“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

MLK

Civil Rights1954-1965

Notes, Film (Eyes on the Prize), Worksheet, Primary Sources

(documents and photographs), Time Magazine on Brown Decision

Court Cases, Organizers

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

M L K

Can one person make a difference?

FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech, January 6, 1941

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression… The second is freedom of a person to

workship God in his own way…The third is freedom from want…The fourth is freedom from fear…

Introduction to Civil Rights

I. After WWII, Americans were concerned with Civil Rights issues because of 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the continued segregation of African Americans in society and in the military

II.Voting Rights were curbed since Reconstruction (called disenfranchisement):

Poll Tax

Grandfather Clause

Intimidation by KKK

Literacy Tests (you try it!)

Gerrymandering (re-drawing Congressional districts)

III. Segregation was still enforced by Jim Crow Laws regarding:

Schools (supported by Plessy case of 1896 and overturned by Brown case of 1954)

Public transportation Restaurants (‘lunch counters’) Shopping facilities Entertainment Hotels Water fountains and restrooms Neighborhoods Intermarriage laws (‘miscegenation’)

Two kinds of segregation

De jure—segregation by law

De facto—segregation by practice or custom

III. Some Civil Rights successes

Great migration and rise of black middle class

Black universities NAACP Harlem Renaissance New Deal programs Music industry Jesse Owen—Olympian Jackie Robinson--Baseball

And…

Truman’s Executive Order desegregating the army and federal government--1948

(Response of the ‘Dixiecrats’ split the Democratic Party in the Election of 1948-Truman still won)

V. How to fight segregation?

Thoreau’s ideas of Civil Disobedience (passive resistance and strategy of non-violence)

Used by Gandhi for independence of India after WWII

Used by King and others…

Note:

Civil Rights issues addressed by the three branches of government

Executive—the enforcement and executive orders

Legislation—new laws Judicial—interpretation of the

Constitution and lower laws

Civil Rights patterns…

One step forward and

Two steps backward…

VI. Legislation

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

24th Amendment—eliminated poll tax

Practice of Affirmative Action in work place, college admissions, etc.

Review of Amendments (on TAKS)

13th—ended slavery 14th—citizenship for former slaves 15th—suffrage for former slaves(Remember: “Free citizens vote.”)

24th—ended poll tax 26—suffrage for 18 year olds

VI. Civil Rights Court Cases(These are on the TAKS test!) A.Dred Scott v. Sanford—1857—ruled for slavery everywhere in the U.S.—overturned in 1865 by the 13th & 14th amendments

B.Plessy v. Ferguson—1896—ruled for segregation—“separate but equal”—overturned by Brown decision

  

The Mendez Case (Mendez v. Westminster)

1944—Orange County, California Hispanic families sued for students to attend local

schools Courts heard testimony regarding culture and

language Rued to de-segregate California schools. This applied

to Asian Americans and African Americans also The Anderson Law passed and signed by Governor

Earl Warren Warren was later named as the chief justice of the

Supreme Court and wrote the ruling for Brown v. The Board of Education

The Warren Court is famous for “liberal” decisions (Miranda rights, etc.)

C.Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954—ruled to de-segregate schools—referred to 14th

amendment

D. Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.—1964 Referred to commerce clause of Civil Rights Act of 1964

—ruled against any segregation in commercial areas

  E. Loving v. Virginia—1967—ruled against

miscegenation laws—cited 14th amendment  

F. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education—1971

Upheld integration of schools to be achieved by busing if necessary

  G. Regents of the University of California v.

Bakke—1978 Upheld affirmative action but ruled against

rigid use of racial quotas  H. Shaw v. Reno—1993 Ruled that racial gerrymandering was illegal—

upheld Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

 

How have things changed?

Favorite Civil Rights Books

To Kill a Mockingbird Warriors Don’t Cry The Help I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Invisible Man A Lesson Before Dying The Wedding Quakertown White Lilacs Secret Life of Bees Roots The Autobiography of Miss Jean Pittmann

Favorite Civil Rights Films

Mississippi Burning Ghosts of Mississippi In the Heat of the Night Remember the Titans To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Debate Glory Road The Defiant Ones Raisin in the Sun Driving Miss Daisy Roots The Autobiography of Miss Jean Pittmann

Eyes on the Prize—Film Events Emmitt Till (Mississippi)

Montgomery Bus Boycott (Alabama) Little Rock Nine and Central High School (Arkansas) Nashville Sit-ins (N.C. and Tennessee) Albany Demonstrations (arrest of King—Georgia) Birmingham Demonstrations (arrest of King—Alabama) JFK’s Civil Rights Act proposed March on Washington, August 1963 Voting Registration Efforts Malcolm X and Northern Efforts Assassination of Medgar Evers (Alabama) Mississippi Summer Project Freedom Summer and the Murder of Three Students (Miss.) Mississippi Freedom Party and The 1964 Democratic Convention Selma Voting Registation and Boycotts (Alabama) March from Selma to Montgomery (Alabama)

Organizations

NAACP Southern Christian Leadership

Conference Students Non-Violent Coordinating

Committee Congress of Racial Equality Nat ional Urban League Nation of Islam

AP Supplement—see AP Guide, Ch. 23 p. 153-161

Slaughterhouse Cases and 1883 Civil rights Cases

Film: Birth of a Nation, 1915

Marcus Garvey

FDR’s Fair Employment Practices Commission (and A. Philip Randolph)

Leadership

King—SCLC Roy Wilkins—NAACP Stokely Carmichael—SNCC Huey Newton—Black Panthers Malcolm X—Black Muslims

Note: Ida Wells-Barnett, Ella Baker, Diane Nash

“One Man, One Vote”

Reynolds v. Sims—1964—Congressional reapportionment based most recent census date

States rights vs. Federal Government

What does this mean? How did the Civil War resolve it or did it? How was this an issue in the 1950s and

1960s? How is this an issue today? View the next slide: Which side does

Wallace represent? Which side does the Deputy Attorney

General represent? Which side does the trooper represent?

Governor George Wallace “standing at the school house door” blocking Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach—defying integration efforts. What moral compromises would a trooper have to make if any?

King in the Birmingham Jail, 1963

Is it always wrong to defy the law?

When, if ever, is it right to defy a society’s laws?

Who are models of Civil Disobedience?

Read the Letter from Birmingham Jail1. Underline everything you

think is an injustice.

2. Circle everything you think is illegal today.

3. What types of actions are regulated by laws?

4. Some people say you can’t change behavior by passing laws, but that is what laws do. Which actions would be the most difficult to change?

5. How have conditions described in King’s letter changed today?

Quiz--#1-15

15.Whose philosophy made the most sense for America in the 1960’s, Martin’s or Malcolm’s? Explain and back up your argument with details from the documents provided.