Civil Rights

Introduction & Background

Introduction

Does treating people equally mean treating them the same? A man & woman apply for

job as shoe sales person… 2 patients come to the doc

with a headache. 1 has a brain tumor the other a headache..

2 students enter school with stairs to entrance. 1 is in a wheelchair…

2 students live in the same school district. They are the same age but different races…

What are civil rights?

Where are they “guaranteed?” Rights to full legal,

economic, political & social equality by virtue of citizenship

Guaranteed in U.S. Constitution (including 13th & 14th Amendments) & acts of Congress (civil liberties, due process, equal protection, freedom from discrimination)

History of Civil Rights

Colonial America Early slavery

1800s Abolition movement – End

slavery (Frederick Douglass)

Civil War 1860-65

Reconstruction 13th -

14th -

15th -

Late 1800s Legalized racism in

the South (Jim Crow laws)

Early Figures

Booker T. Washington Blacks should work within the systems Economic value Ex. Tuskegee School

WEB DuBois Founded NAACP End racism, violence & segregation Improve legal rights *Used the courts to achieve change

Atlanta Compromise

“… No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is not at the bottom of life we must begin, & not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities… In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet as one hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

- Booker T. Washington

Important Events Plessy v. Ferguson 1896

Upheld constitutionality of racial segregation Railroads “separate but equal” is OK

Great Depression 1930s: Blacks suffered as a group > voted for New

Deal Shift from voting for Republicans to Democrats FDR: fails civil rights because he fears lack of support

from whites

Early Civil Rights Victories1940 NAACP Legal Defense Fund founded by

Thurgood Marshall

1941 Ban against discrimination in defense industry (A. Phillip Randolph)

1942 Funding of CORE

1947 Integration of MLB with Jackie Robinson

1948 Truman desegregates military

Integrating Schools

Brown v. Board of EducationSeparate schools for blacks & whites violates

the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection

Clear ruling but lack of enforcement or deadline

School Integration continued

Little Rock Nine

1957 Gov. Orval Faubus violated court order to integrate Arkansas

9 Black students harassed on 1st day of school

Eisenhower tried to talk to Gov. but Sept. 24th he announced on TV sending in federal troops

Little Rock Nine

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama

Blacks made up 2/3 of all riders

Couldn’t sit in front rows, couldn’t share row with whites…

In 1955, Rosa Parks sat in the black section but when the white section filled, she refused to move > arrested

Boycott continued

BoycottNAACP called for 1-day boycott (90% of

riders obliged)Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. Churches set up carpools (rolling churches)

but whites denied insurance*1956 Supreme Court ruled segregation on

buses unconstitutional

Non-Violent Resistance SCLC emerges

Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by MLK Jr.

Inspired by success of bus boycott

Committed to non-violence

Non-Violent Influence

Based on influence from GandhiCORE & SCLC used non-violenceOrganizations set up training on how to resist

& passive behaviorLed to the sit-in movement