Segregation & The Birth of
the Civil Rights Movement
Civil Rights Movement Basics 1948-1965
• Goals:
1.
2.
•
End Segregation
Secure Voting Rights
Groups:
–
–
–
–
–
CORE: Congress of Racial
Equality
NAACP: National
Association of the
Advancement of Colored
People
SCLC: Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
SNCC: Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
Black Panthers only
violent group
• Nonviolent Philosophy:
Groups organized rallies,
marches, sit-ins, protests, and
other campaigns. Groups
believed in NON VIOLENT protest.
Taking a stand but refusing to use
violence, even if they were met
with violence.
• Leaders:
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Malcolm X
Segregation
• America was a divided country
• Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation was constitutional
under the clause “separate but equal”
• De jure segregation- segregation that is imposed
by law (Jim Crow Laws)
• De facto segregation- segregation by unwritten
custom or tradition
De jure or De facto?
•
No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse
DE JURE
in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro
men are placed.
DE FACTO
•
African American’s experiencing higher rates of poverty and illiteracy
•
A black man/ boy should not look a white woman in the eyes
DE FACTO
•
Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or
DE JURE
negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities.
•
It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white
DE JURE
person. Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void
•
African Americans could only get low paying jobs
DE FACTO
•
No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls
DE JURE
•
African American’s being afraid to vote even after the 15th Amendment
DE FACTO
Birth of a Movement
• After WWII African Americans were unwilling
to accept discrimination at home
• New efforts begin to bring an end to racial
injustice
– Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• Organized protests against segregation in the North
– Truman uses executive power to desegregate the
military (1948)
• All of the progress brings more violence to the
South
NAACP Challenges
Segregation
• The NAACP was the
largest and most
powerful civil rights
organizations
• In the early 1950’s they
began to challenge the
legality of segregation
in the courts
– Thurgood Marshallfamous African
American Lawyer
NAACP in Oklahoma
• Ada Lois Fisher
– Sued University of Oklahoma for denying her
because of race and won
• McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
– Sued Oklahoma state for equal treatment at
universities
Brown vs. Board of
Education
• BREAK THROUGH CASE!
• “Separate but Equal” was finally being
challenged
• The court ruled in favor of Brown and the
NAACP that segregated public education
violated the U.S. Constitution
• Public schools around the country would now
start to desegregate
• Brown II the court called for schools to do this
“with all deliberate speed”
Brown V. Board of
Education +Rosa Parks
Arrest= Start of Civil Rights
Movement
•
•
•
•
Plessy V. Ferguson
Desegregate Military- after WWII
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State
Brown v. Board (1954)
• Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Little Rock Nine; nine young African American
students volunteered to enroll at Central High.
Arkansas Governor sent the state National Guard to
block them from entering. President Eisenhower
sent federal troops to escort the nine students for
the rest of the year.
• Civil Rights Act 1957- first bill passed since
Reconstruction; lacked strength
• Greensboro Sit-In
• Freedom Ride
• James Meredith, federal marshals protected him as he
attended University of Mississippi. Riots broke out
and President Kennedy responded by saying
“Americans are free to disagree with the law but not
to disobey it”
• Campaigns in Birmingham; Martin Luther King Jr. chose
Birmingham because it had a reputation for being the most
segregated city in the South. Marches were against city
court order but they protested anyway. Public Safety
Commissioner T. Eugene Connor sent police dogs and fire
hoses on the protestors. Witnesses were shocked by the
violence
1. Why were they campaigning in Birmingham?
2. Why can’t they “wait” to end segregation,
give at least five examples of segregation
King outlines.
3. How does King justify breaking laws?
4. Summarize what this letter teaches you
about the Civil Rights Movement. Motives,
goals, heart, plan of action?
March on Washington; 500,000 people march to support Civil Rights.
King delivers “I Have a Dream” speech
• Civil Rights Act 1964; signed by president Johnson.
This act banned segregation in public accommodations and
outlawed discrimination in employment. People were
unsure of Johnson’s view on civil rights because he was a
southerner with an undistinguished record on racial matters.
• Clash of State vs.
Federal rights. The
South doesn’t want to
give up control and the
federal government has
to step in and take away
some of their rights.
• Roll of television- The
abuse of African
American protestors is
captured on film.
Americans around the
country begin to
support their cause
because of the horrors
they see.