Race Relations
& the Civil Rights Movement
Keeping the “movement” in the
continuing struggle for equality
Something to ponder…
Thomas Jefferson said, “All men are created
equal…” If this is true, then why is
legislation still necessary to guarantee
what is already declared in the United
States Declaration of Independence?
Why are there groups of people who work
to ensure that “man” be treated equally?
Why is it that in the most democratic of all
democracies, man still is not guaranteed
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Organizing for Civil Rights
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• January 1909: interracial group assembled at
the New York apartment of William English
Walling to discuss proposals for an organization
that would advocate the civil and political rights
of African Americans
• The organizational goals were the abolition of
segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisement,
and racial violence, particularly lynching.
• W.E.B. DuBois—Founding Father
Jim Crow:
Legitimization of anti-black racism
• 1877-mid 1960s
Jim Crow Laws
• “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white
person to play together or in company with
each other in any game of cards or dice,
dominoes or checkers.” Birmingham, Alabama 1930
• “Any white woman who shall suffer or
permit herself to be got with child by a
negro or mulatto…shall be sentenced to
the penitentiary for not less than eighteen
months.” Maryland, 1924
Integration of Armed Forces
July 26, 1948: President Truman issued
executive order:
• “Equality of treatment and opportunity in the
armed forces without regard to race, color,
religion, or national origin."
Chicago Defender, July 31, 1948.
• This was a major victory for civil rights
advocates in the quest for full citizenship
School Segregation
click here for video
Psychological Effects of Racism
• In the "doll test,"
popularized by social
psychologists Kenneth
Bancroft Clark and his
wife, Mamie Phipps Clark
(1940s), children were
given a black doll and a
white doll and asked
which one they preferred.
Most black children
preferred the white doll.
Brown v. Topeka Board of
Education
Briggs v. Elliott (SC)
Davis v. County School
Board of Prince Edward
County (VA)
Gebhart v. Belton (Del)
Bolling v. Sharpe (DC)
• George E.C. Hayes,
Thurgood Marshall,
and James Nabrit,
congratulating each
other following
Supreme Court
decision declaring
segregation
unconstitutional.
• May 1954
President Harry S. Truman
• First 20th century president to
actively support civil rights
legislation
• July of 1948, passed a number
of executive orders to attack
discrimination and segregation
in federal employment
• Appointed the first black judge
to the federal bench
• Integrated military during
World War II
• Proposed a bill to make
lynching a federal crime
Rosa Parks & The Montgomery
Bus Boycott 1955
• Failed to give up her
seat on a public bus
to a white person
• Arrested for violating
a city ordinance
• Event sparked citywide, 381-day, bus
boycott
• “Mother of the Civil
Rights Movement”
Little Rock 9
• Little Rock Arkansas begins
desegregation of Central High
School in September 1957.
• Arkansas governor Orval
Faubus ordered the Arkansas
National Guard to preserve
order, a euphemism for
keeping the nine prospective
African American students out.
• September 25, 1957, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
federalized the Arkansas
National Guard and deployed
paratroopers to carry out the
desegregation orders.
Central High School Integration
then
now
•
CNN article-click here
Sit-Ins
•
•
In 1960 four freshmen from North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical
College in Greensboro strolled into the
F. W. Woolworth store and quietly sat
down at the lunch counter. They were
not served. The next morning they
came with twenty-five more students.
Within weeks similar demonstrations
had spread to over a hundred cities, in
both the North and South.
At Shaw University in Raleigh, North
Carolina, the students formed their
own organization, the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC, pronounced "Snick"). The
students' bravery in the face of verbal
and physical abuse led to integration in
many stores even before the passage
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
May 1961
The "Freedom Riders"
•
•
•
•
Civil rights activists-black and
white sought to "test" enforcement
of a recent Supreme Court
decision outlawing segregation in
bus terminals.
They boarded two busses in
Washington, D.C. and were
bound to New Orleans via
South Carolina, Georgia, and
Alabama.
At various bus terminals, the black
"Freedom Riders" would go to the
white dining areas and waiting
rooms while the white "Freedom
Riders" would go to the area
reserved for blacks.
During the journey, Freedom
Riders were often accosted and
beaten; one of their busses was
firebombed.
Medgar Evers
Born July 2, 1925, in Mississippi
Drafted into U.S. Army in 1943: served
in WW II
Attended Alcorn College, began to
establish local chapters of the NAACP1952.
1954-appointed Mississippi’s first field
secretary for the NAACP
June 12, 1963, shot in the back outside his
home as his wife and children looked
on, buried at Arlington National
Cemetery.
Accused killer-white supremacist
Byron De La Beckwith, stood trial
twice in the 1960s-both ended in
mistrials
Beckwith was convicted in a third trial in
1994, and sentenced to life in prisondied 2001
August 28, 1963
The March on Washington
• To pressure the
government and
Congress to act more
quickly on the civil rights
agenda, a massive march
on the nation's capital
was planned.
• According to estimates,
over 250,000 participated
in the demonstration
which culminated in the
speech given by
Reverend Martin Luther
King
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President
Kennedy
proposed
legislation
President
Johnson
signed into law
Selma March
March 9, 1965
• Draw national attention to
the struggle for black voting
rights and support for the
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Police beat and tear-gassed
the marchers just outside of
Selma (Bloody Sunday)
• Two weeks later, more than
3,000 people set out again
for Montgomery
• Arrived 5 days later, with
MLK addressing the crowd
of some 20,000 people
Malcolm (Little) X
• Born May 1925,
Omaha Nebraska
• June 29, 1963, lead
the Unity Rally in
Harlem--one of the
nations largest civil
rights events
• Assassinated Feb.
21, 1965
• "I believe in the
brotherhood of man, all
men, but I don’t believe in
brotherhood with anybody
who doesn’t want
brotherhood with me. I
believe in treating people
right, but I’m not going to
waste my time trying to
treat somebody right who
doesn’t know how to
return the treatment."
-- Speech, Dec. 12 1964, New York City
Civil Rights Memorial
‘Honoring the memory’
• The circular fountain
provides a timeline of
important events,
beginning in 1954 with
the Supreme Court
decision to integrate
schools and ending with
Dr. King's murder in
1968.
• It also records the names
of 40 men, women, and
children who lost their
lives working for social
justice.
• A thin pool of water flows
soothingly over this
circular "table”.
• "We [those
fighting for social
equality] will not
be satisfied until
justice rolls down
like waters and
righteousness
like a mighty
stream."
Dr. Martin Luther King
Civil Rights Memorial
The End
Thank you for watching….this
presentation is dedicated to every
person who has lost their lives in the
courageous fight for racial equality.