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FROM LEGAL CHALLENGE TO DIRECTION ACTION- BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS, 1917-55 -…
FROM LEGAL CHALLENGE TO DIRECTION ACTION- BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS, 1917-55
NAACP
Focused on litigation and won several supreme court rulings. They chose their cases with discrimination, so that they had the best chances of winning.
E.g. Brown vs Topeka 1954 - led to the supreme court ruling against segregated schooling. It declared it unconstitutional.
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But, the ruling wasn't very specific. It didn't specify a date for desegregation, so most deep south schools remained segregated. This made some black activists think that NVDA might be more effective.
E.g. Morgan vs Virginia 1946 - led to the supreme court ruling against segregation on interstate transport.
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Also organised other forms of protest:
- publicised riots, lynchings, and discrimination
- Lobbied politicians for the abolition of poll tax
- Petitioned congress
During WW2, local branches organised protests against segregated lunch counters (e.g. Topeka, Kansas).
The NAACP was the leading black organisation, but wasn't the only one that engaged in protests and boycotts
Membership rose from 90,000 in 1917 to 600,000 in 1946.
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DIRECT ACTION
NAACP and other organisations stepped up direct action in the 1950s. Activists thought that legal rulings was not enough.
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Thousands of black people took it into their hands to be the first to move into all-white housing blocks or business districts, often putting themselves in danger.
Rules for non-violent protest:
- demonstrators look respectable.
- Not loud/abusive.
- Didn't fight back if attacked.
- show that they supported the govt and wanted the govt to support them.
Demonstrators were mainly black. They tried, by their protests, to show the evils of segregation and persuade whites to change their views about black people.
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