The Civil Rights Struggle

1
Chapter 20

• The Civil Rights Struggle

2
Section 1

• Challenging Segregation

3
Early 1950s The United States

• Segregationthe enforced separation of racial
  groups in schooling, housing, and other public
  areas
• Segregation was a fundamental part of southern
  culture

4
Early 1950s The United States (cont.)

• De facto segregation
• In the North
• Pattern of urban life
• Segregation in thought not by law
• Whites moved to suburbs
• School districts drawn so they included only
  African-America or white neighborhoods
• The U.S.A. had 2 societies
• One white and one African-American

5
The Segregation System

• Public education was most tense issue
• Early 1950s17 states and D.C. prohibited whites
  and African Americans from attending school
  together
• Only 16 states required integrated schools

6
The Segregation System (cont.)

• Civil rightsthe political, economic, and social
  rights of a citizen particularly, those
  guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, such as
  the right to vote and the right to equal
  treatment under the law

7
The Segregation System (cont.)

• Supreme Court decisions in 1950
• 1.) railroad dining cars operating in the South
  had to provide equal service to all travelers
• 2.) African American students could not be
  segregated within a school also attended by whites

8
The Segregation System (cont.)

• Supreme Court decision in 1950
• 3.) intangible factors, not just buildings or
  books had to be considered when comparing the
  education provided for African Americans and
  whites

9
The Challenge of the Courts

• 1896
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• separate but equal
• Used to justify segregation
• http//www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/plessy/p
  lessy.html

10
NAACP Strategy

• Series of court cases that chipped away at Plessy
  ruling
• Supreme Court ruled in all the cases that
  facilities provided were not equal

11
NAACP Strategy (cont.)

• Charles Houston
• Thurgood Marshall
• Desegregation of graduate and specialized schools
• Then planned to attack segregation in elem. And
  high schools

12
NAACP Strategy (cont.)

• 1950attack segregation head-on
• Challenge the courts that segregation itself was
  illegal
• NAACP expected to lose when the suits were first
  tried, allowing for appeals up to the Supreme
  Court

13
Brown Decision

• Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
  (1952)
• The Supreme Court hoped to show that segregation
  was a national issue
• Oral arguments began on Dec. 9, 1952
• Earl Warren appointed as Chief Justice
• Warren wanted a unanimous decision

14
Brown Decision (cont.)

• May 17, 1954
• We conclude that in the field of public
  education the doctrine of separate but equal
  has no place. Separate educational facilities
  are inherently unequal.
• http//www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html

15
Resistance to Brown

• Supreme Court did not say how integration was to
  be carried out
• May 1955integration should take place with all
  deliberate speed and at the earliest possible
  date
• 80 of Southern whites opposed the decision

16
Massive Resistance

• Southern districts
• KKK reemerged
• White Citizens Councils
• Less militant than KKK
• Thomas Stanley
• VA governor
• I shall use every legal means at my command to
  continue segregated schools in Virginia.

17
Massive Resistance

• State legislatures passed 450 laws to prevent
  enforcement of the Brown decisions
• Southern Manifesto
• 100 Southern members of Congress
• the motives of those states which have declared
  their intentions to resist forced integration by
  any lawful means.

18
Eisenhower and Brown

• Eisenhower attempted to be neutral
• I dont believe you can change the hearts of men
  with laws or decisions.

19
Crisis at Little Rock
20
Crisis at Little Rock

• Little Rock, AR
• 9 African Americans to Central High School
• Sept. 1957
• AR governor said that soldiers from the states
  National Guard would surround Central High

21
Crisis at Little Rock (cont.)

• The School decided to delay segregation federal
  courts ordered desegregation to take place
• Fight between federal and state authority

22
Chaos Erupts

• Little Rock Nine were forced to leave class
  under police protection
• Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock and
  nationalized the Arkansas National Guard

23
Chaos Erupts (cont.)

• Sept. 25, 1957
• Little Rock Nine went to school in a military
  convoy
• 1958
• Little Rock public schools were closed entirely
• Aug. 1959
• Little Rock schools reopened and integration took
  place

24
Desegregation Video

• http//www.history.com/media.do?actionclipidtdi
  h_sept25_broadband

25
Section 2

• Freedom Now

26
The Bus Boycott

• Dec. 1, 1955
• Montgomery, AL
• Rosa Parks
• True beginning of the civil rights movement

27
(No Transcript)
28
The Boycott Begins

• Boycottan organized agreement not to buy or use
  a certain product to deal with a certain company
  or nation in order to exert pressure for change

29
The Boycott Begins (cont.)

• African Americans boycotted the bus services in
  Montgomery
• Dont ride the buses to work, to town, to
  school, or anywhere on Monday.

30
A Successful Strategy

• Bus boycott lasted 400 days
• 40,000 African Americans normally road on the
  buses
• African American owned cab companies only charged
  10 cents
• Car pooling
• 42 locations
• Picked up in station wagons
• rolling churches

31
A Successful Strategy (cont.)

• Bus company was losing lots of
• Segregationists in power were frustrated
• African American leaders were arrested and find
• Kings house was bombed
• Dec. 20, 1956
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on
  Montgomery buses was unconstitutional

32
Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Leader of African American protest movement
• Only 27
• Baptist minister
• From Atlanta
• Married Coretta Scott in 1954

33
The Creation of SCLC

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• 1957
• Nonviolent integration
• King was president

34
Nonviolence

• Nonviolent resistancethe act of peacefully
  demonstrating for a charge in policy without
  fighting authorities
• SCLC and Fellowship of Reconciliation led
  workshops on nonviolent methods
• Mohandas Gandhi

35
Nonviolence (cont.)

• 4 steps to nonviolence
• 1.) investigation
• 2.) negotiation
• 3.) publicity
• 4.) demonstration

36
A Season of Sit-Ins

• Feb. 1, 1960
• 1st sit-in
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College
• 4 African Americans
• All freshmen
• Wanted coffee and doughnuts
• Denied so they just sat at the counter

37
A Season of Sit-Ins (cont.)

• 31 students on the 2nd day
• 63 students on the 3rd day
• 3 white students joined on the 4th day
• 300 demonstrators by the 5th day

38
A Season of Sit-Ins (cont.)

• April 1960
• Resumed lunch-counter sit-ins
• City arrested 45 students (trespassing)
• Sales dropped, businesses gave in
• August 1960
• Finally served

39
(No Transcript)
40
The Sit-Ins Spread

• Grassroots movements
• By April 1960
• 78 communities had sit-ins
• 2,000 protesters arrested
• By Sept. 1961
• 70,000 people were sitting-in
• Mostly students
• http//www.history.com/media.do?actionclipidcd1
  track07

41
The Sit-Ins Spread (cont.)

• Targets were mostly Southern stores that were
  part of national chains
• We walk so they may sit.

42
The Sit-Ins Spread (cont.)

• kneel-ins (churches)
• read-ins (libraries)
• wade-ins (beaches)
• sleep-ins (motels)

43
A Student Movement

• College campuses became the center of the civil
  rights movement
• Many students who practiced nonviolence protests
  faced hostile reactions

44
The Creation of SNCC

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
• Ella J. Baker
• Raleigh, NC (Shaw University)

45
The Creation of SNCC (cont.)

• Easter weekend (April) 1960
• 300 students
• Moral power of nonviolence
• Civil disobediencea strategy for causing social
  change by means of nonviolent resistance to
  unfair laws

46
The Creation of SNCC (cont.)

• jail not bail
• Refuse bail and remain in jail
• Bail stopped
• Nation continued to watch while protesters were
  in jail

47
The Creation of SNCC (cont.)

• Fall of 1961
• 16 field secretaries
• By early 1964150
• Sent to areas that were most resistant to
  integration

48
The Creation of SNCC (cont.)

• SNCC workers were subject to physical harassment
• Federal court decisions, executive branch
  actions, and more civil disobedience was needed
  to end segregation

49
Section 3

• Government Response

50
May 21, 1961 Freedom Riders Mobbed in
Montgomery, AL

• Freedom Riders
• Passengers riding busses from Atlanta to
  Birmingham
• 1st part of the trip was calm
• Mob violence towards Freedom Riders in Montgomery
• Federal marshals sent to keep order in Alabama

51
(No Transcript)
52
(No Transcript)
53
JFK and Civil Rights

• On the Campaign Trail
• 1960 election
• Kennedy vs.. Nixon
• Lyndon B. Johnson was Kennedys VP running mate
  (TX Senator)

54
On the Campaign Trail (cont.)

• Kennedy needed both the segregationists votes in
  the South and the African Americans vote in the
  North
• Kennedy pledged to end racial discrimination in
  federally supported public housing
• He supported sit-ins

55
On the Campaign Trail (cont.)

• JFK won the election by the narrowest margin of
  popular vote in the 20th century
• 7 of the 11 states of the old Confederacy
• 70 of African American vote

56
Kennedys Civil Rights Strategy

• Kennedy did not attack segregation
• He promised African Americans jobs and votes
• A presidential committee was formed to end job
  discrimination in federal govt. departments and
  federal contractors (did very little)

57
Kennedys Civil Rights Strategy (cont.)

• Enfranchisementattainment of the rights of
  citizenship, especially the right to vote
• Kennedy was not successful on getting the vote to
  African Americans
• In Deep South, only 5 were registered to vote

58
Kennedys Civil Rights Strategy (cont.)

• Kennedy did not appoint African Americans to
  positions in his administration
• Kennedy was reluctant to attack segregation
  head-on

59
Kennedy and the Militants

• Militantsa person who is aggressive in promoting
  a cause
• Civil rights demonstratorsFreedom Now!
• White segregationistsSegregation Forever!

60
The Freedom Riders

• Dec. 1960Supreme Court ruled that all bus
  stations/terminals serving interstate travelers
  should be integrated
• Purpose of Freedom Riders was to test the
  execution of the decision

61
The Freedom Riders (cont.)

• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• http//www.core-online.org/
• May 4, 19611st Freedom Riders left D.C. going
  towards New Orleans
• 1st part went well
• Violence began in Anniston, AL
• As it went towards Jackson, MS the violence got
  worse

62
The Freedom Riders (cont.)

• When the Riders arrived in Jackson, they stepped
  off the bus and tried to enter the whites-only
  waiting room
• Arrested for trespassing and put in jail
• Sept. 22, 1961Interstate Commerce Commission
  issued a ruling against segregation of interstate
  facilities
• CORE had won

63
The Voter Education Project

• Robert Kennedy stressed importance of voting by
  African Americans
• June 1961meeting of reps from SCLC, SNCC, CORE,
  and NAACP
• Workshops to increase of African Americans
  registered to vote

64
The Voter Education Project (cont.)

• Voter Education Project was successful
• White segregationists used terror
• Bombing churches, homes, etc.
• Workers were assaulted and shot
• Fired from jobs, kicked off land, etc

65
The Voter Education Project (cont.)

• Justice Department did nothing
• Said maintaining law and order was up to the
  local govt.
• Sept. 30, 1962
• U.S. Army sent to enforce court order to allow an
  African American to enroll at the University of
  Mississippi

66
The Demonstrations

• More and larger demonstrations took place
• Birmingham
• Dr. King was put in jail
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• justice too long delayed is justice delayed

67
The Demonstrations (cont.)

• Began to use schoolchildren in demonstrations
• Police arrested more than 2,000 protesting
  children
• This turned public opinion in Kings favor

68
The Demonstrations (cont.)

• May 11, 1963
• Bombs _at_ Kings motel and his brothers home
• Led to riots
• Kennedy took the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.

69
The Demonstrations (cont.)

• June 11, 1963
• Enforcement of court order to allow 2 African
  Americans to enroll at the University of Alabama
• Kennedy announced he would send Congress a civil
  rights bill
• Medgar Evers assassinated (head of MS NAACP)

70
The March on Washington

• Aug. 28, 1963
• Coalition of labor leaders, clergy, liberals, and
  grassroots workers
• Largest crowd ever to attend a civil rights
  demonstration

71
The March on Washington (cont.)

• I have dream that one day this nation will rise
  up and live out the true meaning of its creed
  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
  all men are created equal.
• http//www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-spee
  ch.html

72
The Triumph of Civil Rights

• Nov. 22, 1963
• Kennedy was assassinated
• Lyndon B. Johnson became president
• http//www.history.com/media.do?actionclipidtdi
  h_nov22_broadband

73
LBJ Carries On

• Kennedys civil rights bill passed the House of
  Rep in Feb. 1964
• Senate was much more difficult

74
LBJ Carries On (cont.)

• Filibusterthe tactic of making extended speeches
  to delay or prevent a vote on a piece of
  legislation
• Southern Senators were going to use the
  filibuster to prevent the voting on the civil
  rights bill

75
LBJ Carries On (cont.)

• July 2, 1964
• Johnson signed the civil rights bill (1964 Civil
  Rights Act)
• Most comprehensive civil rights legislation
  enacted up to that time
• http//www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flashtruedoc
  97

76
LBJ Carries On (cont.)

• Title II
• Forbade segregation
• Most Southern cities immediately desegregated
• Brining discrimination cases as the job of the
  federal govt.

77
Protest in Selma

• Alabama
• Only 383 African Americans out of 15,000 possible
  were registered to vote
• 1964-1965
• Months of beatings, arrests, and 1 murder

78
Protest in Selma (cont.)

• Civil rights leaders planned a march from Selma
  to Montgomery (54 miles)
• March 7, 1965
• 600 demonstrators onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge
• Sheriffs and state troopers lined the bridge and
  blocked the opposite end
• State troopers set off tear gas and attacked them
  with clubs

79
Protest in Selma (cont.)

• March 9, 1965
• A 2nd planned march
• Led by Dr. King
• LBJ asked King not to carry out the 2nd march
• King reluctantly agreed

• March 15, 1965
• LBJ promised to send a bill to Congress
  guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote

80
Protest in Selma (cont.)

• March 21, 1965
• March from Selma to Montgomery took place
  peacefully
• Under the protection of the federalized Alabama
  National Guard

81
(No Transcript)
82
(No Transcript)
83
The Voting Rights Act of 1965

• If literacy tests were used and if less than 50
  of voting-age citizens were registered to vote,
  then racial discrimination could be presumed
• Many literacy tests were suspended
• In 3 years, 740,000 African Americans registered
  to vote
• Hundreds of African Americans were elected to
  positions

84
Section 4

• Disappointed Hopes

85
New Directions in Civil Rights

• SNCC and CORE began to move away from nonviolence
• Black Power
• Martyra person who dies or endures great
  suffering for a cause
• Black separatismconcept calling for the
  separation of the races

86
New Directions in Civil Rights (cont.)

• 3 key issues for SNCC
• 1.) role of white volunteers?
• 2.) black separatism
• 3.) continued use of nonviolence?

87
New Directions in Civil Rights (cont.)

• Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) vs..
  Democratic Party
• MFDP wanted to be the legitimate Democratic Party
• MFDP received 2 of 40 seats from MS

88
Black Pride

• Black pridepride in being African American
• Malcolm X
• afro haircuts
• Language, music, lifestyles, etc.
• Negro--colored--black

89
Black Pride (cont.)

• Sometimes the powerful desires of African
  Americans to proclaim their own self-worth was
  expressed in anti-white feelings
• White workers were asked to give up leadership
  positions in SNCC

90
Malcolm X and Black Separatism

• Black Muslims
• Black separatism
• Malcolm X leader of Black Muslims
• Preached a message that included religious
  justification for black separatism

91
Malcolm X and Black Separatism (cont.)

• Use of weapons for self-defense
• Opposite of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Feb. 21, 1965 assassinated

92
SNCCs New Leadership

• Stokley Carmichael
• 1966 elected as chairman
• Symbol became a black panther

93
SNCCs New Leadership (cont.)

• Black powera movement to improve African
  American economic, political, and social
  conditions using African American leadership and
  organization, without the help of whites

94
The Long, Hot Summers

• Segregation both in the South and the North
• 1965
• relocation of 3 million Southern African
  Americans to the north
• 2/3s live in urban areas
• Life in Northern cities caused frustration
• Poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination,
  empty promise of racial equality

95
Summer Riots

• Summers of 1965, 1966, and 1967 all produced
  riots in U.S. cities
• Watts (Los Angles)
• Aug. 11, 1965
• 34 died
• 4,000 arrested
• Property loss of 40 million

96
Summer Riots (cont.)

• Detroit
• 1967
• 7,000 arrested
• Snipers prevented firefighters form putting out
  fires

97
Black Panthers

• 1966 formed
• Oakland
• Goals
• 1.) protect African American communities from
  police harassment
• 2.) assume control of neighborhood schools,
  police, etc.
• Use of weapons for self-defense and retaliation

98
Reasons Why Riots Happened

• National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder
  was formed
• Keener Report
• March 1968
• Basic cause of rioting was racial attitude and
  behavior of white Americans towards black
  Americans

99
Keener Report (cont.)

• White flight to suburbs ghettos
• 3 triggers for racial violence
• 1.) frustrated hopes of African Americans
• 2.) approval and encouragement of violence
• 3.) sense many African Americans had of being
  powerless in a society dominated by whites

100
Keener Report (cont.)

• The nation is rapidly moving toward 2 increasing
  separate Americas.
• steps to prevent separate Americas
• 1.) eliminate all racial barriers in jobs,
  education, and housing
• 2.) greater public response to problems of racial
  minorities
• 3.) increased communication across racial lines

101
One More Assassination

• MLK, Jr.
• April 4, 1968
• Memphis, TN
• 39 years old
• Weve got some difficult days ahead. But it
  doesnt matter with me now. Because Ive been to
  the mountaintop. I may not get there with you,
  butwe as a people will get to the promised land

102
The Civil Rights Movement Appraised

• Civil rights movement floundered after Kings
  death
• Middle-class American was tired of the violence
  and struggle
• Vietnam War and crime on the streets became the
  most important issues

103
The Civil Rights Movement Appraised (cont.)

• Second Reconstruction
• 14 years
• Between Supreme Courts Brown decision and Kings
  assassination
• Great progress in civil rights
• Many try to prevent the gains from slipping away
  today