Civil Wrongs and Civil Rights

In 1955 people of color were generally treated as second class citizens or worse.  And although the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees all citizens due process and equal protection under the law, state and local governments, especially in the South worked for decades to undermine the original intent of the legislation.  One result was establishment of the doctrine known as "separate but equal"; separate neighborhoods, separate modes of transportation, separate schools and even separate water fountains. In addition, throughout the south "Jim Crow" laws were enacted that served to keep African Americans poor and uneducated.  For most American's, including those in Cincinnati, Ohio, life in 1955 was separated by skin color.  However, 1955 was the year when events caused a tangible beginning to the long march toward equality and civil rights for all Americans.

Desegration of Schools
1955 was the year when desegregation of schools began as required by Brown v. Board of Education which asserted that segregated schools perpetuated inferior accommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans.  The Supreme court issued a decree that required the integration of educational facilities "with all deliberate speed"  The process began ever so slowly in most of the 17 states with separate schools. In the south, desegregation continued to be stonewalled by state and local governments. The issue drug on for years and ultimately took action by the Federal Government to enforce compliance.   

  

The Murder of Emitt Till

In August of 1955 Mamie Till Bradley put her 14 year old son Emmitt on a southbound train for a summer vacation with relatives in Money, Mississippi. The boy from the big city of Chicago arrived in what amounted to a foreign land, a land of cotton fields and sharecroppers, ruled by Jim Crow.  Time moved ever so slowly in this economically depressed area and the old southern plantation heritage hung-on, strong and tight.                 

Emmitt Till

Emmitt spent his days in Mississippi at work and play.  He picked cotton, shot off fireworks and went swimming in a local pond. He was a typically teen boy, immature, showy and anxious to impress his country cousins.  One afternoon when the boys visited the corner grocery store, Emmitt was quick to take a bet to ask the pretty store clerk for a date.  Emmitt's show-off approach was most aggressive and intimidating and his behavior scared the meek lady who was working alone in the store. In the South, this disrespectful  interaction was rare, especially between a white female and a black male. Later in the day when she informed her husband Roy of the incident, it set off a series of events that led to Emmitt's brutal beating and murder.

Roy Bryant- Left,        J.W. Millam - Center

The September trial of Roy Bryant and his brother J.W. received intense media attention nationally and internationally and when an all-white, all-male jury acquitted Bryant and Milam of kidnapping and murder, the verdict shocked observers around the world. The American justice system was further called to question when months later the two men openly admitted that they had murdered Till.  National outrage was so intense that according to Life Magazine, "it lit a spark that helped ignite the modern civil rights movement"

Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the city bus to a white man who had boarded after her. Local laws reserved the first three rows of city buses for "whites only." When those rows filled, blacks sitting in the fourth row were  required to move further back.  Ms. Parks refused to move and was arrested.  Her action prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 381 days. 

The boycott was very effective and ended when segregated transportation was outlawed.   The Montgomery Bus Boycott put the civil rights movement in the national spotlight and proved that  non violent protests worked.