Chapter 21 Section 1 Notes
A Brief History Of Civil Rights
1860 - 1960
1860 Election
• Abraham Lincoln Wins
– Against Slavery
– So are 20 Northern “Free” States
• Don’t want it expanding into U.S. Territories in West
• Southern States view Lincoln as a threat to their economy
– Depended on Slave Labor
– 11 Southern slave states secede (2 more members later)
• Don’t want to be part of U.S. any more
• Form own government (Confederacy)
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis
Civil War (April 1861 – May 1865)
• North = bigger military, better equipped
– More industry is key
• Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1863)
– Lincoln announces that slaves are free
• War takes 4 years
– Around 620,000 people die
– Around 400,000 injured
– Leads to 3 Constitutional Amendments
• 13th Amendment (1865)
– Abolishes slavery
• 14th Amendment (1868)
– All people supposed to be treated equally under U.S. Laws
• 15th Amendment (1870)
– Black men can vote
Reconstruction (1865 – 1877)
• Northern Army (Union) stays in South after war
– Helps rebuild
– Wants to make sure South follows new amendments
Ku Klux Klan formed
• Roughly 500,000 Southerners
– Most former Confederate Soldiers
•
•
•
•
Wore White Costumes
Committed Acts of violence against Blacks
Many in powerful positions
Dies out when Army leaves (re-forms in 1920s)
Civil Rights Act of 1875
• 1st attempt at major Civil Rights legislation
– Supposed to stop discrimination in most places
– Enforced for a bit
• When U.S. Army leaves South, gets mostly ignored
• U.S. Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional (1883)
– All White Men
– Laws allowing discrimination in South begin (Jim Crow Laws)
Jim Crow Laws Legality Tested
• Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
– Supreme Court Case
• rules that separate facilities can be provided for blacks as long as they
are “equal”.
– Separate but Equal Doctrine
» Jim Crow Laws remain legal for over 50 years!
Homer Plessy
1/8th Black
Wasn’t allowed to sit in White Only Train Car
NAACP Formed (1909)
• grows dramatically after WWII
– Focuses on
• trying to provide an equal education
• Voting
• Stop illegal killings
– Limited success early on
African – American Contributions during
WWI and WWII
• Blacks migrate North searching for industrial jobs when White males at war.
– Paid better
• No discrimination in war industries
– Ordered by FDR in WWII
– Doesn’t last afterwards
– Segregation still existed
• housing, schools
– Less violence
• Blacks allowed in combat halfway into WWII
– They were very successful
• segregated units
Truman Desegregates the Military
• Occurs in 1948 (after WWII)
– Takes awhile, but finished by mid 1950s
Brown v Board of Education (1954)
• Most important Civil Rights decision ever
• All about going to closest public school
– Case revolved around 7 yr old Black Girl
• I’ll explain
• Decision:
– Public Schools needed to be integrated
– 9-0 decision
– Reverses Plessy v Ferguson
Thurgood
Marshall
(center) lawyer
that successfully
argued the
case on
behalf of the
Brown family.
He later became
1st Black
Supreme Court
Judge.
Reaction to Brown
• Most States followed the decision
– Led to “White Flight” (more in Sect. 3)
• Some Southern states don’t
– Whites threatened violence
• Another Court case (Brown II in 1955)
– said desegregation needed to happen fast
– Southern leaders still refused
Eisenhower Calls in National Guard (1957)
• forcibly desegregated schools
• 1st occurs in Little Rock, Arkansas
– 9 black students admitted to all white school
• On national TV
Rosa Parks
Member of the NAACP
• refused to give up her seat at the front of a public bus in Alabama to a
white man in 1955
–
–
–
–
Taken to jail (for a day)
eventually fined
Decided to appeal the case (NAACP helped)
Lost her job due to the publicity
• Harassed and intimidated during the process
Montgomery Bus Boycott
• NAACP encouraged blacks to boycott (not use) the buses until they
became integrated
– Walk, Carpool
• Wanted someone local to lead the movement
Martin Luther King Jr.
• Minister of large church
• Extremely well educated and articulate
• Promoted Nonviolent Resistance to injustice
– Soul Force
• Buses became integrated by U.S.
Supreme Court a year later
• Gains national recognition
– Becomes leader of Civil Rights Movement
Civil Rights Act of 1957
• developed mainly by LBJ (Texas Senator… before he was pres)
• Created a Federal Civil Rights Commission to address concerns
• Tried to require states to follow existing Civil Rights Laws
– Especially VOTING
• Many Southern states still
ignored this
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
SCLC (1957)
• Led by MLK Jr
• Purpose = continue causes like the bus boycotts
– Stay Nonviolent
– Get ordinary Americans to participate
• Including Whites
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
SNCC (1960)
• Mostly young college students
– More confrontational
– Included whites early on (more in Sec 3)
• Organized Sit-ins at white only lunch counters
– Led to violence and other acts of hatred against them
– Media coverage inspired similar acts around the U.S.
• Led voter registration drives in the South