Unit 11: The Civil Rights
Movement
Civil Rights
• The rights that belong to “all persons” in the
Constitution and Bill of Rights
– Freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition,
and religion
– Due Process Rights
– Fair Trial
* VOTING Rights are for
citizens only!
Civil War and Reconstruction
• At the end of the Civil War, the US moved
towards equality by:
– 13 Amendment: Ending Slavery
– 14th Amendment: defining citizenship
– 15th Amendment: outlawing racial discrimination
in voting
Civil War & Reconstruction
• The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were
made ineffective by Supreme Court Decisions
and Jim Crow Laws
• Discrimination by race was rampant and legal
based on State laws (Jim Crow Laws)
Truman Years 1945-1953
• 1947: Jackie Robinson become first AfricanAmerican baseball player to “cross the color line”
and play in the major leagues
• 1947: To Secure These Rights was published by
Truman’s Administration; called for civil rights
legislation to be passed by Congress
• 1948: Truman had 1st integrated Inauguration
• 1948: desegregated Armed Services
• 1949: ended discriminatory hiring in the Federal
government
Election of 1948
• 3 way race
– Truman : Democrat
– Dewey: Republican
– Thurman: Dixiecrat
• Most people thought Dewey would win
• Issue of race/segregation split the Democratic
Party
Jackie Robinson
Civil Rights and Litigation
• Litigation: to resolve a dispute in a court of
law
Civil Rights and Litigation
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Case involved the Separate Car Act in New Orleans
railroads
• Homer Plessy, a prominent Creole businessman, took
a seat in a white only railcar
• Plessy argued the separate rail cars for blacks and
whites was a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal
Protection Clause
• Decision was 7-1 in favor of Separate Car Act
• Separate But Equal became the standard for public
facilities in the US
• Segregation by race/color was constitutional
NAACP
• National Organization for the Advancement of
Colored People
• Decided to fight separate but equal in court
starting in the 1930’s
• Challenged the EQUAL facilities
Sweatt v. Painter, 1950
• NAACP challenged University of Texas over its refusal
to admit Herman Sweatt into their Law School due to
his race
• UT argued that its constitution prohibited integrated
education
• Texas created a separate law school for blacks in order
to keep Sweatt out of UT
• US Supreme Court ruled that the separate school failed
to meet the “equal” standard
• UT was required to admit all qualified students to its
law school without consideration of race or ethnicity
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas (1953)
• NAACP lawyers challenged Kansas public
school segregation law
• Linda Brown and other African-American
students were denied entry into an all-white
public school near their homes
• Could only attend an inferior “colored” school
further from their homes
• NAACP claims this violated the Equal
Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
Brown v. Board of Education
• NAACP argues that separate educational
facilities offered to African Americans were
inherently inferior
• Sent the message that these students were
inferior
• Key turning point in the Civil Rights Movement
Thurgood Marshall
• NAACP attorney that argues the case in front
of the Supreme Court
• Will later become the first African-American
Justice on the Supreme Court (LBJ appoints)
Chief Justice Earl Warren and School
Segregation
• Chief Justice Warren writes in the Courts
opinion that ALL public schools must be
desegregated “with all deliberate speed”.
• Enforcement was left to lower federal courts
• The vague language of the decision allowed
some States to delay implementation
“Jim Crow Laws”
• State laws that prevented African-Americans from
sharing public facilities with Whites
• Examples of Segregated Areas:
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Beaches
Theaters
Restaurants
Water Fountains
Restrooms
Waiting Rooms at Bus and Train Stations
Seating on Buses
Etc…
The Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56
• December 1955: Rosa Parks refused to give up
her seat on the bus to a white man in
Montgomery, AL
• She was arrested & prosecuted
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lead a boycott of the
city buses
• Boycott lasts 13 months
• King organized car pools and private taxi services
• King was arrested and his home was bombed
Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Case went to federal court
• Court ruled segregation on the buses violated
the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th
Amendment
• Buses were desegregated
• Proved that litigation and boycotts could
overturn Jim Crow Laws
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 1929-1965
• Baptist preacher
• Urged African-Americans to protest unfair
treatment and laws
• Lead training for non-violent protest
• Followed Gandhi’s practice of non-violent
marches, sit-ins, and boycotts
• Became the voice/face of the Civil Rights
Movement
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
• Signed by IKE
• Create the Civil Right commission
• Gave federal courts power to register AfricanAmericans to vote
• Procedures turned out to be too complicated
• Few people were registered
• Helped start the process of getting voting
rights for minorities
Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957
• Arkansas delayed desegregating schools
• Gov. Orval Faubus publically proclaimed he
would continue with segregation as long as
possible
• Ordered the Arkansas National guard to
prevent 9 African-American students from
entering Little Rock High School
• He refused to protect the students from an
angry mob
Little Rock Nine
• Nine African-American students who tried to
desegregate Little Rock High School
Eisenhower’s Response
• Ike orders federal troops to guard Little Rock 9
and desegregate the school by force if needed
• Gov. Faubus tried to close the school to delay
• Supreme Court ordered the school
desegregate immediately
• 82nd Airborne Rangers stationed at the school
for a year
Monument to the Little Rock 9
Status Quo
• Several Southern Governors complained that
the National gov’t was interfering w/ a State
matter
• They preferred the Status Quo: to continue
with the existing system of segregation
Lester Maddox
• Atlanta restaurant owner who refused to
serve African-Americans
• When the law forced him to do so, he sold his
business and went into politics
• He gained national attention when he won
election as Governor of Georgia in a landslide
• His platform was a promise of continued
support for segregation
George Wallace
• Governor of Alabama
• Gained national attention when he stood in
the doorway to prevent 2 African-American
students from attending the University of
Alabama
• His defiance lasted only 2 hours
• Federal troops were sent in
Congressional Southern Democrats
• Voted as a block from 1950’s thru 1960’s
• Prevented civil rights legislation from coming
to the floor for a vote
• Several were prominent committee chairs
Southern Sit-ins
• 1960: African-American students held a sit-in
at “whites only” lunch counters in North
Carolina
• Students were arrested; cases appealed to
Court
• Any business that was involved in interstate
commerce could be regulated by the Federal
Gov’t
John Lewis
• Student organizer of sit ins, Freedom Rides,
marches, etc…
Freedom Rides
• 1961: attempt to focus attention on
segregated bus in interstate travel
• Students boarded buses in NY and Chicago
and rode through the South
• Arrested, threatened, beaten, killed
• Result: buses desegregated
MLK’s Arrest and “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail”
• Promoted non-violent civil disobedience
• Became the image of the Civil Rights
Movement
• Lead a march in Birmingham and was arrested
• Television showed the brutal tactics the police
used to break up the peaceful protest
“Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
• MLK wrote to explain why he could no longer
wait patiently for the constitutional rights
• Critics thought he should use the courts, not
protest in the streets
• He argued that civil disobedience was justified
• “Everyone has a moral responsibility to
disobey unjust laws.”
March on Washington, 1963
• MLK and others organized a march on
Washington to pressure Congress to pass Civil
Rights bill
• 250,000+ attended the march
• Largest civil rights demonstration in US
“I Have a Dream” Speech
• MLK delivered the speech from the steps of
the Lincoln Memorial
• One of the most memorable and effective
speeches of the movement
March on Washington
• Culmination of the march was a meeting
between MLK and JFK @ White House
JFK and Civil Rights
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Wanted MLK and others to move more slowly
Worried about violence
Supported the movement publically
Assassinated before Civil Rights Act came up
for vote
LBJ and Civil Rights
• LBJ was a Senator from TX & Majority Leader
of Democratic Party
• Pushed Civil Rights Act of 1957 thru Senate
• Becomes Pres when JFK killed
• Pushes for new legislation
• Uses death of JFK to spur action in Congress
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• LBJ pushes
• Southern Senators try to filibuster bill (talk it
to death)
• Senate passes; bill becomes law
Civil Rights Act 1964
• Prohibits discrimination by race, color, religion
or ethnic origin in:
– Hotels
– Restaurants
– Stores
– Etc…
• Anyone involved in interstate commerce subject to
law
Civil Rights Act 1964
• Cut off federal aid to any school district/State
with segregated schools
• Gave Federal gov’t power to register people to
vote
• Established EEOC: Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
• EEOC is given power to enforce the Act
• Any business involved in interstate commerce
was subject to the law!
Selma, Alabama Marches
• 1965 MLK organized march demanding voting
rights
• Demonstrators attacked by police
• Called “Bloody Sunday”
• LBJ introduces Voting Rights Act as a result
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Ended poll taxes
• Suspended literacy tests when used to prevent
African-Americans from registering to vote
• Lead to substantial increase in # of AfricanAmericans registered to vote
24th Amendment
• 1964
• Eliminated Poll Taxes in federal elections
Affirmative Action and Minorities
• 1965, LBJ signs Executive Order
• Requires employers with federal contracts to
take positive steps to increase # of minority
employees & women
• Goes beyond preventing discrimination in
hiring
• Required companies to actively recruit
minorities
Assassination of MLK
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April 4, 1968 shot to death in Memphis, TN
James Earl Ray was arrested in London
He plead guilty to avoid the death penalty
Sentenced to 99 years
King family believes Ray was part of a
conspiracy
• No other people have ever been charged
Reaction to MLK’s Death
• Riots broke out in Los Angeles, Chicago,
Detroit, Atlanta, etc… when people heard the
news
• Thousands of businesses were looted and
burned
• King family urged calm
Black Panthers
• Begun in 1966
• Promoted African-American self defense
against police brutality and neglect
• Armed members patrolled the streets
• Became a political party advocating socialist
policies and against the draft (VietNam)
• Eldridge Cleaver was leader
Black Panthers
• Programs they started include:
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Free breakfasts for poor children
Legal defense fund
After school programs
Job training
“Black Pride” Movement
Black is Beautiful Campaign
Medical insurance
Collective Grocery Stores
Etc…
Affirmative Action Programs
• Lead to increases in minority hiring
• Increase minority enrollment in colleges and
universities
• Some schools enacted quotas for minorities
Affirmative Action
• Unintended consequence was reverse
discrimination
• Some qualified whites were denied admission
to college, law school, etc… due to quotas
• California v.. Bakke: Supreme Court uphold
affirmative action, but not racial quotas
Rev. Billy Graham and Civil Rights
• White, Southern, Christian preacher and
spiritual advisor to several Presidents
• WWII Vet and preacher rose to fame as an
anti-communist
• Became outspoken critic of segregation
• Bailed MLK out of jail in Birmingham
• Held public revival w. MLK
• Asked Ike to send troops to help Little Rock 9