Ch.21, Sec.1- Demands for Civil Rights

Brown v. Board of Education

• In 1951, Oliver Brown sued the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education to allow his 8 year old daughter Linda to attend a nearby school for whites only. On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court declared that the “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional and could not be applied to public education. A year later, the Court ruled that local school boards should move to desegregate quickly.

Reaction to Brown v. Board of Education

• The ruling in the case caused many southern whites, especially in the Deep South, to react with fear and angry resistance. In Georgia, Governor Herman Talmadge made it clear that his state would “not tolerate the mixing of the races in the public schools or any other tax-supported institution”. The KKK also became more active, threatening those who encouraged acceptance of the Brown decision. More than 90 Congressional Representatives of states in the Deep South joined together in March 1956 to protest the Supreme Court’s order to desegregate public schools in what was known as the Southern Manifesto. Many believed that desegregation would lead to violence and chaos in several southern states. As a result, they refused to comply with the court’s ruling.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• In December 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat at the front of the colored section of a bus. The front of the bus was reserved for white passengers. African-Americans were expected to give up their seats if there were no seats in the whites only section. When a white man got on at the next stop and had no seat, the bus driver ordered Parks to give up hers, but she refused. Even when he threatened to have her arrested, she still refused. Therefore, they arrested her at the next stop and ordered her to stand trial for violating the segregation laws. Civil rights leaders met in Montgomery and Jo Ann Robinson suggested the Montgomery bus boycott. The plan called for African Americans to refuse to use the entire bus system until the bus company agreed to change its segregation policy.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott cont.

• Martin Luther King Jr., only 26 at the time, soon became the spokesperson for the protest movement. Over the next year, 50,000 African Americans in Montgomery walked, rode bicycles, or joined car pools to avoid the city buses. Despite losing money, the bus company refused to change its policies. Finally, in 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation, like school segregation, was unconstitutional.

Resistance in Little Rock

• In the fall of 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus declared that he could not keep order if he had to enforce integration, or the bringing together of different races. In defiance of the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, Governor Faubus put Arkansas National Guard troops at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and instructed them to turn away the 9 African American students who were supposed to attend the school that year. Although President Eisenhower was not an ally of the civil rights movement, Faubus’s actions were a direct challenge to the Constitution and to Eisenhower’s authority as President. Eisenhower put the National Guard under federal command. He then sent soldiers to protect the 9 students. In a speech on September 24, 1957, Eisenhower told the nation that his actions were necessary to defend the authority of the Supreme Court.

Sec.2- Leaders and Strategies

NAACP

• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) formed in 1909 as an interracial organization, or one with both African Americans and white Americans as members.

National Urban League

• The National Urban League, founded in 1911, sought to assist people moving to major American cities. It helped African Americans moving out of the South find homes and jobs and ensured they receive fair treatment at work.

CORE

• Founded in 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was dedicated to bringing about change through peaceful confrontation. It too was interracial, with blacks and whites.

The SCLC

• In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. and other African American clergymen began a new civil rights organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). They encouraged the practice of nonviolent protest, a peaceful way of protesting against restrictive racial policies. As he became more and more involved in the civil rights movement, King was influenced by the beliefs of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who preached a philosophy of nonviolence as the only way to achieve victory against much stronger foes. King would go on to earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The Formation of SNCC

• The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began in 1960 in Raleigh, North Carolina for students active in the struggle. One of the SNCC’s most influential leaders was Robert Moses, a Harvard graduate student and a math teacher in Harlem.

Sec.3- The Struggle Intensifies

Sit-ins Challenge Segregation

• CORE created the sit-in in 1943 to desegregate the Jack Spratt Coffee House in Chicago. Using this technique, a group of CORE members sat down at a segregated lunch counter or other public place. If they were refused service at first, they stayed where they were. This was popular in the 1960s. It often worked because it forced business owners to decide between serving the protesters or risking a disruption and loss of business. Martin Luther King Jr. told students that arrest was a badge of honor. By the end of 1960, about 70,000 students had participated in sit-ins, and 3,600 had served time in jail.

The Freedom Rides

• Freedom Rides were designed to test whether southern states would obey the Supreme Court ruling and allow African Americans to exercise the rights granted to them.

• The first Freedom Ride departed Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961. 13 freedom riders, both black and white, boarded 2 interstate buses heading south. Everything was fine until they reached Atlanta and went to the Deep South, where things turned dangerous. In Anniston, Alabama, a heavily armed white mob met the first bus at the terminal. The riders escaped the bus before it burst into flames, but many were beaten as they got off the bus chocking from the smoke. They did not realize the level of violence they would receive.

Integration at Ole Miss

• In the summer of 1962, the Supreme Court said James Meredith’s application to Ole Miss was turned down on racial grounds. Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett declared that Meredith could not enroll, regardless of what the court said. Kennedy then sent federal marshals to accompany Meredith to the campus. Crowds of angry white protesters destroyed their vehicles. The federal marshals then used tear gas, and 2 people were killed and hundreds injured. Kennedy then sent army troops to restore order, but federal marshals still escorted Meredith to class.

Sec.4- The Political Response

The March on Washington

• To focus national attention on Kennedy’s bill, civil rights leaders proposed a march on Washington D.C. Kennedy feared the march would alienate Congress and cause racial violence. When he could not persuade organizers to call off the march, he supported it. The March on Washington took place in August 1963. More than 200,000 people came from all over the country to call for “jobs and freedom”, the official slogan of the march. A. Philip Randolph directed the march. The march was peaceful and orderly. After many songs and speeches, Martin Luther King Jr. his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

• 3 months after the March on Washington, President Kennedy was assassinated. New President Lyndon Johnson supported Kennedy’s bill. After the House of Representatives passed the bill, civil rights opponents in the Senate started a filibuster, which is a tactic in which senators prevent a vote on a measure by taking the floor and refusing to stop talking. They then had to use a procedure called cloture, which is a procedure that may be used to limit or end debate and call for a vote. In June 1964, the Senate voted for cloture, which ended the filibuster. Soon after, the bill was passed by both Democrats and Republicans.

The Provisions of the Act

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had an impact on many areas, including voting, schools, and jobs. It gave the Justice Department the authority to act in school desegregation and voting rights cases. The law’s major sections included these provisions: 1. Title I banned the use of different voter registration standards for blacks and whites. 2. Title II prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, such as motels, restaurants, gas stations, theaters, and sports arenas. 3. Title VI allowed the withholding of federal funds from public or private programs that practice discrimination. 4. Title VII banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin by employers and unions, and also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate charges of job discrimination.

The Selma March

• Many black southerners still had trouble obtaining their voting rights. In Selma, Alabama, police and sheriff’s deputies arrested people just for standing in line to register to vote. To call attention to the voting rights issue, King and other leaders decided to organize a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, 50 miles away. In March, 1965, on a Sunday Morning, armed state troopers on horseback charged into the crowd with whips, clubs, and tear gas. In response, President Johnson put the Alabama National Guard under federal control. He sent members of the National Guard along with federal marshals and army helicopters, to protect the march route. By the time the march reached Montgomery, there were about 25,000 people marching.

The Voting Rights Act

• Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which federal officials could register voters in places where local officials were blocking registration by African Americans. The act also eliminated literacy tests and other barriers. The year after it passed, more than 400,000 African Americans registered to vote in the Deep South.

Legal Landmarks

• The 24th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1964, outlawed the poll tax, which was still used in several southern states to keep poor African Americans from voting.

Sec.5- The Movement Takes a New Turn

Malcolm X and Black Nationalism

• The most well known of the militant and radical political leaders was Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. His father was a Baptist minister who spread the “back to Africa” message of Marcus Garvey, died when Little was a child. At age 20, he was arrested for burglary and served 7 years in prison. While in jail, he joined the Nation of Islam, a group often called the Black Muslims.

Black Nationalism

• Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, taught that Allah (the Muslim name for God) would bring about a “Black Nation”, a union among all nonwhite peoples. For him, the enemy of the Nation of Islam was white society. Released from prison in 1952, Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X, because the name Little came from slaveowners. He spent the next 12 years as a minister of the Nation of Islam, spreading the ideas of black nationalism, a belief in the separate identity and racial unity of the African American community.

Opposition to Integration

• In 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and formed his own religious organization, called Muslim Mosque, Inc. He then made a religious journey to Mecca, the holy city of Islam, in Saudi Arabia. Seeing millions of Muslims of all races worshipping together peacefully had a major effect on Malcolm X. When he returned, he was ready to work with other civil rights leaders and even with white Americans on some issues. In February 1965, he was shot to death at a rally in New York. 3 members were charged with the murder.

SNCC Shifts Gears

• Stokely Carmichael called on SNCC workers to carry guns for self-defense. He wanted to make the group exclusively black, rejecting white activists. At a protest march in Greenwood, Mississippi, while King’s followers were signing “We Shall Overcome”, Carmichael’s supporters drowned them out with “We Shall Overrun”.

• As he repeated We Want Black Power! The audience cheered the new slogan.

The Black Panthers

• In the fall of 1966, a new militant political party, the Black Panthers, was formed by activists Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Black Power gave rise to the slogan “black is beautiful”, which fostered racial pride. It also led to a serious split in the civil rights movement.

Riots in the Streets

• On August 11, 1965, police in Watts pulled over a 21 year old black man for drunk driving. At first the interaction was friendly among the police, the suspect, and a crowd of Watts residents that had gathered. When the suspect resisted arrest, one police officer panicked and began swinging his riot baton.

• Thousands of people filled the streets, burning cars and stores, stealing merchandise, and sniping at firefighters. When the national guard and local police finally gained control, 34 people were dead and more than a thousand had been injured.

Martin Luther King Jr. is Assassinated

• On April4, 1968, as King stood on the balcony of his motel, a bullet fired from a high-powered rifle tore into him. An hour later, King was dead. King’s assassination sparked violent reactions across the nation. Some African Americans rioted, setting fires and looting stores in more than 120 cities. The riots left close to 50 people dead.

Robert F. Kennedy is Assassinated

• Senator Robert F. Kennedy had come to support the civil rights movement and to oppose the Vietnam War. In 1968, he decided to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. President Johnson had lost support from many Democrats because of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. On June 4, 1968, after winning a victory in California’s primary, he was giving a victory speech in a Los Angeles hotel after midnight when he was shot by an assassin. He died the next day.