segregation in the 50s was likeTimes were very bad for the African Americans in 1950. They were treated unfairly, and Jim Crows Laws made segregation legal. African Americans were segregated in many ways. The had to use restrooms for blacks only, water fountains for blacks only, and even schools for blacks only. Even hospitals had segregations. They had different waiting rooms and whites were treated first no matter how made the emergency was. In buses, blacks had to sit in the back and if a white person came, the black person would have to give up the seat. The schools for black children were overcrowded, and people called this fair because of the "Separate but Equal" law. There were some Civil Rights Movement leaders that started protesting these situations. There was an organization that fought against segregation, and it was called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The leader for this organization was Thurgood Marshall, a very intelligent, black lawyer. He fought for the civil rights of black people. He didn't get a lot of money for his services, but he still helped these poor people. He was known as the "little man's lawyer. Marshall won 29 out of 32 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. He helped win a very important case, Brown vs. Board of Education. This was about an 8 year old girl that had to go to an all black school miles away in a bus instead of going to an all-white school very close to her house. Thurgood Marshall argued that segregation went against our Fourteenth Amendment. Finally on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation went against the Constitution. The school slowly started integrating, but it wasn't easy though. This victory gave many African American hopes.
Another event proved that African Americans were eager to fight for their rights. Rosa Parks was a very brave and strong lady that fought injustice silently. One day, on her way home from work in Montgomery, Alabama, she was asked to give up her seat on the bus. She refused to give up her seat; she was arrested and sent to jail. This made a lot African Americans very angry. People asked Martin Luther King, Jr. for help. Martin Luther King, Jr. arranged a boycott. He gathered many African Americans together and convinced them to not use the buses. This was very difficult for lots of African Americans, but they stopped using the bus services. The boycott worked, and the Supreme Court forced the Montgomery Bus Company to stop segregation in buses. Martin Luther King, Jr. liked nonviolent ways to protest against all the segregation that was taking place. Finally, in 1956, a federal court ruled that the bus segregation in Alabama was against the law. This was another big achievement for the Civil Rights Movement.
