lawyer who fought jim crow laws

by Skylar Dicki 6 min read

Houston worked tirelessly to fight against Jim Crow laws that prevented Blacks from serving on juries and accessing housing. However, it was in the fight against school segregation that Houston came up with the clever argument that would make him famous.

What were Jim Crow laws intended to do?

“Jim Crow laws” is a broad term for both state and local laws that were intended to enforce racial segregation and white dominance in the United States. These laws, which were predominantly in effect in the American South (though not entirely), came into practice in the decades following the American Civil War and were upheld as legal until 1965.

What are the worst examples of Jim Crow laws?

Jim Crow’s laws and labeling system were reinforced by violence, real and threats against people of color. Blacks and mulattoes who violated Jim Crow’s rules, for example, drinking from the white water fountain or trying to vote, risked their homes, their jobs, even their lives. Total Impunity Against Rights

What states have Jim Crow laws?

What states used Jim Crow laws? Alabama. Nurses: No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals,... Arizona. Florida. Georgia. Kentucky. Louisiana. Maryland. Mississippi.

What was the most common Jim Crow laws?

Common Jim Crow laws included literary tests, poll taxes, and the grandfather clause, which were all restrictions on voting meant to keep black men from casting a ballot. Bans on interracial marriage and separation between races in public and places of business were also common parts of Jim Crow .

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Who was the lawyer in Brown v. Board of Education?

Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall Marshall, who also served as lead counsel in the Brown v. Board of Education case, went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history.

Who was the attorney that won Brown v. Board of Education and what special recognition does he have?

Charles Hamilton Houston played an invaluable role in dismantling segregation and mentoring the crop of civil rights lawyers who would ultimately litigate and win Brown v Board of Education. At Howard Law School, he served as Thurgood Marshall's mentor and his eventual employer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

What was Thurgood Marshall most known for?

Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who used the courts to fight Jim Crow and dismantle segregation in the U.S. Marshall was a towering figure who became the nation's first Black United States Supreme Court Justice. He is best known for arguing the historic 1954 Brown v.

Why did Charles Hamilton Houston become a lawyer?

Houston is also well known for having trained and mentored a generation of black attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, future founder and director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the first Black Supreme Court Justice....Charles Hamilton HoustonOccupationLawyer5 more rows

Who was the first Black lawyer?

Macon Bolling AllenMacon Bolling AllenResting placeCharleston, South CarolinaOther namesAllen Macon BollingOccupationLawyer, judgeKnown forFirst African-American lawyer and Justice of the Peace4 more rows

Who was the attorney lawyer that helped to win the case of Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka in 1954?

Thurgood MarshallIn Brown v. Board of Education, the attorney for the plaintiffs was Thurgood Marshall. He later became, in 1967, the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Was Thurgood Marshall half white?

Thurgood Marshall's Family Marshall was born to Norma A. Marshall and William Canfield on July 2, 1908. His parents were mulatottes, which are people classified as being at least half white. Norma and William were raised as “Negroes” and each taught their children to be proud of their ancestry.

What are 3 facts about Thurgood Marshall?

Interesting Facts about Thurgood Marshall His birth first name was Thoroughgood, but as a child Marshall got tired of having to write out such a long name. He shortened his name to Thurgood in the second grade. While working as a lawyer he argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 29 of them.

How did Thurgood Marshall help end racial segregation?

After founding the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1940, Marshall became the key strategist in the effort to end racial segregation, in particular meticulously challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court-sanctioned legal doctrine that called for “separate but equal” structures for white and Black people.

What did Charles Hamilton do?

The first general counsel of NAACP, Charles Hamilton Houston exposed the hollowness of the "separate but equal" doctrine and paved the way for the Supreme Court ruling outlawing school segregation.

What happened to Charles Hamilton?

Hamilton was due to release his major-label debut album for Interscope entitled This Perfect Life but, in late 2009, due to Hamilton's undiagnosed bipolar disorder at the time, he became a frequent source of controversy and public scrutiny for his conduct on social media and in public settings, causing Hamilton to be ...

What did Charles Hamilton Houston accomplish?

Charles Hamilton Houston, (born September 3, 1895, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 22, 1950, Washington, D.C.), American lawyer and educator instrumental in laying the legal groundwork that led to U.S. Supreme Court rulings outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

What were Jim Crow laws?

Jim Crow laws were any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the American South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginni...

How did Jim Crow laws get their name?

“Jump Jim Crow” was the name of a minstrel routine originated about 1830 by Thomas Dartmouth (“Daddy”) Rice. He portrayed the Jim Crow character pr...

How were Jim Crow laws used?

From the late 1870s Southern U.S. state legislatures passed laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of color” in public transportatio...

When did Jim Crow laws come into being?

When federal troops were removed from the U.S. South at the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s and the state legislatures of the former Confed...

When did Jim Crow laws begin to disappear?

In the U.S. South, Jim Crow laws and legal racial segregation in public facilities existed from the late 19th century into the 1950s. The civil rig...

What was Jim Crow law?

history, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine (actually Jump Jim Crow) performed beginning in 1828 by its author, Thomas Dartmouth (“Daddy”) Rice, ...

Where was Jim Crow segregation?

Jim Crow segregation. A sign at a bus station in Rome, Georgia, in 1943, indicating a separate waiting area for Black people under Jim Crow law. Esther Bubley/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USW3-037939-E) Jim Crow Jubilee.

What is the purpose of segregation?

The segregation principle was extended to parks, cemeteries, theatres, and restaurants in an effort to prevent any contact between Blacks and whites as equals. It was codified on local and state levels and most famously with the “ separate but equal ” decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Who was the first person to take a seat in the whites only car?

As it happened, for reasons neither Martinet nor Tourgée expected, their test case fizzled. On February 24, 1892, 21-year-old Daniel Desdunes purchased a first-class ticket on the Louisville & Nashville from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, and took a seat in the whites-only car.

Which Supreme Court case ruled that black facilities were inferior to white facilities?

In its Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, ignoring evidence that the facilities for Black people were inferior to those intended for whites. Reconstruction.

When did the Civil Rights Movement start?

The civil rights movement was initiated by Black Southerners in the 1950s and ’60s to break the prevailing pattern of segregation. In 1954, in its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision’s justification of “separate but equal” facilities.

Which case acquiesced in the South’s “solution” to the problems of race relations?

Seven years later the court approved a Mississippi statute requiring segregation on intrastate carriers in Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway v. Mississippi (1890). As those cases demonstrated, the court essentially acquiesced in the South’s “solution” to the problems of race relations.

What was Jim Crow law?

t. e. Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States and elsewhere within the United States. These laws were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Southern Democrat -dominated state legislatures to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by black people ...

What were the laws of Jim Crow?

Jim Crow laws and Jim Crow state constitutional provisions mandated the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains between white and black people. The U.S. military was already segregated.

What laws were passed in the South?

Although sometimes counted among "Jim Crow laws" of the South, statutes such as anti-miscegenation laws were also passed by other states. Anti-miscegenation laws were not repealed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court (the Warren Court) in a unanimous ruling Loving v. Virginia (1967). Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court opinion that "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State."

What was Rosa Parks's role in the Civil Rights Movement?

This was not the first time this happened – for example, Parks was inspired by 15-year-old Claudette Colvin doing the same thing nine months earlier – but the Parks act of civil disobedience was chosen, symbolically, as an important catalyst in the growth of the Civil Rights Movement; activists built the Montgomery bus boycott around it, which lasted more than a year and resulted in desegregation of the privately run buses in the city. Civil rights protests and actions, together with legal challenges, resulted in a series of legislative and court decisions which contributed to undermining the Jim Crow system.

What was the Jim Crow context?

In the Jim Crow context, the presidential election of 1912 was steeply slanted against the interests of African Americans.

What is the origin of the phrase "Jim Crow"?

The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been attributed to " Jump Jim Crow ", a song-and-dance caricature of black people performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface , which first surfaced in 1828 and was used to satirize Andrew Jackson 's populist policies.

Where did Jim Crow come from?

The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been attributed to " Jump Jim Crow ", a song-and-dance caricature of black people performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface, which first surfaced in 1828 and was used to satirize Andrew Jackson 's populist policies. As a result of Rice's fame, " Jim Crow " by 1838 had become a pejorative expression meaning "Negro". When southern legislatures passed laws of racial segregation directed against black people at the end of the 19th century, these statutes became known as Jim Crow laws.

Who was the lawyer in the George Crawford trial?

Credit: Library of Congress Charles Hamilton Houston, second from the left, and his Howard Law School defense team in 1933 in the George Crawford murder trial in Loudoun County, Virginia, joined by NAACP executive Walter White, far left. From left: White, Houston, James Buy Tyson, Leon A. Ransom and Edward P. Lovett.

Who was the African American lawyer who led the Brown v. Houston case?

There was no disputing Houston’s status as a one of the key champions of American racial justice in the 20th century. In his opening talk, Professor Randall Kennedy outlined the obstacles Houston overcame as an African American lawyer in the early 20th century, and the accomplishments that ultimately led to the Brown v.

Who was the first African American to serve on the Harvard Law Review?

Houston was the first African American student to serve on the Harvard Law Review. Houston later argued three racially significant cases in the federal Supreme Court, including Hurd v. Hodge (1948), which prohibited the enforcement of “restrictive covenants” that would prohibit ownership of property based on race.

Who was the first black editor of Harvard Law Review?

Credit: Lorin Granger Professor Randall Kennedy. In his talk, Kennedy noted that as the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, Houston didn’t always have an easy time at Harvard. Quoting a letter Houston wrote to his parents, Kennedy noted that he responded to obstacles by working that much harder. “The editors of the review didn’t want me ...

Who attended the Houston elitist lecture?

Dr. Cornel West, who attended the lecture, commented that Houston’s elitism was more a matter of striving for excellence. Credit: Lorin Granger Dr. Cornel West attended the lecture and offered commentary during the Q&A. “Elitism is a promiscuous term, it can lie with a lot of ideologies and perspectives,” West said.

Who was the first black editor?

Credit: Lorin Granger Professor Randall Kennedy. In his talk, Kennedy noted that as the first black editor ...

Who did Mack challenge?

Mack also challenged Houston’s insistence that the NAACP work only with black lawyers, when that would mean rejecting Clarence Darrow and other prestigious white lawyers who were on the NAACP’s side.

What was the most ruthless organization of the Jim Crow era?

Families were attacked and forced off their land all across the South. The most ruthless organization of the Jim Crow era, the Ku Klux Klan, was born in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a private club for Confederate veterans.

What was the legal system in the Civil War?

The legal system was stacked against Black citizens, with former Confederate soldiers working as police and judges, making it difficult for African Americans to win court cases and ensuring they were subject to Black codes.

What did the Board of Education say about segregation?

Board of Education that educational segregation was unconstitutional, bringing to an end the era of “separate-but-equal” education. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which legally ended the segregation that had been institutionalized by Jim Crow laws.

What laws ended discrimination in renting and selling homes?

The Fair Housing Act of 1968, which ended discrimination in renting and selling homes, followed. Jim Crow laws were technically off the books, though that has not always guaranteed full integration or adherence to anti-racism laws throughout the United States.

What was the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on African Americans?

The post-World War II era saw an increase in civil rights activities in the African American community, with a focus on ensuring that Black citizens were able to vote. This ushered in the civil rights movement, resulting in the removal of Jim Crow laws.

Who created the African American only town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi?

Isaiah Montgomery. Not everyone battled for equal rights within white society—some chose a separatist approach. Convinced by Jim Crow laws that Black and white people could not live peaceably together, formerly enslaved Isaiah Montgomery created the African American-only town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in 1887.

Was the North immune to Jim Crow laws?

The North was not immune to Jim Crow-like laws. Some states required Black people to own property before they could vote, schools and neighborhoods were segregated, and businesses displayed “Whites Only” signs.

What did Harlan do in the Plessy case?

And his dissent in the Plessy case could be considered his masterpiece in reasoning against the prevailing racial attitudes of his era.

What was the second paragraph of the Harlan v. Harlan case?

The second paragraph was devoted to Harlan's dissent: "Mr. Justice Harlan announced a very vigorous dissent, saying that he saw nothing but mischief in all such laws.

Which court held that equal but separate accommodations for White and Black people did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14

Dissenting: Justice Harlan. Ruling: The court held that equal but separate accommodations for White and Black people did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Plessy v. Ferguson. On June 7, 1892 a New Orleans shoemaker, Homer Plessy, bought a railroad ticket and sat in a car designated for White people only.

What party was Harlan in?

He served as a Union officer in the Civil War, and following the war, he became involved in politics, aligned with the Republican Party. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. On the highest court, Harlan developed a reputation for dissenting.

Who argued Plessy's case?

Two remarkable characters played major roles in the case: attorney and activist Albion Winegar Tourgée, who argued Plessy’s case, and Justice John Marshall Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was the sole dissenter from the court’s decision.

Who overruled Plessy's position?

The local judge, John H. Ferguson, overruled Plessy's position that the law was unconstitutional. Judge Ferguson found him guilty of the local law. After Plessy lost his initial court case, his appeal made it to the US Supreme Court.

Who was the shoemaker who bought a ticket for the railroad?

On June 7, 1892 a New Orleans shoemaker, Homer Plessy, bought a railroad ticket and sat in a car designated for White people only. Plessy, who was one-eighth Black, was working with an advocacy group intent on testing the law for the purpose of bringing a court case.

Who attacked Washington's philosophy?

W.E.B. Du Bois, then a scholar at Atlanta University, attacked Washington's philosophy in the book THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK. An organized resistance to Washington grew within the black intellectual community. But as far as the majority of middle-class and working-class blacks were concerned, Washington remained their man.

What happened to the black community when Woodrow Wilson became president?

Meanwhile, a new era had begun in the black community, and a younger generation would no longer accept white supremacy.

Who was the most famous black man in America between 1895 and 1915?

Booker T. Washington | PBS. Booker T. Washington was the most famous black man in America between 1895 and 1915. He was also considered the most influential black educator of the late 19th and early 20th centuries insofar as he controlled the flow of funds to black schools and colleges.

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Overview

Further reading

• Ayers, Edward L. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-1950-3756-1
• Barnes, Catherine A. Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transit. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-2310-5380-0

Etymology

The earliest known use of the phrase "Jim Crow Law" can be dated to 1884 in a newspaper article summarizing congressional debate. The term appears in 1892 in the title of a New York Times article about Louisiana requiring segregated railroad cars. The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been attributed to "Jump Jim Crow", a song-and-dance caricature of black people performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface, first performed in 1828. As a result of Rice's fame, Ji…

Origins

In January 1865, an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery in the United States was proposed by Congress and ratified as the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.
During the Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, federal laws provided civil rights protections in the U.S. South for freedmen, African Americans who were former …

Historical development

The Civil Rights Act of 1875, introduced by Charles Sumner and Benjamin F. Butler, stipulated a guarantee that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in public accommodations, such as inns, public transportation, theaters, and other places of recreation. This Act had little effect in practice. An 1883 Supreme Court dec…

Decline and removal

Historian William Chafe has explored the defensive techniques developed inside the African-American community to avoid the worst features of Jim Crow as expressed in the legal system, unbalanced economic power, and intimidation and psychological pressure. Chafe says "protective socialization by black people themselves" was created inside the community in order to accommodate whit…

Influence and aftermath

The Jim Crow laws and the high rate of lynchings in the South were major factors that led to the Great Migration during the first half of the 20th century. Because opportunities were very limited in the South, African Americans moved in great numbers to cities in Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western states to seek better lives.

Remembrance

Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, houses the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, an extensive collection of everyday items that promoted racial segregation or presented racial stereotypes of African Americans, for the purpose of academic research and education about their cultural influence.