The Civil Rights Movement

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

Second Class Citizens• Failure of Reconstruction

• Jim Crow Laws, “Social Segregation”

• Poll taxes & Literacy tests• Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896

• “Separate but Equal”• Northern Migration• Military Discrimination• Economic Status• Political

Disenfranchisement

With segregation laws, whites sought to preserve what they considered proper "racial etiquette." The laws differed from state to state, but they consistently treated blacks as inferior.

Holes in the Levee

• 15th Amendment - 1870• NAACP – founded 1909• FDR programs

• New Deal provided help for 40% of the Black pop.

• Truman Policies –Commission on Civil Rights - 1947

• Jackie Robinson – broke baseball’s color barrier April 15, 1947

Brown v. BOE Topeka• Linda Brown prevented

from attending all-white school in Topeka, KS

• Thurgood Marshall NAACP attorney

• 1954 ruling declared segregation illegal in public schools

• “the doctrine of separate but equal has no place”

• The Southern Manifesto• Document written by US

Congress members opposed to integration

Murder of Emmett Till• August 1955• Teenager from Chicago

visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi

• Whistled at a white woman• Dragged from bed and

beaten• Found dead 3 days later• Two white men arrested,

including woman’s husband• Not guilty• No federal involvement

Montgomery Bus Boycott • 12/1/1955 - Rosa Parks

arrested

• 381 Days – segregation of public buses illegal

• Montgomery Improvement Association

• Martin Luther King Jr. becomes leader

• Civil Rights Act 1957- crime to prevent a “qualified” person from voting

Little Rock• Integrate “with all

deliberate speed” – many states in South did not comply

• Arkansas-Sept. 1957• Little Rock Nine• Gov. Orval Faubus

• Natl. Guard • 101st Airborne• 1958 shut down schools

• 1959 reopen under court order w/Federal troops

Beyond Black and White• Mexican Americans

• LULAC• Delgado v. Bastrop ISD

• Asian Americans• Chinese Exclusion Act repealed in 1952• Asians still discriminated against

• Native Americans• Termination policy• Relocation Act of 1956• Eisenhower ends termination in 1958

Martin Luther King Jr. • Southern Christian

Leadership Conference (SCLC)• Alliance of church-

based orgs. dedicated to ending discrimination

• “Confronting the forces of hate with the power of love”

• Non-violence

Active Youth

• SNCC – “snick” – 1960– student activists from South

• Lunch Counter Sit-ins (SNCC)• Greensboro NC• 2/1/1960• Woolworth’s • Launched other sin-ins

in NC and around the USA

• 55 cities & 13 states

Active Youth • CORE - founded 1942• Freedom Riders (CORE)-

protest segregation on interstate buses

• Some met resistance from the police and were arrested

• No Alabama Getaway• One bus was firebombed in

Anniston, the other attacked in Birmingham

• The busses met mobs of violence in Alabama & police escorts abandoned them

• White riders received the worst of the beatings

Continued Struggles• James Meredith – first

African American to enroll at Ole Miss

• Medgar Evers – NAACP secretary shot and killed outside home June 1963• Byron de la Beckwith• Two mistrials in 60s• Convicted in 1994• Died in 2001 at age 80

• Albany, Ga. – police use nonviolence against protesters

Violence in Birmingham, Ala.• Birmingham – hotbed of civil rights violence

• April 1963 MLK – “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”• Schoolchildren used as protesters• Sept. 1963 – Bomb at black Birmingham church kills

four young girls• Effect of Kennedy’s assassination on civil rights• LBJ as President

Legislation under LBJ• Civil Rights Act 1964

• Protection of voting rights• Opening of all public

facilities to all races• Commission to protect job

opportunities• The Voting Rights Act of

1965• Ended literacy test• Legal consequences for

states that don’t comply

Freedom Summer-’64• 24th Amendment –

eliminating poll tax• Freedom Summer –

Campaign to register voters in the South

• Voter Education Project

• Mississippi Burning – Volunteer workers murdered (2 whites from New York, 1 black from Mississippi)

Selma, Alabama• March 1965 – 383 out of 15,000 blacks were

registered voters• 600 people 54-mile walk from Selma to

Montgomery – protesting harsh treatment of blacks attempting to register to vote

• “Bloody Sunday” – police attack marchers• What effect does TV coverage of the march have

on the civil rights movement?• Voting Rights Act – 1965

• Voter registration under federal control • Ended literacy test• Legal consequences for states that don’t comply

• 57% increase in black voters in Alabama

March on Washington-8/28/63“I Have a Dream”

• In support of JFK’s Civil Rights Bill of ’63

• 200,000 People

• MLK – “I Have a Dream” speech

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Martin_Luther_King_-_March_on_Washington.jpg

Black Muslims/Malcolm X• Questioning the

Movement• Elijah Muhammed’s

Nation of Islam• Black Nationalism• Black Muslims-

separatists• “By any Means

Necessary” • Born Malcolm Little• 1964 began to call for

unity among all people• Shot and killed Feb. 1965

NYC

The Movement Fractures• “Black Power” • Stokely Carmichael• Positive/negative effects• Black Panthers- Huey

Newton & Bobby Seale• armed b/c didn’t trust white

police• “War can only be

abolished through war”• 1965-Watts, LA (6 days)

• 125 riots in 2yrs.• Detroit – 43 deaths

BLACK POWER!!• “I’m sick and tired of going to funerals of black

men who have been murdered by white men……I’ve got vengeance in my heart tonight”

• “What do you want?”…. “Black Power!!!”• “Black people will not be free until we are free to

determine our own destiny” • “Black self defense groups that are dedicated to

defending our black communities from racist police oppression”

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.npr.org/news/specials/watts/blurb200.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php%3FstoryId%3D4794946&h=150&w=200&sz=6&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=du0xCkLUltCQ4M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3DWatts%2Briots%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den

Detroit 1967

Newark Riots • July 13-17, 1967 • Event that triggered riots –

Cab driver arrested and beaten

• Factors leading to riots• Police brutality• Political exclusion of blacks• Urban renewal• Poverty/unemployment/

poor housing• Rapid demographic change/

“white flight”• Results

• 26 dead, 725 injured• Close to 1500 arrested• Damage in millions

• Kerner Commission

1968• MLK 4/4/68 – shot and

killed by James Earl Ray• Memphis, TN• “We have business on the

road to freedom…We must prove to White America that you can kill the leader but you cannot kill the dream” – Ralph Abernathy

• Riots across country• 45 dead• Thousands injured

Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Attica and into the 1970s• Attica – 9/1971 Prison take over in NY State

• 54% black prisoners, 100% white guards• 5 days take over where 40 guards were held prisoner• Military attack on prison = 31 dead prisoners and 9

dead guards• Boston school busing 1974 – Natural school

segregation• Black school lack permanent teachers, furniture,

supplies and books• Federal district court rules that the schools are not

equal and students should be bussed city wide to integrate

• Violence, verbal abuse and white boycotts of schools• Affirmative action – plans to end discriminatory

hiring practices