U.S. History / Unit 9: Civil Rights and a Changing Nation
9.1 The Civil Rights Movement Begins
Notes
After WWII, Black Americans and their allies challenged segregation in the courts and in the streets.
- ***Brown v. Board of Education* (1954)**: the Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, overturning Plessy's "separate but equal." NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued the case.
- The 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, and his mother's choice of an open-casket funeral, shocked the nation.
- Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955 to 1956): after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, Black residents boycotted the buses for over a year. Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader. The Supreme Court ended bus segregation.
- Little Rock Nine (1957): Arkansas's governor used the National Guard to block nine Black students from Central High School. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce desegregation.
- King promoted nonviolent resistance, inspired by Gandhi and Christian teaching.
Practice
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled that:
The Court found that separate schools were "inherently unequal."
Why was the Montgomery Bus Boycott effective?
Mass refusal to ride created economic pressure, and courts struck down bus segregation.
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to:
He enforced the federal court order to desegregate.
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