AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/4/4-4)
Unit 4 · Topic 4.4
4.4 Discrimination, Segregation, and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement
In the mid-1900s, African Americans in the North and South still faced segregation and discrimination in schools, housing, transportation and voting. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional, citing the Clarks' doll tests, but many communities resisted integration for years.
Key terms
- Brown v. Board of Education
- doll test
- de facto segregation
- equal protection clause
- Little Rock Nine
Segregation in daily life
Well into the mid-1900s, Black Americans in every region still met segregation, discrimination and violence: in schools, in housing, on buses and trains, and at the polls. The Civil Rights movement grew out of the need to end segregation and make the federal government protect the rights promised by the Reconstruction Amendments (3.1) and by the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which had banned racial discrimination in public places before the Supreme Court struck it down in 1883.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
The NAACP's lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall, spent years attacking 'separate but equal' in court. Brown combined cases from several states, including Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware, with a related case from Washington, D.C.
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, 'in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.' The ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (3.4) in public education.
The doll test
The Court cited research by the psychologists Mamie and Kenneth Clark. In their doll tests in the 1940s, they showed Black children dolls that were identical except for skin color and asked which doll was nice, which was bad and which looked like them. Many children preferred the white doll and connected the Black doll with bad traits, which the Clarks saw as evidence that segregation harmed Black children's self-esteem.
The Court agreed, writing that separating children by race 'generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.' The required sources include two 1947 photographs by Gordon Parks of the Clarks' doll test in Harlem.
Resistance to integration
Students of all ages pushed integration forward despite threats and violence. In 1957 nine Black students, the Little Rock Nine, enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor used the National Guard to keep them out, and President Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect them. De facto segregation, meaning segregation by neighborhood and income rather than by law, persists in many schools today.
- Some states cut funding for integrated schools while supporting schools that stayed mostly white.
- Some white families moved to the suburbs or to private schools, shifting money and investment into places few Black families could reach.
- Some officials used police and the National Guard to block integration, and some districts closed their public schools rather than integrate.
- Many Black teachers and principals in the South lost their jobs as schools merged.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Explaining a ruling's reasoning
Explain the reasoning the Supreme Court used in Brown v. Board of Education to overturn 'separate but equal' in public schools.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Name the constitutional basis: the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.
- Step 2: Explain the key finding: segregation itself harmed Black children, making separate schools unequal.
- Step 3: Name the evidence: the Clarks' doll tests.
Answer: Model answer: The Court ruled that school segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. It reasoned that separating children by race created a feeling of inferiority among Black children, as the Clarks' doll tests suggested, so separate schools could never truly be equal. In the Court's words, 'Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'
Common mistakes
- Thinking Brown ended school segregation right away. Resistance and de facto segregation kept many schools segregated for years.
- Saying Brown overturned Plessy everywhere at once. It applied to public education; other rulings and laws ended segregation elsewhere.
- Forgetting the psychological evidence. The doll tests were central to the Court's reasoning.
On the exam
- The Brown opinion is a required source. Know its constitutional basis and its main argument.
- Use the pair Plessy (1896) and Brown (1954) to show change over time.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 4.4 Discrimination, Segregation, and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
"To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
Chief Justice Earl Warren, opinion of the Court, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, May 17, 1954
The Court's reasoning in the first excerpt relied most on evidence about
The second excerpt most directly reversed which earlier decision?
Which response to Brown best shows that segregation continued after the ruling?
In 1957 the Little Rock Nine became nationally known when they
0 of 4 answered