USA CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT

Civil Rights
What do you already know?

We will first review our understanding of the African
American Movement towards
Civil Rights
So, how does the movement start to take shape/Who was involved/What were the goals and outcomes/ and when did it occur?

History
1620: First indentured servants arrive in Jamestown
1600s-1700s: Various attempts made by slaves to gain freedom
1776: Slave trade deleted from DOI
1786: Slavery is extended for another
20 years
1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1800s: Slave Codes are further extended and ensure slaves have no rights
Slavery becomes obsolete In the North, though heavy and severe discrimination persists.
1820: Missouri Compromise: Balance of slave states
1832: Nat Turner’s Rebellion (Slave codes)

History Continue
1830s: Abolition movement
1850s: Era of more and more compromises and decisions (1850, 1854, Dred Scott Decision, John
Brown’s raid)
1860-1865: Civil War
1863: Emancipation Proclamation
1865: 13 th
Era
Amendment and the start of the Jim Crow
1867: 14 th and 15 th Amendment

Supreme Court Case:
Plessy v Ferguson
Supreme Court Case 1896
Homer Plessy 1/8 African
American, 7/8 Caucasian sat one white only train car and was arrested
Supreme Court Rules separate but equal facilities are legal

Video Clip:
Jim Crow Law History
Why were they called "Jim Crow"?
The name "Jim Crow" comes from an African-
American character in a song from 1832. After the song came out, the term "Jim Crow" was often used to refer to African-Americans and soon the segregation laws became known as "Jim Crow" laws.

Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws were designed to keep black and white people apart. They touched on many aspects of society. Here are a few examples of laws in different states:
Alabama - All passenger stations shall have separate waiting rooms and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races.
Florida - The schools for white children and the schools for black children shall be conducted separately.
Georgia - The officer in charge shall not bury any colored persons upon the ground set apart for the burial of white persons.
Mississippi - Prison wardens shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts.
There were also laws that tried to prevent black people from voting. These included poll taxes (a fee people had to pay to vote) and reading tests that people had to pass before they could vote.

Interesting Facts about Jim
Crow Laws
The U.S. army was segregated until 1948 when President Harry
Truman ordered the armed services desegregated.
As many as 6 million African-Americans relocated to the North and West to get away from the Jim Crow laws of the south. This is sometimes called the Great Migration.
Not all Jim Crow laws were in the south or were specific to black people. There were other racial laws in other states such as a law in California that made it illegal for people of Chinese ancestry to vote. Another California law made it illegal to sell alcohol to Indians.
The phrase "separate but equal" was often used to justify segregation.

NAACP ( Clip ) 1909
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
Based off the clip:
 What was the purpose and intent of this organization?
 What are some example of how this organization fought for equality?

Civil Rights Movement,
1900-1950




1905 – Niagara Movement begun by W.E.B.
Du Bois, William Monroe Trotter, and others
– denounced the vocational training and gradual progress espoused by Booker T.
Washington
1911 – Urban League formed to help poor black workers in cities
1920s – Marcus Garvey’s “ Back to Africa ” movement and Universal Negro Improvement
Association
1930 – Nation of Islam founded by Elijah
Muhammad

Segregation
The NAACP became one of the most important African
American organizations of the twentieth century. It relied mainly on legal strategies that challenged segregation and discrimination in the courts.
 Interestingly, Barak
Obama became president 100 years after the founding of the
NAACP.
20th Annual session of the N.A.A.C.P., 6/26/29 Cleveland, Ohio
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.; LC-
USZ62-111535
12
Contents

Segregation
Historian and sociologist
W.E.B. Du Bois was a founder and leader of the NAACP.
Starting in 1910, he made powerful arguments protesting segregation as editor of the
NAACP magazine The Crisis .
Dr. W .
E .
B . Du Bois
13
Contents

Why Did the Civil Rights
Movement Take Off After
1945?

I. Why Did the Civil Rights
Movement Take Off After
1945?
Black equality became a significant political issue for the Democratic Party
WWII had been fought against racism abroad —hard to keep harboring it at home
Black veterans came home dedicated to change
Increasing number of White Americans condemned segregation
Discrimination in the United States hurt our propaganda battle against the Communists

Civil Rights Movement,
1900-1950 (Continued)






1941 – FDR ended discrimination in defense industries
1942 – Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) founded by James Farmer and others – advocated nonviolent protests
1944 – Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma published
1946 – Committee on Civil Rights appointed by
Harry Truman
1947 – Major League Baseball desegregated when
Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers
1948 – Harry Truman desegregated the United
States military

II. The Truman Years (1945-
1952) Truman’s 1948 election year agenda
No significant Civil Rights congressional legislation
Truman moves on his own to do what he can for
Civil Rights
--Desegregation of the military (1948)
Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough (1947)

Desegregation of the Army
1948
Primary Source

Eisenhower Years
1952-1960

Life for African Americans in the
South (circa 1950)





De jure segregation – legal segregation through written laws
Jim Crow laws – designed to separate blacks and whites
Plessy v. Ferguson , 1896 – “separate but equal”
Segregation of beaches, cemeteries, hospitals, restaurants, schools, transportation, and more
Disenfranchised – few could vote – grandfather clauses, literacy tests, poll taxes

Life for African Americans in the
North (circa 1950)
De facto segregation – unwritten segregation through customs, housing patterns, and traditions
Segregation and discrimination in housing, jobs, and more

Life for African Americans
Nationwide (circa 1950)
 Segregated from whites, either legally or through custom, throughout the United States
 Employment – generally filled the lowest paid, least desirable positions – “last hired, first fired”
 Standard of living – higher rates of illiteracy and poverty, and shorter life expectancy, than whites


Housing – fewer black than white homeowners
World War II – following the defeat of Hitler and his racist ideology, African Americans expected changes within the United States

Celebrating A Civil Rights
Milestone
Examine the booklet
Take notes
Group Discussion
Due tomorrow

South, Schooling, and
Segregation
Southern colleges and universities were so rigidly segregated at the time that
Southern states would actually pay the tuition for black students to attend one of the many black colleges rather than admit them to white universities.

Brown v Board of
Education(pg. 994)
1954
Desegregate schools in four states
– Kansas, SC, Virginia, and
Delaware
9 year old Linda Brown’s father wanted her to go to all white school 4 blocks from their house

Brown Vs. Board
AS you watch the video clip:
 Identify what group contributed to the Civil
Rights movement
 Explain how this group was able to be successful at campaigning for Civil Rights
 Be prepared to share your understanding of the video clip

Brown v Board
Court made unanimous decision
Separate facilities were not equal therefore were illegal
Affected 12 million school children

Brown’s impact
Within a year of Brown v Board 500 had desegregated
Supreme Court made a second Brown decision – 1955 desegregation of schools must be done with deliberate speed

Arkansas
1948 allowed an African American to attend
UA-Fayetteville(Silas Hunt)
First black to be admitted to a white college.
Even though Hunt attended a white college, his classes were in the basement.
1957 Governor ordered National Guard of
Arkansas to turn away 9 African American
Students (Little Rock High School)
Forced Pres Eisenhower to act – ordered thousands of federal troops to Little Rock

Little Rock Nine
As you watch:
 Reaction to the comments made by one of the participants in Little Rock Nine
 What message is he trying to keep passing along?

Little Rock
Broadcast on National TV
Helped the nation focus on desegregation

Forever in history (pg. 840)

How else does the movement gain more momentum and become more progressive?

Emmett Till

Reflection and Reaction
Based on the video of Emmett Till, how has your understanding of the Civil Rights Movement increased?
Who is Emmett Till? Why is his story significant to the Civil Rights Movement?
What is your reaction to the learning of Emmett Till?
(Does this still happen today and if so, what lessons has our society learned or yet to learn?)
MLA Format

Rosa Parks
December 1, 1955
Sat in the front row of the
“colored section” of the bus
 Driver told Ms. Parks and 3 other African
Americans to give up their seat for white passengers

Rosa Parks refused
Bus driver wanted them to give up their seats so one white man could sit in the row without having to sit next to an African American
Rosa Parks said “It is certainly time for someone to stand up, so I refused to move”
When told by the bus driver he would call the police, She said “You may do that.”

News of the Arrest spread
NAACP planned a boycott
26 year old Martin Luther King
Jr. lead the group

Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 5, 1955
5000 people gathered to hear
Dr. King
Boycotted the buses
381 days no African American rode a bus in Montgomery
Alabama

Reaction
Non-violent even after MLK,Jrs home was bombed
1956 Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation
Dec 21, 1956 King boarded a bus and sat in the front row

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Minister
Non-Violence
Based his teachings on –
Jesus, Henry David Thoreau,
Mohandas Gandhi, A Philip
Randolph

New Organizations emerge and the movement intensifies
SCLC
CORE
SNCC

SCLC
In 1957 MLK was elected president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
An organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning Civil Rights Movement
The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity
In the eleven-year period between
1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred

No turning back
Earlymid 1960’s
Students protested in 48 cities in 11 states
Beat, arrested, tear gassed, fire hosed
Non-violent student protests continue
Includes caucasian students

SNCC (Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee)
Launched by the sitin’s that took place in both the South and the North
Ella Baker main leader

CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
Created in 1961 in response to
1960 Supreme Court’s ruling against segregated bus terminals
Called Freedom Riders: wanted to see if the government was really enforcing the rule
Left from Washington, D.C. to New
Orleans

The Beginnings of Black
Activism
In 1960, students from NC A&T led a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in
Nonviolent

Protest
Legal Action
 Protest
Committee
SCLC & SNCC soon surpassed the
NAACP for leadership of the civil rights movement

Greensboro Sit-in, 1960
 Four African-American college students in
Greensboro, North Carolina, ordered coffee and doughnuts at a Woolworth’s lunch counter
 Restaurant refused to serve them, so students sat there until it closed
 Sparked similar restaurant sit-ins, along with “read-ins” at libraries, “wade-ins” at beaches, etc.

NC A&T Woolwoth’s sit-in in 1960

Nashville Sit-ins led to jail

Turn to page 854-855

Freedom Riders
Desegregate buses and bus terminals in the South
State by state
Birmingham police pulled them off the buses and beat them
Students returned and sat for 18 hours
Caught on TV

Freedom Rides, 1961

Alabama
Alabama

Robert
Kennedy
Attorney General for Pres
Kennedy (1961-1963)
Asked for a cooling period to avoid any violence
Freedom riders kept going all summer
He did ask for the safety of the riders

No police
Violence provoked the response the students had hoped for
Newspapers reported outrage at the police
Pres Kennedy and sent 400 US
Marshals to protect the riders to
Miss
Attorney General - ended segregation in bus terminals, lunch counters, restrooms

Problems at the University level
University of Mississippi: Refused to admit African Americans
James Meredith took action of this policy
In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated Unv. Of Miss. Motivated by President JFK’s inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy Administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans.

“Ole Miss” Integrated, 1962
Medgar Evers worked to get Air Force veteran James Meredith into the allwhite University of Mississippi
September 30, 1962 – riot sparked by rumors of Meredith’s campus arrival – 2 killed and 160 injured
Meredith enrolled, graduating in 1963
June, 1963 – Medgar Evers assassinated
1966 – James Meredith shot and wounded

Birmingham
Ideal place to test non-violence
Most segregated city in USA
Good Friday, 1963 March through the city
March after march – arrests made
Children’s March – TV was there
Medgar Evers assassinated

Birmingham Marches, 1963
MLK forced JFK to openly support the plight of African-Americans in 1963, via the Birmingham march

Police commissioner “Bull” Connor used brutal force to end the protests & MLK was jailed
 Police brutality helped sway public sentiment
& allowed JFK to begin civil rights legislation
MLK’s
Letter From Birmingham Jail
(1963) articulated the non-violent protest of the civil rights movement

Analysis of Letter from a
Birmingham jail 1963

Pres. Kennedy takes a stand
June 11, 1963 sent federal troops to force Gov Wallace to desegregate Univ. of Alabama
Went on TV that night – demanding congress pass a Civil Rights Bill

March on Washington
August 28, 1963
250,000 people including
75,000 Caucasians
Demonstrated in Washington
DC
Dr Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a Dream” Speech on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial

“ I have a Dream”
As you listen, try to identify the following:
 What speech does MLK refer to in his opening statement?
 What is the tone of his speech? How is he able to engage such a large crowd?
 What message does MLK send to the crowd?
 How does this message help other groups pursue the same dream?

I have a Dream Activity
Handout on the sections of the “ I have a Dream Speech”
To create your own “I have a Dream” speech (Due: Monday! Extra Credit)

Aftermath of March
Read Birmingham 1963
Purpose of the March was the passage of the Civil Rights Bill
Two weeks later Church bombed and four African
American girls were killed
Two months later November 22,
1963 Pres Kennedy was assassinated

Civil Rights Act of 1964
1963 - supported by President Kennedy; after his assassination, President Johnson called for its passage as a tribute to JFK
Outlawed segregation in businesses, banned discriminatory practices in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, and ended segregation in public places

Civil Rights Bill 1964
Pres Johnson signed the Civil
Rights Bill on July 2, 1964
Prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender.
Gave all citizens the right to enter libraries, parks, bathrooms, theaters, and other public facilities

Civil Rights under LBJ
Lyndon Johnson made civil rights the major component of his presidency:
 In 1964, the 24 th Amendment was ratified banning poll taxes
 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 declared segregation in public facilities illegal & officially ended the majority of Jim Crow laws

Civil Rights under LBJ
Civil rights groups were not content & continued for equality:
 Freedom Summer in 1964 led to the registration of thousands of Mississippi blacks to vote
 The 1965 protest march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery led to police violence;
“
Bloody
Sunday” shocked people in the North more than any other event

1964 – Freedom Summer
1000’s of college students went to
Mississippi to help with voter registration and participate in sit ins and marches.

The Fight
This man spent
5 days in jail for “carrying a placard.”
Sign says
“Voter registration worker”

White victims of violence

" Your work is just beginning. If you go back home and sit down and take what these white men in
Mississippi are doing to us. ...if you take it and don't do something about it. ...then *%# damn your souls.
"

Civil Rights under LBJ
After the Selma march, LBJ & Congress passed the Voting Rights Act (1965)
 Banned literacy tests & sent federal voting officials into the South to protect voters
 The act finally accomplished what Radical
Republicans had envisioned when the 15 th
Amendment was enacted in 1870

Voting Rights Act of 1965
Prohibits the use of voting laws, practices or procedures, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation…that discriminate in either purpose or effect on the basis of race, color, or membership in a minority language group

Differences in Philosophy
MLKJ- non-violent, all for equal rights, better life for all
Malcolm X: Non-violence dehumanizing, separate selves from whites, movement only for AA, changed philosophy, white-black brotherhood

Malcolm X

Malcolm X
A black militant, who symbolized black power, defense of African American rights and improvement of their conditions even if it meant violence
Criminal background; while in prison, joined the
Nation of Islam who stressed black nationalism but taught that white people were “devils.”
Broke from the Black Muslims and traveled to
Mecca, Saudi Arabia and Africa
Changed his philosophy hoping one day all races will be joined in brotherhood
1965-Assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam

"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."
-Malcolm X, 1964

Black Power(Ideology)
Create a whole new culture and political institutions for AA
Stockley Carmichael leader of SNCC developed and led this movement
Rejected by most other Civil Rights movement groups
Two African American athletes gave symbols of pride to black power in the
1968 Olympics (Banned for life)

Black Power
Continued
"Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of social institutions and a self-sufficient economy

Black Panther Party (1960’searly 1980’s)
Focused on brutality of police
Reforms included: Children’s Breakfast program, safer neighborhoods, etc.
Often militant and violent
Refuted black nationalism
Read Violence Erupts on page 853.

Black Panthers
Influenced by Malcolm X
Believed a revolution was necessary in the United States to gain equality
Adopted a “Ten-Point Program” that called for black empowerment, an end to racial oppression, and control of major institutions and services in the African American
Community
Openly carried weapons in public and were prepared to use violence

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