The Civil Rights Movement&

Poverty and Woman’s Rights

State of the Union: 1950

• 13-15th Amendments supposed to provide

equal rights

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): separate but equal

• WWII– Workforce

– Armed forces

– Active protests

Homer Plessy

North v. South Segregation

• North: De Facto Segregation • – it exists w/o laws

• South: Du Jure Segregation• - Laws keep

segregation

Brown v. Board of Education - 1954

• Separate is not equal

• Chief Justice Earl Warren– Unanimous decision

Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat

• MLK leads the bus boycott– Non-violent even when MLK’s home is bombed

– 381 days

• Supreme Court outlaws bus segregation

Little Rock 9/1957

• Stand off between Gov. Faubus & federal judge

• Faubus sends national guard to prevent entry of the “Little Rock 9”

• President Eisenhower orders troops to let students attend school

• Civil Rights Act 1957 – more federal power over desegregation

Sit-ins 1960• African-American

students sit at a lunch counter and refuse to leave until they are served– Greensboro NC– National news attention

• Movement spreads– Arrests, beatings

• Lunch counters desegregated

Groups You Should• NACCP – National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People– Thurgood Marshall

• CORE – Congress of Racial Equality

• SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Council– MKL Jr.

• SNCC – Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee– Stokely Carmichael (29.3)

Southern Integration ‘61

• Freedom Riders – CORE & SNCC– White & Black riders enter

the South– Justice Department called in

• Ole Miss– Veteran James Meredith

enrolls

• Birmingham– (Non-violence vs. violence) +

TV = end segregation

Washington DC - 1963/4

• President JFK pushes civil rights - assassinated

• MLK Jr. - “I Have a Dream.”

• Civil Rights Act 1964: race, religion, national origin, gender. Also public places.

LBJ – War on Poverty

• Economic Opportunity Act

• $1b to help poor youth

• Job Corps

• Head Start

Voting Rights – 1964/5

• Freedom Summer – MI Burning (‘64)

• Selma – voting rights (’65)– (non-violence meets

violence) + TV →

• Voting Rights Act 1965– Increasing voter rights

– No more literacy tests

LBJ – Great Society

Healthcare – Medicare & Medicaid

Low-income housing

Immigration Act 1965 – ends quotas

Warren Court

• Chief Justice Earl Warren

• Brown v. Board (’54)

• expands power of national gov’t

• rights of the accused (Miranda) (’66)

Malcolm X & the Nation of Islam

• Blacks should separate from white society• (Black Separatists)

• Armed self-defense

Black Militancy

• Black Power – Stokely Carmichael (SNCC)

• Black Panthers – Oakland– Combat police

brutality– Provide for African-

American community

1968

• MLK assassinated• - opposed to Black

militancy• - beginning to

combat poverty• - rioting• RFK assassinated • - Democratic

presidential candidate• - working for civil

rights

Legacy of Civil Rights Mov’t

Civil Rights Act 1968 – ends housing discrimination

Voting increases

African-American pride

Affirmative Action

http://www.4uth.gov.ua/usa/english/laws/majorlaw/voting/intro_c.htm

Women’s Movement• Feminism: women should have economic,

political and social equality

Women’s Mov’t: Complaints

- Workplace inequality- Job opportunity- Earnings

- Political inequality- SNCC & Civil Rights mov’t male dominated

Changes

• - Roe v. Wade: a woman’s right to have an abortion

• - Ms. & last names

- Ban on gender discrimination in higher education

The New Right

• - Fight against women’s movement

- Fear of drafting women, end of laws protecting women, end of husband responsibilities

- Becomes a staple of the Republican coalition -> Ronald Reagan