THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVMENT
1954 - 1968
25.1 – THE MOVMENT BEGINS
• What does the term
“Civil Rights” mean to
you?
• What does the term
“segregation” mean to
you?
• Does segregation still
exist in the U.S. today?
25.1 – THE MOVEMENT BEGINS
• After WWII many
people started
challenging segregation
– Federal gov’t started to
take a stronger stand in
support of AfricanAmerican Rights
U.S. SUPREME COURT
JIM CROW LAWS
• It shall be unlawful for a negro and a white
person to play together in or in company with
each other in any game of cards or dice,
dominoes or checkers
– Birmingham, Alabama 1930
JIM CROW LAWS
• No colored barber shall serve as a barber to
white women or girls
– Atlanta, Georgia 1926
JIM CROW LAWS
• Marriages are void where one party is a white
person and the other is possessed of oneeighth or more negro, Japanese, for Chinese
blood
– Nebraska, 1911
JIM CROW LAWS
• Separate free schools shall be established for
the education of children of African descent;
and it shall be unlawful for any colored child
to attend any white school, or any white child
to attend a colored school
– Missouri 1929
JIM CROW LAWS
• 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 18 months
– Maryland, 1924
JIM CROW LAWS
• All railroads carrying passengers in the state
(other than street railroads) shall provide
equal but separate accommodations for the
white and colored races, by providing two or
more passenger cars for each passenger train,
or by dividing the cars by partition, so as to
secure separate accommodations
– Tennessee 1891
25.1 – ORIGINS OF THE MOVEMENT
Brown v. Board - 1954
Rosa Parks/Montgomery Bus
Boycott (1955)
CORE – Sit-ins
Thurgood Marshall - NAACP
SCLC – Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Little Rock, Arkansas 1957
25.1 – SIGNIFICANT COURT CASES
(read on your own)
• Norris v. Alabama
(1935)
– Juries
• Morgan v. Virginia
(1946)
– Interstate buses
• Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
– State law schools
EMMETT TILL
EMMETT TILL
WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WOULD
REALLY LIKE TO CHANGE IN GREAT
VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL OR INAMERICA?
(THINK LAW, RIGHTS….)
HOW WOULD YOU BRING ATTENTION
TO THAT CAUSE/PURSUE CHANGE?
1.
Title – your cause
2.
Significance – why is this cause so important/why should it be addressed?
3.
Actions – 2 specific steps you would take to bring attention/change
4. Rationale – why would you take those steps? What would those steps lead to
that would bring about the change you desire?
5.
Violence – is it justified in achieving your cause? Why or why not?
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/03/17/starbucks-wants-baristas-to-talk-aboutrace-with-customers/?intcmp=features
25.2 – CHALLENGING SEGREGATION
• Sit-in Movement
– African-Americans asked to be
served at segregated restaurants
– 1960 Woolworth’s in
Greensboro, N.C.
– By 1961 sit-ins had spread to
over 100 cities
– Heavy student involvement
– Students eventually formed the
Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC); alternative to the NAACP
and/or SCLC
Ella Baker
25.2 – CHALLENGING SEGREGATION
• Freedom Riders
– Groups of people encouraged
to travel in the South to bring
attention to segregated
buses/bus terminals
– Angry mobs often attacked
the buses/passengers
– Horrific violence in Alabama
in 1961
– The movement (3)
– The tactic (1)
– The strategy (2)
– The governor
“Bull” Connor
25.2 – KENNEDY AND CIVIL RIGHTS
• Promised to support the CRM
– AAs voted in large numbers for
him
– Early on he was timid,
disappointed many AAs, why?
– Robert Kennedy (Attorney
General) took charge of he
administration’s support of the
CRM
– By 1962 the segregation of
interstate buses was over
JAMES MEREDITH
• 1962 – The Governor of
Mississippi refused to allow
Meridith to enroll at the
University of Mississippi
• Riots break out, JFK
eventually has to send in
federal troops to guard
Meridith for the rest of the
school year
• Meredith statue vandalized
VIOLENCE IN BIRMINGHAM
• Frustrated wit the pace of reform,
MLK began demonstrations in
Birmingham, Alabama (1963)
– Why did he do this?
• MLK was arrested, wrote his
famous “Letter from Birmingham
Jail”
• Under orders from Bull Connor,
the police used clubs, dogs, and
hoses on the demonstrators (us
video)
• JFK prepares a new Civil Rights Bill
• Was this MLK’s plan all along?
25.2 – PURSUIT OF A CIVIL RIGHTS BILL
• 1963 – JFK starts
pushing for a Civil
Rights Bill after the
speech by Wallace
and the murder of
Medgar Evers
• August 28, 1963 –
over 200,000 march
on Washington, D.C.
to push for a Civil
Rights bill
– MLK gives his “I Have
a Dream” speech (us
video)
Medgar Evers
25.2 – THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
• Lyndon Johnson
(LBJ) became
president after JFK
was assassinated on
Nov. 22, 1963
• Under LBJ’s
leadership the Civil
Rights Act of 1964
was passed
25.2 – THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
1.
Gave the federal gov’t broad powers to prevent racial discrimination
2.
Made segregation illegal in most places of public gathering/accommodation
3.
Gave citizens of all races and nationalities equal access to public facilities
4.
Gave the U.S. Attorney General more power to bring about lawsuits to force
school desegregation
5.
Required private employers to end discrimination in the workplace
6.
Established the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
---- didn’t really address the issue of voting
25.2 – THE STRUGGLE FOR VOTING RIGHTS
• 24h Amendment
– Passed in 1964; did away
with poll taxes in federal
(not state) elections
– AAs were still fighting a
major battle to gain full
voting rights; were often
physical attacked for
registering voters or
voting itself
– MLK organized a march in
Selma, Alabama to bring
attention to the issue
(1965); leads to “Bloody
Sunday” (us video)
– LBJ was outraged, started
pushing for new voting
rights law
25.2 – VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
WHAT IT DID
1. Federal examiners could be
sent to register voters
2. Suspended discriminatory
devices (literacy tests) in
counties where less than
half of all adults had been
registered to vote
RESULTS
1. By the end of 1965 almost
250,000 new AAs had been
registered
2. # of elected AA officials in
the South increased
Now the 2 major goals of the CRM (outlawing of segregation and laws to prevent
voting rights) had been legislated. The movement now started to shift towards
acquiring full social and economic equality; focus on poverty and cities
25.3 – NEW CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES
• After the Voting Rights Act
of 1965 the was an
increased focus on fighting
poverty and social
inequality as opposed to
voting rights and
segregation
– Inner cities and ghettos
became a focus
• Most AAs were in low
paying, low status jobs and
poor, inner-city
neighborhoods
READ PAGES 870-872 and..
a. Turn each heading into a
question and answer that
question after reading the
section (total of 4)
b. Summarize each section in
20%
1. Urban problems
2. Watts Riot
3. Kerner Commission
4. Shift to Economic Rights
c.
Create an 8 question, multiple
choice quiz (2 questions for
each section)
25.3 – RIOTS
• Watts - neighborhood in Los
Angeles
– 6 day riot; massive
damage both
economically and
physically (US video)
• Dozens of riots in the late
1960s
– Tanks/troops sent into
Detroit in 1967
• Kerner Commission –
established by LBJ to study
urban riots; concluded that
racism was the cause for most
of the problems
25.3 – ECONOMIC FOCUS
• By the mid-1960s the
movement began to
focus on economic
change
• MLK moved into a
slum in Chicago
(why?)
– Chicago
Movement
25.3 – BLACK POWER
• In the late 1960s many AA’s,
especially young, urban AAs,
doubted MLKs methods
• Some called for “stronger” action:
– Armed self-defense
– Separate states for AAs
– Expulsion of whites from
leadership positions (CORE,
SNCC)
• Calls for Black Power
25.3 – BLACK POWER
• Black power:
- Stressed pride in AA culture
- Emphasized racial distinctiveness
rather than assimilation
- Centered on controlling the
direction of the
social/political/economic
struggles of AAs
- Led to new hair styles, new
names, calls for new courses in
school
• MLK criticized it but it was very
popular, especially in poorer
neighborhoods
Stokely Carmichael – leader of
the SNCC in 1966
25.3 – MALCOLM X
• Symbol/leader of the Black Power
movement
• Real name was Malcolm Little
– Tough childhood in Nebraska
– Transformed in prison
– Joined the Nation of Islam
(Black Muslims)
• Nation of Islam believed/taught:
– Black Nationalism – AAs
should separate from whites
and form their own selfgoverning communities
Malcolm X
25.3 – MALCOLM X cont.
• Changed his name to “X”, which symbolized
the family name of his enslaved ancestors
• He broke with the Nation of Islam and
changed some of his views after his
pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca)
– Now believed that an integrated
society was possible
– Assassinated in 1965 by members of
the Nation of Islam (why?)
• He influenced AAs for years to come
– Black Panthers – formed in 1966; much
more “radical”
– Believed in revolution, urged AAs to
arm themselves, wanted more rapid
change
25.3 – ASSASSINATION OF MLK
• C
JAMES EARL RAY