The American Dilemma

Section 17.1

Black man drinks from ‘colored’ fountain: even the quality of the fountain is inferior.

Today’s Agenda• Presentations (Day 36)

• Begin 17.1

• HW: Start putting your notebook in order!

Scream of anguish

Some returning WWII said that they felt angry: they saw the U.S. as hypocritical,

after they returned home to America. Why?

Left: German sign says Jews are forbidden; right: ‘colored’ dining room (for restaurant?) is in back of the out-house!!

Let’s Review• What is the significance of the Plessy v.

Ferguson case?• What are Jim Crow Laws?

– “separate but equal”• What is lynching?

– Strange Fruit• What is segregation? Integration?• Recall Truman’s executive order and the

revolt of the Dixiecrats

What made the African American “invisible” in 1950s society, according to did novelist

Ralph Ellison?• Segregation (in the South)

– Separation of blacks and whites through state and local laws

• Public schools, buses, waiting rooms, restaurants

– Affirmed by Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

• “separate but equal” constitutional

• De Facto Segregation (in the North)

– Separation (in fact but not by law)

– Levittown, neighborhoods, school districts Above: different black man drinks from ‘colored only’; below: ad promises G.I. and

his girl a new house

Capture from Peter Jennings clip on racial segregation

Describe the NAACPs strategy for ending segregation:

• Planned on challenging “sep. but equal” ruling on graduate and specialized schools

• Expense of making schools ‘equal’ would force states to integrate

• 1950 they decided to directly challenge segregation

• Thurgood Marshall (leader of NAACP)

• Picked Kansas school district to challenge segregation

• Hoped to lose there• Why?

Photo of Thurgood Marshall in ’50s

Describe the case of Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954).

• Topeka schools were of comparable quality• Linda Brown

– Age 7– Walked over RR switching yard to catch a

bus to school (miles away)– All white school just blocks from her house

• Decision (Warren Court):– Said that segregation is harmful to children

even if the facilities are equal– “may affect their hearts and minds in a way

very unlikely ever to be undone.”– Segregation in Education is unconstitutional– Said integration should take place “at the

earliest possible date.”

Above: kids cross tracks to take bus; below: S.C.C.J. Earl Warren

Capture from clip on Brown vs. Board (colonial flag background)

Southern Reaction

Left: three murdered freedom riders

How did the South react to the decision?• Strong resistance to decision in South• Passed over 450 laws to prevent

integration• Virginia cut off state $ to integrated

schools• Southern Manifesto

– Praised states who resisted integration

– Signed by 100 southern congressmen (House and Senate)

• LBJ =one of three who refused– End of their careers widely forecast– Guess who the other two were?

Above: George C. Wallace, Alabama governor; Below: Lyndon B. Johnson, Texas Senator

Who were the Little Rock Nine? • 1st African American students to attend

all white southern school• Superintendent planned to integrate 9

African Americans • Gov. Orval Faubus resisted integration

– National Guard was removed by Faubus

• Allowed mob intimidation to drive the Nine away

• Eisenhower sent 101st Airborne to protect schools

• School district closed following year• Finally reopened 1959 and obeyed

Brown decision

Above: white mob taunts black student; below: Little Rock Nine in class

Capture from clip on school de-segregation