The origins of the civil rights movement

• Following the American Civil War and the abolition of the slave trade, there were still many people who wanted to keep racist rules and systems. This was particularly the case in the southern states of the USA.

• Jim Crow laws denied Black people rights by enforcing segregation and discrimination in southern states.

• The Ku Klux Klan targeted Black, immigrant, Jewish and Catholic people in the 1920s.

• The 1954 Brown v Topeka case was an important turning point in the civil rights movement, as it showed that the Supreme Court was prepared to take action to end segregation in the USA.

In 1865, the American Civil War between the northern and southern states ended. The southern states were also known as the Confederate states.

The northern states declared victory and the years immediately after were known as the Reconstruction era. Slavery was abolished, emancipated Black Americans were granted American citizenship, and Black men were allowed to vote.

The racist attitudes of some southern states meant that they opposed these changes. Some people turned to violence against Black Americans and those who supported them, including other white Americans.

In 1865, a white supremacist organisation called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed. Membership of the KKK was kept secret. Klan members wore white robes and white pointed hats, which also covered their faces, to hide their identities. The KKK leader was known as the ‘Grand Wizard’. Racist members of the KKK carried out violent attacks against many Black Americans. They also targeted other groups of people, including Jews, immigrants and Catholics. Black people were tarred and feathered, assaulted and lynched.

In southern states, such as Texas and Mississippi, Klan members would walk openly through the streets. Some police officers, judges and government officials were members of the Klan.

In 1870 and 1871, the government passed the Enforcement Acts, which were laws that aimed to prevent and prosecute crimes committed by KKK members. After this, the KKK’s power declined for several years.

In 1915, the KKK re-emerged after a film called ‘The Birth of a Nation’ was released. Its racist depictions of Black Americans attracted KKK members, and their popularity increased. The KKK also had a surge in membership after World War One, as there was an increased backlash against immigration from some American people, including politicians.

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding approved the Emergency Quota Act. This placed a limit on the number of immigrants from different countries who were legally allowed to live in the USA. Immigrants faced violence from people already living in the USA, as they wrongly believed that immigrants were taking jobs that belonged to white Americans.

By the mid-1920s, the KKK had 5 million members. To try and escape the violence, many Black Americans moved to northern states, including Illinois, Michigan and New York. This was known as the Great Migration. Northern states did not have the same segregation laws as the south, but Black Americans still faced racism and discrimination.

In 1896, a Supreme Court case determined that segregation between Black and white Americans did not violate the US Constitution, as long as the facilities for each group were of the same quality. This became known as ‘separate but equal’.

Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in the south, meaning it was legal to have separate facilities for Black and white Americans. Segregated spaces included:

• Schools
• Waiting rooms
• Public transport
• Libraries
• Cinemas

Even though facilities were meant to be equal, the reality was very different. Facilities for Black Americans were frequently of much poorer quality than those for white citizens. Many schools for Black Americans were overcrowded, and would only have access to a limited curriculum. School buildings would have structural issues, such as leaky roofs. Some cities would only have enough funding for one school and would prioritise schools for white American children, leaving Black American children without an education.

Racist attitudes were often reflected in the law. The fifteenth amendment of 1870 gave every man the right to vote, regardless of their race or colour. Some states then passed a law that meant people had to pass a literacy test to be allowed to vote in democratic elections. Black Americans were more likely to have literacy issues due to a lack of investment in Black education.

Some states also imposed ‘grandfather’ clauses, which gave a person an automatic right to vote if their grandfather had voting rights in that state. This meant that most white Americans were eligible to vote without ever having to take the literacy test.

Racist discrimination was also clear in wages. Black Americans were often paid less than white Americans in the same job.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was set up by W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. They campaigned for changes to the law and equal treatment for Black Americans. The NAACP also provided funding so that Black people could have access to legal representation.

After World War Two, the NAACP started to take legal action to challenge the ‘separate but equal’ ruling and bring an end to segregation.

In 1951, an eight-year-old Black girl named Linda Brown wasn’t allowed to attend her nearest school in Topeka, Kansas, as it was for white children only. She had to travel much further, on the bus, to a school for Black children. Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, and the NAACP took legal action against the Topeka Board of Education in the Supreme Court.

In 1954, the Supreme Court passed a ruling determining that segregated schools in Topeka were not of equal quality. It said that they violated the ‘separate but equal’ policy. The Supreme Court went on to rule that segregation in schools should end immediately. This decision was met with anger and resentment in some southern states, but the ruling was supported by President Eisenhower, along with his successors, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The Brown v Topeka case was a landmark in showing that the Supreme Court was willing to take action to end segregation in America.