The Struggle
for Equality
Recommendations
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www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/crda/oh/index.html
The Cold War, Civil Rights and Emancipation
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External threat stresses
conformity within
society
External criticism and
competition within the
international arena
demands change
Legal Discrimination and
Disfranchisement
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1890: Mississippi
adopts a literacy
test. Other states
follow
Grandfather clauses
Legal segregation
from the late 1880s
(Jim Crow laws)
1896: Plessy v.
Ferguson: Doctrine
of ‘separate but
equal’
1898: Williams v.
Mississippi: legality
of disfranchising
acts
Segregation
The Civil Rights Movement in Perspective
(Photo: William E.B. Dubois)
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NAACP: founded in 1909 as pressure
group against discrimination
From the 1940s on: most important
social movement of the post-war
period
Reasons:
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expectations raised by wartime
opportunities;
symbolic victories in the field of
baseball and sports;
migration to northern cities;
worldwide condemnation
Implications for society, politics and
government
Early Federal Action
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1946: Truman appoints a national Civil
Rights Commission: report of 1947
calls for expanded federal role in civil
rights and foreshadows much of the
legislation of the 1960s.
1948: Beginning of desegregation of
the armed forces
1949: Administration proposes a
federal anti-lynching law; federal
protection of voting rights; permanent
agency to guarantee equal
employment opportunities. Southern
conservative Democrats block
legislation in Congress (by filibuster).
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(Photo: Chief Justice Earl Warren)
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NAACP: segregated
schools were inherently
unconstitutional
Unanimous decision on
May 17, 1954: Overturn
of the doctrine of
‘separate but equal’
Reasoning: segregation
seriously affects the selfesteem of children and
creates lasting
psychological and social
defects. Separate schools
are inherently unequal.
Legal Action and Politics
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NAACP files law suits in order to overturn
segregation at city parks, public beaches,
golf courses, interstate and intrastate
transportation, public housing
Difficult public climate: in the South,
white resistance increases.
101 members of Congress sign Southern
Manifesto which denounces “Brown v
Board of Education” as a “clear abuse of
judicial power” (1956).
500.000 southerners join ‘White Citizens’
Councils to block school integration and
other civil rights measures. Revival of the
Ku Klux Klan
President Dwight D. Eisenhower not
interested
Photos
(left to right: NAACP chief legal counsellor Thurgood Marshall, NY, 1958; Dwight D.
Eisenhower; Ku Klux Klan members)
Little Rock, Arkansas 1957
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Racial moderates on the
school board decide to
desegregate
White Citizens’ Councils and
governor of Arkansas, Orval
Faubus, object
Governor calls out National
Guard to bar nine black
students from attempting to
enrol in the all-white school.
Eisenhower sends in federal
troops and loyal National
Guards men (all in all 11.000
men). Reason: concerned
about international image
and defiance of federal
authority
The First Phase of the Movement:
Evaluation
Legal action does not change much at first
 But: sensitizes public opinion especially in the
North and ushers in a change of consciousness
 Public opinion
 New meaning of “liberal”
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Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus
Boycott (1955)
Effect
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Mobilization of black
community in
Montgomery
Assumption of
leadership by Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Economic squeeze
Supreme Court decision:
segregation in public
transport is
unconstitutional
Martin Luther King and the SCLC
(founded 1957)
Catapulted MLK to national prominence
 Focus of media attention
 Few victories outside courtroom
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The Second Phase of the Civil Rights Movement:
Mass Social Protest
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Southern resistance prompts media to
focus on civil rights issues
Charismatic leadership: Martin Luther
King
Non-violent resistance: modeled on
Mahatma Gandhi
Emergence of a mass movement in
southern cities and towns
Alignment of church-based groups
with students (students formed the
Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee, SNCC)
Credo of movement: “strong people
don’t need strong leaders” (Ella
Baker)
The Kennedy Administration and Civil Rights
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Focus on foreign policy
The Activist Phase of the Civil Rights Movement
Anne Moody on a Sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi
(excerpted from her Coming of Age in Mississippi, 1968)
Out waitress walked past us a couple of times before she noticed we had started to write our
own orders down and realized we wanted service. She asked us what we wanted. We began
to read to her from our order slips. She told us that we would be served at the back counter,
which was for Negroes. “We would like to be served here”, I said.
At noon, students from a nearby white high school started pouring in to Woolworth’s. When the
first saw us they were sort of surprised. They didn’t know how to react. A few started to
heckle and the newsmen [who had arrived earlier] became interested again. Then the white
students started chanting all kinds of anti-Negro slogans. We were called a little bit of
everything. The rest of the seats except the three we were occupying had been roped off to
prevent others from sitting down. A couple of the boys took one end of the rope and made it
into a hangman’s noose. Several attempts were made to put it around our necks.
Memphis suggested that we pray. We bowed our heads, and all hell broke loose. A man rushed
forward, threw Memphis from his seat, and slapped my face. Then another man who worked
in the store threw me against an adjoining counter.
Down on my knees on the floor, I saw Memphis lying near the lunch counter with blood running
out of the corners of his mouth. As he tried to protect his face, the man who’d thrown him
down kept kicking him against the head. …
We sat there for three hours taking a beating when the manager decided to close the store
because the mob had begun to go wild with stuff from other counters.
After the sit-in, all I could think of was how sick Mississippi whites were. They believed so much
in the segregated Southern way of life, they would kill to preserve it.
Freedom Rides 1961
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Congress of
Racial
Equality
(founded
1942)
Birmingham, Alabama (April 1963)
Kennedy and King
JFK: realizes rather late that
action is necessary
 King: mobilizes millions with
his speech “I have a dream”
(August 1963)
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
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Banned discrimination on account of race, skin color,
religion, national origin or sex
Explicitly banned segregation in public
Put a ban on federal funds to state programs which
discriminated against minorities
24th Amendment of 1964: ban of the poll tax
Voting Rights Act of 1965: bans all remaining legal
restrictions that African Americans faced in order to
vote
Voter Registration
Fracturing and Radicalization
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Vietnam war
Disillusionment with achievements of
desegregation
Emergence of new movements grouped
under the heading “New Left”
Some black leaders call for violent
action.
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Black Power
Black Panthers
black ghettoes and deplorable living
conditions. Riots in many cities,
especially in Los Angeles (Watts) and
Detroit with hundreds of casualties
Reflection of continuing socio-economic
deprivation
Radical Voices and Black Power
(Photos: Stokely Carmichael [1941-1998], Malcolm X [1925-1965], Olympic Games Mexico City 1968
Excerpts from Playboy Interview (Alex Haley), May 1963
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PLAYBOY: If Muslims ultimately gain control as you predict, what do you plan to do with white
people?
MALCOLM X: It's not a case of what would we do, it's a case of what would God do with whites.
What does a judge do with the guilty? Either the guilty one repents and atones, or God executes
judgment.
PLAYBOY: You refer to whites as "the guilty" and "the enemy"; you predict divine retribution against
them; and you preach absolute separation from the white community. Do not these views
substantiate the fact that your movement is predicated on race hatred?
MALCOLM X: Sir, it's from Mr. Muhammad that the black masses are learning for the first time in
400 years the real truth of how the white man brainwashed the black man, kept him ignorant of his
true history, robbed him of his self-confidence. The black masses for the first time are understanding
that it's not a case of being anti-white or anti-Christian, but it's a case of seeing the true nature of
the white man. We're anti-evil, anti-oppression, anti-lynching. You can't be anti-those things unless
you're also anti-the oppressor and the lyncher. You can't be anti-slavery and pro-slavemaster; you
can't be anti-crime and pro-criminal. In fact, Mr. Muhammad teaches that if the present generation
of whites would study their own race in the light of their true history, they would be anti-white
themselves.
PLAYBOY: What motives do you impute to PLAYBOY for providing you with this opportunity for the
free discussion of your views?
MALCOLM X: I think you want to sell magazines. I've never seen a sincere white man, not when it
comes to helping black people. Usually things like this are done by white people to benefit
themselves. The white man's primary interest is not to elevate the thinking of black people, or to
waken black people, or white people either. The white man is interested in the black man only to the
extent that the black man is of use to him. The white man's interest is to make money, to exploit.
Women’s Movement
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National Organization of American Women (founded 1966 by
Betty Friedan): promoted “equal partnership with men”
Successes
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slow but continuous change in perception of roles.
Establishment of women’s studies programs at universities
Increase in the overall female student population
Women’s Liberation Movement: more radical and less
mainstream.
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Prevention of “Miss America” elections
Call for overthrow of patriarchal system and society
Introduced “gender” as category
Betty Friedan (1921-2006): The Feminine Mystique (1963)
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The Problem that has no name
Statistical Profiles