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Flashcards in Civil Rights Legal Progressions Deck (13)
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1
Q

What were the Story of the Brown vs Topeka case?

A
  1. 1952 NAACP take 5 desegregation cases to the supreme court.
  2. NAACP argued that seperate is not equal and the 14th Ammendment.
  3. A new judge Earl Warren replaces Pro-Segregation judge.
  4. May 1954, Supreme court ruiling ‘Seperate but equal’ had no place in Education.
  5. May 1955, Supreme Court called for desegregation ‘with all deliberate speed’.
2
Q

What were the positive short term effects of Brown vs Topeka?

A
  1. The furthest North states desegregated their schools in the first year immediatly.
  2. By the end of 1957 school year, 723 school districts had desegregated.
  3. Sparked many desegregation campaigns.
3
Q

What were the positive Long term effects of Brown vs Topeka?

A
  1. Increased awarness of the Civil Rights issue.

2. Constant legal pressure for desegregation in the south.

4
Q

What were the negative short term effects of Brown vs Topeka?

A
  1. ‘Black Monday’ on the day of the decision there was massive white backlash.
  2. KKK grew and White Citzen’s Council aimed to pressure segregation.
  3. Black children intergrated into white schools where targeted and beaten up.
5
Q

What were the negative long term effects of Brown vs Topeka?

A
  1. Black students were constantly racially abused and threatened at white schools.
  2. Black teachers lost their job and had no respect from abuse of white pupils.
  3. By 1960, 5 deep south states were still fully segregated.
  4. White Flight- white people left black communities, creating new ones.
6
Q

What was the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

A
  • Signed on 2 July 1964
  • It banned Job discrimination.
  • Gave the government power to force school desegregation.
  • Banned discrimination in voter registration tests, public places and buisnesses.
  • Gave government to remove federal funding from state projects that discriminated.
7
Q

What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

A
  • Helped more blacks register to vote.

- Federal government officials ran registration in some states.

8
Q

How successful was the Voting Rights Act?

A

Good - By the end of 1965, federal registrars had enrolled 79,593 black voters.
Bad - However, federal officials were trying to impose black voter registration in areas they didnt want black people to vote.

9
Q

What was wrong with the Civil Rights Act 1964?

A

Made significant change in theory but not affective in practice. For example:
- Problems of enforcing federal laws in Southern states remained.
- Nothing to impose fair voter registration.
- The Equal Opportunities Commision were usless as the staff were very small and complaints built up.
They also could only investigate complaints, many black people feared to complain.
- Buisness and Schools in the deep south found ways around desegregation and stayed segregated.

10
Q

What did black people feel about the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voters Rights Act (1965)?

A
  • Growing level of frustration of the how the civil rights had actually improved their lives.
  • And the Acts they had recieved only rrestored the rights which Black Americans were entitled to.
11
Q

What were the Events of Selma 1965?

A
  1. King and SCLC arrived in Selma on January 1965.
  2. People protested the Voter registration tests and there were confrontations with police and violent arrests, one protestor died.
  3. On Sunday March, 600 protestors set out on a March from Selma to Montgomery.
  4. They were stopped by federal guards at Edmund Pettus Bridge, firing tear gas and attacking protestors with clubs, this was called ‘Bloody Sunday’.
  5. Congresso spoke out in favour of voter registration.
  6. Johnson ordered the national guard to escort the marchers from Selma to Montgomery on 21-24 March. King led a speech to 25,000 in Montgomery.
12
Q

Why did they march in Selma?

A

Selma, Alabama had more Black people entitled to vote than White people, yet only 1% of Black people registered to vote.
Selma had the largest WCC (White Citizens Council) in Alabama, so fear of violence stopped many from voting.

13
Q

What were the consequences of Selma?

A
  • Greater awarness of the issue of Civil Rights in the US, through the wide spread violence at ‘Bloody Sunday’.
  • Put pressure on Congress to pass laws for Civil Rights but also Voting Rights, which would come months later.