All of the cases and people involved in fighting for equal rights for African Americans played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement. We learn about the famous ones who delivered speeches or changed laws but even the boy who participated in a sit-in or the girl who became friends with someone who wasn’t the same color as she was, played a big part in changing how our country view race and rights.
One of the earliest faces of Civil Rights is Dred Scott. He was born into slavery in
Virginia in 1799. In 1836, he was sold to John Emerson. Emerson was an Army Officer and moved a lot taking Dred Scott with him to different Army posts, some in free states and some in slave states. Scott married Harriet who was also a slave. She was signed over to Emerson as a slave from her owner. They both worked for the Emerson’s as slaves for years and the Emerson’s hired them out to others also as slaves. They both had lived on “Free Soil” for many years. When John Emerson died, he left all of his property to his wife Eliza. By then, Dred had a daughter too and offered to buy himself, his wife and daughter from Mrs. Emerson so they could live as free. She refused and Dred sued for his freedom in 1847. Because he had traveled to Free States that had laws that when an enslaved person was brought into the state, they became free, he thought this would prove his point and he would win his freedom. The court ruled that Dred was a negro and had no rights at all. …show more content…
He was personal property not a citizen and he had no rights to sue in court. They also ruled that the government had no legal right to interfere with the institution of slavery. The pro slavery people were encouraged and started making plans to expand slavery into all of the western states. This action made tension grown and helped to start the Civil War. A little further ahead in history, came the Civil Rights Act of 1875. A biracial Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It protected all Americans no matter what race they were in public places like restaurants, theaters, and public transportation like buses and trains. It also protected the right to serve on juries. If you didn’t follow this law you could be guilty of a misdemeanor and be fined up to $5000. Unfortunately, it was never enforced and the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1883. If these new laws had been enforced, then we would have had rights for blacks a lot sooner than in the 1960’s. It must have seemed to blacks like their rights would go forward a bit one day and then reverse on the next. A few years later the
Supreme Court ruled in Plessy V. Ferguson that having separate train cars for whites and blacks was legal as long as they were the same or equal quality. This became known as the separate but equal doctrine which was in law until 1954. They were just the same as the Jim Crow Laws accept that the facilities for blacks that were supposed to be equal to whites were not. They still could not visit a white restaurant or hotel and the schools that were available to them were not nearly as nice or taught like the white schools. Probably the most controversial movement was during Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Thurgood Marshall a black educated man argued that schools should not be segregated, that separate schools could not be equal. Marshall won the case showing that segregation in schools was not constitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren ordered the states to “integrate their schools with all deliberate speed.” This lead to the Little Rock Nine. In the fall of 1957 the Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas enrolled 9 black students. The governor, Orval Faubus strongly disagreed with this new law and deployed the National Guard to block the entrance to the school from the new black students. A photo of a line of soldiers blocking out the new students made national news on tv and every newspaper in the country. Everyone waited to see what would happen in Little Rock.
One of the earliest faces of Civil Rights is Dred Scott. He was born into slavery in
Virginia in 1799. In 1836, he was sold to John Emerson. Emerson was an Army Officer and moved a lot taking Dred Scott with him to different Army posts, some in free states and some in slave states. Scott married Harriet who was also a slave. She was signed over to Emerson as a slave from her owner. They both worked for the Emerson’s as slaves for years and the Emerson’s hired them out to others also as slaves. They both had lived on “Free Soil” for many years. When John Emerson died, he left all of his property to his wife Eliza. By then, Dred had a daughter too and offered to buy himself, his wife and daughter from Mrs. Emerson so they could live as free. She refused and Dred sued for his freedom in 1847. Because he had traveled to Free States that had laws that when an enslaved person was brought into the state, they became free, he thought this would prove his point and he would win his freedom. The court ruled that Dred was a negro and had no rights at all. …show more content…
He was personal property not a citizen and he had no rights to sue in court. They also ruled that the government had no legal right to interfere with the institution of slavery. The pro slavery people were encouraged and started making plans to expand slavery into all of the western states. This action made tension grown and helped to start the Civil War. A little further ahead in history, came the Civil Rights Act of 1875. A biracial Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It protected all Americans no matter what race they were in public places like restaurants, theaters, and public transportation like buses and trains. It also protected the right to serve on juries. If you didn’t follow this law you could be guilty of a misdemeanor and be fined up to $5000. Unfortunately, it was never enforced and the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1883. If these new laws had been enforced, then we would have had rights for blacks a lot sooner than in the 1960’s. It must have seemed to blacks like their rights would go forward a bit one day and then reverse on the next. A few years later the
Supreme Court ruled in Plessy V. Ferguson that having separate train cars for whites and blacks was legal as long as they were the same or equal quality. This became known as the separate but equal doctrine which was in law until 1954. They were just the same as the Jim Crow Laws accept that the facilities for blacks that were supposed to be equal to whites were not. They still could not visit a white restaurant or hotel and the schools that were available to them were not nearly as nice or taught like the white schools. Probably the most controversial movement was during Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Thurgood Marshall a black educated man argued that schools should not be segregated, that separate schools could not be equal. Marshall won the case showing that segregation in schools was not constitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren ordered the states to “integrate their schools with all deliberate speed.” This lead to the Little Rock Nine. In the fall of 1957 the Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas enrolled 9 black students. The governor, Orval Faubus strongly disagreed with this new law and deployed the National Guard to block the entrance to the school from the new black students. A photo of a line of soldiers blocking out the new students made national news on tv and every newspaper in the country. Everyone waited to see what would happen in Little Rock.