The Civil Rights
Movement
Ch. 18
Segregation Divides
America
De jure segregation- segregation upheld by
law
 De facto segregation- segregation by
unwritten custom or tradition
 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
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African Americans could gain civil rights
through nonviolent means
Committee of Civil Rights
Founded by Truman
 Investigate race relations
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Emerging Civil Rights
Movement
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1948 – Jackie Robinson integrates MLB
1954 – Brown vs. Board of Education

Last in a series of court cases related to segregation
in education
• One was at the University of Oklahoma Law School
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Emmett Till’s murder
1955-56 – Montgomery Bus Boycott
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overturns “separate but equal” Plessy
Thurgood Marshall- head of the legal team
Mrs. Rosa Parks
1957 – Little Rock Crisis

Eisenhower forced to deploy federal troops
Civil Rights in the
1960s
Nonviolent Protest

Lunch counter “sit-ins” begin: Greensboro, NC February 1960
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SNCC (Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee) created
April 1960
CORE “Freedom Ride” May 1961
James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi fall
1962
Demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama April 1963
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Wade-ins
read-ins
Kneel-ins
Eugene “Bull” Connor- used violence against protesters
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Governor George Wallace tries to block integration of the
University of Alabama Fall 1963
Sit-ins
James Meredith
University of
Mississippi
Student Protesters and Ole Miss
200 arrested in riots at Ole Miss
High Schoolers jailed for marching
Oh Wallace,
you never can jail
us all,
Oh Wallace,
segregation's
bound to fall
March on Washington
Aug. 1963
 Martin Luther King Jr
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“I have a dream” speech
Led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Banned segregation in public
accommodations
 Gave fed. gov. the ability to compel states
to desegregate their schools

And when this happens, when we allow
freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from
every state and every city, we will be able
to speed up that day when all of God's
children, black men and white men, Jews
and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,
will be able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Voting Rights

Freedom Summer – 1964
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Anti-poll tax Amendment (24th) 1964
Selma March – March 1965
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Black and white students focusing on registering
African Americans to vote
“Bloody Sunday”
State troopers violently attacked the marchers
Voting Rights Act of 1965

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Banned literacy tests
Federal government controls voter registration
Thousands marched to the Courthouse in Montgomery to
protest rough treatment given voting rights demonstrators. The
Alabama Capitol is in the background. March 18,1965
Marchers cross bridge
Challenges of the late 1960s
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The Rise of Black Nationalism
The Black Power Movement
Many goals had been achieved
The death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Attention of many diverted to Vietnam
Increased rioting in African American
communities decreases popular support
Black Nationalism – Beliefs

Black people should have control of their own
communities
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Ex.: Black teachers, town council members, police
officers, business owners
Separatism not integration
Emphasis on racial pride and self respect
Emphasis on African history and cultural heritage
Self-defense

**Black nationalists DID NOT “advocate violence” or
“use riots” to accomplish their goals
Black Nationalism (cont.)
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Appealing to young urban African Americans
Appealing to activists who believed things were not
changing fast enough
SNCC – Stokeley Carmichael
Malcolm X
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Black Panthers
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Nation of Islam
Demanded separation of races
Formed by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton
Protect people from police, antipoverty programs
1968 Olympic Protest
The Women’s
Rights Movement
Ch. 23 Sec. 2
Women’s Movement Arises
After WWII women gave up their jobs to
returning servicemen and returned home to
care for families and homes
 1960s- movement to gain sexual equality
 Feminism- theory of political, social, and
economic equality of men and women
 Civil Rights movement prompted women to
look at their own treatment from society

Women Find Their Voices

Betty Friedan
Wrote The Feminine Mystique
 Helped establish the National Organization for
Women (NOW)

• Dedicated to winning true equality of all women
• Wanted to pass Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
• Guarantee gender equality under the law
• Protect reproductive rights

Gloria Steinem

Co-founded Ms., a feminist magazine
Opposition

Phyllis Schlafly
Felt feminism was an assault on family,
marriage, and children
 Worked to defeat the ERA

Legal Headway
Civil Rights Act included a clause that
outlawed discrimination based on sex
 Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)

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Enforce federal prohibition on job
discrimination
Roe v. Wade

Assured women the right to legal abortions
Latin Movement
Ch. 23 Sec. 3
Equal Rights

Cesar Chavez
Latino activist for farm laborers
 Formed United Farm Workers (UFW)

• Nonviolent strikes and boycotts
California passed a law requiring collective
bargaining
 Chicano Movement
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Increase awareness of Latino history and
culture
Native American Equality

American Indian Movement (AIM)
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Fought for Civil Rights
1973 Siege at Wounded Knee
AIM took a village and refused to leave until
the gov agreed to investigate the condition
of reservation Indians
 Government agreed
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Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975

Gave tribes control over resources on
reservations