From WWII to the Civil Rights Movement

The Supreme Court decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson established "separate but equal" as legal doctrine and ushered in the era of Jim Crow.  However, WWII exposed blacks, especially southern blacks to the equality and dignity afforded to blacks in  Europe, and the injustice of fighting for the country that treated you like a second class citizen motivated many blacks and northern whites to take on the issue of racial inequality.

The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine and made segregation illegal in public places including state run schools. In part the decision read:

"We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."


However, a decade passed without any progress in ending segregation in the South, which was in the grip of the Klu Klux Klan.  Various, nonviolent activities began to be held to end segregation.  One of the most dramatic was the Freedom Riders bus trip into the deep south.

Watch the PBS American Experience movie The Freedom Riders after reading the four page introduction. After watching the movie, reply to the questions in the comments to this post.