Important

points in the
civil rights
movement
DO NOW

What does separate but

equal mean?
Can things that are
separate ever really be
equal?
Plessy V Ferguson
- Homer Plessy attempted to ride in the whites only car on a train. Since he was black,
when Plessy refused to leave the white car, he was arrested for his actions. Because of
the segregation laws of Louisiana, it was legal for Plessy to be arrested for being in a
train car that his race was not legally allowed to be in.
- A succession of court cases heard Plessy’s argument that the racial separation of the
train car, and of other areas of public life, was constitutionally illegal. This court case
made it all the way to the Supreme Court. After being brought to the Supreme Court,
eight out of nine justices ruled that Plessy was guilty of not following the Louisiana
Separate Car Act.
- They stated that even though whites and blacks couldn’t be in the same car, it was ok
for the cars to be segregated because they were the same type of cars following the
“separate but equal” clause from the 14th Amendment. This case became the basis for
Jim Crow, the series of laws that established segregation as a way of life in the South
for the next 60 years.
- Separate but equal - The doctrine that racial segregation is constitutional as long as the
facilities provided for blacks and whites are roughly equal.
Brown V. Board
- The landmark case began as five separate class-action lawsuits brought by the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on behalf of Black
schoolchildren and their families in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and
Washington, D.C.
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme
Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in
public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal
in quality.
- The legal victory in Brown did not transform the country overnight, and much work
remains. Striking down segregation in the nation's public schools provided a major
catalyst for the civil rights movement, making possible advances in desegregating
housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education.
- Civil Rights
Rosa Parks
● Was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
● She worked as a Seamstress and a secretary for the
Montgomery NAACP chapter.
● She lived during the time that Separate but Equal was the law
of the land
● In 1955, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to leave her seat in
the "colored" section once the white section had filled up and
move to the back of the bus
● She refusal was her making a stand against Separate but Equal
because it wasn’t equal treatment
● She was arrested for her actions on the bus
● Her choice sparked change in her community which led to the "I was not tired physically, or no
Montgomery Bus Boycott more tired than I usually was at the
● end of a working day. I was not old,
although some people have an image
of me as being old then. I was 42.
No, the only tired I was, was tired of
giving in."
-Rosa Parks
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine students were:
● Ernest Green, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford,
● Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray,
● Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, & Carlotta
Walls
These 9 students were just high schoolers in 1957.
● All 9 were carefully interviewed and vetted by the
NAACP
○ This was to make sure they would be able to
withstand the abuse they would encounter
from white people who were against the
integration
○ All the high schools in Little Rock were
shutdown to prevent integration of the
schools.
 Little Rock Nine
Ernest Green -
- was the only Senior and did get
to graduate in 1958 becoming
the first African American to
graduate from Central High
- Green wanted to go to Central
because they had more intense
courses that he wanted to take Jefferson Thomas -
Minnijean Brown -
- Called a white classmate who
verbal abusing her white trash
resulting in her expulation
- She finished school in NY
Elizabeth Eckford -
- Tried to enter the school by
herself due to her family not
having a phone and the
meeting location had be
changed
- She was sadly unsuccessful in
both attempts
Terrence Roberts -
- moved to Los Angeles,
California, and graduated
from Los Angeles High School
- He continued attending
Central High and was able to
graduate from the school in
1960.
Melba Pattillo -
- She finished the year and
then moved to Santa Rosa CA
to finish her education with a
sponsor family
Thelma Mothershed -
- Had to finish school through
correspondence due to the
shutting down of the Little
Rock School
Carlotta Walls -
- She was inspired by Rosa
Park and getting a better
education to help join the
fight for integration
- She continued attending
Central High even after her
home was bombed
- She was able to graduate
from the school as well.
Gloria Ray -
- She finished the year and
then moved with her family
to Kansas to finish her
education