Jim Crow Laws Part 2: Resistance

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overruled Plessy vs. Ferguson. The court declared separate but equal is never equal and it required all the schools to integrate.

Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The bus boycott started after Rosa Parks refused to sit on the back of the bus. The Montgomery bus boycott started on December 1, 1955.it was when African Americans of Montgomery, Alabama decided they would boycott the city buses until they could sit were they wanted instead of having to sit on the back of the bus. Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed trying to stop the bus boycott. Also they had many meetings trying to stop the bus boycott. The boycott was stopped on November 13, 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation on buses unconstitutional.



Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock 9- integrating Central High Elizabeth Eckford was a member of the Little Rock 9 who were African-Americans who enrolled in Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The whites didn’t want them there because the school had been for whites only. After the Brown vs. Board of Education the NAACP helped them enroll. Even the governor sent in the National Guard to keep them out of the school. But eventually the president of the United States sent in the 101st airborne to protect the Little Rock 9. Eventually the African-Americans attended school but they were still harassed.

Schools are still not integrated and parents protest in the 1960's.





Emma C. & Laura (Deborah's Design Team)

Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws were first called the Black Codes. In the southern states African Americans were not allowed to vote or join the legislature. They had to stay separate--in transportation, restaurants, schools, theatres and like this picture shows- bathrooms too. By the 1890's the term Jim Crow Laws meant the separation of African Americans and European Americans and the general customs that discriminate against African Americans as inferior.

The laws were enforced by the courts. In the case of Plessy v Fersguson, Plessy , who was considered a black man, was told to move from the white section of the train. He refused to move and the next time he deliberately sat in the white section. He was arrested. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court, saying it was unconstitutional. He thought they had violated his rights. The Supreme Court said that his rights were not violated. Separate facilities are constitutional as long as they are "equal." But they never really were equal.









The laws were also enforced by violence. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a group started by confederate veterans in about 1865. It included mayors, judges, and sheriffs. They disguised themselves and went after the African Americans and European Americans who did not follow the Jim Crow laws. They engaged also in random violence against African Americans. They used cross burnings, throat cutting, lynching, and gunning them down. They also burned churches and schools. The Klan activities ended in 1872 but came back again strong in 1915. There are still Klansmen today.

Emma C & Laura (Deborah's Design Team)