Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US History #39

CrashCourse
CrashCourse
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Published 2013-11-21
In which John Green teaches you about the early days of the Civil Rights movement. By way of providing context for this, John also talks a bit about wider America in the 1950s. The 1950s are a deeply nostalgic period for many Americans, but there is more than a little idealizing going on here. The 1950s were a time of economic expansion, new technologies, and a growing middle class. America was becoming a suburban nation thanks to cookie-cutter housing developments like the Levittowns. While the white working-class saw their wages and status improve, the proverbial rising tide wasn't lifting all proverbial ships. A lot of people were excluded from the prosperity of the 1950s. Segregation in housing and education made for some serious inequality for African Americans. As a result, the Civil Rights movement was born. John will talk about the early careers of Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and even Earl Warren. He'll teach you about Brown v Board of Education, the lesser-known Mendez vs Westminster, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and all kinds of other stuff.

Hey teachers and students - Check out CommonLit's free collection of reading passages and curriculum resources to learn more about the events of this episode. The Civil Rights Movement gained national attention with the murder of Emmett Till in 1955: www.commonlit.org/texts/emmett-till
That same year, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, beginning the Montgomery bus boycott: www.commonlit.org/texts/rosa-parks-and-the-montgom…
A young preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. gained national fame rallying support for the Montgomery bus boycott: www.commonlit.org/texts/martin-luther-king-jr
The end of segregation also began in the South with the Showdown in Little Rock in 1957: www.commonlit.org/texts/showdown-in-little-rock

Want to learn more about the Civil Rights movement? Check out these videos from Crash Course Black American History:
School Segregation and Brown v Board (#33):    • School Segregation and Brown v Board:...  
Emmett Till (#34):    • Emmett Till: Crash Course Black Ameri...  
The Montgomery Bus Boycott (#35):    • The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Crash Cou...  
Martin Luther King, Jr (#36):    • Martin Luther King, Jr: Crash Course ...  
--Crash Course Black American History will be uploading new videos through 2022!--

Chapters:
Introduction: The 1950s 00:00
The American Suburbs 2:01
The "Era of Consensus" 3:05
Segregation 4:10
Desegregating Schools 5:18
Mystery Document 6:50
The Aftermath of Brown vs. Board of Education 7:50
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycotts 8:29
Martin Luther King, Jr. 9:32
The Little Rock Nine 9:54
The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement 10:30
Credits 11:25


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All Comments (21)
  • @user-os3sd4bw9e
    who’s here from 2024 while everyone is stuck in 2014 or 2020 (during covid)
  • @KingOfDoma
    Please don't erase Claudette Colvin. Rosa Parks is an extremely important figure in the civil rights movement, but let's not forget the fifteen year old girl who beat her to the punch, but wasn't used as the face of the Montgomery boycott because she was an unwed mother.
  • @playoffpj515
    You should've also mentioned Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy from Chicago, who was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi for merely speaking to a white woman named Carolyn Bryant in August 1955.  Rosa Parks in an interview once said that she thought of Emmett Till when she decided to stand up for herself in December.1955.  He was truly an inspiration and one of the sparks that started the flame that is the Civil Rights movement.  Just saying.
  • @cmeflywva
    I want to thank everyone at Crash Course for their wonderful work. I support them with their hopes of giving us the opportunity to learn about so many topics. I also am grateful to see the positive discussions after the episodes. I wish this had been available when I was in school but still grateful to enjoy now. Their dedication to provide access to all is to be commended. I will continue to support them through Subbable and hope that others will do the same.
  • @JonnyXrep
    I still find it mind boggling that this happened only 60 years ago and that a lot of the racist fucks from that time are still alive to this day. 
  • @NatLawrenceMusic
    fantastic video, now to destroy my faith in humanity by reading the comments...
  • @Nnnejra
    I love how entertaining and clever you are in passing on knowledge, but what I like most is how objectively you can explain such complicated subjects. Keep ROCKING!
  • @kermit6395
    POV:your here because your history teacher sent you here to learn about civil right while in quarantine..
  • @MossitaBrenande
    Isnt it funny how this video has the most dislikes out of all the Crashcourse videos! Some people do not like the history of America!
  • @scifigrl92
    why did America believe in equal opportunity if they didn't actually provide it
  • @OnTheNerdySide
    What I've learned on Crash Course today: In the 1950s, the auto industry was the cell phone industry of its day, expecting their cars to be replaced every two years.
  • @smokedoggy044
    I just learned more in 12 minutes then in my 1 1/2 hour history class.
  • @Zeyev
    Thank you, thank you, for your accurate, nuanced view of the 1950's.  We moved back to Montgomery in 1954.  My mother drove our maid back and forth instead of firing her during the boycott; many of our neighbors simply fired their maids.  We left Montgomery in 1961 when it was under martial law for its reprehensible behavior when the Freedom Riders came through.  Although most people considered us "white" when they first met us and we did drink out of "white" fountains, we regularly received mailings from the White Citizens Council in the next county that reminded us we weren't quite as white as our neighbors.  Kids from the north side of Montgomery came to my "white" junior high - past another "white" junior high.  Busing was not the central issue then or later. If you want, I can share how my father help to foster desegregation in housing in Minot, North Dakota, in 1962. 
  • @georginaphelps8287
    I really love my gcse history spec, because one of the things we're covering right now is youth culture from 1930-2000 and the other day we got to spend a whole period listening to tracks from each of those decades and makes notes on the popular genres and artists and the social context. We spent a lot of time afterwards on the 50s which was so cool.
  • @mindaday
    Thank you for all your videos, I've learned so much over the last couple of months. You, your brother and the creative people behide the scenes are f'ing GREAT!!!!!
  • @holden9624
    GREAT videos John. US History AP Exam is tomorrow and doing some last minute review - these videos really help! Keep up the great work, the videos are really enjoyable to watch, not to mention informative!
  • @KZMProductionsHD
    When you think about it, it wasn't that long ago. Kind of sad, of just how long blacks had to wait. Tisk tisk.