The Civil Rights Era Chapter 26. Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement –In the North No official segregation but the two rarely mixed They lived in separate

The Civil Rights EraThe Civil Rights Era

Chapter 26Chapter 26

Beginning of the Civil Rights MovementBeginning of the Civil Rights Movement

– In the North • No official

segregation but the two rarely mixed

• They lived in separate communities

• The African Americans faced Prejudice with hiring and housing


– In the South• Segregation was

supported by law• Jim Crow Laws

enforced separation in schools, hospitals, transportation, theatres and restaurants

• 1896- Plessy V. Ferguson “Separate but Equal”


– The NAACP challenged laws preventing African Americans from true equality

• Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer who attacked segregation according to the Constitution.

• His goal was integration


– Baseball was integrated when Jackie Robinson was signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947

– In 1948, Truman ordered integration of all units of the Armed Forces


– Segregation in schools was widespread until Oliver and Linda Brown

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka– Separate but equal

is not legal and schools were being forced to integrate


• In Little Rock, Arkansas, there was a problem with forced integration– The governor did

not want integration– When 9 African

Americans students went to school, the State National Guard was keep the students out

– Eisenhower sent Federal Troops in to enforce the integration

Little RockLittle Rock


– On Dec 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white rider. (Montgomery, Alabama)

• The driver had Parks arrested


• All African Americans boycotted the busses the day of Park’s trial– Martin Luther King

Jr. urged the African Americans to boycott the busses the day of Park’s trial.

– The boycott lasted 381 days until the Supreme Court ruled “Bus Segregation” was unconstitutional

An expanding role for the An expanding role for the governmentgovernment

– In 1953, President Eisenhower appoints Earl Warren to the Supreme Court thinking he would be conservative

• He was NOT conservative


• 1966-Miranda v. Arizona– Ended with Miranda

rights-Advising arrested persons of their legal rights

• Tinker v. Des Moines School District– Freedom of Speech


• The Judicial Branch began Judicial Activism– Laws were

overturned if they were unfair, past decisions did not matter


– JFK was elected in 1960

• The youngest person ever elected

• He called on Congress to end poverty, fighting disease, ensure justice– Congress rejected

most democratic proposals


• Nov 23, 1963- Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas– Lee Harvey Oswald

was arrested

– People were shocked


– Lyndon Johnson became President and was elected again the next year

• He grew up in Texas, taught Mexicans American, supported FDR

• He set out to make economic and social reforms– He enacted more laws– Worked on a civil

rights law


• This began his “War on Poverty”– Economic

Opportunity Act attacked the causes of poverty

– Welfare, department of housing and urban development


– Medicare to help people over 65 pay their medical bill

• Medicaid- provided money to assist poor who were not covered by Medicare

• He expanded the role of government

Civil rights movement cont’Civil rights movement cont’

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in civil disobedience

• He believed in nonviolence and was a Baptist Minister

• He got his ideas from Mohandas Gandhi

• He helped to found Southern Christian Leadership Conference


– Sit in’s began as a tool to protest segregation

• Freedom rides set out to the South to integrate bus stations before being attacked in Alabama


– The SCLC began mass protests in Birmingham, Alabama

• Although it was peaceful, dogs, fire hoses and cattle prods were used

• The city agreed to desegregate public facilities


– After this, JFK sent Congress a Civil Rights Bill

• Civil rights leaders marched on the capital and King Jr. made his “I have a dream” speech


– Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress

• It banned discrimination

• In 1964, volunteers set out to register African American voters– 3 volunteers were

found murdered. People were beaten, shot and churches were bombed


– March 1965- Mass protest in Alabama

• Tear gas, clubs and whips were used on the people as the public watched on television

• Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965


– Some people grew impatient and turned into militant leaders

• Malcolm X called on African Americans to completely separate from white society

• He later spoke of an “Honest white-black brotherhood”


• Stokely Carmichael argued that African American should fight back if attacked, no more nonviolence– “Black Power”


– In 1965-There was urban discontent

• In Watts, LA, citizens were angered by the police so they burned cars, looted stores, 1000 people were killed or injured.

• Over 2 years, this happened in dozens of other cities

• April 4, 1965, King was assassinated


– African Americans had a greater role in the political process

• There was also new “Affirmative Action” programs

Other Americans seeking rightsOther Americans seeking rights

– Although women had the right to vote, they had a long way to go to get equality.

• Betty Friedam wrote The Feminine Mystique about women’s role in

society.


– She founded the National Organization for Women, its goal was equality

– The NOW campaigned for the equal rights amendment- which would forbid sex discrimination

– Many people, both men and women opposed this amendment


• 1963- Equal Pay Act– Women were

elected to city councils, state legislature and the US Congress


– Mexican Americans were also subject to discrimination

• 1954- Brown v. Board of Education

• Hernandez v. Texas- Said excluding Mexican Americans from juries was illegal


• In 1966- Cesar Chavez helped to form a labor union- United Farm Workers wanted to gain higher wages– He used non violent

protests

• Voting Rights Act of 1975- Bilingual Elections


– Native Americans• Americans Indian

movement protested federal policy

– 1958- American Association of Retired Persons to promote health insurance for retired Americans


– Disability rights accommodations

• Reserved parking, ramps, wheelchair lifts, Braille buttons

– The Education for Handicapped Act

• 1990-The Americans with Disabilities Act

Documents

The Civil Rights Era Chapter 26. Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement –In the North No official segregation but the two rarely mixed They lived in separate