8.6 Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement 1945-1960

Jackie Robinson, Harry S. Truman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Thurgood Marshall, Earl Warren, Southern Manifesto, Little Rock, desegregation, Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolent movement, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), sit-in movement, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Civil Rights Commission

Jackie Robinson

first African American baseball player to play on a major league team since the 1880s

origins of the civil rights movement

• Harry S. Truman - first president to use power of office to challenge racial discrimination

  • established Committee on Civil Rights

  • aided desegregation and ordered the end of racial discrimination in federal government

• segregation and discrimination stood out against democratic ideals in Cold War

desegregating schools and public places

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - attempted to overturn Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson allowing separate but equal facilities, won cases involving higher education in 1940s

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - Chief Justice Earl Warren declares segregation unconstitutional

• Montgomery bus boycott - boycott of city buses sparked after Rosa Parks, an active member of the NAACP refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, led to the Supreme Court ruling that segregation laws were unconstitutional

• nonviolent protests

• federal laws - Eisenhower signed civil rights laws providing for Civil Rights Commission and giving Justice Department new powers to protect African American voting rights

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

NAACP leaders led by Thurgood Marshall argued that segregation of Black children in public schools violates 14th amendment equal protection clause, Chief Justice Earl Warren rules that

• separate facilities are inherently unequal/unconstitutional

• school segregation should end with all deliberate speed

nonviolent protests

• Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. - leader of nonviolent movement to end segregation

  • formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) - organized ministers and churches in the South to support civil rights struggle

• sit-in movement - students deliberately sat in restricted areas to invite arrest and call attention to injustice of segregated facilities

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) - committee formed by young activists to promote voting rights and end segregation

resistance to desegregation in the South

• Southern Manifesto - signed by 101 members of Congress condemning the Supreme Court for “clear abuse of judicial power” in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision

• Little Rock Central High School - Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used state’s National Guard to prevent African American students from entering

  • President Eisenhower recognized his constitutional duty to uphold federal authority and ordered federal troops to stand guard at Little Rock and protect Black students