Georgia and the Modern Civil Rights Movement

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Georgia and the Modern Civil Rights Movement

• SS8H11 - The student will evaluate the role of
  Georgia in the modern civil rights movement.

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• SS8H11a - The student will describe the major
  developments in civil rights and Georgias role
  during the 1940s and 1950s to include the roles
  of
• Herman Talmadge
• Benjamin Mays
• 1946 governors race
• End of the white primary
• Brown vs. Board of Education
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 1956 state flag

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In the 1940s and 1950s, Georgia took a central
role in the demand for change for African
Americans in the U.S.
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The influence of BENJAMIN MAYS, father of the
Modern Civil Rights Movement

• Minister educator President of Morehouse
  College in Atlanta
• Influenced by the non-violent teachings of Gandhi
  
• Believed that all human beings must be treated
  with dignity
• Spoke out against segregation before the Civil
  Rights movement began
• Worked with the NAACP
• Became a teacher and father-figure (mentor) to
  Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The influence of MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., leader
of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

• Born in Atlanta, GA
• Studied at Morehouse College under
• Benjamin Mays
• Believed in non-violent methods of
• protest to bring about change
• marches, demonstrations, and
• boycotts.
• Led a bus boycott that ended bus
• segregation in Montgomery, AL.
• Founded the Southern Christian
• Leadership Conference (SCLC) to
• lead anti-discrimination protests.
• Led March on Washington
• Won Nobel Peace Prize
•  

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THE GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED!!!

• In 1946, the courts ruled that the Democratic
  white primary in Georgia was an unconstitutional
  violation of the 14th Amendment (the equal
  protection clause).
• After the 1946 election of Herman Talmadge, and
  for a time, several segregationists politicians
  were elected by Georgia voters who worked to
  continue Jim Crow laws in the state.

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THE GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED!!!

• The Three Governors Controversy - In November
  1946, Eugene Talmadge was elected for a fourth
  term as governor, but died before taking office.
  A struggle ensued, with three men claiming the
  office.
• Herman Talmadge - the son of Eugene Talmadge
• Ellis Arnall - the current Governor
• Melvin E. Thompson - the Lieutenant Governor
• The contested election was challenged in court,
  and the GA Supreme Court determined that M.E.
  Thompson was the legal governor. In 1948 a
  special election was held and Talmadge defeated
  Thomas.
• The governors that followed the 1946 election
  were segregationists.

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THE GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED!!! Brown vs.
Board of Education

• In 1954, the National Association for the
  Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a
  landmark decision in the United States Supreme
  Court.
• According to the Supreme Court, segregated
  schools were unconstitutional (the equal
  Protection clause).

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• Separate but equal
• was now illegal because?.
• SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL!!!

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• Many southern states protested the Supreme
  Courts decision,
• including Georgia?
• MASSIVE RESISTANCE!!!

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Brown vs. Board of Education

• In 1956, to demonstrate its disagreement with the
  decision,
• GA changed its state flag to include the
  Confederate battle flag.

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By the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was well
underway and was gaining momentum

• The founding of the SNCC
• Several students adopted Kings strategy of
  non-violent protest and formed the Student
• Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
• One of the leaders of SNCC was Georgia native
  and Morehouse College graduate, Julian Bond.
  Bond was later elected to the U.S. Senate for
  Georgia.
• SNCC used sit-ins at lunch counters, Freedom
  rides to raise awarness and later expanded to
  promote voter registration in the South.
• Part of the Albany Movement

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The Sibley Commission

• After schools were ordered desegregated in 1954
  by the Brown decision, Georgia refused to
  cooperate and threatened to stop funding (through
  the General Assembly)
• any schools that integrated.
• In 1960, Georgias government formed a
• commission to ask Georgians how they felt
• about the matter. The commission was led
• by influential Atlanta lawyer John Sibley.

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The Sibley Commission According to the
Commissions findings...

• ?GA had mixed feelings
• Therefore, Sibley recommended
• a) Each school district should be able to
  decide for itself their own policy on
  integration
• b) State laws punishing integrated schools
  should be repealed  
• John Sibley head of the General
  Assembly Committee on Schools and Murphy
  chandler.

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The Integration of the University of Georgia

• By order of the U.S. District Court in Athens,
  GA, the University of Georgia was ordered to be
  integrated.
• Despite angry protests and threats, Charlayne
  Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first two
  African- Americans
• to enroll at UGA.

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The Albany Movement

• From fall 1961 to summer 1962, a desegregation
  movement
• took place in Albany, GA, involving the
  NAACP and SNCC.
• Goal - Bring national attention to the Civil
  Rights movement
• by ending all types of segregation in Albany
  (buses, trains, libraries, hospitals, juries,
  etc. ).
• In order to draw American attention
• to Albany, the NAACP and SNCC recruited?

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The Albany Movement

• Despite Kings assistance, the Albany movement
  FAILED?
• By December 1961, 500 protesters were arrested.
• Albanys police chief used peaceful tactics to
• avoid negative publicity.
• The NAACP and the SNCC were often at odds with
  one another.
• The Albany movement did not concentrate on a
• single kind of segregation
• IT TRIED TO DO TOO MUCH

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The March on Washington

• In August 1963, more than 250,000 people
  converged on Washington, D.C. to demand equal
  rights for blacks.
• Here, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his
  famous I Have a Dreamspeech ...

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Washington led the Senate to consider passing the
  Civil Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination in
  all public places and making it illegal to
  discriminate in employment on the basis of race
  or sex.
• http//www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/content/civil
  -rights-act-1964

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

• This act prohibited states from imposing any
  voting qualification on voting or denying the
  rights of any citizen of the United States to
  vote on account of race or color.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964

• The Civil Rights Act was signed into law by
• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, widely
  considered the Civil Rights President.
• Johnson considered this his greatest achievement
  as United States President.

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The Election of Governor Lester Maddox

• In 1966, Maddox ran for Governor and was elected.
  
• He surprised many by hiring more blacks for
  government jobs than any previous Governor of
  GA.
• Last segregationist governor in Ga.

• Lester Maddox became a GA celebrity in 1964 when
  he chose to close his Atlanta restaurant rather
  than comply with the Civil Rights Act.

As Governor, he supported prison reform and increased spending for GAs universities. He also started Peoples Day where, once a month, average citizens could come talk to the Governor directly at the Governors office.
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Mayor Maynard Jackson

• By 1973, Atlantas population became an African-
  American majority.
• Maynard Jackson defeated the popular Mayor Sam
  Massell (who was popular with blacks as well) to
  become the first African-American mayor of a
  major American city.

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One of GAs greatest Civil Rights leaders was
Andrew Young

• In the 1950s and 1960s, Young organized voter
  registration and desegregation efforts in Albany
  and other southern cities, trained volunteers in
  non-violent protest.
• He worked closely with MLK, Jr. and the SCLC.
• In 1972, Young was elected to the U.S. House of
  Representatives, the first black elected from GA
  since
• Reconstruction.

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Andrew Young

• In 1977, President Jimmy
• Carter appointed Young to be
• the U.S. Ambassador to the
• United Nations.
• In 1981, he succeeded Maynard Jackson as mayor of
  Atlanta.
• In 1996, he served as co-
• chairman of the Atlanta
• Commission on the Olympic
• Games (ACOG).

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What do you remember about? ?the Modern Civil
Rights Movement???

• A. Maynard Jackson
• B. 1956 State Flag
•  
• C. Lester Maddox
•  
• D. Martin Luther King
•  
• E. Hamilton Holmes
•  
• F. Brown vs. BOE
• G. Albany Movement
•  
• H. Sibley Commission
•  
• I. Benjamin Mays

• ____1. Unsuccessful civil rights effort in
  Georgia.
• ___ 2. President of Morehouse College
•  
• ___ 3. Most important Civil Rights leader I
  have a dream?
•  
• ___ 4. Created to ask Georgians their opinion on
  desegregation
• ___ 5. Declared that school segregation is
  unconstitutional
•  
• ___ 6. Georgias protest-response to the Civil
  Rights movement
•  
• ___ 7. Closed his restaurant rather than serve
  blacks
•  
• ___ 8. One of the first two African-American
  students at UGA
•  
• ___ 9. The first black mayor of Atlanta

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ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

• Conflict causes changes in societies.
• Respond in writing to the following
• In what ways were the modern Civil Rights
  movement a conflict?
• What changes resulted from the movement?