Future Horizons: Humanities: the Civil Rights Movement Class: ______

Name: ________________________________________ Date: ____________________

Future Horizons: Humanities: The Civil Rights Movement Class: ___________________

CHOICES IN LITTLE ROCK

The efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 resulted in a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as “the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War.” This material explores civic choices — the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. Those decisions, both then and now, reveal that democracy is not a product but a work in progress, a work that is shaped in every generation by the choices that we make about ourselves and others. Although those choices may not seem important at the time, little by little, they define an individual, delineate a community, and ultimately distinguish a nation. Those choices build on the work of earlier generations and leave legacies for those to come.

Essential Questions:

· What are the consequences of dividing people by race?

· How can individuals and groups in a democracy organize in order to correct injustices?

· What are the political, legal, and social consequences from a legacy of segregation in the United States?

PART I: Gallery Walk

DIRECTIONS: The Supreme Court decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) permitted the growth of a system of state and local laws known as “Jim Crow” laws. They established racial barriers in almost every aspect of American life. In many places, black and white Americans could not publicly sit, drink, or eat side by side. Churches, theaters, parks, even cemeteries were segregated. “By the early 1900s,” writes historian Lerone Bennett, Jr., “America was two nations — one white, one black, separate and unequal.” He likens segregation to “a wall, a system, a way of separating people from people.” That wall did not go up in a single day; it was built “brick by brick, bill by bill, fear by fear.” [© 2008 Facing History and Ourselves]

A legacy of segregation was established in the United States as many Americans in the nineteenth century came to believe that some races were superior to others. Segregation remained firmly in place until the 1960s and 1970s, when through tireless work of individuals during the Civil Rights Movement challenged the decades of separation. To take a further look at this and the events that led to the crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, you will participate in a “gallery walk” to give you a deeper look at what happened. At each station you will examine the documents that provides evidence of the effects that Plessy v. Ferguson had on American life. Follow the directions for each station.

Station One: Photographs of Segregation

DIRECTIONS: Look at the photographs of Jim Crow Era signs. Analyze them and discuss with your group where you think these signs were posted. Then answer the question below.

1. What do all of these signs have in common? What is the message of these signs and what do they imply? Explain.

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Station Two: Segregation Laws

DIRECTIONS: Read the laws from the various states and look at the document about segregated schools. Read carefully and talk with your school group about what you read. Answer the question below.

1. What law surprised you the most? Why? Explain.

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Station Three: Graphs & Tables of Consequences of Segregation

DIRECTIONS: Look at these graphs and charts made by the U.S. government about the consequences of segregation. Ask any questions to your group members and then answer the question below.

1. Summarize these charts. Write 3 consequences of segregation below.

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Station One: Photographs (1)

Station One: Photographs (2)

Station Two: Laws (1)

State and Local Segregation Laws

Segregations laws touched every aspect of everyday life. For example, in 1935, Oklahoma prohibited African Americans and whites from boating together. In 1905, Georgia established separate parks for blacks and whites. In 1930, Birmingham, Alabama, made it illegal for the two races to play checkers or dominoes together. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff compiled the following list:

· Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).

· Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall ... maintain a separate building ... on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana).

· Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).

· Buses. All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races (Alabama).

· Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a Negro (South Carolina).

· Education. The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida).

· Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina).

· Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia).

· Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization. No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available, and colored troops shall be under the command of white officers (North Carolina).

· Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed (Alabama).

· Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the Negro convicts (Mississippi).

· Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).

Continued…

Station Two: Laws (2)

· Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college, or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined ... (Oklahoma).

· Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine ... shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).

In addition:

· Racially separate washrooms required in factories and mines (6 states)

· White and black prisoners could not be chained together (6 states)

· Segregated parks, playgrounds, bathing and fishing and boating facilities, amusement parks, racetracks, pool halls, circuses, theaters, and public halls (8 states)

· Separate waiting rooms for bus and train travelers (10 states)

· African Americans required to sit in the backs of buses and streetcars (11 states)

· Segregated railroad passengers on trips within the state’s borders (14 states)

· Segregated mental patients (14 states)

· Segregated public schools (14 states with 11.5 million students and 4 other states allowed segregation if local communities wanted it)*

* This list was derived from a larger list composed by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff. Last Updated January 5, 1998. http//www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim crowlaws.htm.

Station Two: Laws (3)

Station Three: Graphs & Charts (1)

Station Three: Graphs & Charts (2)

Station Three: Graphs & Charts (3)

Station Three: Graphs & Charts (4)

PART II: Summary

1. Identify three (3) things that you learned about segregation from this activity.

· One thing I learned about segregation is… ___________________________________

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· Another this is… __________________________________________________________

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· Lastly, another thing I learned about segregation is… ________________________

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2. How do you define segregation? Write your definition in your own words.

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3. What impact did the did the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson and segregation have on American life? Think of at least two (2) things and explain your answer.

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4. Some people believe that segregation was not about race but about power. How does the evidence you looked at in this activity support this idea?

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5. Explain how the evidence for this activity suggests that “separate but equal” can ever be equal?

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Name: ________________________________________ Date: ____________________

Future Horizons: Humanities: The Civil Rights Movement Class: ___________________

CHOICES IN LITTLE ROCK

Essential Questions:

· What are the consequences of dividing people by race?

· How can individuals and groups in a democracy organize in order to correct injustices?

· What are the political, legal, and social consequences from a legacy of segregation in the United States?

Think About:

Imagine what it must have been like to live in a segregated society. How might African Americans express their outrage? How might they persuade other Americans to join them in destroying the system? Write your thoughts and answers in the space below.

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DIRECTIONS: Read the background information below. As you read, text code and annotate the material so that you can annotate the text and show your understanding, where you have questions, and what aspects you would like to discuss in class.

Background Information:

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans formed a number of organizations to express their outrage at segregation and attack the laws that supported it. Among them was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Its founders included both black and white Americans. In 1935, the group decided to systematically challenge segregation in the nation’s courts. Professor Charles Houston of Howard University Law School led a special legal team with the help of Thurgood Marshall, a former student of Houston’s. After Houston retired, Marshall took charge of the team. The aim was to attack segregation by challenging the idea central to Plessy v. Ferguson — the idea that separate facilities are truly equal. The team’s first cases dealt with segregation in higher education. Few states could afford to provide “separate but equal” legal, medical, and other professional training for black and white students.

Slowly, the legal team assembled by Houston and Marshall made progress. In 1949, the Supreme Court ruled that a Texas law school set up only for African American students was not equal to the state’s all-white law school [Sweatt v. Painter]. In a 1950 decision [McLaurin v. Oklahoma], the justices concluded that an African American student who was allowed to enroll at the University of Oklahoma’s law school was not receiving an education equal to that of white students as long as he was kept apart from his classmates in the classroom, cafeteria, and library. The court ruled that “such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study, engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and in general, to learn his profession.”

Little by little, ruling by ruling, the NAACP was tearing down the legal wall that separated Americans. After chipping away at segregation in higher education, NAACP lawyers turned their attention to segregation in the nation’s public schools. This time they would argue that even if separate facilities were equal, they would still violate the 14th Amendment. The lawyers filed law suits in four states and the District of Columbia. Each challenged the constitutionality of separating children by race. In late 1952, the justices decided that the cases were so similar that they should be heard together. So they combined them into a single case that came to be known as Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. The Supreme Court’s decision came in May 1954. It declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

When the Supreme Court issued its decision in the Brown case, the justices did not provide guidelines for complying with the decision. They waited until May 31, 1955, to rule that federal courts were to decide whether a school district was acting in “good faith” by desegregating its schools “with all deliberate speed.”

Expressing Your Opinion:

Look at the political cartoon on the next page. It expresses the artist’s opinion about the efforts to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the end of segregation. Work with a partner to answer the questions that go with the cartoon. After that, draw your cartoon that expresses your view of the impact the Brown decision had on students across the nation. Make sure your cartoon has a title and that it shows your understanding of segregation, its impact on American life, and that the enforcement of the Brown decision will change the way Americans live and work.