Historical Background Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court rules - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Historical Background

 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court rules

that “separate but equal” meets constitutional requirements and thereby legalizes segregation in private businesses.

 Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Overturns

Plessy v. Ferguson and the decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

 Civil Rights Act of 1964: a landmark piece of

legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, and ended racial segregation in the United States. It

Segregation may be de jure

(Latin, meaning "by law")— mandated by law—or de facto (also Latin, meaning "in fact"); de facto segregation may exist even illegally

After the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the South, racial discrimination became regulated by the so-called Jim Crow laws, which mandated strict segregation of the races. Though such laws were instituted shortly after fighting ended in many cases, they only became formalized after the end of Republican-enforced Reconstruction in the 1870s and 80s during a period known as the lowest point of American race relations.

This legalized segregation lasted up to the 1960s, primarily through the deep and extensive power of the Democratic Party in the South.

Many parallels are evident between the trial

• f Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Trials.

 On March 25, 1931, a freight train was

stopped in Paint Rock (Northern Alabama) and nine young African-American men who had been riding the rails were arrested.

 Also, two white women, one

underage, descended from the freight cars.

 They accused the men of

raping them on the train.

Scottsboro Trials

 Took place in the

1930s

 Took place in

Northern Alabama

 Began with a charge of

rape made by white women against African-American men

 The poor white status

• f the accusers was a

critical issue

Tom Robinson’s Trial

Occurs in the 1930s Takes place in Southern Alabama Begins with a charge

• f rape made by a white

woman against an African-American man The poor white status of Mayella is a critical issue

Scottsboro Trials

 A central figure was a

heroic judge

 The jury ignored

evidence, that the women suffered no injuries

 Attitudes about

Southern women and poor whites complicated the trial

Tom Robinson’s Trial

 A central figure is

Atticus

 The jury ignores

evidence, for example, that Tom has a useless left arm

 Attitudes about

Southern women and poor whites complicate the trial of Tom Robinson

Nelle Harper Lee, the author

• f To Kill a Mockingbird, had

many childhood experiences which are similar to those of her narrator, Scout Finch.

Harper Lee’s Childhood

 Grew up in 1930s – rural southern

Alabama town

 Father – Amasa Lee – attorney who

served in state legislature in Alabama

 Older brother and young neighbor

(Truman Capote) are playmates

 Harper Lee – an avid reader  Six years old when Scottsboro trials

were covered in state and local newspapers

Scout Finch’s Childhood

 Grew up in 1930s – rural southern

Alabama town

 Father – Atticus Finch – attorney who

served in state legislature in Alabama

 Older brother and young neighbor

(Dill) are playmates

 Scout reads before she enters school;

reads Mobile Register newspaper in first grade

 Six years old when the trial of Tom

Robinson takes place

 1954 – US Supreme

Court rules in Brown v Board of Education Topeka, Kansas, that racial segregation in the public schools is unequal and, therefore, illegal

 Rosa Parks is arrested for

refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.

 Emmett Till, a young African

American man, is murdered while visiting the south.

 Home of Martin Luther King, Jr. is

bombed in Montgomery. King is a leader in the Montgomery bus boycott and designated spokesperson.

 Motions are filed in the US District

Court calling for an end to bus segregation.

 Warrants are issued for arrest of

115 leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott

 US Supreme Court decides in favor

• f Montgomery bus boycotters, by

ruling bus segregation illegal.

 Federal troops

are sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce court-

• rdered

desegregation of schools

Publication of To Kill a Mockingbird in the Fall – shoots to top of NY Times Best Seller list