This page was created by Cynthia
McManaway,
a Web-based Master's Degree student in the Department
of Criminal
Justice,
New
Mexico State University. This web page was
submitted in August 2003 as partial fullfillment of
the requirements
of CJ 532, Civil Liberties
in Criminal
Justice.
Introduction
"Although the terms desegregation
and integration are used interchangeably, there is
a great deal of difference between the two. Desegregation
simply
removes the legal and social prohibitions. Integration
is creative-more profound and far reaching than desegregation.
Integration---is the welcome participation of Negroes
into the total range of human activities-Desegregation
is not enough; integration alone is consonant with our
national
purpose." Martin Luther King Jr.
Burdened with a history that included
the denial of education, separate and unequal facilities,
and a high amount of discrimination, African Americans
battled for integration and equality. In attempt for this
nation to become one, America integrated schools, the armed
forces, public transportation and all other public services.
Integration was a concept critical to the civil rights
victories that began transforming our society a couple
of decades ago. Although eventually successful, the issue
of integration was exacerbated by rioting and many civil
rights marches.
After the Civil War, blacks enjoyed many
privileges that their predecessor could only dream of.
They could vote, hold office and attend school. New Orleans,
Louisiana, was one of the more integrated cities in the
South. It desegregated its streetcars in 1867, began experimenting
with integrated public schools in 1869, legalized interracial
marriage between 1868 and 1896, elected a total of 32 black
state senators and 95 state representatives, and had integrated
juries, public boards, and police departments.
In the last two decades of the 19th century,
blacks in the South were disfranchised and stripped of
other rights through discriminatory legislation and unlawful
violence. Separate facilities for whites and blacks became
a basic rule in southern society. In Plessy v. Ferguson,
an 1896 case involving the segregation of railroad passengers,
the Supreme Court held that "separate but equal" public
facilities did not violate the Constitution and refused
to acknowledge that the separate facilities in use were
not in fact equal.
After
decades of silently enduring second-class citizenships,
blacks in the late 1940s and early 1950s began to challenge
the injustices they faced on a daily basis. The earliest
school segregation cases demanded that the Supreme Court
re-examine the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy
v. Ferguson. Although segregation in public facilities
other than schools was rarely questioned during this time
period, blacks were slowly gaining the resolve to finally
stand up to Jim Crow. "Jim Crow is often used to describe
the segregation laws, rules, and customs which arose after
Reconstruction ended in 1877 and continued until the mid-1960's." The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak
from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Guaranteeing basic
civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after
nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging
from the 1995-1956 Montgomery bus boycott to the student-led
sit ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in
1963.
In 1954, the Supreme Court officially
struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy
v. Ferguson in its brown v. Board of Education decision,
which ruled that separate educational facilities were inherently
unequal. Some areas readily embraced integration after
Brown, while others submitted only after further prodding
from the courts. School administrators quickly realized
that they faced many problems, such as increased violence
and increased disparity in the abilities of students in
the same classroom. Also because of de facto segregation,
many Northern school districts had to resort to busing
as a means to achieving integration, which resulted in
heightened racial tensions. Yet despite its problems, integration
of the public schools of American was an important step
towards equality among all races.
School Integration
In
1954 a class action suit on behalf of thirteen families
in Topeka, Kansas challenged school segregation. A third-grader,
Linda Brown, was forbidden to go to school four blacks
away, and she had to ride a bus to an all black school
five miles away. In a case to known as Brown v. Board of
Education, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial
segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
The following site lists several articles
of describing school integration that took place as a result
of Brown
v. Board of Education. Briefly describes school integration
in Little Rock, Arkansas, Prince GeorgeÕs County, Maryland,
Washington, D.C., and Boston.
http://www.watson.org/lisa/blackhistory/school-integration
This
web link contains articles explaining the integration
crisis that centered around Little Rock Central High School
in
1957-1958, following the Brown v. Board of Education
decision.
http://centralhigh57.org/the _tiger.htm
Integration of the Armed Forces
The integration of the armed forces was
a momentous event in our military and national history;
it represented a milestonein the development of the armed
forces and the fulfillment of the democratic ideal. The
existence of integrated rather than segregated armed forces
is an important factor in our military establishment today.
Links to the chronology of African American
Military Service. CHRON 1 explains the African American
military service from the Colonial Era through the Antebellum
Period. CHRON 2 explains the African American Military
Service from the Civil War to World War 1. CHRON 3 explains
the African American Military Service from WW1 through
WW11.
http: www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/CHRON1.html
http: www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/CHRON2.html
http: www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/CHRON3.htm
The Montgomery Bus Boycott The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially
started on December 1, 1955. That was the day when the
blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would
boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they
wanted, instead of being sent to the back when a white
boarded. Although the gains of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
were small compared with the gains blacks later won, the
boycott was an important start to the movement. The lasting
legacy of the boycott, as Roberta Wright wrote, was that "It
helped to launch a 10-year national struggle for freedom
and justice, the Civil Rights Movement that stimulated
others to do the same at home and abroad."
The Montgomery Bus Boycott Page listing
several articles on the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa
Parks.
http://socsi.colorado.edu/-jonesm/montgomery.html
Article
addressing the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
http://www.holidays.net/mlk/rosa.htm
Article
telling the story of Rosa Parks and what started the Montgomery
Bus Boycott
http://txtx.essortment.com/montgomerybusb_rbsx.htm
Civil Rights Movement from 1955-1965
Includes Freedom Rides, Birmingham,
and Mississippi and Freedom Summer. The Freedom Ride was
a Journey of Reconciliation
proposed by the Congress of Racial Equality. The strategy
was for an interracial group to board buses destined
for the South. The whites would sit in the back and the
blacks
in the front. At rest stops, the whites would go into
blacks-only areas and vice versa.
"At
our first stop in Virginia-I was confronted with what
the Southern white has called "separate but equal".
A modern rest station with gleaming counters and picture
windows was labeled "White" and a small wooden
shack beside it was tagged "Colored", Freedom
Rider William Mahoney.
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/freeride.html
Birmingham was nicknamed "Bombingham" because
it was the site of eighteen unsolved bombings in black
neighborhoods over a six-year span and of the vicious mob
attack on the Freedom Riders on Mother's Day 1961.
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/birming.html
Article
addressing the discrimination problems of Mississippi and
the purpose of Freedom Summer
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/mississippi.html
Other related articles
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/who.htm Who
was Jim Crow?
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/africanamerhistory Department
of Defense Celebrates African American History Month
http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/feature/afam/ A
National Register of Historic Places - African American
History Month
http://www.charter.uchicago.edu/AAH/civilr.htm The
Civil Rights Movement (1940-1975: The Movement)
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/mlk3.html The
Forgotten Teachings of Martin Luther King
http://www.wmich.edu/politics/mlk/jail.html Letter
from Birmingham City Jail - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Significant Supreme
Court Cases
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark/plessy.html -
Plessy v. Ferguson
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark3.html -
Brown v. Board of Education
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/02-241/02-241.mer.ami.military.pdf -
Executive Order 9981
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/6th/03a0137p.html -Montgomery
Bus Boycott
|
