American History Unit 10
Civil Rights Movements
Roots of Discrimination
• Jim Crow Laws
– Disenfranchisement
• Grandfather clauses
– Guinn v. U.S. (1915)
• All-white primaries
– Smith v. Allwright (1945)
– Segregation
• Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
Roots of the Civil Rights Movement
• NAACP
– Founded in 1909 by W.E.B. Dubois and others
– Tried to bring equality through legal cases
– Tried to bring awareness to end lynching
• CORE
– Launched the “Double V” campaign during WW II
• A. Philip Randolph
– Organized a march on Washington to protest inequality in
defense jobs (not the bonus march of the 1920s)
– After WW II he organized a group to protest segregation in
the Military
Integration
• EO 9981
– Ordered the end to discrimination in the military
– Beginning of military desegregation in 1947
– Military officially integrated in 1954
• Jackie Robinson
– April 15, 1947 integrated Major League Baseball
– National symbol of desegregation
Integration
• Brown v. Topeka (Board of education)
– Linda Brown wanted to attend the closer white school
– Thurgood Marshall represented the NAACP and
argued in front of the Supreme Court
• Later became the 1st African American Justice
– Court ruled that “separate but equal” was
unconstitutional in 1954
• Example of a court case overturning a previous court case
– Ruled that schools must integrate “with all deliberate
speed”
Integration
• Little Rock 9
– Nickname for nine African American students wanting to
attend Little Rock Central high School in 1957
– Orval Faubus
• Governor of Arkansas
• Refused to allow African American Students to attend “White
schools”
• Ordered the National Guard to prevent African American Students
from entering
– Eisenhower
• Intervened to assert federal power
• Ordered federal paratroopers to escort students to class
• Nationalized the National Guard and changed their orders
Integration
• James Meredith
– African American Student
– Wanted to enroll at Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) in 1962
– Governor Ross Barnett did not want to allow it
• "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your
governor"
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JFK ordered 500 U.S. Marshalls to escort Meredith to class
Riots broke out when he was allowed to enroll
National Guard was called in
200 were arrested, 2 died
In 1966 he planned a solo march against fear to raise voter
registration (shot but not killed)
1950s
• Emmitt Till (1955)
– 14 year old African American visiting from Chicago to
Money, MS
– Said “hey baby” to a white women
– Her husband and brother went to Till’s uncle’s house
and took Till during the night
– Till’s body was later found badly beaten, tied to a
cotton gin fan, and floating in a river
– The husband and brother were aqcuitted by an allwhite jury
– Brought national attention to racial violence in the
south
• Montgomery Bus Boycott
– Dec 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to move on a bus
in Montgomery, AL and was arrested
– Begins the bus boycot
– Lasts 381 days
– 26 year old Martin Luther King leads the
organization efforts
– Ends Dec. 21, 1956 it ended and African
Americans could sit where they pleased
• SCLC
– Southern Christian Leadership Conference
– Formed in 1957 by MLK and other religious leaders
– Organized non-violent protests to fight for civil rights
• Civil Rights Act of 1957
– 1st civil rights bill in 87 years
– Signed by President Eisenhower
– Southern senators, led by Strom Thurmond,
fillibustered the bill, but it passed anyway
– Mostly symbolic and ineffective
– Activists upset because it was too weak
1960s
• SNCC (pronounced “snick”)
– Student non-violent coordinating committee
– Founded in 1960, they mostly used civil disobedience,
which is purposely breaking laws as a form of protest
– Consisted ot African American and white members
– Sit-ins: they would occupy seats at segregated lunch
counters and refuse to move
– Freedom rides: integrated gouprs of passengers
purposely defying local segragation laws
– Ran voter registration campaigns and literacy projects
1960s
• JFK
– Elected president 1960
– Pushed civil rights legislation
– Proposed civil rights bill, but was assasinated before it
passed
• Birmingham campaign
– Movement organized by the SCLC and Led by MLK in 1963
– Intended to bring attention to integration efforts in
Birmingham, AL
– Non-violent demonstrations were combatted with violence
– Eventually the discrimination laws were changed
1960s
• March on Washington
– Previously the idea of A. Phillip Randolph during
WW II
– About 250,000 participants on Aug. 27-28, 1963
– Bring awareness to discrimination in hiring
practices and public discrimination
– MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
– The march is credited with helping to pass the civil
rights bill of 1964
1960s
• 24th Amendment
– Jan. 1964
– Outlawed Poll Taxes
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
– Signed by LBJ on July 2, 1964
– Ended discrimination in employment
– Ended discrimination in public places
• Voting Rights Act 1965
– Official end to all voter discrimination
– Provided federal enforcement of the 15th Amendment
1960s
• Black Power
– Political movement emphasizing racial pride and
promoting a self-sufficient economy
– More aggressive than earlier non-violence movements
– Stokely Carmichael
• Leader of SNCC in the late 1960s
• Focused more on the black power
– Malcolm X
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Focused on Black Nationalism and the Nation of Islam
Stressed independence from European Society
Critical of non-violence movements
Assassinated in 1965
1960s
• Black Panther Party
– Founded in Oakland, CA in 1966
– Extremist Socialist Black power Group
– Originally encouraged armed citizen patrols to
monitor police violence and free breakfast for
children programs
– Eventually Advocated revolution and sought for
the release of black prisoners
– Leaders were Bobby Seal and Huey P. Newton
Women’s Rights
• NOW
– The National Organization of Women
– Founded in 1966 to address discrimination in employment
facing women after the Civil Rights Bill of 1964
– First president was Betty Friedan
• Author a book The Feminine Mystique
• Book spread interest in feminist activism
• ERA
– Equal Rights Amendment proposed by congress in 1972
(originally introduced in 1923)
– Only 35 of the 38 necessary states ratified it
– It never passed
Women’s Rights
• Title IX
– Added to Education legislation in 1972
– It prohibits exclusion of participation in sports
based on gender
– Provided opportunity for women to participate in
high school and college athletics
• Roe v. Wade
– Controversial Supreme court case in 1973 that
upheld a woman’s right to abortion
Other Groups
• 26th Amendment
– 1971 addition to the constitution
– Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18
• Cesar Chavez
– Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights
activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association
– Used non-violence to gain rights for Hispanic laborers
• AIM
– American Indian Movement
– Used dramatic civil disobedience to bring attention to Native
American Rights in the 1970s
– Alcatraz
• Occupied the island of Alcatraz for 19 months (1969-1971)