Goal Eleven:
Recovery, Prosperity, and Turmoil (1945-1980) - The learner will
trace economic, political, and social developments and assess
their significance for the lives of Americans during this time
period.
Objectives:
11.02 Trace major events of the Civil Rights Movement and
evaluate its impact.
11.03 Identify major social movements including, but not limited
to, those involving women, young people, and the environment,
and evaluate the impact of these movements on the United
States' society
Brown v. BOE of Topeka,
1954
 Brown v. BOE of Topeka,
1954: said Plessy v. Ferguson
was unconstitutional and public
schools were to be integrated
 Thurgood Marshall was
the lawyer for the Brown family
 Earl Warren was the Chief
Justice in Brown v. BOE
The movement
begins…….
 Dec. 1955: Rosa Parks
was a secretary for the
NAACP in Montgomery
 She refused to give up her
seat and move to the back
of the bus which
segregation required her to
do by law
 She was arrested and four
days later a boycott began
BUS BOYCOTT
 The NAACP protested the arrest of
Parks with the Montgomery Bus
Boycott for 381 days
 Blacks made up the majority of the
bus riders and this hurt the
companies
 Martin Luther King, Jr
organized and led the boycott
 1956 the Supreme Court outlawed
segregation in city transportation
 King followed the idea of passive
resistance: non-violent protest
 Used by Thoreau (Civil
Disobedience) and Gandhi (India)
CORE
 Congress of Racial
Equality
 Founded in the 1940’s
 Helped to organize the bus
boycotts, sit ins, freedom
rides
 By the late 1960’s they
began to support the idea
of Black Power
Little Rock Nine
 Many white southerners
couldn’t accept desegregation
and fought back in many ways:
discrimination at businesses,
KKK, attacks
 In 1957, the Little Rock Crisis
occurred
 The Governor of Arkansas
didn’t enforce integration at
Little Rock Central High School
(9 black students)
 State Issue:

Ike thought this was a state issue
so he stayed out of it at first
 Ike eventually sent in the Army
to enforce integration
Organizations form
 The civil rights movement
was a grassroots
movement: civil rights
movement started with the
people; not politicians,
etc.
 In 1957, King helped to
create SCLC: Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference: staged
protests and pushed for
voter registration
Kennedy is President
 In 1960 at Shaw University in
Raleigh, NC SNCC (Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee) was formed
(snick) to get college students
involved in the civil rights
movement
Non Violent Resistance
Sit-Ins
 These and other
groups (CORE) stages
non-violent protests
such as sit-ins as early
as the 1940’s at lunch
counters: sitting to
protest and refusing to
move (non violent)
Greensboro, NC
 Feb. 1960 in
Greensboro, NC
students sat at an all
white lunch counter
and refused to move
 Beginning of the sit-in
movement
Freedom Rides
 People began to celebrate the
end of segregation in
interstate travel with
Freedom Rides
 Pushed for civil rights and
voter membership
 They were testing the
Supreme Courts verdict and
found that many southern
buses were not desegregated
 Some faced dangers as some
buses were fire bombed;
JFK eventually sent federal
troops for protection
 1962: James Meredith won a court case
allowing him to attend the University of
Mississippi; led to integration in colleges
 The Governor refused to admit him and JFK
had to send troops to escort him into school
 Riots occurred on campus and his parents
home was shot at.
George Wallace
 At the University of
Alabama a similar
problem occurred when
Governor George Wallace
refused entrance to two
African-American
students
 Gov. of Alabama who
supported segregation
 Later ran for president
Birmingham, Alabama
 March 1963:
Birmingham
 Civil rights march led
by King
 Violence against
protesters shown on
TV
 Seen around the world
 Water hoses and police
dogs were used
against them
More
violence...
 Attacks against civil rights
leaders continued
 Medgar Evers was a civil
rights leader shot in front of
his home
 June 12, 1963
 The accused killer, a white
supremacist named Byron De
La Beckwith, stood trial twice
in the 1960s, but in both cases
the all-white juries could not
reach a verdict.
 Finally, in a third trial in 1994
(and thirty-one years after
Evers’ murder), Beckwith was
convicted and sentenced to
life in prison.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character
March on Washington
 August 1963: March
on Washington
 over 200,000 people
(black and white)
March for civil rights
 I Have a Dream
Speech made by King
at the protest
Lyndon Johnson is President
Civil Rights Legislation
 1964: 24th Amendment: abolished poll
taxes
LBJ and Halleck
 Civil Rights Act, 1964: prohibited
discrimination based on race in public
places (Johnson was President)
1965: Selma to Montgomery
It began with 300 and grew to over
25,000
Bloody Sunday was the result of a
planned march in Selma, Alabama on
March 7, 1965. Marchers that were
crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge were
charged by police on horseback. Many of
the protesters were beaten with clubs.
 Voting Rights Act, 1965:
eliminated literacy exams
and allowed federal
examiners to register
voters; not states
 States may discriminate
against voters
 Black votership
tripled….1964 10% of
eligible blacks voted; by
1968 60% had registered
to vote
Black Power Movements
Other black leaders
 New black leaders
emerged from the north
who challenged King’s
beliefs
 Malcolm X (real name
Malcolm Little) member
of the Nation of Islam
called for black power
and retaliation; militant
leader
 Associated with Black
Separatism
Break Away from the Nation
 “X” wanted to strengthen
the black community by
blacks for blacks
 This upset King because it
would alienate white
supporters for civil rights
 Malcolm X, after a
pilgrimage in Mecca,
broke away from the
Nation of Islam led by
Elijah Muhammad
 “X” was assassinated
Feb. 21, 1965 while
giving a speech in
Harlem….some say by
members of the Nation
of Islam
Militants: Black Panthers
 Black Panthers
founded by (1966) by
Stokley Carmichael,
Huey Newton and
others to fight police
brutality
 They supported the
idea of separate black
communities
 Dressed in military
uniforms and had
several conflicts with
police and the FBI
John Carlos and Tommie Smith
1968
Olympics
•Because of their actions, the
Olympic Committee barred
them from competing in other
events.
•Back in the United States,
instead of receiving a
celebration of their
achievements, they were
subjected to death threats and
their actions were the subject
of widespread debate.
•However, they did receive
support from civil rights
leaders.
Thurgood Marshall-1967
Became the first black Supreme
Court Justice
1968 – The Year Everything
Went Wrong
Martin Luther King, Jr
 April 4, 1968: Martin
Luther King, Jr. was
assassinated by James
Earl Ray
 His death cause riots all
over the US
 Ray was found 2 months
later in England and was
sentenced to 99 years
 Ray died in prison in
1998
More Changes…...
 Civil Rights Act, 1968: banned
discrimination in public housing
 In the 1960’s, blacks began to form their
own identity: afros, afro centric dress
styles, etc.
 Black studies at universities, more blacks on
TV and movies, etc.
 More blacks in government esp. in the
position of mayor
Support Declines
People began to lose interest in the civil
rights movement by the late 1960’s
There was a lack of support from
government, from whites (due to militant
groups), and other issues came up…
(Like Vietnam)