Buenos Dias

• Grab a Bellringer from the back table and begin work on it immediately.

– Use your prior knowledge about the civil rights movement to help answer the questions.

Government Action and the Civil Rights Movement

How the three branches of government did responded to the

movement.

Today’s Objective

• Analyze the response of federal and state governments to the goals of the Civil Rights Movement.

• Evaluate the impact of the Civil Rights Movement in expanding democracy in the United States.

Response of Government to the Civil Rights Movement

State Governments

• State governments, especially in the South were still enforcing Jim Crow Laws which denied people voting rights and maintained segregation.

• Some of them refused to comply with the federal governments new mandates against discrimination.

Federal Government

• Began passing laws and taking action in response to pressure from Civil Rights groups.

• When State governments began resisting those laws the Federal government had to step in and enforce them.

• This way everyone was guaranteed their constitutional rights.

Government

Executive Orders

Court Cases (Interpret the Law)

Make laws and amendments to the Constitution.

The Executive Branch and Civil Rights

• On several occasions the President takes action in response to events of the Civil Rights Movement.– Roosevelt Issues an Executive Order to stop a

threatened March on Washington by A. Phillip Randolph.

– Truman desegregates the military after World War II.

– Presidents also takes action when states don’t comply with Federal Law.

Civil Rights Under Roosevelt• Roosevelt wasn’t

exactly strong on Civil Rights.

• However, he does react when A. Phillip Randolph threatens to March on Washington because of discrimination in hiring for defense jobs.

Executive Order 8802

-to prohibit racial discrimination in the

national defense industry

Civil Rights Under Truman

• Truman takes action after World War II

• Groups like the Tuskegee airmen performed wartime service that increased calls for equality.

--Truman desegregates the military (1948)

Eisenhower Uses Commander in Chief title to enforce federal law.

• Brown v. Board meant schools had to desegregate…but the governor of Arkansas, Orville Faubus, would not allow it.

• In 1957, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Arkansas to make sure that 9 African American students could attend school in Little Rock

Little Rock 9

Little Rock 9

Little Rock 9

Problems in the Cities• By 1965, over 70% of African Americans lived

in the cities. They faced problems with crime, lower paying jobs, segregated neighborhoods and overcrowding. This leads to:– The WATTS RIOT- In 1965, riots break out in the

Watts neighborhood in L.A. There is $45 million in property damage, 34 deaths, and 900 injuries.

– Similar riots break out in DETROIT in 1967.

The Kerner Commission

• In 1967, LBJ asks OTTO KERNER to study the problems in the inner cities.

• Kerner blames white society and racism for creating two societies in America– one WITH, and one WITHOUT.

• Kerner recommends the creation of new jobs and more public housing.

• LBJ never endorses this.

The Judicial Branch (Supreme Court)

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)-- Court says “separate but equal” facilities = legal

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) overturns Plessy, and says segregation is unconstitutional.

But was this “equal”??…

The Constitution is a Living Document

Plessy v Ferguson 1896

• Supreme court interprets the constitution in a way that says segregation is legal.

• “Separate but equal.”

Brown v Board of Education

• Supreme court interprets the constitution in a way that says segregation is illegal.

• Overturns “Separate but equal.”

The Constitution hasn’t changed in this situation. The values in society have, so we interpret the constitution according to our new values which say segregation is illegal. The Constitution

can adapt to how we think, so we say it is a “Living Document.”

The Legislative Branch (Congress)

• Congress begins passing laws.

• To the left we see Johnson signing a law that Congress has presented to him.

Congress and the Civil Rights Movement

• Congress passes the 24th Amendment which outlaws poll taxes.

• This helps poorer people be able to vote.

• By giving more people an opportunity to vote, the government is expanding democracy.

Congress and the Civil Rights Movement

Equal Pay Act of 1963

• Outlawed differentials in wages based on sex.

• The Women’s rights movement (feminist movement) was really getting strong at this time.

Congress and the Civil Rights Movement

Voting Rights Act of 1965• outlawed discriminatory

voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S

Civil Rights Act of 1964• outlawed major forms of

discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.

• ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public

Emmett Till

Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner, Freedom Summer and the assassination of

Medgar Evers

King’s Assassination“Shot rings out, in the Memphis sky

Free at last, they took your lifeThey could not take your pride…”

• Early in 1968, MLK comes to Memphis to help with a garbage workers’ strike.

• On the morning of April 4, 1968, King is assassinated by James Earl Ray while leaving his hotel room.

• King’s assassination causes protests and riots in many U.S. cities.