Explanation:

Information About African Americans in the 1950s

As the 1950s began. segregationist policies in many sections of the United States still denied

equal rights to most African Americans. The "separate but equal" doctrine, which had been

the law since the 1890s, forced blacks throughout the South to use separate public bathrooms,

WATER FOUNTAINS, restaurants. hotels, and schools. These separate facilities were generally

much inferior to facilities for whites. African Americans attended run-down schools; lived in

poor, decaying neighborhoods; and worked at low-skill, low-paying jobs. Even in the North,

where segregation was illegal, many schools were not integrated, and blacks suffered from

discrimination in housing and job opportunities. These circumstances led to the civil rights

movement that burgeoned in the 1950s and came to full force in the 1960s.

In 1954, partly as the result of black activism, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to

segregation. The court unanimously struck down the law that had permitted segregation in

schools and other facilities. In its landmark decision in Broww v. Board of Education, the

court ruled that the separation of schoolcMldren "generates a feeling of inferiority that may

affect their HEARTS and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." However, even after the

court ordered that school segregation be dismantled, many city and state oft7cials ignored

the ding and refused to integrate their schools. The FEDERAL government tried to enforce

the court's ruling, but some communities put up stiff resistance. Battles over school

P desegregation raged across the South throughout the 1950s.