight, but they could go very slowly and segregationists stretched this leading to many schools desegregating later than they should have.

Little Rock Nine

A group of black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas.

Elizabeth Eckford

One of the Little Rock Nine. She wasn’t informed that they wouldn’t be going to school on the first day so she showed up alone and calmly walked through a mob of people trying to stop her from getting to school.

Daisy Bates

She was the president of the NAACP branch in Arkansas. She was in charge of the Little Rock Nine and protected/organized for them and helped tutor them when they weren’t allowed into Central High.

Governor Fabus

The Governor of Arkansas who originally was neutral on segregation. When the time came for elections, he wanted to appeal to the segregationists so he took an anti integration stance leading to issues in Little Rock.

President Eisenhower

The president during this era. He was more anti segregation than Fabus and deployed paratroopers of the 101st precinct to Little Rock to protect the Little Rock Nine at school.

NAACP Strategy

In order to get Plessy v Ferguson overturned, the NAACP decided to chip away at other precedents until they got Brown v Board to the Supreme Court.