Civil Rights, The Early Years

Integration and Equality

Civil Rights: The Long View

Building blocks? Trends towards justice?: Ideals of equality, liberty, freedom Ideals of integration, public space Nonviolence Consumer society

Obstacles?: Inequality, discrimination in U.S. society (Jim

Crow, marriage laws, education), ideas racial purity; lack of legal or govt. protection/aid

Major Goals

Major Goals

Integration Schools Workplaces Military Churches Transportation Public and private

spaces Economic

advancement

Equality Education Voting rights Treatment in public Respect Anti-discrimination Equal opportunity

Major Goals Empowerment Integration into mainstream American life Desegregation Respect and self-respect End of poverty End of racism and other forms of discrimination Mainstream Civil Rights Movement was part of

liberal movement Question: Could liberalism solve issues of civil

rights, poverty, and injustice?

Factors in Success or Failure?

How to get support Followers? Political support? Message? Goals? Strength of support? Willingness to

sacrifice? Public perception

Opponents? Money Media coverage Tactics

Factors in Success or Failure Recruitment: good slogan, appealing Persuasion Get media attention Inspire action/change Clarity of goals Good leadership Delegation of power, responsibility Money Decide on methods of action: violence, nonviolence,

etc. Change minds

Positive Climate for Change

Liberal shift in politics and culture, optimism and nonconformity

Northern liberal support for racial equality Jewish support b/c of immigrant, discrimination,

and Holocaust experiences JFK idealism Cold War made it important for U.S. to prove

to world that it was meeting its ideals – civil rights issue gave U.S. a black eye in world affairs

Obstacles

De jure and de facto segregation (Jim Crow) in south and parts of north – Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

Failure of Operation Dixie, effort to organize unions in south in late 1940s

Solid South, conservative southern white Democratic Party

Massive Resistance, White Councils formed to oppose desegregation in 1950s

Fickle white supporters – how to keep them on board

Background Factors

Great Migration WWII ideals – against Nazi racism Returning black WWII veterans Existing civil rights orgs and leaders Strong church community Growth in liberal white support Cold War climate – had to prove superiority

of U.S.

Early Victories

Fighting for Fairness, Equality, and Desegregation

Precedent: pressuring government to respond A. Philip Randolph and black pressure politics

1st March on Wash., Fair Employment rules during WWII

1948 desegregation of the military Jackie Robinson and desegregation of

baseball, 1947 Symbolic power of “America’s pastime”

Early Victories (continued) Brown v. Board I & II, 1954, 1955

Thurgood Marshall: segregated schools fostered sense of inferiority in black students

Left-of-center Supreme Court – New Deal appointees, moderate Republicans (Earl Warren)

Unanimous decision, but desegregation “with all deliberate speed”????

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 Little Rock 9 forced Ike & fed. govt. to act on civil

rights, to use federal troops to protect students Arkansas governor Orville Faubus opposed

desegregation based on states rights rhetoric

Southern Manifesto, 1956

Legislating from the bench Judicial activism Nothing about education in Constitution (14th

Am.) Strict constructionism States rights Destroying amicable relations between races Outside meddlers

Southern Manifesto Document

Congressmen Against Brown v. Board States rights argument Against activist judiciary No justification for federal involvement in education

– strict constitutionalism Civil rights = chaos and confusion No problem to begin with; civil rights = problem Denial

Strong Black Organizations and Leadership

Strong black leadership in churches and civil rights organizations were necessary to movement

SCLC, MLK, Ella Baker, various church leaders CORE, James Farmer, Bayard Rustin SNCC, Ella Baker, Stokely Carmichael NAACP Unions, A. Philip Randolph Northern black politicians Links to northern white churches, politicians,

Democratic Party, unions

Nonviolence and Black Christianity

MLK: Nonviolence as ideal and strategy Combination of Christian ideals and Gandhian

nonviolence Christian belief of turning the other cheek, but used as

nonviolent strategy of resistance, protest, and for positive change

Nonviolence as strategy to overcome armed violence of southern people and officials

Conscious targeting of segregated public spaces or denial of public services

Goal of creating wider public pressure Media exposure – TV coverage of police brutality against

nonviolent protesters

Nonviolence and Black Christianity (continued)

Different methods Marches Sit-downs, sit-ins Mass jailings

Ideals: political and social problems had moral and religious underpinnings and solutions

Churches, SCLC, MLK: human equality under God, righteousness of their cause; inequality, desegregation were social and moral evils

Possibility of equality on earth, imagery and language of salvation, combined with realization of American ideals

Major Battles Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956 - NAACP and

Rosa Parks targeted bus system, segregated public service; MLK joined boycott leadership

Student Sit-ins at lunch counters – started in Greensboro, NC in 1960

SNCC founded as a result - student protesters

Freedom Rides, 1961 – desegregation of interstate commerce, violence spurred JFK to action

Major Battles Birmingham protests, 1963, Bull Connor’s violence

spurred JFK TV broadcast against racism and segregation

March on Washington, 1963, MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, garnered public support

M on W and JFK assassination = push for 1964 Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination in employment, equal access to public accommodations and schools

Freedom Summer, 1965, murders of volunteers, marches, voter registration in south, Selma march

Created pressure for Voting Rights Act of 1965 and 24th Const. Amend., both outlawed barring of black voters

Civil Rights and the Democratic Party: Sympathies and Tensions

Case Study: MS Freedom Democrats and the 1964 Democratic Convention, Atlantic City, NJ

Fannie Lou Hamer, sharecropper turned SNCC civil rights activist

Went to SNCC meeting, tried to register to vote, kicked off plantation, beaten

Became fundraiser for SNCC and ran for Congress in MS, black votes not counted

Hamer and MS Freedom Democrats challenged all-white MS Democratic Party and delegates to 1964 Dem. Convention

Failed to get seated, but spurred Voting Rights Act and changes within Democratic Party

1960 Presidential Election

JFK =

Blue =

49.7% Nixon =

Red =

49.5%

1964 Presidential Election

LBJ =

Blue =

61.1% Goldwater =

Red =

38.5%

Presidential Civil Rights Pushed by civil rights movement Liberals attempted to live up to ideals

(Truman, JFK, LBJ) Eisenhower, detached, but was pushed to act

at Little Rock JFK, overly cautious, was pushed to protect

protesters; optimism became spur to action LBJ, believed in racial equality

Pushed for Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965)

LBJ’s Great Society & War on Poverty Attention to “the other America” – those who had not been able to share in postwar affluence: poor, working poor, African Am., Appalachia LBJ used JFK assassination as reason to pursue

social goals, continue JFK’s legacy Great Society and War on Poverty: set of social

programs to complete the New Deal Empowerment – Comm. Action Programs, Headstart,

Legal Services, VISTA Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security expanded (“welfare”),

public housing Affirmative Action rules, 1968 Community Action Programs used by blacks to fight for

political and social problems, not always the form or kind liberal whites wanted

Conclusions Successes: framing of civil rights as moral, ethical

problem, full attainment of American ideals Attainment of legal desegregation and voting rights Pushed Democratic Party to become party of civil

rights, justice, and equality Decrease in poverty rate, 1960-1970, 23% to 15% Programs: Medicaid, Medicare, Headstart, Affirm.A. Continuing Issues:

Would de facto desegregation and civil rights be attained in north or south?

Would Democratic coalition remain intact? What impact would Vietnam War have on civil rights and

American politics?

Civil Rights, Further Issues

Black Power, Stokely Carmichael: Black unification to achieve civil rights – why? Questioned integration Questioned nonviolence Take a stand, fight back

Civil Rights, Further Issues

Malcolm X:

The New Left: Port Huron Statement, 1962

Jerry Rubin, ‘Self-Portrait of a Child of Amerika,’ 1970I am a child of Amerika. If I'm ever sent to Death Row for my revolutionary "crimes," I'll order as my last meal: a hamburger, french fries and a Coke. I dig big cities. I love to read the sports pages and gossip columns, listen to the radio and watch color TV. I dig department stores, huge supermarkets and airports. I feel secure

(though not necessarily hungry) when I see Howard Johnson's on the expressway.

 I groove on Hollywood movies‑even bad ones. I speak only one language‑English.

I love rock 'n' roll. I collected baseball players' cards when I was a kid and wanted to play

second base for the Cincinnati Reds, my home team. I got a car when I was sixteen after flunking my first driver's test and crying

for a week waiting to take it a second time. I went to the kind of high school where you had to pass a test to get in. I graduated in the bottom half of the class. My classmates voted me the "busiest" senior in the school. I had short, short, short hair. I dug Catcher in the Rye. I didn't have pimples.

I became an ace young reporter for the Cincinnati Post and Times‑Star. "Son," the managing editor said to me, "someday you're going to be a helluva reporter, maybe the greatest reporter this city's ever seen."

 I loved Adlai Stevenson. My father drove a truck delivering bread and later became an organizer in

the Bakery Drivers' Union. He dug Jimmy Hoffa (so do I). He died of heart failure at fifty‑two.

 My mother had a college degree and played the piano. She died of cancer

at the age of fifty‑one. I took care of my brother, Gil, from the time he was thirteen. I dodged the draft. I went to Oberlin College for a year, graduated from the University of

Cincinnati, spent 1 1/2 years in Israel and started graduate school at Berkeley.

I dropped out. I dropped out of the White Race and the Amerikan nation. I dig being free. I like getting high. I don't own a suit or tie. I live for the revolution. I'm a yippie! I am an orphan of Amerika.

Common Enemies or Targets?

Major Goals Empowerment Integration into mainstream American life Desegregation Respect and self-respect End of poverty End of racism and other forms of discrimination Mainstream Civil Rights Movement was part of

liberal movement Question: Could liberalism solve issues of civil

rights, poverty, and injustice?

Factors in Success or Failure Recruitment: good slogan, appealing Persuasion Get media attention Inspire action/change Clarity of goals Good leadership Delegation of power, responsibility Money Decide on methods of action: violence, nonviolence,

etc. Change minds