Block 5 – Civil Rights & Capstone

14th Amendment

Basic Facts

• What it is: Part of the Constitution that includes the Equal Protection Clause

• What it says: All people should get equal protection under the law

• When used: 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education case​

How It Was Used

• Brown v. Board: Supreme Court said school segregation broke the 14th Amendment

• The ruling: "Separate but equal" violated the Equal Protection

• The result: Made segregated schools against the law

Vote count: 

• All 9 Supreme Court judges agreed (9-0)

What It Did

• Before: Schools could be separate for Black and white students

• After: Separate schools were ruled "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional

• Impact: Started ending legal segregation in schools across America

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College-Level Summary Sentence:

The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause was used by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to declare that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional because separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Jim Crow

Basic Facts

What it is: Laws and customs that kept Black and white people separate in the South

What it enforced: Segregation in all parts of life

Time period: From late 1800s until 1960s

How It Worked

Legal segregation (de jure): Laws forced racial minorities to face unfair treatment

Custom and law: Both worked together in the South to restrict Black people

"Etiquette": Unwritten social rules Black people had to follow around white people

Examples: Separate schools, buses, water fountains, restaurants, and more

Fighting Against It

NAACP: Lawyers worked to destroy Jim Crow's legal basis

Civil rights groups: SCLC and others organized boycotts and protests against Jim Crow

Court cases: Brown v. Board helped attack Jim Crow segregation

When It Ended

Key laws: Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965

Final end: 90 years after Reconstruction, these laws effectively ended Jim Crow

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College-Level Summary Sentence:

Jim Crow was a system of legal segregation and social customs in the South that enforced racial discrimination through laws, policies, and violent intimidation until civil rights activists and federal legislation in the 1960s effectively dismantled it.

segregation

poll tax and literacy test

Plessy v. Ferguson

Sarah Keys

Emmett Till

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Joanne Robinson

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Martin Luther King, Jr.

SCLC

Malcolm X

SNCC

Freedom Rides

Lyndon B. Johnson

Civil Rights Act 1964

George Wallace

John Lewis

Selma to Montgomery March

“Bloody Sunday”

Voting Rights Act 1965

Place significant events associated with the Civil Rights Movement (including those that established segregation in the 19th century) in chronological order.