civil rights
civil rights, rights that a nation's inhabitants
enjoy by law. The term is broader than “political
rights,” which refer only to rights devolving from
the franchise and are held usually only by a
citizen, and unlike “natural rights,” civil rights
have a legal as well as a philosophical basis. In
the United States civil rights are usually thought
of in terms of the specific rights guaranteed in
the Constitution: freedom of religion, of speech,
and of the press, and the rights to due process of
law and to equal protection under the law.
By the President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all
persons held as slaves within any State or
designated part of a State the people whereof shall
then be in rebellion against the United States shall
be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the
executive government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority thereof,
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons and will do no act or acts to repress such
persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may
make for their actual freedom.
Amendment XIII
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
Section 1.
December 18, 1865
Amendment XV
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
state on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Section 1.
(Women did not get the right to vote until amendment
XIX in 1920)
Civil Rights Act of 1875: A law passed on March 1, 1875, that
guaranteed equal rights for blacks in public places and made
illegal the exclusion of African Americans from jury duty.
However, the Supreme Court declared this act invalid in 1883
because it protected social rather than political rights. The Court
also argued that the 14th Amendment prohibited the states from
depriving individuals of their civil rights but did not protect the
abuse of individuals' civil rights by other individuals. This ruling
ended Federal protection of African Americans against
discrimination by private persons.
More than 350,000 African Americans served in segregated
units during World War I. 171 were awarded the French
Legion of Honor.
“Red Summer”
Cross burning was not banned until April, 2003
According to Tuskegee Institute figures, 3,437 African
Americans and 1,293 whites were lynched between 1882 and
1951.
W.E.B. DuBois
1868-1963
Scholar, Educator, Founder of NAACP
He was the uncompromising voice for black equality
in his day and the first scholar of black sociology,
believing that education could end racism.
Scottsboro Boys escorted by National Guard
Scottsboro Boys protected by National Guard
Jackie Robinson, 1947
The Civil Rights Era
One hundred years after the Civil War, blacks and their
white allies still pursued the battle for civil rights in every
area of American life. The Brown decision of 1954, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965,
and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 are major milestones in
the effort end discrimination. They regulate equal access
to public accommodations, equal justice before the law,
and equal employment, education and housing
opportunities. These changes were the result of a hardfought struggle. The African American struggle for civil
rights also inspired other liberation and rights movements,
including those of Native Americans, Latinos, and women
as well as liberation struggles in other counties.
Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas, May 17, 1954
August 28, 1955
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama
bus and was arrested.
On December 5, 1955, the Montgomery Improvement
Association was organized, and the famous boycott began
which lasted 381 days. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at
twenty-seven years old, became the leading thrust for civil
rights in America.
Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 21, 1956, after a Supreme
Court ruling banning segregation on city public transit vehicles took
effect
September, 1956: For the first time in America, over 1,000
school districts opened their doors to African-American children
on an integrated basis. No desegregation took place in the
districts of North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in the year of 1956.
On January 12, 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLS) was formally organized, and later, on
February 14, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was
elected president.
The Little Rock Nine
Desegregation of Central High School, September,
1957
Alabama, 1958
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Greensboro, North Carolina, 1960
Woolworth Lunch Counter Sit-in
Alabama, 1960
By 1960, four states in the
United States had not
desegregated their public
schools since the U.S. Supreme
Court decision in 1954 had been
handed down. They were South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi.
"At our first stop in Virginia . . . I [was] confronted with
what the Southern white has called `separate but equal.' A
modern rest station with gleaming counters and picture
windows was labeled `White,' and a small wooden shack
beside it was tagged `Colored.'"
-- Freedom Rider William Mahoney [26
Freedom Riders: May 1961
Anniston, Alabama
October 1, 1962, James Meredith
enrolls at University of Mississippi
April 16, 1963, Dr. King was jailed and, while there, produced his
thoughts about justice and civil rights in his famous Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.
On
Alabama, 1963
June 11, 1963, Governor George Wallace stages his “stand
in the schoolhouse door,” an unsuccessful attempt to block
integration of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.
Medgar Evers
1925-1963
“It may sound funny, but I love the South. I don’t choose
to live anywhere else. There’s land here, where a man
can raise cattle, and I’m going to do it some day. There
are lakes where a man can sink a hook and fight the
bass. There is room here for my children to play and
grow, and become good citizens—if the white man will let
them....” —Medgar Evers, “Why I Live in Mississippi”
August 28, 1963, March on Washington
March on Washington, August 28, 1963
Time magazine honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
as the Man of the Year, along with a feature story,
January 3, 1964.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel
Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 1964.
September 15, 1963, 16th Street Baptist Church
bombed by KKK
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project 1964
June 21, 1964 - Neshoba County murders - Three civil
rights workers are murdered near Philadelphia,
Mississippi. After several weeks of searching for the
missing civil rights workers, authorities found the bodies of
James Chaney, an African-American Mississippi native,
Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman in an earthen
dam.
The Congress of the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of
1964 which included provisions for the elimination of
discrimination in education, employment, and in public
accommodations. President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill with
notables present, including Dr. King, on July 2, 1964.
Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965: “Bloody Sunday”
Alabama, 1965
Alabama, 1965
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965
Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.
•Suspended literacy tests
•Authorized federal officials to supervise elections
in some Southern districts
African American voter
registration jumped from 35% to
65% by 1970.
One of the bloodiest and most destructive race riots
ever in America happened in Watts, Los Angeles,
California and lasted for five days, August 11-15, 1965.
Thirty-five people were killed, nine hundred injured,
and property losses of $225 million. Federal troops
were called in to stop the violence.
The summer of 1967 was called the "Hot Summer," the
worst racial uprisings in American history with over forty
riots: the cities of Newark, NJ; Detroit, MI; New York,
NY; Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL;
Atlanta, GA; and Buffalo, NY had the worst.
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June 1966 -- Black Power Movement "officially"
begins as a movement distinctly different from the
Civil Rights Movement
June 1966 –
Led by Malcolm X, Robert Williams, Stokley
Carmichael, and the Black Panther Party, the
Black Power Movement encouraged pride in
African-American culture and racial heritage.
In an approach different from the Civil Rights
Movement, the Black Power Movement
advocated improvement in African-American
communities and militant protest, as
opposed to integration and non-violent
protest.
1925-1965
Activist, Spiritual Leader
Malcolm X became a
leading figure in the Nation
of Islam because of his
astute criticism of white
America and the alternative
vision he proposed. He
broke with the NOI in 1964.
STOKELY CARMICHAEL
A leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) and later the Black Panthers,
Carmichael coined the phrase "Black Power" and “Black
is Beautiful”
October 15, 1966 - The Black Panther Party, an outgrowth of the Black Power Movement, is formed by
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The official name of
the party was the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense. It advocated militant protest and active selfdefense by African Americans, initially recruiting
members from African-American communities in
Oakland and San Francisco, California.
Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers
October, 1966
“Any necessary means…”
Huey Newton 1942-1989
Founder of Black Panthers
Huey Newton's Black Panther Party initiated such social
programs as the Free Breakfast Program, a free medical
clinic and free legal aid, as well as defense against police
brutality.
1966 – Black Power advocates take over a disintegrating civil
rights movement and begin to emphasize separatism and
community control as opposed to integration and nonviolence.
From the Paul B. Johnson Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi.
H. Rap Brown (1943- ) became the chairperson of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on
May 12, 1967. He changed the name of SNCC to the
Student National Coordinating Committee. Brown's runins with the law landed him in jail where he converted to the
Islamic faith. His new name became Jamil Abdullah AlAmin.
April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was
assassinated on the balcony of his motel room in
Memphis, Tennessee.