Civil Rights
Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws-which existed for about 100 years-were meant to marginalize African Americans after the Reconstruction Amendments.
Reconstruction Facts
The Freedmen's Bureau (1865) was in charge of relief and educational activities for refugees and freedmen. They were also in charge of confiscated lands to distribute to freedmen. Johnson ordered that the land be given back to the pardoned owners instead.
Backlash came in the form of the Black Codes.
Passed in 1865 and 1866 these Codes severely restricted the new-found freedoms of the formerly enslaved people, and it forced them to work for low or no wages.
This time period also brought along the creation of the KKK. Why was it started at this time?
In early 1866, Congressional Republicans, appalled by mass killings took control of Reconstruction from President Johnson.
They denied representatives from the former Confederate states Congressional seats, passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and wrote the 14th Amendment
Johnson tried to veto the Civil Rights Act of 1866 but congress overrode his ve to
Plessy vs. Ferguson
In Louisiana in 1892 Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the
"White's" car
Plessy was / Black,
The state had passed a law in 1890 saying "that all railway companies shall provide equal
accommodations" in 1890
but
separate
Plessy went to court and argued that the law
unconstitutional
The judge was John Howard Ferguson.
was
He had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through
several states."
But Louisiana could regulate within its state
Ferguson found Plessy guilty
Plessy decided to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, but they upheld Ferguson's opinion. Plessy's case made it to the US Supreme Court but in 1896 they ruled against him
Brown vs. Board of Education
The District Court in Kansas agreed that
segregation was bad but still upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.
The case went to the Supreme Court in 1952, but it wasn't alone
Four other cases were combined with Brown Five lawsuits against school districts in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of
Columbia.
• Thurgood Marshall served as Chief Attorney Head of the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund
Experiments
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In 1947 Social psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark sought to challenge separate but equal"
They tested whether African-American children were "psychologically damaged by attending a segregated school.
They used 4 dolls, identical except for color, to test children's racial perceptions.
Children between the ages of 3 and 7, were asked questions about the dolls
A majority of the children preferred the white doll and assigned positive
characteristics to it.
When they were then asked to, "show the doll that's most like you" some became 'emotionally upset at having to identify with the doll that they had rejected." Some even stormed out of the
room.
The Clarks concluded that "discrimination, and segregation' created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged
their self-esteem.
Laws
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Banned segregation on the grounds of race, religion or national origin in public places O
Courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas and hotels. Barred race, religious, national origin and gender discrimination by employers and labor unions
O Created an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the power to file lawsuits
Forbade the use of federal funds for any discriminatory program
Authorized the office of Education (now the Department of Education) to assist with school desegregation Prohibited unequal voting requirements.
Loving Vs. Virginia
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In 1963 Mildred Loving wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asking for assistance. Kennedy referred the Lovings to the American Civil Liberties Union, which agreed to take their case.
The Lovings filed a motion asking for the judge to
vacate their conviction and set aside their
sentences.
When he refused, they took the case to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which also upheld the original ruling.
Following another appeal, the case made its way to the United States Supreme Court in April 1967.
The Supreme Court announced its ruling in Loving v. Virginia on June 12, 1967. In a unanimous decision, the justices found that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The landmark ruling not only overturned the Lovings' 1958 criminal conviction, it also struck down laws
against interracial marriage in 16 U.S. states including Virginia.