AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT
ROLE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, BLACK
PANTHERS, BLACK MUSLIMS, BLACK POWER,
AND MALCOLM X
ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS
YOUTH CULTURE AND COUNTERCULTURE
FEMINIST MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS
NATIVE AMERICANS AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Civil rights and social movements in the Americas
Roosevelt – After WWII


Did nothing substantial
To do so would have angered powerful white southern
lawmakers


Needed their support to achieve larger New Deal programs and
foreign policy objectives to help the Allies
Executive Order 8802


also known as the Fair Employment Act was signed to prohibit
racial discrimination in the national defense industry.
The order required all federal agencies and departments
involved with defense production to ensure that vocational and
training programs were administered without discrimination as to
"race, creed, color, or national origin.”
Motive for Social Reform



Cold War years forced American leaders to introduce key social
reforms because they were embarrassed on the world stage by
oppressive race relations at home
As the ‘presumptive leader of the free world’ how could American
democracy be a beacon during the Cold War, and a model for
those struggling against soviet oppression, if the US itself
practiced brutal discrimination against minorities within its own
borders?
Thus a need for improved race relations in the U.S. in order to
uphold the principle of democracy abroad, was a major reason
for the enactment of various civil rights initiatives during the
presidencies of Truman, JFK, and Johnson
The Sources of a Mass Movement
1.
Black urbanization

2.
Religious faith

3.
Constitution guaranteed their basic civil rights
Media coverage

5.
All people are equal before God
Constitutional rights

4.
Rural blacks moved to cities, saw power to challenge
Shocked, viewers supported civil rights push
African independence

African countries had gained independence
To Secure These Rights

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
President Truman created a Committee on Civil Rights in 1946, assigning them
responsibility for evaluating the place and condition of civil rights in the US
and for recommending legislation necessary to enable the Federal government to
carry out its duty to act when these Constitutional rights were endangered.
1947, this committees paper loudly proclaimed the opening round to the federal
government’s campaign for civil rights
Truman made this committee instead of legislation that never would have made it
through the Senate
Offered three main reasons why civil rights should be redressed


Moral, Economic, and International
This accomplished a number of things:




Satisfied civil rights advocates
Took political pressure off himself and onto the committee
Avoided direct confrontation with southern Democrats
Established a forum to begin educating the public on the need to extend quality under
the law
To Secure These Rights

The text of the report spells out in detail the liberal
vision for expansion of civil rights in the years after
WWII
Also reflected the liberal belief that bolstering civil rights
stemmed from moral, diplomatic, and economic
considerations
 “the greatest hope for the future is the increasing awareness
by more and more Americans of the gulf between our civil
rights principles and our practices.”
 Furthermore, the economy lost millions of dollars from racial
disturbances

To Secure These Rights

The 34 recommendations that appear in the report
established the agenda for civil rights reforms for a
generation to come.
Attacked disenfranchisement
 Strengthen federal law enforcement machinery against
racial crimes such as lynching
 Dismantle segregation throughout American society
 Condemned racial segregation in housing, interstate
transportation, public accommodations, the military, and
employment
 Most remarkable of all was the stand it took against school
segregation…challenged Jim Crow aiming at the ideology
of white supremacy itself.

To Secure These Rights

The Cold War heightened this awareness
 African
Americans deserved no less, but it was also
essential to the country’s cold war struggle with the
Soviet Union “that we have been able to put our own
house in order.”
 In the struggle against the Soviet Union, the United
States could not afford to tolerate racial discrimination
within its borders and expect the rest of the world to
believe its political and economic systems were superior
to those of its Communist adversary
To Secure These Rights
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So why is this document and committee so important?
Reports as forward looking and eloquent as To Secure These
Rights could not by themselves produce social change.
Rhetoric and good intentions were not enough; it took power
wielded by a determined mass movement and applied on
sympathetic but cautious national officials to topple Jim
Crow
In some 176 pages, To Secure These Rights provided a
detailed inventory of the civil wrongs done to African
Americans and offered a road map for the country to follow
to remedy them
Youth Culture and Counterculture

1950’s
Young were growing restless, especially in the suburbs
 Many connected with what the young movie stars of the time
were portraying “a brooding nobody with something silent
inside just seething to get out”
 Beatniks, writers and poets, appalled by the world,
especially the Cold War (Ginsberg, Kerouac)
 Opted out of contemporary society
 Youth slowly turned to radios where they heard rock n roll
which demonstrated a type of rebellion
 Introduced many white youth to black musicians, eventually
promoting integration

Youth Culture and Counterculture

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
1960’s
Youthful activism was a mainstay
Turned 18 between 1960 and 1972, 45 million

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Enormous size of the generation would lead to juvenile problems;
delinquency, crime, violence, unwed mothers
More disruption on campus, some due to overcrowding
Explaining, exploiting, or catering to youth became a national
obsession


Ford came out with a ‘car for kids’ the Mustang, ‘Pepsi Generation’,
Associate press declared 1964 the year of the kids, Time named
1966 “Man of the Year” the ‘man and woman of 25 and under.’
They were more idealistic and tolerant and less concerned with
money, security, and Communism
Counterculture 1968 and beyond

Composed of activists, students, feminists, and
hippies
 Never
organized, created a great vocal minority
promoting liberation, challenged the majority,
confronting and shocking mainstream culture
 Revolted from the norms, values, and morals of the
established society, changing society and
fundamentally altering America
 By the early ‘70’s 3 million felt part of the
counterculture
Counterculture

Difficult too define and measure
No hippie organizations, member cards, no meetings, age
limits or leaders
 Individualistic journey, the hippie movement was ‘a
philosophy, a way of life’
 Perhaps the only constant was that they rejected some of the
values of the culture and then developed and practiced
different lifestyles
 Began to doubt the government and distrust the
establishment
 Alienations also increased as students asked for their rights
on campuses


Music and underground newspapers were carriers of
the culture and their values
Counterculture

The slow demise of the counter culture
 Ritualistic
Slayings!
 ‘the
family’ led by Manson, hippie with long hair
 TV and papers turned it into a spectacle
 Woodstock
of West
 Turned
violent, Hell’s Angels guarded stage, grabbed a
young black man, stabbed him repeatedly and kicked in his
face, dying in a pool of blood
 Crowd of hippies horrified and stunned did nothing
 The
greatest internal conflict was “the people with long
hair and the people with short hair”
Counterculture

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
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Critics blamed hippies for decline of the American
family, to drug and venereal disease epidemics,
even for AIDS
They were the scapegoat
The counterculture subverted and then significantly
altered cold war culture
This culture challenged values, encouraged
experimentation, and different value system
resulted surviving with the baby boomers
Counterculture



Many younger Americans felt the war against Vietnamese
Communism was illegal, inhumane, and immoral
‘a whole generation is starting to say to its parents, ‘you can no
longer get us to kill and be killed for your uptight archaic
beliefs’’
Kids felt the establishment was hypocritical and contradictory



Old enough to fight, 18, but not old enough to vote for their
commander in chief, 21
Doctors wrote 150 million prescriptions a year for tranquilizers and
amphetamines while condemning youth for using drugs
Federal government subsidized growing tobacco and at the same time
paid for advertisements proclaiming that cigarettes were harmful to
health
Counterculture


Many youth believed that the nation had become a
cruel society that made war on peasants abroad and at
home beat up on minorities, dissidents, students, and
hippies
The behavior of the mainstream culture only boosted
the counterculture
Rejected the values of mainstream culture
 ‘why is free hate socially acceptable while free love is
socially acceptable’
 Rejected the continual feast of consumerism
 Valued honesty, tolerance, personal freedom, and fun

Warren Court

Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren

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Declared landmark case of Brown v. Board
Court usually follows national norms, but during the
conservative 1950’s the Warren Court decisions led
America toward liberalism
Warren Court brought about a “right revolution”
Changed status quo; rulings that brought legal equality
of races, rural and urban citizens, wealthy and poor,
and the results “the most profound and pervasive
revolution ever achieved by substantially peaceful
means”
Warren Court

Three Major Themes

Civil Rights

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Libertarianism: increasing citizens political and personal liberty


Integration of public facilities, interstate travel, right to peaceful protest
Freedom of speech and association, loyalty pledges unconstitutional,
citizen still was innocent until proven guilty, separation of church and
state, allow individuals to decide what is obscene, laws prohibiting white
and black cohabitation and interracial marriages unconstitutional
Egalitarianism: equal justice under the law

Equal at the ballot box, police behavior, rights of suspects, right to legal
defense, obtain evidence legally, suspects in custody gave right to an
attorney, must inform suspects of constitutional rights
Brown v. Board of Educ.
1952-54


Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
brought the matter before the Supreme Court
Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled on 17 May 1954 that
separating white and colored children in public schools
had ‘a detrimental effect upon the colored children”



Unequal and therefore unconstitutional
Desegregate all public school systems throughout the
nation ‘with all deliberate speed’
Within a year of ‘45 decision over 500 school districts in
the North and upper South had quietly desegregated, but
in the deep South open and complete defiance began as
soon as the outcome was announced
Lynching of Emmet Till

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1955, 14 year old Emmet Till from Chicago was in
Mississippi on vacation
Outside a country store, on a dare, called out to a
white woman in the store
Husband and brother-in-law tracked down Emmet,
beat him and three days later found his body in a
river
Came to trial, all white jury, found innocent
Later admitted killing him
Little Rock 1957

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Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas blocked a federal court order
to admit 9 qualified African American students
Called out the National Guard to monitor school and prevented
them from entering
10 days later Guard was dismissed and students were exposed to
mob
By noon local police had to evacuate the students
Eisenhower dispatched 1000 101st airborne
School was surrounded and students were escorted in and
completed the school year
Next year Faubus ordered 3 schools closed for the year
Next year Federal Court ordered that was unconstitutional
Montgomery Bus Boycott

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
Mrs. Rosa Parks sat in the front row of seats in the black section
of the bus
E.D. Nixon local leader of the NAACP decided black citizens
might demonstrate their disapproval of the city’s segregated bus
system, bus boycott
Began on 5th of Dec. and was immediate success
Continued for a year
Bus company lost about 65% of business, had to cut services,
layoff drivers, and raise fares
‘conflict was between justice and injustice’
Segregation violated the US constitution
Incident produced the most important leader of the movement
and proved non-violent demonstration
Student Sit-ins



1st of February 1960 4 black college students staged a
successful sit-in at a Woolworths lunch counter,
Greensboro, North Carolina
Received extensive news coverage especially on TV
Caused a domino effect with black colleges throughout
the South
 Frequently
resulting in violence, thereby producing more TV
coverage

By January 1961 70,000 black and white youngsters
had participated in a sit-in
Civil Rights Acts 1957-1960

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

Eisenhower’s second term in office saw the passage of
these two acts
Felt publicly obliged to support the Brown decision
because of ongoing concerns about America’s standing on
the international scene
1st civil rights legislation in 82 years
1957 – voting rights and a commission to investigate
violations of the law
1960 - introduced penalties to be levied against anybody
who obstructed someone’s attempt to register to vote or
someone’s attempt to actually vote
Birmingham Protests
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April 1963
Worst segregation record in the South
King was imprisoned for his involvement in a sit-in, wrote his
‘letter from a Birmingham jai’ in response to a public
statement of ‘concern and caution’ by white religious leaders
Went on with protest intending to fill prisons with black
youth, embarrassing city officials
Televised, fire hoses, police dogs, beaten, and arrested had
profound impact on America
Concerned with international image, within 90 days
integrated large department stores, re-addressed
employment discrimination and released demonstrators
March on Washington

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Aug. ‘63
250,000 people peacefully marched to the Lincoln Memorial in DC to
demand equal justice for all citizens under the law
Demanded passage of a meaningful Civil Rights Act, enactment of a fair
employment practices bill, plus job training and placement
Theme of the march became racial harmony and unity
King delivered ‘I have a dream speech’
Worldwide media coverage
No major disturbances
Millions of Americans witnessed for the first time black and white people
united in the cause of freedom and civil rights for all
Short lived, followed


In September by a church bomb on Alabama
In November by the assassination of President Kennedy
Freedom Summer



Volunteers went down to Mississippi to bring an end to political
disenfranchisement, where only 6.2% of blacks were
registered to vote in 1962
100’s of college students flocked to help with registration
30 ‘freedom schools’ in towns throughout Miss.

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

1964
Taught black history and philosophy of civil rights
Often targets of mob violence
30 black homes and 37 black churches were firebombed and
more than 80 volunteers attacked
Murder of three activist two which were white provoked an
outpouring of international support for the movement

Whites murdered attracted far more attention than previous attacks
made black resentment grow
Civil Rights Act of 1964



Specifically prohibited racial discrimination in
restaurants, snack bars, hotels, motels, swimming pools,
and all other places of public accommodation
Funds could be withheld form any US governmentsupported school and/or education program found
practicing racial discrimination
Established an equal opportunities commission to
combat employment discrimination based on sex,
religion, or race
Voting Rights Act of 1965



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
Alabama march was attacked by state troopers (Selma
March)
In response 1000’s gathered on the White House
Johnson declared ‘there is no negro problem, there is
only an American problem’
Abolished literacy tests, poll taxes, and all other
devices used to discriminate against minority voters
Any change in election law must be pre-cleared or
officially approved beforehand through the federal
district court
Watts Race Riots - 1965


Long story short: White policeman pulls over young
black driver, arrests him for speeding and possible
intoxication. Crowd assembles, calls for reinforcements,
crowd pelts police with rocks and bottles. 2 hours
angry mob is attacking white drivers and setting cars
aflame.
After 15,000 troops and police and 6 days order is
restored.


4000 arrested and 1000 injured and 34 dead
Incalculable harm to the civil rights movement

White backlash
Watts Race Riots - 1965

Johnson Administration Response

Sent officials to discover reasons for the riot, which revealed the
plight of urban blacks

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Educational facilities remained segregated
1950 to 1965 segregation in 15 large northern cities actually rose
sharply
Black unemployment was double that of whites
Black unemployment was at 30 percent
40 percent below poverty line
Majority of blacks were underemployed in unskilled and service jobs
80 percent of northern blacks lived in segregated ghettos
Urban minorities had little to no political clout
City officials were racist
Almost all policemen were white who called their billy clubs ‘nigger
knockers’
Watts Race Riots - 1965

Racial attitudes became vivid to committee
 Two
members arrived in Watts, one black (assistant
attorney general) and one white
 Two white cops immediately stopped them
 One cop asked the white man questions and for ID
 One cop pulled the black member from the car, frisked
him roughly, drew his pistol jammed the barrel into his
stomach and began asking him questions to find out
“why a nigger was riding with a white?”
Watts Race Riots - 1965



Report said “the poor people, the voiceless people, the
invisible people, had been ignored, and they were
enraged.”
Life noted it as “a time bomb of black rage exploded
in the ghettos”
Decades of segregation had led to two perspectives:
Blacks saw an America filled with discrimination
 Whites saw an America finally trying to live up to its dream
by passing social programs aimed at helping minorities

Black Power 1966

James Meredith, first black to graduate from Univ.
of Miss.
 “Walk
against Fear” 225 mile trek from Memphis to
Jackson as a demonstration that a black man could
walk unharmed on the highways
 Aimed to encourage black citizens to take advantage
of the Voting Rights Act and register
 10 miles into Mississippi, white man stepped out of the
bushes, fired his shotgun 3 times
 Rushed
to hospital, extracted 100’s of pellets from back,
leg, and head
Black Power 1966

Activists rushed to Memphis, discussions on continuing
March against Fear
New young leadership reflected militant attitudes
 March would mark the emergence of Black Power
 Activists had become disillusioned with white liberals
 Resentful Johnson administration had become more
interested in Vietnam than racial justice in America



Few months later Sammy Younge demanded to use an
illegal “white only” rest room in Alabama and he was
shot in the head
That Year two civil rights groups, SNCC and CORE
expelled all white members
Black Power 1966


During the march Stokely Carmichael violated a
police order and pitched a tent on the grounds of a
black high school and was arrested by state
troopers
He was released and held a large rally, jumped on
a platform, shot his arm in the air with a clenched
fist and shouted, “…we have been saying freedom
for six years and we ain’t got nothin’. What we
gonna start saying now is Black Power!”
Black Power 1966




Everything that happened afterward was a response to
that moment
March against Fear would go down in history as one of
the major turning points in the black liberation struggle
Black power is the coming together of black people in
the struggle for their liberation
Last day a leader stood up and said, “we left our
imposed status as Negroes and became Black
Men…1966 is the year of the concept of Black Power
Black Muslims

Malcolm X – vocal through the 1960’s felt Christianity
was hypocritical, converted to Islam, and became the
leader of the Black Muslims in Harlem
Felt the black man had no future in the United States
 Enraged whites by labeling them “blue eyed devils”
 Believed creating black states the only way they could
obtain racial justice
 Angered moderate blacks who worked hard for integration
 Said King’s tactics of non-violence were absurd, declared
blacks to “stand tall”

Black Muslims

1st of a new phenomenon – a bold, black man
demanding self-determination and if necessary selfdefense
 Shocked


White America
Assassinated, bibliography was released soon after
and became more famous in his death, a hero and
martyr of sorts
Muhammad Ali
 Heavyweight
champion that converted to Islam,
stripped of his belt for not going to war when drafted,
and challenged society to believe “black is beautiful”
Black Panthers



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
Summer of ‘67 led by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton
Growing militancy among young African Americans
Black leather, saluted with right hand above head, black
glove, black berets because Army elites wore green
Result of assassination of Malcolm X
Ten point program



Re-educate with true history, black juries, exempt from military
history
Called on UN to intervene, set up self defense groups to
combat police brutality, neighborhood watch
Attracted TV cameras and scared white people
White Backlash




Nonviolent protest won many whites over
Black power, black separatism, and rioting,
increased opposition to the demands of black
Americans called white backlash
Affirmative action required business and schools
to recruit minorities and women
This was said to be reverse discrimination, no
better than earlier forms of discrimination
New Feminism





August 1970 women nationwide participated in the first
major feminist demonstration in a half century – the
women’s strike for equality
NYC was biggest demonstration
To many women the most important issue was
discrimination
Merged to themes of liberation and empowerment
Between ’70 and ‘72 no issue received as much national
attention as women’s liberation

More coverage than ever before about discrimination,
opportunity, sexism, and abortion
New Feminism


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Prompted males to wonder about liberating themselves from traditional
roles
Women’s groups filed class action suits against all public schools on the
grounds that they discriminated in salaries, promotion, and maternity
benefits
Complaints against 1300 major companies demanding goals and
timetables for equal employment and sued numerous other companies
Wanted better treatment in armed forces, better representation in labor
unions, challenged state laws concerning abortion and rape
“The whole point of the female movement is that each and every woman
shall recognize that the burden and the glory of here feminism lie with
defining herself honestly in terms she shall choose.”
Even nuns organized challenging the idea that sin is based on Eve

Priests walked by and said ‘God Bless’ sisters responded, “thank you She will”
New Feminism

Dad is breadwinner and wife is mother and
homemaker
 1950



70% fit this, in 1990 only 15% fit this
Divorce rates have doubled since 1970
Women now have become mayors, governors,
reporters, liberating all professions
From 1970 – 1990 percentage of female
attorneys, professors, physicians, and business
managers have increased from 5% to over 33%
New Feminism


Exposed long suppressed private matters—
abortion, harassment, incest, lesbianism, rape, wife
and child beating—resulting in a more open society
Women’s liberation was the most successful social
movement of the sixties era
The Hispanic Movement


Fastest growing minority group
Attaining civil rights played an indirect role
Goals emphasized the lack of economic justice for a
generic farm-worker class—although all Chicanos would
benefit
 Focused on election, jobs, pay, and housing


Cesar Chavez organized farm workers in California,
United Farm Workers
Relied on meager resources at hand, living simply, and
playing on the sympathy of the American public
 Used strikes, a 250 mile march to Sacramento, and a
boycott of all grapes

American Indian Movement



Most deprived and troubled minority
Unemployment, suicide, slashed federal aid (little to no
Government support)
American Indian Movement, demanded federal Indian
policy

1975 Congress passed Public Law 93-638, the Indian SelfDetermination and Education Assistance Act



Expanded tribal control over tribal governments and education,
authorized federal funds to build needed public shoos
Possibly the most important piece of legislation passed
1978 passed the Religious Freedom Act

Recognizing, protecting, and preserving the inherit right of American
Indians to express and exercise their traditions and beliefs
American Indian Movement

Protested and eventually some of the land was
returned
Occupation of Mount Rushmore ‘70
 19 month occupation of Alcatraz Island form ’69 to ’71
 “Trail of Broken Treaties” caravan from California to D.C. in
’72, with a 7 day occupation of Federal Bureau of Indian
Affairs
 71 day militant occupation of Wounded Knee in ’73

Civil rights and social movements in the
Americas


SO WHY STUDY THIS TIME IN HISTORY
“Important to examine and understand because it
was another defining period in U.S. history. Activists
confronted issues central to this Republic: equality or
inequality, war or peace, national interest versus
individual rights, personal behavior versus
Community standards. By raising these issues, the
sixties legacy was to question the very nature
and meaning of America”