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Chapter 21: Civil Rights
Unit 8: Civil Rights
…Civil Rights

Standard 9–12.2.8: Analyze the struggle for equal opportunity (e.g., Civil Rights
Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, civil rights legislation and court cases,
civil rights organizations, National Organization for Women, Equal Rights Amendment,
American Indian Movement, Caesar Chavez)

Essential Question: What were the struggles and accomplishments of the civil
right movements for women and minorities from 1960- 1989?
Focus Questions:
1. What restrictions did African Americans experience since post-Civil War through
WWII that led to the start of the civil rights movement?
2. How did government decisions affect the civil right movements?
3. What tactics were used by African Americans, Women, Chicanos, and Native
Americans that influenced their struggle for equality?
4. What accomplishments were achieved by minorities by 1989?
I Can Statements:
1. I can analyze how Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes led to the beginning of a civil
rights movement in the 1950's.
2. I can discuss the impact of Brown Vs. The Board of Education.
3. I can discuss the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders had on the
civil rights movement.
4. I can determine tactics used by women, Chicanos, and Native Americans that were
originally used by African Americans in their struggle for equality.
5. I can articulate what I think are the major accomplishments of the civil right
movements from 1960 to 1989.
6. I can explain the significance of violence used by anti-civil rights groups throughout
the nation.
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Chapter 21: Civil Rights
Section 1: Taking on Segregation
I.
The Segregation System
A. Barron vs. Mayor of Baltimore (1833)-The case was particularly
important in terms of American government because it stated that the
freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights did not restrict the state
governments.
1. Facts of the Case
a. John Barron was co-owner of a profitable wharf in the harbor
of Baltimore. As the city developed and expanded, large
amounts of sand accumulated in the harbor, depriving Barron
of the deep waters which had been the key to his successful
business. He sued the city to recover a portion of his financial
losses.
2. Question
a. Does the Fifth Amendment deny the states as well as the
national government the right to take private property for
public use without justly compensating the property's owner?
3. Conclusion
a. No. The Court announced its decision in this case without
even hearing the arguments of the City of Baltimore. Writing
for the unanimous Court, Chief Justice Marshall found that the
limitations on government articulated in the Fifth Amendment
were specifically intended to limit the powers of the national
government. Citing the intent of the framers and the
development of the Bill of Rights as an exclusive check on
the government in Washington D.C., Marshall argued that
the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction in this case since the
Fifth Amendment was not applicable to the states.
B. Civil Rights Act of 1875 (1883): the act outlawed segregation in public
facilities (act challenged in 1883 and found unconstitutional by an allwhite Supreme Court-see case below)
1. Facts of the Case
a. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 affirmed the equality of all
persons in the enjoyment of transportation facilities, in hotels
and inns, and in theaters and places of public amusement.
Though privately owned, these businesses were like public
utilities, exercising public functions for the benefit of the
public and, thus, subject to public regulation. In five separate
cases, a black person was denied the same accommodations as
a white person in violation of the 1875 Act.
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2. Question
a. Does the Civil Rights Act of 1875 violate the 10th Amendment
of the Constitution which reserves all powers not granted to the
national government to the states or to the people?
3. Conclusion
a. The Fourteenth Amendment restrains only state (state is the
old term used for nation) action. And the fifth section of the
Amendment empowers Congress only to enforce the
prohibition on state action. The amendment did not authorize
national legislation on subjects which are within the domain of
the state. Private acts of racial discrimination were simply
private wrongs that the national government was powerless to
correct.
C. The incorporation of the Bill of Rights (or incorporation for short) is
the process by which American courts have applied portions of the U.S.
Bill of Rights to the states.
1. Prior to the 1890s, the Bill of Rights was held only to apply to
the federal government.
2. Under the incorporation doctrine, most provisions of the Bill of
Rights now also apply to the state and local governments, by
virtue of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of
the Constitution.
3. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. v. City of
Chicago, (1897) started incorporation:
a. Incorporated the takings clause of the 5th amendment into
the due process clause of the 14th amendment by requiring
states to provide just compensation for seizing private
property.
D. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
1. Facts of the Case
a. The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate
railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Adolph
Plessy--who was seven-eighths Caucasian--took a seat in a
"whites only" car of a Louisiana train. He refused to move to
the car reserved for blacks and was arrested.
2. Question
a. Is Louisiana's law mandating racial segregation on its trains an
unconstitutional infringement on both the privileges and
immunities and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth
Amendment?
3. Conclusion (because of the ruling in this case, Jim Crow laws
were passed throughout the South)
a. No, the state law is within constitutional boundaries. The
majority, in an opinion authored by Justice Henry Billings
Brown, upheld state-imposed racial segregation. The justices
based their decision on the separate-but-equal doctrine, that
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II.
separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the Fourteenth
Amendment so long as they were equal. (The phrase, "separate
but equal" was not part of the opinion.) Justice Brown
conceded that the 14th amendment intended to establish
absolute equality for the races before the law. But Brown noted
that "in the nature of things it could not have been intended to
abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as
distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the
two races unsatisfactory to either." In short, segregation does
not in itself constitute unlawful discrimination.
E. After the Civil War, some African Americans tried to escape
Southern racism by moving north
1. Many left the South in order to find jobs in the North during WW
I
2. African Americans quickly discovered that discrimination also
existed in the North
a. Many African Americans had to live in all black
neighborhoods and were resented b/c they competed with
whites for jobs
F. The events of WW II set the stage for the civil rights movement
1. Demand for soldiers created a shortage in white male workers
a. The labor shortage created job opportunities for blacks
2. Nearly one million African Americans served in the armed
forces, which needed so many fighting men the military had to
end its discriminatory policies
a. African Americans returned home determined to fight for
their own freedom
3. During WW II, civil rights organizations campaigned for
African-American voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws
a. FDR responded by issuing executive orders prohibiting
racial discrimination by federal agencies and all companies
that were engaged in war work
G. Voting Rights in America by race and sex (individual states still tried
to control who voted):
1. 15th Amendment (1870) = African American men can vote
2. 19th Amendment (1920) = Women can vote
3. Indian Citizen Act (1924) = Native Americans can have dual
citizenship (tribal and U.S citizenship)-voting problematic
4. Voting Rights Act (1965) = Outlawed discriminatory voting
practices (All citizens can vote including all Native Americans)
Challenging Segregation in Court
A. The NAACP legal strategy focused on the inequality b/w the separate
schools that many states provided (Plessy v. Ferguson-separate but
equal is OK)
1. Harvard University law professor and chief legal counsel for the
NAACP, Charles Hamilton Houston, realized the nation
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III.
spent ten times as much money educating a white child as an
African-American child
a. In 1938, he placed a team of his best law students under the
direction of Thurgood Marshall
b. Thurgood and his team of lawyers won 29 out of 32 cases
argued before the Supreme Court
2. Many cases chipped away at segregation
a. Morgan v. Virginia (1946): Supreme Court declared
unconstitutional those state laws mandating segregated
seating on interstate buses
b. Sweatt v. Painter (1950): Supreme Court ruled state law
schools must admit black applicants, even if separate black
schools existed
B. Brown v. Board of Education (1954-Civil Rights)
-The father of eight-year-old Linda Brown had charged the board of
education of Topeka, Kansas, with violating Linda’s rights by denying her
admission to an all-white elementary school four blocks from her house
(the nearest all-black elementary school was 21 blocks away)
1. Facts of the Case:
a. Black children were denied admission to public schools
attended by white children under laws requiring or
permitting segregation according to the races. The white
and black schools approached equality in terms of
buildings, curricula, qualifications, and teacher salaries.
This case was decided together with Briggs v. Elliott and
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County.
2. Question:
a. Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on
the basis of race deprive the minority children of the equal
protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment?
3. Conclusion:
a. Yes. Despite the equalization of the schools by “objective”
factors, intangible issues foster and maintain inequality.
Racial segregation in public education has a detrimental
effect on minority children because it is interpreted as a
sign of inferiority. The long-held doctrine that separate
facilities were permissible provided they were equal was
rejected. Separate but equal is inherently unequal in the
context of public education. The unanimous opinion
sounded the death-knell for all forms of state-maintained
racial separation.
Reaction to the Brown Decision
A. Within a year, more than 500 school districts had desegregated their
classrooms
1. In some states the KKK reappeared and White Citizens
Councils boycotted businesses that supported desegregation
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2. In 1955 the Supreme Court handed down a second ruling, known
as Brown II, which ordered school desegregation implemented,
“with all deliberate speed.”
a. President Eisenhower, initially, refused to enforce
compliance
B. Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
1. Facts of the Case:
a. After its decision in Brown I which declared racial
discrimination in public education unconstitutional, the
Court convened to issue the directives which would help to
implement its newly announced Constitutional principle.
Given the embedded nature of racial discrimination in
public schools and the diverse circumstances under which it
had been practiced, the Court requested further argument
on the issue of relief.
2. Question:
a. What means should be used to implement the principles
announced in Brown I?
3. Conclusion:
a. The Court held that the problems identified in Brown I
required varied local solutions. Chief Justice Warren
conferred much responsibility on local school authorities
and the courts which originally heard school segregation
cases. They were to implement the principles which the
Supreme Court embraced in its first Brown decision.
Warren urged localities to act on the new principles
promptly and to move toward full compliance with them
"with all deliberate speed."
C. In 1948, Arkansas became the first Southern state to admit African
Americans to state universities without being required by a court
order Little Rock, Arkansas
1. The Little Rock, Arkansas school board was first in the South
to announce compliance with Brown decision
a. Little Rock citizens elected two men to the school board
who publicly backed desegregation-and the school
superintendent, Virgil Blossom, planned for desegregation
2. In 1957, Governor Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas, National
Guard to surround the all-white Central High School in an effort
to prevent the “Little Rock Nine” (nine black students) from
integrating the school (Faubus claimed he was worried about
armed protesters)
a. He was running for reelection and wanted to ensure his
victory by retaining the faithful segregationists
(governor from 1955-1967-plan worked)
b. A federal judge ordered Faubus to let the students into the
school
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IV.
V.
3. The National Guard prevented the “Little Rock Nine” from
entering Central High for three weeks
a. A court order forced the governor to remove the
National Guard and allow the nine blacks to enter
b. When the nine attempted to enter the school, a white mob
started rioting
4. President Eisenhower federalized 1,000 National Guard
troops to protect the nine black students that finally entered
the school
a. At the end of the year, Faubus chose to shut down the
school rather than allow integration to continue
b. Gallop poll from 1958 revealed Faubus was one of the
top ten most admired men in America
5. Civil Rights Act of 1957: made it a federal crime to prevent
qualified voters from voting (Civil Rights Commission enforced
the law, but discrimination remained)
a. The law also gave the attorney general greater power over
school desegregation
b. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, of Texas, put the time in to
push this bill through the Senate
The Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott
A. On Dec 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer,
refused to give up her front row seat in the colored section of a bus to
a white man
1. Parks was arrested and convicted of violating the city’s
segregation laws
2. Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA): group of local
civil rights leaders that persuaded the community to boycott the
city’s bussing system
a. Martin Luther King, Jr. (26-years-old) was the
spokesman for the MIA (Baptist minister)
b. King was an ordained minister and earned a Ph.D. in
theology from Boston University
3. The Montgomery, Alabama busing system was about to go broke
after the year plus strike, so they desegregated
a. In 1956, the Supreme Court declared Alabama’s
segregation laws unconstitutional
4. White radicals bombed King’s home and other MIA leaders’
houses, and some were fired from their job
a. King urged people to not respond with more violence
b. King was accused of being a Communist
Martin Luther King and the SCLC
A. MIA transformed into Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC-1957): alliance of church-based African-American organizations
dedicated to ending discrimination
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VI.
1. The first director of the SCLC, Ella Baker, helped students at
Shaw University (all-black university) organize a national protest
group
a. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC):
loose association of student activists throughout the South
b. Members of the SNCC didn’t always follow Martin Luther
King Jr. idea of meeting violence with nonviolence
The Movement Spreads
A. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): a northern based civil rights
group
1. Stages the first sit-ins: African-American protesters sat down at
segregated lunch counters in Chicago and refused to leave until
they were served
2. In 1960, African-American students from North Carolina’s
Agricultural and Technical College staged a sit-in at a white-only
lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North
Carolina
a. Television crews broadcast the non-violent sit-ins, and
the violent responses into the homes of Americans
everyday
b. Americans could no longer deny the fact that racism
existed
Section 2: The Triumphs of a Crusade
I.
Riding for Freedom
A. Freedom Rides (1961): white and black civil rights activists that left D.C.
for and rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in
1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United
States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of
Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that
segregated public buses were unconstitutional (Southern states had
ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce
them)
1. CORE members made it as far as Anniston, Alabama before
their bus was fire-bombed by white mob
a. White racists jumped on the bus earlier with chains, brass
knuckles, and pistols threatening and beating the CORE
members
b. The bus company refused to carry the CORE members any
farther
2. When CORE was forced to call off the ride, members of the
SNCC continued the ride
a. When the SNCC reached Birmingham, Alabama,
policemen pulled them from the bus, beat them, and drove
them into Tennessee
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II.
3. The members of the SNCC returned to a Birmingham bus
terminal and sat in the whites-only waiting room until the
issue was resolved
a. The bus driver would not transport them out of fear for his
life
b. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy convinced the
bus driver to proceed
B. Alabama officials promised Kennedy that the riders would be
protected, but that didn’t happen
1. A white mob greeted the riders with bats and lead pipes when
they arrived in Montgomery, Alabama
a. There were no cops in sight to protect the riders
2. The violence provoked exactly what the freedom riders
wanted
a. President Kennedy arranged for the Justice
Department to send 400 U.S. marshals to protect the
riders as they traveled to Jackson, Mississippi
b. The attorney general and the Interstate Commerce
Commission banned segregation in all interstate travel
facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch
counters
Standing Firm
A. In Sept, 1962, the NAACP obtained a court order requiring the
University of Mississippi to admit African American Air Force
veteran applicant James Meredith
1. Governor Ross Barnett refused to let Meredith register as a
student
a. President Kennedy ordered federal marshals to escort
Meredith to the registrar’s office
2. On the night of Sept 30, riots broke out on campus, resulting in
two deaths
a. Thousands of soldiers were needed to stop the riots
b. Federal officials accompanied Meredith to class the
entire year and protected his parents from nightriders
who shot up their house
B. Birmingham, Alabama was known for its strict enforcement of
segregation in public life
1. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights and secretary of the SCLC,
decided something needed to done in 1963
a. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC were invited to
help promote desegregation in Birmingham by using
non-violent sit-ins
b. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, King and others were
arrested, but posted bail on April 20 and continued
demonstrating
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III.
2. Over a thousand African-American children marched in
Birmingham on May 2 and another group marched on May 3
(“children’s crusade”)
a. Police chief Bull Connor ordered the police to attack the
marchers with high-pressure hoses, dogs, and night-sticks
b. TV cameras caught ever moment and millions of viewers
witnessed the brutality (Birmingham officials felt pressured
to end segregation)
C. In Albany, Georgia nonviolent protests were staged
1. Police Chief Laurie Pritchett met nonviolence with
nonviolence
a. Using nonviolence, he arrested the protestors until no one
was left to protest
D. On June 11, 1963, the president sent troops to force Governor George
Wallace to honor a court order desegregating the University of
Alabama
1. Governor ran for the presidency four times (1964,68,72, and
1976)
a. Won the governorship four times in Alabama (1962, 70, 74,
and 1982)
2. JFK demanded that Congress pass a civil rights bill
3. Shortly after JFK’s speech, a sniper murdered Medgar
Evers, NAACP field secretary and WW II veteran on June
12, 1963 in Jackson Mississippi
a. Police arrested, but quickly released white supremacist,
Byron de la Beckwith
b. Based on new evidence discovered in 1990, Beckwith
was placed on trial for the third time and finally found
guilty of murder on Feb 5, 1994 (life in prison-died in
2001)
Marching on Washington
A. In support of JFK’s civil rights bill that he sent to Congress, labor
leader A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin of the SCLC
summoned Americans to a march on Washington, D.C.
1. On August 28, 1963, over 250,000 people, including 75,000
whites, stood on the lawn of the Washington Monument and
observed Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver the famous, “I Have a
Dream” speech (start video at 10:30)
a. Speech given in support of the Civil Rights Act JFK
wanted to pass (LBJ pushed in through Congress in
1964)
B. Two weeks after the speech, four young Birmingham girls were killed
when a rider through a bomb into the church
1. In 2002, former Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry was
convicted of first-degree murder in the 1963 fire bombing of
the Birmingham church
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IV.
2. After JFK was killed, President Johnson pledged to carry on
JFK’s work
a. Civil Rights Act of 1964: prohibited discrimination b/c of
race, religion, national origin, and gender, and gave all
citizens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms,
restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations
Fighting for Voting Rights
A. Freedom Summer: launched in 1964 as a campaign by CORE and the
SNCC to register African American voters in Mississippi
1. Mississippi population was 45% black, but only 5% of
African Americans could vote
2. Thousands of student volunteers, most of them white, were
trained in nonviolent resistance and sent to Mississippi
a. Two white New Yorkers (Michael Schwerner and
James Chayney) and a black Mississippian (Andrew
Goodman), all civil rights workers, were killed by the
KKK
b. Many believe the FBI only got involved in the killings once
it was discovered that two white men were killed
3. The state never charged anyone with murder, and federal
statutes against murder didn’t exist at the time
a. The federal gov’t tried 18 men, including a part-time
Baptist preacher named Edgar Ray Killen, on charges of
conspiring to violate the civil rights of the victims
b. On a 11-1 decision by the jury, he walked free (the lone
holdout said she could never convict a preacher)
4. In 2005 Edgar Ray Killen, was found guilty on three counts
of manslaughter
a. The 1988 movie, Mississippi Burning, is based on this true
story
5. Local blacks stopped registering to vote out of fear of being
murdered
a. Civil Rights leaders called for a march from Selma,
Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama
B. In an effort to gain a seat in Mississippi’s all-white Democratic Party,
the SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP)
1. Fannie Lou Hamer represented the party at the 1964 Democratic
National Convention
a. In a televised speech, she described how she was jailed for
registering to vote in 1962, and how police forced other
prisoners to beat her
2. President Johnson feared he would loose the Southern white
vote if the Democrats sided with the MFDP
a. Johnson’s administration made a deal that the
Democrats would give 2 of Mississippi’s 68 seats to the
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MFDP, and promised to ban discrimination at the 1968
convention
C. In 1965, the SCLC conducted a major voting rights campaign in
Selma, Alabama (the SNCC had already been working there for two
years)
1. Thousands were arrested and a demonstrator named Jimmy Lee
Jackson was shot and killed
a. Martin Luther King, Jr. responded by announcing a
march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama,
the state capital
2. The nation watched as the marchers were attacked and
beaten just outside of Selma by police
a. Thousands of Americans poured into Selma to show
support
3. President Johnson pushed the passage of a Voting Rights Act
because of Bloody Sunday
D. Voting Rights Act of 1965: the act eliminated the so-called literacy tests
that had disqualified many voters and stated that federal examiners could
enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials
1. The number of African American voters rose from 10% in 1964
to 60% in 1968
Section 3: Challenges and Changes in the Movement
I.
African Americans Seek Greater Equality
1. The problem facing African Americans in the North was de facto
segregation: segregation that exists by practice and custom in the North
1. Eliminating de facto segregation involves changing peoples’
attitudes rather than repealing laws
a. De jure segregation: segregation by law, which was the
case in the South
b. It much more difficult to convince whites to share
economic power and social power (North) with African
Americans than to convince them to share lunch counters
and bus seats (South)
2. As African Americans moved north to find jobs during WW
II, many whites moved to suburbs (“white flight”)
a. Most African Americans lived in sub-par housing, and
attended ill-equipped schools (unemployment was twotimes higher for blacks compared to whites)
3. Police forces were often brutal in African American communities
a. Whites threw rocks and bottles and stoned King and his
followers as they marched down the Chicago streets in
protest of police brutality
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II.
2. On August 11, 1965, one of the worst riots in U.S. history raged on the
streets of Watts, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in
Los Angeles
1. The Watts Riots broke out in Los Angeles during a routine
arrest
a. The riots lasted 6 days, 34 were killed, and 4,000 were
arrested
b. Kerner Commission: federal report charged that white
racism was largely responsible for the tensions that led to
the riots
2. African Americans burned down homes and businesses out of
frustration
a. The question that many whites had is, “Why would
African Americans burn down their own
neighborhoods?”
b. African Americans felt where they lived, how they lived,
and what they had to tolerate was all created by white
society
3. Before the riots started, Johnson announced his “War on
Poverty”
a. Martin Luther King, Jr. commented that, The Great
Society has been shot down on the battlefields of
Vietnam.”
New Leaders Voice Discontent
A. Malcolm Little was sent to prison at the age of 20 for burglary
1. While in prison Malcolm X embraced the teachings of Elijah
Muhammad’s Nation of Islam or Black Muslims
a. The X symbolizes his lost African surname
2. Upon his release from prison in 1952, he became an Islamic minister
a. He preached that whites were the cause of the black
conditions and that blacks should separate from white society
(advocated armed self-defense)
3. Malcolm X received a great deal of publicity, which caused the
following:
a. His call for armed self-defense frightened most whites and
many moderate African Americans
b. Reports of the attention Malcolm X received awakened
resentment in some other members of the Nation of Islam
B. In March 1964, Malcolm broke with Elijah Muhammad over
differences in strategy and doctrine and formed another Muslim
organization
1. Malcolm converted to orthodox Islam after a pilgrimage to Mecca
in Saudi Arabia
a. Malcolm witnessed all races worshipping together and realized
harmony could exist
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III.
b. After his trip to Mecca, Malcolm’s attitude towards whites
changed radically
2. B/c of his split with the Black Muslims, Malcolm worried his life
was in danger (Feb 21, 1965 Malcolm X was /assassinated/shot 16
times by three men)
C. In 1966, James Meredith, the man who integrated the University of
Mississippi, set out on what he called a “walk against fear.”
1. Meredith was shot by a white racist and was too injured to
continue
a. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the SCLC, Floyd McKissick of
CORE, and Stokely Carmichael of SNCC decided to finish what
Meredith started
2. The members of CORE and the SNCC became somewhat militant
and began shouting phrases that promoted violence (Martin Luther
King, Jr. tried to control the groups)
a. Carmichael was arrested in Greenwood, Mississippi for setting
up a tent on the grounds of an all-black high school
3. Carmichael appeared at a rally beaten and bruised, which caused
an uproar within the crowd
a. Black Power: used by Stokely Carmichael in the 1960s that
encouraged African-American pride and political and social
leadership
b. King urged Carmichael to stop using the phrase b/c he
believed it would provoke violence
D. In 1966, Huey P. Newton (murdered in 1989) and Bobby Seale (still
alive) founded the political party in Oakland, California known as the
Black Panthers: promote self determination in black communities and fight
police brutality in the ghetto
1. Advocated self-sufficiency for African-American communities, as well
as full employment and decent housing
2. Also believed blacks should be exempt from military service b/c an
unfair number of black youths had been drafted to serve in Vietnam
a. The Panthers dressed in black, preached self-defense, and sold
copies of the writings of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese
Communist revolution
b. The Panthers were investigated by the FBI, but gained
popularity in many of the ghettos
1968-A Turning Point in Civil Rights
A. Martin Luther King, Jr. called a Poor People’s March on Washington
to protest the misuse of gov’t funds
1. King went to Memphis, Tennessee to show support for garbage
workers strike on April 3, 1968
a. On April 4, 1968 King was killed by a sniper named James
Earl Ray, while standing on the hotel balcony
b. Ray escaped from prison in 1967
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IV.
B. Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic
presidential nomination on the night of King’s death
1. Kennedy was asked to cancel his appearance in an African
American neighborhood, but chose to appear and ask the
community to stay calm
a. Over 100 cities were engulfed in flames
b. Rioting occurred leaving 46 dead
2. In June 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by a
Jordanian immigrant, named Sirhan Sirhan, who was angry
over Kennedy’s support of Israel
Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement
A. Kerner Commission (1968): committee President Johnson had appointed
to study the causes of urban violence, issued a 200,000-word report
1. The panel listed one main cause of the violence; white racism
a. Johnson ignored most of the panels’ recommendation in an
effort to avoid agitating white Americans
B. The civil rights movement ended de jure segregation by bringing
about legal protection for the civil rights of all Americans
1. Civil Rights Act of 1968: ended discrimination in housing
2. Once school desegregation ended, many more African
Americans finished high school and the numbers attending
college increased
3. The civil rights movement also gave African Americans a
sense of pride
a. The black community proudly displayed their heritage
b. College students demanded Black Studies programs
c. More blacks were on TV and in film
4. African Americans also made major political gains
a. By 1970 2/3rds of African Americans were registered to vote
b. African Americans holding office grew from fewer than 100 in
1965 to more than 7,000 in 1992
C. African Americans still faced many challenges in the 1970s, such as
poverty, discrimination, racism, etc
1. Some felt more tax dollars should be spent on the inner city
area(s) and forced busing would aid in desegregation
a. Public support for the civil rights movement eroded b/c of
urban riots and fear of the Black Panthers
2. In 1996-1997, 28% of blacks in the South and 50% of blacks
in the Northeast were attending schools with fewer than 10%
whites
a. Blacks have a poverty rate than his three times that of whites
3. Affirmative Action (1960s): involve making special efforts to
hire or enroll groups that have suffered discrimination
a. By the late 1970s, some people began to criticize affirmative
action programs as “reverse discrimination.”
D. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
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1. Facts of the Case
a. Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white man, had twice
applied for admission to the University of California Medical
School at Davis. He was rejected both times. The school
reserved sixteen places in each entering class of one hundred
for "qualified" minorities, as part of the university's affirmative
action program, in an effort to redress longstanding, unfair
minority exclusions from the medical profession. Bakke's
qualifications (college GPA and test scores) exceeded those of
any of the minority students admitted in the two years Bakke's
applications were rejected. Bakke contended, first in the
California courts, then in the Supreme Court, that he was
excluded from admission solely on the basis of race.
2. Question
a. Did the University of California violate the Fourteenth
Amendment's equal protection clause, and the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, by practicing an affirmative action policy that resulted
in the repeated rejection of Bakke's application for admission
to its medical school?
3. Conclusion
a. No and yes. There was no single majority opinion. Four of the
justices contended that any racial quota system supported by
government violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Justice
Lewis F. Powell, Jr., agreed, casting the deciding vote ordering
the medical school to admit Bakke. However, in his opinion,
Powell argued that the rigid use of racial quotas as employed at
the school violated the equal protection clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment. The remaining four justices held that
the use of race as a criterion in admissions decisions in higher
education was constitutionally permissible. Powell joined that
opinion as well, contending that the use of race was
permissible as one of several admission criteria. So, the Court
managed to minimize white opposition to the goal of equality
(by finding for Bakke) while extending gains for racial
minorities through affirmative action.
Section 4: Culture and Counterculture
I.
Counterculture: a movement made up mostly of white, middle-class college
youth who had grown disillusioned with the war in Vietnam and injustices in
American during the 1960s (society based on peace and love)
A. Generation gap: was created between baby boomers and their elders
1. Questioned American values and blamed parents for problems in country
B. Shaking the ivory tower
1. 70% of students went on strike at the University of California at Berkley
a. Felt traditional courses were worthless (“Shut this factory down.”)
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II.
III.
2. Hippies rejected the Establishment (mainstream America) and
wanted to a counterculture
a. Native Americans did not appreciate hippies dress
b. Do whatever comes to mind and try to shock older Americans
3. Hippies shared some of the beliefs of the New Left
a. They felt American society-and its materialism, technology, and warhad grown hollow
b. Influenced by the beats, many embraced Harvard psychology
professor and counterculture philosopher Timothy Leary: “Tune
in, turn on, drop out.”
C. Elements of the counterculture
1. Timothy Leary a Harvard professor was fired for using LSD with his
students
a. He wanted people to drop-out of society
b. STDs and drug addiction increased
2. Haight-Ashbury district: a hippie neighborhood in San Francisco
a. Joined rural communes to live in harmony with nature
b. Hundreds of those joining the communes were misfits, drug peddlers,
and violent
D. The hippie era was marked by rock ‘n’ roll music, outrageous clothing
(tie-dyed T-shirts), sexual lenience, and illegal drugs (marijuana,
LSD/acid)
1. Leary, an early experimenter with LSD, promoted the use of LSD as a
“mind expanding” aid for self-awareness
2. Some turned to Zen Buddhism, which professed one could attain
enlightenment through meditation rather than reading scripture
Questioning American Society
A. 1950s 80%of Americans said religion could answer all problems and in
1969 70% said religion was losing influence
1. Nuclear age made traditional religious answers irrelevant
2. Religious courses in college grew in popularity
B. Pop artists: artists began selecting images that reflected everyday life (more
relevant)
1. Pop art was characterized by bright, simple, commercial-looking images
often depicting everyday life
a. Andy Warhol wanted to prove that everything can be mass produced
(mocked mass consumerism and America’s glorification of it)
b. Warhol’s became famous for his bright silk-screen portraits of soup
cans, Marilyn Monroe, and other icons of mass culture (mass produced
and made to look impersonal)
A Revived Women’s Movement
A. Sparks of unrest
1. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique: rejected the popular idea that
women were content with the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker
a. Published The Fountain of Age: growing old does not mean growing
worthless
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IV.
V.
2. National Organization for Women (NOW): lobbied for women’s rights
a. 1968 disrupted Miss America pageant saying it degraded women
B. A new generation
1. Gloria Steinem was a feminist, who wrote After Black Power,
Women’s Liberation
a. First openly feminist article
2. Helped develop the National Women’s Political Caucus
a. Encouraged women to run for political office
Musical Revolution
A. The rebellious musical revolution in the 50s carried over into the 60s
1. British Invasion: arrival of English bands such as Beatles and Rolling
Stones
2. Motown music: developed from blended traditional black music
3. Amplified instruments were used
a. Jimi Hendrix was the leading electric guitar player that died in 1970
from a drug overdose
b. Singer Janis Joplin also died from a drug overdose in 1970
4. Bob Dylan performed songs criticizing the Vietnam War
B. Woodstock Music Festival
1. Held in upstate New York on a farm for three days (400,000 people) in
August 1969
a. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, etc played
2. Marked the high and low points of the counterculture
a. A young African American fan was beat to death in full view of fans
b. Occurred at a free concert held at Altamont Raceway near San
Francisco
C. Sexual Revolution of the 1960s: America’s attitude toward sexual behavior
became more casual and permissive
1. The pill was introduced in 1960, which led to this increase in
sexual freedom
2. TV, books, magazines, music, and movies began to address issues
that were once prohibited, particularly sexual behaviors and
violence
The Conservative Response
A. Conservative voices, such as Richard Nixon’s, expressed the anger people
had regarding the countless changes occurring in American culture
1. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover issued a warning that
“revolutionary terrorism” was a threat on campuses and in
cities
2. Some conservatives felt the counterculture had abandoned rational
thought in favor of the senses and uninhibited self-expression
3. The conservative movement propelled Richard Nixon into the
White House in 1968