early civil rights movements

Post–World War II Conditions

-African American military service

-Expectations of democracy and equality

-Double V campaign legacy

-Migration to northern cities

-Continued Jim Crow segregation in South

Legal Strategy and Organizations

-NAACP focus on courts

-Thurgood Marshall leadership

-Targeting public education

-Gradual dismantling of segregation laws

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) background

-Separate schools unequal in resources

-Psychological harm to Black children

-Social science evidence (doll test)

• Conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark

• Showed segregation's harm by revealing that many Black children preferred white dolls

• Viewing white dolls as "nice" and Black dolls as "bad"

• This indicated internalized feelings of inferiority due to racial separation

Supreme Court decision

-Segregation = unconstitutional

-Education “inherently unequal”

-No clear enforcement timeline

Southern response

-Massive Resistance campaigns

-School closures

-White Citizens’ Councils

-Limited integration for years

Emmett Till incident

-14 year old, African American boy

-Visiting relatives in Mississippi

-Accused of whistling at white woman

-Abducted, tortured, murdered

Trial and aftermath

-All-white jury acquittal

-Killers later admitted guilt

-Media coverage nationwide

Impact

-Solidified Black activism

-Highlighted Southern racial violence

-Influenced Rosa Parks and others

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) trigger

-Rosa Parks arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus

• Defying Jim Crow Laws

-There had been long-standing bus discrimination

-However, there was a black majority ridership

organization

-Montgomery Improvement Association formed

• Primary goal initially: desegregate busses through nonviolent protests

-MLK as spokesperson

-Car pools and mass meetings

significance

-Economic pressure strategy

-Successful nonviolent protest

-Supreme Court ruling ends segregation

-Model for future campaigns