HIST 102: U.S. History Since 1877 · Chapter 28, Lecture 3 · Richland Community College
Name:
How to Use This Study Guide
Find the deck in your Canvas module. Click popup terms (dotted underlines) and press S for speaker notes.
Fill in your own words after reviewing the deck. Write full definitions — not copied from the slides.
Can I use this on the exam? Yes — but only if handwritten. No printouts, no copy-paste from Google or AI.
This lecture examines how civil rights advanced in the 1950s and early 1960s through Black agency, constitutional enforcement, legal strategy, and market-driven opportunity — demonstrating the American system's capacity for self-correction. Rather than treating progress as something forced on a resistant system from outside, the lecture argues that the movement's leaders were constitutionalists demanding that America live up to its own founding principles. The lecture traces this argument through four major developments: the NAACP's long legal campaign from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education, Eisenhower's enforcement of federal law at Little Rock, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the theology of nonviolent direct action, and the movement's color-blind constitutional logic culminating in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.
Complete each statement using the lecture deck. Terms in bold appear in Part II.
After reviewing the deck and popups, write your own definition in the space provided. Five lines per term.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Self-Correction Section I — The Thesis | After — deck + popups: How the lecture describes the American system addressing its own failures through internal mechanisms |
| De Jure Segregation Section I — The Thesis | After — deck + popups: Separation enforced by law, not just custom; Jim Crow's legal foundation |
| Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Section II — From Plessy to Brown | After — deck + popups: 7–1 ruling; "separate but equal"; upheld railroad segregation law |
| Jim Crow Laws Section II — From Plessy to Brown | After — deck + popups: State laws mandating racial separation, enforced by criminal penalties |
| Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Section II — From Plessy to Brown | After — deck + popups: Unanimous ruling overturning Plessy; segregated schools unconstitutional |
| White Citizens' Councils Section II — From Plessy to Brown | After — deck + popups: Post-Brown organizations using economic pressure to resist desegregation |
| Civil Rights Act of 1957 Section III — Eisenhower and Federal Enforcement | After — deck + popups: First federal civil rights legislation in 82 years; created enforcement infrastructure |
| Little Rock Nine Section III — Eisenhower and Federal Enforcement | After — deck + popups: Nine Black students selected to integrate Central High School, 1957 |
| Executive Order 10730 Section III — Eisenhower and Federal Enforcement | After — deck + popups: Eisenhower's order deploying 101st Airborne to Little Rock, September 1957 |
| Montgomery Bus Boycott Section IV — Montgomery and Black Agency | After — deck + popups: 381-day boycott; organized through Black church; ended bus segregation |
| Nonviolent Direct Action Section IV — Montgomery and Black Agency | After — deck + popups: King's strategy: absorb suffering, appeal to shared moral conscience |
| Color-Blind Constitutionalism Section V — The Color-Blind Constitutional Ideal | After — deck + popups: Principle that law must treat citizens as individuals, regardless of race |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 Section V — The Color-Blind Constitutional Ideal | After — deck + popups: Prohibited discrimination in employment, accommodations; color-blind in design |
| Voting Rights Act of 1965 Section V — The Color-Blind Constitutional Ideal | After — deck + popups: Federal enforcement of 15th Amendment; banned poll taxes and selective literacy tests |
Answer each question in your own words. Write in complete sentences. Five lines per prompt.
Section I — Self-Correction, Not Systemic Indictment
(Pause & Reflect)Does it matter whether civil rights progress happened through the American system or despite it? What does your answer imply about the system's legitimacy — and about what made the movement's achievement possible?
Section II — From Plessy to Brown
(Pause & Reflect)The NAACP spent two decades building its legal case in phases rather than launching an immediate attack on school segregation. Why?
Section III — Eisenhower and Federal Enforcement
(Pause & Reflect)Eisenhower framed the Little Rock intervention as a law-and-order action, not a civil rights endorsement. Does it matter, in the long run, what reasons a president gives for acting — as long as he acts? What does your answer suggest about the relationship between personal conviction and constitutional duty?
Section IV — Montgomery and the Theology of Nonviolence
(Pause & Reflect)King's nonviolent strategy presupposed that white America had a moral conscience that could be activated by witnessing disciplined suffering. This presupposition was validated — but what does it tell us about the conditions that made the strategy work?
Section V — The Color-Blind Constitutional Ideal
(Pause & Reflect)King's "I Have a Dream" speech expresses a color-blind ideal — judgment by character, not skin color. Affirmative action programs classify citizens by race to remedy past discrimination. Are these two frameworks consistent or contradictory — and what does your answer imply about the direction the movement took after 1965?
Check each item when you can do it confidently without looking at your notes.