Ch 16-The Civil Rights MovementSec 1 The Movment Begins
Essential Questions:
• How had legalized segregation deprived AfricanAmericans of their rights as citizens?
• How did WWII experiences lay the foundation for
the movement?
• What were key court decisions of the movement?
What were the responses to those decisions?
• Who were the key leaders and organizations of the
Civil Rights movement?
• What were victories of the movement?
• How did the movement expand and change?
Segregation : The World of Jim
Crow 1877-1960’s
• Many states passed Jim Crow laws
• The laws required separation of blacks and
whites in schools, parks, public buildings,
hospitals, and transportation systems
• Whites and Blacks could not use the same
public facilities
• African American Facilities were always
inferior ( Plessy V Fergerson 1896)
• Violence towards
African- Americans was
widespread
• Lynchings were carried
out when mobs seized
innocent individuals
and tortured,
mutilated and hung the
victim
• Those who did it were
not caught or punished
(KKK)
Discrimination: North Vs South
• In the South de jure segregation was practiced
because of the Jim Crow laws (The Law)
• In the North de facto segregation was practiced,
the not posted or unannounced separation of
races ( The Fact)
– Public Areas, schools, housing, and employment were
effectively segregated
– Bloody Race Riots occurred in NYC in 1900, and
Springfield Illinois in 1908, Tulsa in 1921
The Great Migration 1890-1920
Success and Black Pride
• The 369th Harlem Hell Fighters
of WWI
• Madame CJ Walker became
the richest women in America
• Marcus Garvey’s United Negro
Improvement Association
(UNIA) gained support in the
1920’s
• The Harlem Renaissance of
the 1920’s
Civil Rights of the 1940’s
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New job opportunities for Blacks, Latinos, and women
1million African Americans served in WWII
Double V Campaign
In 1942 Civil Rights leader James Farmer founded the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to confront segregation
in the North
First Sit In was used in Chicago, and boycotts
In 1943 Race Riot in Detroit, 34 killed
A. Phillip Randolph’s March on Washington
FDR’s establishing the Fair Labor Practices Commission (
No Discrimination in War Work)
NAACP’s Legal Strategy
• The NAACP focused on the inequalities
between the black/white schools
• Under lawyer Thurgood Marshall the NAACP
would win 29 out of 32 cases
• Morgan Vs Virginia (1946) - No segregated
seating on interstate buses
• Sweatt Vs Painter (1950) – State Law schools
must admit black applicants
Brown V. Board of Education
• The father of 8 yr old Linda Brown challenged the
idea of his daughter traveling 21 blocks to school in
Topeka, Kansas
• Thurgood Marshall argued the case before the
Supreme Court (1954)
• Under Chief Justice Earl Warren the court
unanimously struck down school segregation
• It violated the 14th Amendment and “in public
education the doctrine of separate but equal has
no place.”
• 12 million schoolchildren in 21 states were impacted
Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956
• In December 1st, 1955 Seamstress and NAACP
officer Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on
the bus home
• The Montgomery Improvement Association
suggested a boycott and a young 26 yr. old
Minister Martin Luther King was elected leader
• African-Americans filed a lawsuit and boycotted
the busses for 381 days
• A bomb ripped through MLK’s home but in 1956
the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation
Crisis in Little Rock 1957
• In September Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas
ordered the AK National Guard to turn away nine
African American students trying to attend Little
Rock’s Central High school
• A Federal Judge ordered the “Little Rock Nine” be
admitted
• The students were turned away by hostile crowds
and guardsman
• IKE called out the 101st Airborne in support of the
Federal Court Order (Troop escort)
• Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave the Attorney General
power over school desegregation
Dr. Martin Luther King
• Dr. King called his brand of non-violent resistance
“Soul Force”.
• He was influenced by his Christian beliefs, Henry
David Thoreau, A. Phillip Randolph, Jesus and
Mohandas Gandhi
• King graduated from Morehouse College
• King earned a divinity degree from Crozer
Theological Seminary in Chester, PA
• King earned a PH.D from Boston University where
he met his wife Coretta Scott King
Dr. King and the SCLC
• In 1957 King joined with Baptist Ministers and Civil
Rights leaders in forming the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC)
• King worked with two Northern pacifists: Beyard
Rustin and Glenn Smily
• Ella Baker was the backbone of SCLC by setting up
branches all over the South
• The Reverend Ralph Abernathy was elected
treasurer
Ch 16 Sec 2-Challenging Segregation: Sit-ins
• In April 1960 Baker helped students at Shaw
University organize The Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• Student Activism would be essential
• In February 1960 sit-in were held at the White
Only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro,
NC
• By late 1960 students had descended on
segregated lunch counters in 48 cities in 11 states
resisting violent backlash
The Freedom Rides
• In 1961 CORE members black and white began
riding interstate buses to test the courts decision
to end segregation on buses and public places
• Freedom Riders were attacked and beaten by
white mobs in Birmingham and Anniston, AL
• One bus was firebombed, in Montgomery riders
were beaten with bats and pipes
• RFK sent in 400 Federal Marshals for the rest of the
ride to Mississippi
• The ICC banned segregation in all interstate travel
Integrating Old Miss
• In Sept. 1962 air-force
veteran James Meredith
won a case to enroll
• Gov. Ross Barnett refused
to let him register
• Riots broke out, thousands
of soldiers called in, 200
arrests,160 wounded
marshals and two deaths
The Movement at High Tide -Birmingham, Alabama
• The SCLC and Dr. MLK targeted Birmingham, AL to
hold a march
• In April 12, 1963 Dr. MLK was arrested
• He wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
• On May 2nd, 2,000 children marched
• Chief Bull Conner arrested 959 of them
• On May 3rd, Police Dogs, high pressure hoses, and
clubs were used (National TV Audience)
• Protests, Boycotts, and Negative Media forced
desegregation
• JFK sent a Civil Rights Bill
to Congress
• US Marshalls are sent in to
desegregate the Univ. of
AL
• Gov. George Wallace
stands in the door
• NAACP’s Medger Evers is
gunned down
• In Sept. a bomb killed four
girls in a Baptist Church
The March on Washington
• To encourage the Congress to pass JFK’s Civil
Rights Bill, A. Phillip Randolph and Bayard
Rustin organized a march on Washington
• On August 28th, 1963 more than 250,000
people including 75,000 whites assembled
on the national mall
• All listened to many speaker including Dr.
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream!”
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• After JFK was killed LBJ pledged to continue his
work
• On July 2nd, 1964 LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of
1964 which prohibited discrimination because of
race, religion, national origin, and gender
• It gave all citizens the right to enter libraries, parks,
washrooms, restaurants, theaters and all public
places
• It gave more government power to desegregate
and created the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Freedom Summer
• In the summer of 1964 CORE and SNCC members under
Bob Moses began voting drives in the deep South to
register African American voters ( Freedom Summer)
• In June 1964- 3 civil rights workers disappeared, in Miss.
they were murdered by the KKK and local police
• Project workers suffered 1,000 arrests, 80 beatings, 35
shootings, and 30 bombings
• Blacks wanted a voice within the Miss. Democratic party,
so SNCC organized the Miss. Freedom Democratic Party
led by Fannie Lou Hamer ( They were given only 2 of 68
seats)
The Selma Campaign
• In 1965 SNCC organized a voting campaign in
Selma, Alabama
• 2,000 African-Americans had been arrested
• On March 7th, 1965 , 600 protestors began the
march from Selma to Montgomery, AL
• Police swung pipes, clubs and used tear-gas –
• “Bloody Sunday”
• On March 21, 3,000 members led by MLK with
Federal Protection marched
• The numbers grew to 25,000 marchers
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
• That summer LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act of
1965
• The act eliminated literacy tests, allowed federal
officials to register voters
• The 24th Amendment to the Constitution
eliminated poll taxes
Ch 16 Sec 3- New Civil Rights IssuesViolence Erupts in the cities of the North
• Centuries of de facto segregation had produced
social and economic inequalities ( Racism)
• Slums, high unemployment, poor schools all
contributed to desperation
• Aggressive Police was a point of contention
• In July 1964, a race riot erupted in Harlem after a
15 year old black student was killed
• On Aug. 11th, 1965 the worst riot erupted in Watts,
Los Angeles
The Kerner Commission
• What caused race riots and the destruction?
• 1960’s Congressional Committee Investigation
• People suffered in the cities from heightened
expectations from the civil rights movement and
LBJ’s promises in the Great Society that were not
realized
• “White Racism” created an explosive mixture of
poverty, police brutality, and the commission
recommended extensive public housing,
integrated schools, 2 million new jobs, and a
national system of income supplementation
• Watts- 34 deaths, $200
million in damages
• Detroit 1967 – 43 deaths,
$40 million in property
damages
• In 1966 and 67 more than
100 riots and violent
clashes took place
• Newark, San Francisco,
Milwaukee, Phila.,
Cleveland, and Dayton
Black Power
• In June 1966 march it had become evident to MLK
that CORE and SNCC had become militant
• “We shall overrun!”
• Stokely Carmichael of SNCC preached the slogan
• “Black Power” the battle cry for militant civil rights
Malcolm X and Black Consciousness
• Malcolm Little joined The Nation of Islam when he
was in prison converted and changed his name to
Malcolm X
• He preached Elijah Muhammad’s views that whites
were the cause of the problem and black should
separate from society
• Malcolm X preached black supremacy
• Malcolm X got media attention which resulted in
resentment from other Nation of Islam members
• In March of 1964 Malcolm X broke with the Nation
and went on the pilgrimage to Mecca
The Problem is still here…
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAF70Td
wJqg
“Ballots or Bullets?”
• Malcolm X returned and preached an extremely
moderate message, found a new tolerant Muslim
organization(OAU) and proposed working with Dr.
MLK
• On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by
members of the Nation of Islam, FBI?
The Black Panthers
• In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
founded the political party the Black Panthers
• It advocated self-sufficiency, full employment
opportunities, decent housing and no military service
due to the unfair numbers being drafted and killed in
Vietnam
• Police shootouts occurred and the FBI conducted
many investigations
• Panthers helped out with many community projects in
urban ghettos
King, the War and the Assassination
• On April 3rd, 1968 DR. MLK addressed a crowd in
Memphis
• He was there to support the city striking garbage
workers
• He gave his famous
“Promised Land” Speech
He was assassinated
one day later by James
Earl Ray on his hotel
balcony
Reaction to King’s Death
• RFK passionate plea for
non-violence in
Indianapolis
• Over 100 cities exploded
in flames
• Baltimore, Chicago, KC,
and Washington were the
worst
• RFK was killed in June
1968 by Sirhan Sirhan