Struggle for Equality
The Civil Rights Movement
Important Players
• W.E.B. DuBois
– NAACP
– Aggressively fight for equality
• Booker T. Washington
– Passive philosophy
– Hard work brings equality
• Tuskegee Airman
– All black fighter pilot unit of WWII
– One of the most successful units of war
Important Players
Important Players
• A. Philip Randolph
– Leading civil rights leader
of WWII
– Threaten to march on
Washington to expose
discrimination in defense
industries during WWII
– “Most dangerous negro in
America”
– Co-leader of March on
Washington with MLK
Important Players
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Baptist Minister
Montgomery Bus Boycott
SCLC
March on Washington
“I have a dream” speech
Assassinated by James Earl Ray (1968)
Non-violent Civil Disobedience
Important Players
Important Players
• Rosa Parks
– Political activist with NAACP
– Montgomery Bus Boycott
– “Mother of Modern Civil Rights Movement
• Thurgood Marshall
– NAACP lawyer
– Brown vs. Board of Education
– 1st African Amer. Supreme Court Justice
• Medgar Evers
– Field secretary for NAACP in Mississippi
– Assassinated in 1963
Important Players
Players Continued
• Malcolm X
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Radical civil rights leader
Leader of the Nation of Islam
Left NOI in 1964, became orthodox Islam
“By any means necessary”
Assassinated by 3 members of NOI 1965
• Emmett Till
– 14 year old murdered in Mississippi in 1955
for supposedly “flirting” with a white woman
– Brought national attention to the problem
Players Continued
More Players
• Stokely Carmichael
– SNCC
– Coined the phrase “Black Power”
– Mississippi Summer Project to register black
voters
• Black Panthers
– Leaders Huey P. Newton & Bobby Seale
– Violence if necessary
– Protect black neighborhoods from police
More Players
More Players
• Fannie Lou Hamer
– Led Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
• James Meredith
– 1st black student to enroll at University of
Mississippi
• Jackie Robinson
– 1st African American to play Major League
Baseball (1947)
More Players
Still More Players
• Cesar Chavez
– Leader of UFWA
– Fought for rights of migrant farm workers
• Hector P. Garcia
– Organized American G.I. Forum to improve
veteran benefits & medical attention
• Delores Huerta
– Advocate & lobbyist for farmworkers’
rights
Still More Players
Government Guys-Presidents
• Harry S. Truman
– Integration of Armed Forces
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
– Civil Rights Act of 1957
• JFK
– Pushed for civil rights legislation
• LBJ
– Civil Rights Act of 1964
Presidents
Government Guys-Governors
• Orval Faubus (AR)
– Refused to desegregate Little Rock Central
High School
– Used Arkansas National Guard
• George Wallace (AL)
– Tried to stop integration of U. of Alabama
– “I say segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, and segregation forever”
• Lester Maddox (GA)
– Refused to serve blacks in his restaurant
Governors
Courts Get Involved
• Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
– Separate but Equal
– Jim Crow Laws
• Mendez vs. Westminster (1946)
– Segregation of Mexican & Mexican American
students in California was unconstitutional
• Delgado vs. Bastrop I.S.D. (1948)
– Segregation of Mexican-Americans in Texas
schools was unconstitutional
• Sweatt vs. Painter (1950)
– Racially segregated law schools of UT violated
the equal protection clause of 14th Amendment
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
• Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
– Linda Brown & Thurgood Marshall
– School segregation illegal
– Overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson
• Hernandez vs. Texas (1954)
– Mexican Americans & other racial groups have
equal protection under the 14th Amendment
• Edgewood I.S.D. vs. Kirby (1993)
– Redistribution of property taxes from wealthy
school districts to poorer districts
These Groups Rock!
• NAACP – National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
– W.E.B Dubois
– Equality for all
• CORE – Congress of Racial Equality
– Formed by group of students (1942)
– Civil disobedience was best way to achieve
equality
• SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordination
Committee
– Created to promote “sit-in” movement
– Coordinated similar efforts around the south,
support leaders, & publicize activities
Still Rockin’!
• SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
– MLK was president
– Lobbied & advocated reform
• UFWA – United Farm Workers of America
– Better pay & job security for farm workers
– Safer working conditions
• LULAC – League of United Latin American
Citizens
– Combat discrimination Hispanics face in the
U.S.
All in Favor, Say “I”
• 13th Amendment
– abolished slavery
• 14th Amendment
– Former slaves are citizens
– All citizens have rights
• 15th Amendment
– Voting rights can’t be
denied based on race
The Motion is Approved
• Civil Rights Act of 1957
– Protected voting rights
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
– Banned discrimination
based on race, color,
religion, or national origin
in public accommodations
& education
The Bill is Passed
• Voting Act of 1965
– No poll tax to vote
– No literacy test to vote
• Civil Rights Act of 1968
– Forbid discrimination in
public housing based on
race or ethnicity
- “Fair Housing Act”
What…..Which is Which?
• De facto Segregation
– Segregation by choice
• De jure Segregation
– Segregation by law (Jim Crow Laws)
Stay off the Bus!!!
• Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956
– Rosa Parks refused to leave seat for a white
man
– Arrested for violating the city’s segregation law
– Year long boycott of the bus company
– City agreed to change the law to allow blacks to
sit anywhere
– Event produced a new leader for the
movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Little Rock Nine
• Integration at Little Rock 1957
– Gov. Faubus refused to integrate Central
High School
– mobilized National Guard to prevent
entrance by 9 black students
– Direct challenge to federal authority
– Eisenhower sent in army (paratroopers)
to restore order & protect the “Little
Rock Nine”
The Sit-In Movement
• Woolworth lunch counter in
Greensboro, North Carolina
– Greensboro four
– Feb. 1960, they sat down to
order coffee
– Were refused service
– Returned everyday
– Over 70,000 people
participated in sit-ins
throughout the South
– Received press all over the
nation
WoolWorth’s Today
WoolWorth’s Today
Keep on Ridin’
• Freedom Rides
– Spring of 1961
– SNCC members joined with activists from CORE
– Placed white & black students on interstate
buses to test the new court decision to
desegregate waiting rooms & dining facilities at
bus stops
– In the deep South, met with violence
– Attorney General Robert Kennedy assigned
federal marshals to protect riders
Non-Violent Protest
• Birmingham, Alabama
– Rev. Shuttlesworth asked
MLK to come to city
– Most segregated big city in
America
– Test nonviolence
– It was a planned non-violent
campaign
– Police Commissioner “Bull”
Connor decided to crush the
protest
– Police used fire hoses, police
dogs, & clubs
– TV carried scene to the
nation
Civil Right Movement
• MLK arrested in
Birmingham
• Response “Letters from
Birmingham Jail”
• Kids march, 1,000 arrested
• Nation saw racism in the
South at its worst
Everybody March
• March on Washington (Aug 1963)
– To support & pressure Kennedy for civil
rights legislation
– 250,00 people of all races marched on
nation’s capital
– “I have a Dream”
Selma, AL in 1965
• March 7 - march from Selma to
Montgomery (capital of AL)
• Stopped with force by state police at edge
of town
• “Bloody Sunday”
• Received national attention
• March 25 – Dr. King led successful march
from Selma to Montgomery
Constitutional Changes
• 24th Amendment
– Passed in 1964
– Prohibited the use
of poll taxes as a
requirement for
voting in a federal
election
From MLK,Jr’s Last Speech
“And then I got to Memphis. And some began to…talk
about the threats that were out. … Well, I don't know
what will happen now. We've got some difficult days
ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've
been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. … I just want
to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the
mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the
promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want
you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the
promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried
about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have
seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Something to Ponder……
1. Has Dr. King’s
‘dream’ been
achieved?
2. Do you think the
Civil Rights
movement as a
whole was a
success or a
failure?
3. Are AfricanAmericans
“equal” today?
Quoting Dr. King
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence and toughness
multiplies toughness in a descending spiral
of destruction. The chain reaction of
evil………must be broken, or we shall be
plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
» Martin Luther King Jr.