Protests That Helped End American Segregation
Segregation is the action of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart. Segregation had taken over American cities and towns in America from the 1880s to the mid-1960s. In America, African Americans were segregated from white people. Segregation came from the ending of slavery twenty-five years earlier in 1865. White people wanted to feel above the African Americans and since slavery ended they decided to segregate the Black from the Whites. Which is why the Jim Crow laws were created, they segregated African Americans from White people. Basically, everything was segregated, the bathrooms, hospitals, restaurants, schools, and water fountains were all segregated. In this essay, I will be talking about the protests that helped end segregation.
The first protest I will talk about is Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This was a huge milestone for Blacks in America as it began the long process of racial integration. Which started with schools, in Kansas there were eighteen neighborhood schools for white people and only four for African Americans. The Brown vs. Board of Education began because a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her all-black school. Even Though there was a white school only seven blocks away from her home. Linda’s father Oliver Brown tried to enroll Linda into the white school, but the principal refused to enroll her. Linda’s father went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked them for help. After Oliver Brown went to the NAACP which ended up being one of the most pivotal moments in Black History.
After Oliver Brown went to the NAACP was very happy to help. Dozens of other black signed on as plaintiffs' parents joined Brown. The NAACP requested an injunction that wouldn't allow segregation of Topeka’s public schools. At the trial, the Board of Education's defense was that it taught black children that they were inferior to the whites. Many of the plaintiffs lost their jobs, had their credit cut off, and were facing death threats. Thurgood Marshall, a great-grandson of a slave argued the case for the plaintiffs. Thurgood attended Howard Law School prior to becoming the NAACP’s chief legal counsel. He later cited a study that showed black children preferred white dolls over black dolls which helped his argument which was to dismantle segregation in schools. Later, the High Court ruled in his favor and the U.S. government ruled in his favor and he won the case. But The Supreme Court said school authorities integrate “with all deliberate speed” which allowed schools to take as long as they wanted to integrate. But was still a huge step for Blacks in America.
The next protest I will be talking about is the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This happened because on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a black woman who was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Rosa Parks being arrested started the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was black men, women, and children of Montgomery refusing to ride city buses in protest of the system’s policy of racial segregation. The protesters carpooled or walked to where they wanted to go. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister emerged as a leader of the Bus Boycott. The bus company's revenues collapsed which became big news in the newspaper, TV, and magazines. This was the first mass act of the civil rights era and started other civil rights movements across the nation. The leaders of the boycott demanded the end of segregation on public buses in Montgomery. It took months to make it to the judicial system but in November 1956 the US Supreme Court based their decision on the 14th amendment. Which guaranteed equal protection under the law and ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional and the boycott was a success.
Another protest that affected helped end segregation against blacks was The Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were a group of people who risked everything for the equality of African Americans. The group had around 13 people, which were mostly black people and some white. They rode buses into deeply segregated Southern United States. The Freedom Riders' main objective was to ban segregation in all interstate travel facilities, bathrooms, lunch counters, and waiting rooms. Also, there was no leader of this brave group of people. The Freedom Riders were attacked on multiple occasions and their lives were in great danger. In Alabama, the Freedom Riders had to stop outside Anniston to change a tire that was stabbed. One bus was firebombed and the passengers had to get out and were beaten while barely being able to breathe. The police were purposely late to show up and just let innocent people get beaten because they were all racist and wanted segregation. Luckily, The Freedom Riders succeeded in their plans to ban segregation in interstate bus travel. In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel. This success to ban segregation on interstate buses was a huge stepping stone for blacks in America.
