"When I asked [which doll he liked], he pointed to the white doll. And I asked him which one don't you like, and he pointed to the brown-skinned doll. He was brown-skinned. And he said, "That's a nigger, I"m a nigger," and he laughed (Williams, 197)." In the Northern states, Clark similarly found that black children had negative views of themselves. "I remember one young girl who cried [when the girl realized that she preferred white dolls] she did not like the fact that she was rejecting herself (Williams, 197)." The use of "psychological knowledge" as central evidence of the harmful effects of segregation was a striking innovation in American legal history and helped in the Brown decision. (Hofstadter, 442)" .
The Brown decision had placed the federal government on the side of those who saw segregation as evil. It encouraged attack on other forms of segregation and hence had a broader significance: Much of Brown's meaning lay outside of schools, in the groundwork it laid for a massive attack upon Jim Crow itself (Blumberg, 42).
A new type of civil rights movement began in 1960. The scheme was known as nonviolent civil disobedience; sit-ins, freedom rides, and mass demonstrations were just a few of the tactics that were implicated. These movements were applied to defy the Jim Crow laws that had segregated the South's lunch counters, buses, hotels, motels, and other public facilities (Hofstadter, 449). .
"Nonviolent protest was the method and revolutionary point of departure that took a nation by surprise in Montgomery (Blumberg, 39)." The philosophy had been advocated effectively in India, but never before had the black population of Montgomery, Alabama used it so determinedly; in a continuous and successful struggle. .
State laws in the South had mandated segregation in most public places. The segregation had become a symbol of black inferiority. Riding a bus to work was ordinary for African-Americans in the south.
