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Civil Rights Movement
1945-1970
Second Class Citizens
Colored, Negro, boy, etc…“Know your place”Segregation abounded (restaurants, theaters, etc…)
No representation in gov’tWas a national problem
LawyersNAACP: fought for racial equality in the courtrooms
Thurgood Marshall (1st black person on the Supreme Court)
Brown v. Board of Education: reversed Plessy v. Ferguson ruling (separate but equal)
Emmett Till (1955)
From Chicago, visited family in Mississippi
14 yr. old, killed by 2 white men for talking to a white woman
Both men were found innocent
Montgomery Bus Boycott1955-56Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, was arrested
Dr. King led boycott lasted 381 days
Supreme Court desegregated buses
Little-Rock Arkansas (1957)“Little Rock Nine”; 9 black students who enrolled at Central H.S.
Governor opposed & prevented their entry
Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the 9
Sit-insPassive form of protestingWhite section of lunch counters, stores, etc…
By 1960: people in 100 cities were participating
Freedom RidesBlacks & some whites rode on interstate buses into the South to fight segregation
1962: Supreme Court outlawed segregation of all public transportation
OrganizationsSNCC: Student Non-violent
Coordinating CommitteeSCLC: Southern Christian Leadership
Coalition fought for civil rights through churches
approach was too conservative for some
Sources of the Movement
1. Black Urbanization: many moved from rural to urban areas
2. Religious faith: faith in God, prayer, church as central meeting place…
3. U.S. Constitution: felt basic rights were guaranteed
4. Media Coverage: cameras brought shock value, sympathy, & support
5. African independence: some were inspired by the recent independence won by African nations
Mississippi
James MeredithAir Force veteran1962: federal court ordered U. of Miss. to admit him
Federal marshals had to protect him until his graduation in 1963
Medgar EversWWII veteran; NAACP director for Miss.
Registered voters, investigated lynchings, challenged segregation
1964: shot & killed at homeCharges were dropped after 2 trials
Birmingham, Alabama
Worst violence against civil rights activists & protestors
Police used hoses, dogs, & cattle prods
Jails filled with demonstrators1963: gained Kennedy’s attentionSome businesses began desegregating
March on Washington
200-250,000 met in Washington D.C.
“I have a dream”Purpose was to encourage support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Freedom SummerLed by SNCCmostly white college students went South to register black voters
Some were killed, churches burned & bombed, others were arrested
Selma, AlabamaMarch 1965: attempted march was stopped
3 were killedLater they marched from Selma to Montgomery
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (anti-discrimination & helps register voters)
Malcolm XMuslim minister, Nation of Islamblack separatism: blacks could only improve their situation by creating a separate society
Violent, racist views1964: modified his views 1965: assassinated
Black PowerNever had a fixed meaningBlack Panthers: first a political
party, later a revolutionary groupaffirmative action: businesses &
schools that receive federal funds, must hire/recruit minorities & women
“reverse discrimination”
Memphis, Tenn.April 4, 1968James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.