How far were civil rights for African Americans

achieved in the 1950s?

Lesson Resources for Week 22

1
 Paper 1 Depth Study: A Divided Union: Civil Rights in the
USA, 1945-74

The Fight for civil rights for African Americans in the 1950s

Topic

The Supreme Court What powers/roles did they have?

and Congress
What influence could they have on civil rights?

What impact had they had on civil rights in the past? (Plessey v
Ferguson 1896)

Segregation and What was life like in the north and the south for African
discrimination Americans in the early 1950s?

Jim Crow Laws

Brown versus Topeka Events

(1954)
The ruling/judgement of the Supreme Court

This importance of the ruling

The impact – positive and negative

Revival of the Ku Who were the KKK? Why was there a revival in the 1950s?
Klux Klan (KKK).
What was the impact of the revival of the KKK?

Death of Emmett Till Causes, Events, Impacts

(1955)

The Montgomery Bus Causes , Events ,Impacts – successful? Significant?

Boycott (1955–56)

Little Rock (1957) Causes ,Events ,Impacts – successful? Significant?

The Civil Rights Act, What was the Act about?

1957
What did the Act say/achieve?

How significant was the 1957 CRA?

2
 Week 22 Lead Lesson: Racism, segregation and
discrimination: America in the 1950s
Key Words

• Constitution - A constitution is a set of basic laws and principles that a

country or organisation is governed by.

• Amendment - Changes (amendments) to the US Constitution

• Federal Government - The central government of the USA, based in

Washington DC

• Civil Rights Movement - the civil rights movement was a struggle for that took
place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for black Americans to gain
equal rights under the law in the United States

• Discrimination - the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different groups of

people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

• Segregation - keeping different groups apart

• Jim Crow Laws - segregation laws in the USA

• Lynching - killings, usually hangings, done by a group, where the victim is

suspected of a crime but has not been tried

• Unconstitutional - against the constitution

• Plessy v Ferguson - a ruling by the Supreme Court that separate facilities

were allowed ( were constitutional) IF they were equal.

• Legal precedent - a ruling in a law case that is used by other courts when
deciding similar cases

3
 The American Constitution

• A constitution is a set of basic laws and principles that a country is governed

by.

• The Constitution of the United States was produced in 1791 when it won its
independence from Britain. This established a system of government for the
new country

• Amendments are changes/additions to the US Constitution

• There have only been 27 additions or amendments to the Constitution.

• The first ten of these were made in the months after the Constitution was
made final.

• The other amendments have made changes to the systems of government or

have added new rights for citizens.

Question: Why is the death penalty legal in some areas of America

and not others?

• The United States is exactly that, a union or federation of 50 individual

states e.g. Georgia, New York, Texas, Alabama

• Each state has its own government, which has a lot of power in that state.

• Each state has a governor, legislature (organisation that makes the laws) , and
a supreme court.

• The Federal government (Washington) is responsible for foreign policy and

some taxation but state governments have control over most of the laws that
apply in that state.

• For example, laws relating to education and the death penalty.

The Federal government based in Washington DC, is the

government for the whole country.
4
Federal gov^

Check your understanding so far

Question Answer
The USA is a collection Of
1 individual states.

2 The government in Washington

is called the federal
government

3 True or false: the Supreme

Court should make sure that
all laws are in keeping with the
true
Constitution

Civil Rights in the 1950s

5
 Civil rights - the rights that each person has in a society,
whatever their race, sex, or religion: Civil rights include
freedom, equality in law and in employment, and the right to
vote
• By 1890, according to the US Constitution, African Americans were equal with
white citizens.

• In practice this was far from the case. African Americans found themselves
facing racism, discrimination and often violence that continued well into the
20th century.

Segregation and Discrimination: The South

• By 1890, the USA had abolished slavery and given black people equal rights as
American citizens. However, black Americans, especially in the south still
found themselves facing racism, discrimination and segregation.

• In 1950 most States had some segregation laws that meant black people and
white people had to use different facilities.

• Segregation laws were most strictly enforced in the South were they applied
to almost all aspects of life.

6
Segregation and Discrimination: The South

• In these States ‘Jim Crow’ laws meant that African Americans attended
separate schools, had to use separate areas in restaurants, libraries, cinemas
and parks and were also separated on public transport

• Most of these laws had been passed by state legislatures and approved by
state courts at the end of the 19th century.

• ‘Jim Crow’ laws kept black and white people separate. Facilities for African
Americans will almost always poorer in quality than those for white people

Segregation and Discrimination: The North

• In the North there were fewer legal barriers to equality, but racism and
discrimination meant that African Americans mostly lived separately from
white people.

• Wages for black workers were generally half of what a white person earned
for the same job and there was a higher rate of unemployment for African
Americans.

• Therefore, black people could only afford to live in the poorest areas, where
few white people were present.

• This meant that facilities were often segregated without the need for laws.

The Right to Vote

• According to the Constitution all US citizens had the right to vote. However,
in the 1950s very few African Americans in the south were able to vote.

• In order to vote, people had to register and most Southern states used
methods to prevent black people from registering to vote including:

➢ making people pass a difficult literacy test – many African Americans

had very little education, so their literary levels were low and most did
not even try and take the test as they knew they would fail.

➢ making people pay a poll tax – most African Americans could not afford
to pay this.

➢ using violence or threatening to use violence against African Americans

who tried to register to vote.

7
Violence
• As well as segregation and discrimination, African Americans often faced
violence particularly in the South.

• Black men suspected of crimes were frequently attacked by white mobs taking
the law into their own hands. Although lynchings had declined by the 1950s,
they were greatly feared by black communities.

• Police were sometimes racist themselves and did nothing to prevent attacks on
African Americans, even taking part in them occasionally.

• White people suspected of attacking African Americans were usually found ‘not
guilty’ by all-white, all male-juries.

Check your understanding so far!

Question Answer

4 What does the word Separating different groups

segregation mean?

5 what were the segregation Jim Crow laws

laws of the Southern sates
known as?

6 Give two examples of areas Libraries, public transport

where these laws were put in
place?

7 Give two methods that • Threaten violence,

Southern States used to • make them pay a poll tax
stop people from voting
• difficult literary test

Why didn’t the Federal Government act?

8
14th Amendment 1868

No state shall make any law which shall reduce the rights of citizens of the United
States

15th Amendment 1870

• The right of the American citizens to vote shall not be denied because of race
or colour.
• The Constitution of United States guaranteed the equality of all American
citizens so why wasn't this the case with African Americans?
• The three branches of government could have acted to enforce civil rights for
African Americans but this had not happened.

Congress
To take action Congress often needed the support of Southern politicians who were
either racist themselves or did not want to annoy racist voters in their States.

The President

Even a strong president frequently needed the support of Southern politicians for
other policies, so presidents who may have wanted change did not act to improve civil
rights.

The Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court was independent and did not rely on the support of the
President or Congress.
• It should have banned segregation laws earlier because they were
unconstitutional, but this had not happened.
• Instead, 1896 the Federal Supreme Court had ruled in the Plessy versus
Ferguson case that separate facilities were allowed if they were equal.
• They rarely were, but this legal precedent was used time and time again when
civil rights groups had tried to challenge segregation through the courts.
• Like other parts of the government, the Supreme Court was influenced by the
views and opinions of it judges and many of those were against civil rights for
African Americans. Others did not want to encroach upon the rights of
individual states.

Week 22 Explore Lesson 1: How Significant was the Brown v

Topeka Case?

9
 Question Answer

1 Why didn’t Congress Needed support from southern politicians, who were
act to improve civil racist, or didn’t want to annoy racists voters
rights for Black
Americans?

2 Why didn’t the Needed support from southern politicians for other
President act to policies
improve civil rights
for Black Americans?

3 Why didn’t the Influenced by views of racist judges

Supreme Court act to
improve civil rights
for Black Americans?

4 What did the 1896 that separate facilities were allowed if they were equal.
Supreme Court Ruling
, Plessy v Ferguson,
say

Education and Segregation

10
 • Racial segregation in public schools was normal across the USA. Although all
the schools were supposed to be separate if equal, most black schools were far
inferior to white ones. This was an area where civil rights groups believed that
they could attack the ‘separate if equal’ principle of Plessey versus Ferguson

• From the 1940s the civil rights campaign group the National Association for
the Advancement of Coloured People ( NAACP) focussed on challenging
educational segregation in the law courts.

• To try and keep education separate, some states began giving more money to
African American schools to improve them. So often the NAACP’s court cases
met with little success.

• That changed in 1954.

Brown v Topeka

Summarise the • Linda Brown in Kansas wanted to attend the neighbourhood

key details of school rather than the black school some way away (1952)
the Supreme
• NAACP took the case to the local court where it was rejected
Court Case,
because of Plessy versus Ferguson ( separate if equal).
including the
verdict • persuaded her parents to take their case to the Supreme Court,
combined with 4 other cases (violated 14th amendment -
damaged African American children psychologically)

• On May 17 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that school

segregation was unconstitutional

Summarise the • Resistance campaign

effects of
• Schools desegregated
Brown V Topeka
( positive and • Provided hope
negative)

11
 Judgement How significant?
sOverall, how
significant was 100% Highly
the Brown V Significant
Topeka case in
75% Significant
the fight for
civil rights. 50% Some
Think about significance
what it achieved
AND any 25% Limited
limitations significance

Colour in the
0% No significance
extent ‘o meter
and explain your
answer

Brown versus Topeka

• Linda Brown was a black child in Kansas. In 1952 her parents wanted her to
attend the neighbourhood school rather than the black school some way away.

• The application was rejected on the grounds of race.

• Linda’s parents with the support of the NAACP took the case to the local court
where it was rejected because of Plessy versus Ferguson ( separate if equal).

• The NAACP then persuaded her parents to take their case to the Supreme
Court, where it was combined with four other similar cases from around the
country.

• The trial re-started and the NAACP argued that separate schools damaged
African American children psychologically even if the schools were equal in
terms of funding and facilities.

12
 • On May 17 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was
unconstitutional

• Although it did not give a timeframe for integration. A year later the
Supreme Court ruled that integration should happen ‘with all deliberate speed’
- wording which was vague and open to interpretation

Source A: Part of Chief Justice Earl Warren’s statement giving the

decision in the Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka case on 17th
May 1954:

Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect
upon the colored children…We conclude that, in the field of public education, the
doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly
situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation
complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14 th
Amendment.

Sort the statements below into the positive and negative

consequences of the Brown v Topeka verdict
Overturned Plessy v Ferguson (Separate The day of the Supreme Court’s ruling
but Equal was unlawful) Provided a new became known as ‘Black Monday’. Many
legal precedent and led to more legal white southerners were furious and were
cases and campaigns for desegregation determined to maintain segregation

Desegregation didn’t always benefit Many WCC members were also inspired to
African American pupils or teachers. joining the white supremacist group the
Black pupils often found integration hard Ku Klux Klan. Branches of the KKK
as they faced anger, and bad feeling. reappeared all over the South and
Some African American teachers lost membership grew, although it never
their jobs and many black schools that reached the level of the 1920s

13
 had provided a good education closed
down.

Brought increased awareness of African Some schools did begin to desegregate.

American civil rights By 1957more than 300,000 black children
attended schools that had formerly been
segregated

Schools in towns and cities outside of the For the first time the US political system
Deep South started to integrate but ( at least the Supreme Court) seemed to
progress was slow and varied. For be willing to support African Americans –
example, 70% of border states hope!
desegregated within a year, while
Southern states remained segregated

White Citizens Councils (WCCs) formed in

southern states to defend segregation
In some areas segregation became more
(1/4million members by 1956). They
extreme due to ‘white flight’, as white
organised protests and petitions which
people left areas that had a large number
put pressure on state authorities to resist
of black residents.
integration

How significant was the Brown v Topeka Case in the fight

for civil rights for African Americans?

How significant? How significant?

100% Incredibly significant

80% Very Significant

60% Significant

40% Of some significance

14
 20% Slight significance

0% Not significant at all

15
Week 22 Explore Lesson 2: What impact did the murder of
Emmett Till have on America and the Civil Rights Movement?

Keyword Meaning

White Citizens’ Founded in 1909, this organisation fought for the civil
Council rights for African Americans

A racist organisation started in 1865. Believed in

superiority of white, Protestant Christians. Targeted
Ku Klux Klan civil rights protestors. Used extreme violence such as
bombing houses, beatings and lynchings

Jim Crow Laws White people moving out of a certain area to avoid
desegregation

NAACP Set up to fight the Brown v Topeka ruling . Organised

petitions, and protests to resist integration. Many
members also joined the KKK

White Flight Something that causes a change

Catalyst Laws which segregated black and white people in the

south of the USA,

(a) What impression does the author give about the activities of the
Ku Klux Klan? You must use Extract G to explain your answer. (6)

Extract G: From A History of the Twentieth Century, published in 2009.

16
Once the civil rights movement began its actions in the 1950s, Klan groups were re-
established to challenge the movement. Houses were bombed by Klansmen, people
intimidated and even assassinated. In Atlanta alone, over 40 homes were bombed in
1951–52. Many murders were never reported. As Black Americans could not vote and
juries were often white only, Black Americans did not expect to get proper justice.
Klansmen had close links with the local police and government, and used these to
continue their intimidation. Some leaders of the civil rights movement were brutally
murdered.

The Murder of Emmett Till,1955

As you have seen the Brown verdict raised fears and tensions that led to increased
violence against African Americans throughout the South.

One terrible example was the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till

17
The Murder of Emmet Till

Summarise what Went to missisipi - spoke to storekeeper -

happened to
Emmett and the August 31 1955 – body discovered
people
responsible for
his death

Summarise the Defendants found not guilty

effects of the
murder of Mobilises civil rights activists, encourages people to
Emmett Till
join movements (NAACP)

Acts as a catalyst
Spread awareness nationwide

Judgement How significant?

Overall, how
significant was 100% Highly
the murder of Significant
Emmett Till in
75% Significant
the fight for civil
rights. 50% Some
Colour in the significance
extent ‘o meter
25% Limited
and explain your
significance
answer

0% No significance

18
What was the role of a) the police and b) white supporters
of Bryant and Milam in getting them acquitted?

Source C: From an American magazine on 3rd October 1955, reporting on the

trial of Bryant and Milam

The white people in the region raised a defense fund approaching $10,000 for
defendants Bryant and Milam. They hired five local lawyers, who produced expert
witnesses – including a doctor and an embalmer – to testify that the bloated,
decomposed body had been in the river for at least ten days, and therefore could not
have been Emmett Till. Sheriff Strider took the stand for the defense and said the
same thing: “If it had been one of my own boys, I couldn’t have identified it.” In the
most of the US, this conflict over the identity of the body could have been resolved
by basic police work.

Read the article below. What does it suggest was the

impact of Emmett Till’s murder?

Emmett Till's lynching ignited a civil rights movement. Historians say

George Floyd's death could do the same

GRACE HAUCK | USA TODAY

CHICAGO – As thousands of protests against the deaths of black men, women and
children have broken out across the country in recent weeks, many black
demonstrators and faith leaders have invoked the name of Emmett Till to suggest the
nation could be in the midst of a defining moment that could inspire societal shifts.

They say the degree of outrage, national mobilization and international

attention spurred by the horrific, visceral recordings of the deaths of Ahmaud
Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd could have a similar catalyzing effect
as Till's lynching, which shocked the world's conscience and gave birth to a
generation of civil rights activists.

"These two tragedies showed the tipping point of society," said Benjamin Saulsberry,
museum director at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, and a
native of West Tallahatchie County, of Till's and Floyd's deaths. "The Emmett Till

19
murder was not the first murder. There were so many others. But it was the tipping
point."

Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, forced the world to take a hard look at racism in
the U.S. when she decided to hold a public, open casket viewing in Chicago. Over the
course of four days, tens of thousands of men, women and children waited in line to
view Till's body. Till-Mobley also gave permission to the black press to photograph
her son's mutilated remains and circulate the images in black newspapers and
magazines.

What were the effects of Emmett’s murder on America and

the Civil Rights Movement?

The killing of an African American and his murderers’ acquittal (being found not
guilty) was not unusual at this time. It was the publicity that the case received
thanks to Emmet’s mother that meant it was to have two important consequences:

1. It brought publicity to white Americans in the Northern states. They were

shown the extreme racism that African Americans in the south were suffering.
This brought an increased awareness of the problems of segregation and
discrimination due to race.

2. It motivated many African Americans to take a more active role in trying to

bring about change. Many went on to join the NAACP and other civil rights
organisations. Those who were the same age as Till when he died took part in
the civil rights protests of the 1960s. Some historians believe that the case of
Emmett Till marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.

‘Emmett Till was my George Floyd’: John Lewis

John Lewis, the civil rights leader who was bloodied in protests against southern
segregation, who spoke at the March on Washington and went on to become the
“conscience of Congress”, has left a powerful call to action to the American people
that is being heard on the day of his funeral. In an essay written days before his
death, he said he was inspired into the movement against America’s brutal history of

20
race discrimination by the lynching in Mississippi of Emmett Till, aged 14, in 1955 –
when Lewis was himself just 15.

“Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard

Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor,” he writes.

How significant was the murder of Emmett Till in the fight

for civil rights for African Americans?

How How significant?

significant?

100% Incredibly significant

80% Very Significant

60% Significant

40% Of some significance

20% Slight significance

0% Not significant at all

21