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Civil Rights & Modern American

Civil Rights Movement

Remember Plessy v. Ferguson 1896- Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” guaranteed all Americans equal treatment under the law

Led to the passage of Jim Crow Laws

Desegregation campaigns were led largely by the NAACP since 1909

Brown v. Board of Education May 17, 1954, Supreme Court decision that segregated schools are unequal and must desegregate

Thurgood Marshall- leader of the NAACP Legal Defense Team

Oliver Hill- NAACP Legal Defense Team in VA

Reactions to Brown V. Board In many areas where African-Americans were majority, whites resisted desegregation- KKK reappears

In Virginia, there was massive resistance Closing of schools Establishment of private academies White flight from urban school systems

Little Rock, Arkansas September 1957, the Governor Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine” 9 African-American students who had volunteered to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School

Faced an abusive crowd Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control and ordered paratroopers into Little Rock

Faced harassment by other students throughout the year

Montgomery Bus Boycott Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat in the front row if the “colored” section of a bus Driver ordered her to give up her seat to a white man b/c the bus was filling up- she refused and was arrested

Martin Luther King Jr., a pastor, was elected to leader of the boycott

For 381 days, African-Americans refused to ride the bus

Boycott remained non-violent 1956, Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

Grassroots Organizations Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)- purpose was “to carry out non-violent crusades against the evils of second-class citizenship”

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)- national protest group In addition to boycotts African- Americans staged sit-ins (sat down at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave until served)

Famous Sit-ins In Feb.1960, African-American students from NC A&T staged a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro

TV crews brought coverage into homes all over the US Sparked many other sit-ins in the south

Store managers called in police, raised prices of food and even removed counter seats but the movement continued

By late 1960s lunch counters had been desegregated in 48 cities in 11 states.

Birmingham Alabama Known for its strict enforcement of total segregation in public life

April 3, 1963 King flew into Birmingham and began holding demonstrations

May 2, thousands of African-American children marched in Birmingham 959 were arrested

Continued protests and negative media coverage convinced Birmingham to end segregation

Convinced Kennedy that a new civil rights act was needed to end racial violence Unfortunately Kennedy died soon after

1963 March on Washington August 28, 1963 more than 250,000 people came to DC-between Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial

Participants were inspired by MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech

The march helped influence public opinion to support civil rights legislation

The march demonstrated the power of non-violent mass protest

Civil Rights Act 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged to carry out the work of Kennedy on civil rights

July 2, 1964 Johnson signed the CRA 1964

Act prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender It also desegregated public accommodations

Support for the Civil Rights Movement

There were many white civil rights activists

Many Jewish-Americans supported the CRM and were active in protests, sit-in and marches.

Musicians joined the cause as well Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

Robert F. Kennedy was a MAJOR supporter of the movement- ran for president

Freedom Summer In 1964, members of the SNCC and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) traveled to the South to register as many African-Americans as they could to vote Focused in Mississippi

Recruited college students and trained them in nonviolent resistance

In June, 2 civil rights workers and 1 volunteer disappeared Klansmen and police had murdered 3 of them

Voting Rights Act 1965

Eliminated the so-called literacy tests that had disqualified many voters

Federal registrars were sent in to the South to register voters

Resulted in an increase in African-American voters

Civil Rights and Modern America

Changes to the Civil Rights Movement

The divide

New leaders emerged as the movement’s attention turned from the South to the North

African-Americans in the North faced de facto segregation- segregation that existed by practice and customs Harder to combat and many altercations turned violent

Urban Violence

In the mid 1960s, clashes btwn white authority and black civilians spread all over

Race riots broke out in NYC, Chicago and LA

African-Americans were angry and wanted economic equality and equal opportunity in jobs, housing and education

New Leaders emerge Many leaders in the black community urged followers to take complete control of their communities, livelihood and culture

Malcolm X- joined the Nation of Islam while in Prison Encouraged blacks to separate from white society and advocated self-defense

Eventually calmed down a little and promoted “ballot or bullets” slogan- •“if you and I don’t use the ballot, we’re going to be forced to use the bullet. So let’s try to ballot”

Black Power and the Black Panthers

The term “Black Power” was a “call for black people to begin to define their own goals and to lead their own organizations”

Black Panthers- a political party founded in Oakland, CA to fight police brutality in the ghettos Advocated self-sufficiency, full employment and decent housing

Preached self-defense and even sold copies of writings of Mao Zedong

MLK objected to the Black Panthers movement Thought it was too violent- only end in grief

Turning point of CRM On April 3, 1968, King addressed a crowd in Memphis to support the city’s garbage workers “I may not get there with you but…we as a people will get to the promised land”

April 4, 1968, King was shot while standing on his hotel balcony

Spark the worst urban rioting in US history Hardest hit cities were Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, and Washington DC

June 1968, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated as well

Civil Rights Act 1968

After School segregation ended, the number of African-Americans who finished high school and went to college increased

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 ended discrimination in housing