The Civil Rights Movement

January 8, 2014

The Civil Rights Movement

Standard: SS8H11

The student will evaluate the role of Georgia in the modern civil rights movement.

The Beginnings…

• While we think of the modern civil rights movement as taking place during the 1960s, in reality, it started much earlier

• In Georgia, and other places in the United States, African-Americans had been making strides towards equality since right after World War II

Benjamin Mays

• Dr. Benjamin Mays was born in 1895 to parents who were former slaves

• He became a teacher, working in South Carolina and Georgia– He taught at Morehouse College, becoming president of the

college in 1940• He served as the Atlanta School Board’s first African-

American president• He became an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. during

King’s freshman year at Morehouse• He retired in 1981• A street and a high school in Atlanta are named after

him

The End of the White Primary

• Primary elections determine who is nominated to be on the ballot for the general election

• Although the 15th Amendment gave African-American men the right to vote, legislators in Georgia twisted it to mean only in the general election

• So, only whites voted in the primaries, guaranteeing that their candidates would be nominated

• In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that white primaries were unconstitutional and from then on, African-American voters could take part in all elections

1946 Governor’s Race

• Democrats Eugene Talmadge, Eurith Rivers, and James Carmichael were running

• Talmadge became the party candidate due to the county unit system

• He ran unopposed, and was elected, but was in very poor health

• His advisors didn’t think he would live long enough to finish his term, so they came up with a plan

• They had a few hundred supporters write in Talmadge’s son Herman on the ballot as their second choice

Government in Chaos

• Before being sworn in, Eugene Talmadge died• The legislature chose Herman Talmadge as

governor based on the number of write-in votes he had received

• Technically, the lieutenant governor, Melvin Thompson should have taken Eugene Talmadge’s place

• However, a group of Talmadge’s supporters broke in to the governor’s office, changed the locks, and prepared to run the state

Finally…a governor!

• Ellis Arnall, the outgoing governor, was locked out of his own office, so he set up a new one and officially resigned the governorship 3 days later

• Lieutenant Governor Thompson also set up an office and began proceedings to become governor

• Since no one was officially governor, there was no one running the state

• Finally in March, the state Supreme Court ruled that Thompson was the rightful governor until a special election could be held in 1948

• In that election, Herman Talmadge was legally elected governor of the state

Herman Talmadge

• Talmadge, who was re-elected in 1950, was a strict segregationist and refused to integrate Georgia’s schools

• He tried to bring back the white primary, but failed

• He did improve education, even while keeping it segregated

• He expanded schools to include grades 1-12 and lengthened the school year to 9 months

• He raised standards for school buildings, transportation, and curriculum

Integration of schools…

• In 1950, a black student, Linda Brown tried to enroll at a white school in Kansas

• She was denied, so her dad sued the school board

• The case, Brown v. the Board of Education, reached the U.S. Supreme Court

• In 1954, the court ruled that “separate-but-equal” schools were unconstitutional

• It ordered integration of schools• This ruling overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson

ruling that had allowed “separate-but-equal”

Sibley Commission

• In Georgia, most schools refused to integrate• In 1955, the Georgia legislature voted to cut off

funding to any system that integrated• A commission, headed by John Sibley, was

appointed to study the problem• They found that most Georgians would rather

close the schools than integrate them• The commission recommended that school

systems be allowed to decide on their own what they should do

Integration of Colleges

• On January 6, 1961, the University of Georgia, backed by the Governor Vandiver, allowed its first two black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, into the school

• Holmes later graduated with honors and went on to become an orthopedic surgeon

• Hunter would become a nationally known newspaper and public television reporter

• Governor Vandiver would go on to ask the legislature to repeal segregation laws in Georgia, paving the way for smoother integration than in other states

The 1956 Georgia state flag

• In 1956, the state flag was changed to incorporate the Confederate battle emblem

• African-Americans were offended as they felt this referenced slavery in the state’s past

• Georgia lost millions as the reference to “old-fashioned southern” traditions damaged the tourist industry

• It wasn’t changed until 2001, then again in 2003

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• MLK, Jr. was born in Atlanta in 1929• He attended Morehouse College and obtained a Ph.D.• He believed in a 4-pronged approach to gaining civil

rights: direct, nonviolent action; legal remedies; ballots; economic boycotts

• He helped organize huge protests in Birmingham, AL that led to the writing of the civil rights laws by President John F. Kennedy

• He also spoke at the 1963 March on Washington • He was assassinated in Memphis, TN in 1968

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

• Following Dr. King’s lead in non-violence, a new era of protest was started by black college students with a sit-in at a lunch counter in North Carolina in 1960

• A sit-in occurs when people enter a public building and refuse to leave until they are served or their demands are met

• Even though they were refused service, the idea spread around the South

• Later that year, the SNCC (pronounced “snick”) was created

• Their first president was Georgian John Lewis• They helped register African-Americans to vote, led

protests, organized sit-ins, and boycotted businesses that wouldn’t serve African-Americans

Albany Movement

• Following the example of SNCC, a sit-in was organized in Albany, GA in the “whites-only” waiting room at the bus station

• The protestors were arrested, which led the African-American community to form the Albany Movement

• More protestors arrived, and were arrested, including high school students

• Dr. King, who had traveled to Albany, was arrested for protesting

• All of this led to a biracial committee being formed to study the concerns of African-Americans in Albany

March on Washington - 1963

• President Kennedy sent the strongest civil rights bill in history to Congress in June 1963

• Congress took their time with it, leading to over 250,000 people representing all races and nationalities to gather at the Washington Monument to demonstrate for its passage

• Dr. King gave the most famous speech of his career, the “I Have a Dream” speech here on August 28, 1963

The 1964 Civil Rights Act

• The bravery of civil rights demonstrators and the March on Washington caught the nation by storm

• Even though President Kennedy was assassinated in Nov. 1963, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, continued to urge Congress to pass the civil rights laws

• It was eventually passed into law, and became the most far-reaching civil rights legislation in American history– It made segregation of public places illegal– It prohibited discrimination in businesses– It withheld funds from public school systems that refused to

integrate

Changes in Georgia’s government

• In the 1960s, two rulings by the federal court brought dramatic change to the political structure in Georgia– The end of the county unit system– reapportionment

• The 1970s saw the election of African-Americans as Atlanta’s mayor and to the U.S. House of Representatives

The End of the County Unit System

• This system had been in place since 1917 to give power to Georgia’s rural areas

• In 1962, the Georgia federal court ruled the county unit system violated the 14th Amendment

• This caused a shift in political power to the urban areas, and gave predominantly black populations an equal opportunity to elect representatives

• As a result, Leroy Johnson was elected in 1962 as the first African-American state senator since Reconstruction

Reapportionment

• When the county unit system decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, they handed down the “one person, one vote” decision

• This is the concept that every citizen’s vote should be equal to every other citizen’s vote no matter where they live

• In 1964, the federal court ruled that Georgia violated the one-person, one-vote concept by distributing one legislative seat to each county

• The court said that legislative seats should be based on population rather than county boundary lines

• Georgia had to reapportion (redraw) its voting districts so they were of equal population size

• This also shifted political power to urban areas

Lester Maddox

• Lester Maddox was elected governor in 1967• Although Maddox was a famous

segregationist, he surprised Georgians by appointing more African-Americans to state boards and commissions

• He integrated the Georgia State Patrol• He also reformed state prisons and increased

spending on teacher salaries and higher education

Maynard Jackson

• Jackson became Atlanta’s first African-American mayor in 1974

• He helped the city progress by reorganizing the police and fire departments, as well as city government

• He led the development of MARTA and expanded the airport into one of the busiest in the world

• He helped lead the efforts to bring the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta

• When he died in 2003, the airport was renamed Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in his honor

Andrew Young

• Young, who is from Thomasville, GA, was a trusted aide to Dr. King and was in Memphis when he was assassinated

• He was elected to the U.S House of Representatives in 1972

• He was twice re-elected to the House• He was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the United

Nations in 1977• He returned to Georgia in 1981, where he was elected

mayor of Atlanta twice• He helped bring the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta and is

currently a professor at Georgia State University

Questions…

• 1) How is Benjamin Mays connected to Dr. King?• 2) When did the white primary end?• 3) Who was elected governor in the 1946 election?• 4) Why did the legislature choose Herman Talmadge as governor

after Eugene Talmadge’s death?• 5) Who was eventually appointed governor by the Supreme

Court?• 6) What did Herman Talmadge refuse to do while Georgia’s

governor?• 7) How did Talmadge improve education?• 8) What did the Brown v. Board of Education decision say?• 9) What ruling did Brown overturn?• 10) What did the Sibley Commission recommend?• 11) Who were the first African-Americans to integrate UGA?• 12) Why did the 1956 state flag offend many African-Americans?

More Questions…

• 13) What famous civil rights leader was born in Atlanta in 1929?• 14) What was Dr. King’s approach to gaining civil rights?• 15) What did the SNCC do?• 16) What was the Albany Movement protesting?• 17) Why was the March on Washington organized?• 18) What famous speech was delivered at the March on Washington in

1963?• 19) What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?• 20) What amendment did the county unit system violate?• 21) How did the end of the county unit system affect elections?• 22) What is the “one-person, one-vote” concept? • 23) How did Georgia have to reapportion its voting districts?• 24) How did Lester Maddox surprise Georgians?• 25) What political positions did Andrew Young hold?• 26) Who was Atlanta’s first African-American mayor?• 27) What were Jackson’s accomplishments as mayor?