CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

• Truman,Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon

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Trumans Policies

• President Truman appointed a presidential
  commission on civil rights in 1946 to end racial
  inequality. He also asked Congress to create an
  anti-lynching law and ban on the poll tax.
• He established a fair employment practices
  commission.
• He banned segregation in the armed forces.
• He strengthened the Justice Departments civil
  rights division, which aided blacks who
  challenged segregation in the courts.

3
Eisenhowers Policies 1953-1961

• In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Earl
  Warren as chief justice.
• Many of Warren Courts decisions were dealing
  with civil rights for African Americans.
• In 1957 Congress passed the first Civil Rights
  Act since Reconstruction. It authorized the
  Justice Dept to bring suits against persons
  interfering with anyones right to vote.

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Roots of African Americans Struggle for Equal
Rights

• After the Civil War most black citizens continued
  to face economic deprivation, racial hatred,
  segregation, and extremely limited political
  rights.
• In 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson established separate
  but equal schools and public services.
• Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer from the NAACP,
  helped overturn Plessy v. Ferguson in the case of
  Brown v. Board of Education.

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Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - 1954

• Linda Brown a 7-year old student was denied
  admission to the whites only school six blocks
  from her home and forced to attend the black
  only school many miles away.
• Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the Courts
  unanimous decision which stated To separate
  (students of color) from others of similar age
  and qualifications solely because of their race
  generates a feeling of inferiority as to their
  status in the community that many affect their
  hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be
  undone

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Little Rock- 1957

• Although the Supreme Court ordered that school
  integration go forward with all deliberate
  speed, many school systems openly defied the
  ruling.
• In 1957, the Little Rock Nine attempted to
  enroll in Central High, Arkansas.
• On Sept 4th , Elizabeth Eckford braved a
  terrifying walk alone through a hostile, jeering
  crowd on a failed attempt to enroll in school.
• For three weeks protesters prevented the nine
  African American students from attending Central
  High School in Little Rock.

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• President Eisenhower reluctantly place the
  National Guard under federal control and used
  them to enforce integration.
• Despite periodic setbacks, including local voters
  closing all Little Rock public schools for one
  year, the students successfully integrated the
  school.
• Ernest Green became the first black graduate of
  Central High in 1958.

8
Montgomery Bus Boycott

• In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
  to a white man and move to the back of the bus,
  as was required by law.
• She was arrested for violating the law, her
  action inspired a boycott of the citys buses.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., a young Baptist
  minister, emerged as a leader of the protest.
• The boycott lasted 381 days and in the end the
  Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public
  buses was illegal.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• King followed the nonviolent methods of Mohandas
  Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau.
• Civil Disobedience-This was a nonviolent approach
  use to break laws that were shown to be unjust.
• King and the Southern Christian Leadership
  Conference (SCLC) worked towards achieving civil
  rights for African Americans especially in the
  South.
• They organized black Christian churches.

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Greensboro, North Carolina

• Practicing civil disobedience, demonstrators
  protested against discrimination such as
  segregated lunch counters.
• In Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960 4 African
  American students sat at a whites only lunch
  counter in Woolworths and refused to leave until
  served.
• They sat at the counter until closing and the
  next day returned with over two dozen supporters.
  On the third day, students occupied 63 of the 66
  seats.

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• White sympathizers joined the sit-in. Forty-five
  students were arrested for trespassing.
• By the following weekend, over 400 students were
  conducting sit-in at stores throughout
  Greensboro and a wave of sit-in began across the
  South.
• The African American community organized an
  economic boycott of Woolworths and other
  targeted stores.
• On July 25, 1960, the first African American ate
  a meal at Woolworths.

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Kennedys Policies 1961-1963

• Kennedy appointed members of the black community
  to key positions in the federal government.
• His appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S.
  Circuit Court of Appeals later led to the
  elevation to the Supreme Court by President
  Johnson.
• He appointed his brother Robert Kennedy to
  Attorney General. His department brought over 50
  suits to secure voting rights for African
  Americans.

13
James Meredith

• In 1962, Meredith, an African American Air Force
  veteran, tried to enroll in the all-white
  University of Mississippi.
• The governor of the state personally tried to
  stop Meredith from enrolling.
• Riots broke out, and federal marshals and the
  National Guard were called up.
• Meredith was finally allowed to attend after the
  Supreme Court upheld Meredith s right to enroll.

14
Freedom Riders

• The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on
  interstate buses was an undue burden on
  interstate commerce. (Morgan v. Virginia 1946)
• In the 1960s groups of black and white activists
  tested compliance with the Morgan decision by
  traveling on a bus through the Upper South.
• In North Carolina, several riders were arrested
  and sentenced to 30 days on a chain gang for
  refusing to leave the bus.

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• In May 1961, a mob torched a Freedom Ride bus
  near Anniston, Alabama.
• The freedom riders aboard were forced to exit the
  bus into a waiting mob of whites, who brutally
  beat them.
• In an anti-Freedom Ride riot in Montgomery Robert
  Kennedys personal representative was beaten
  unconscious.
• Montgomerys police commissioner said We have no
  intention of standing guard for a bunch of
  troublemakers coming into our city. Washington
  had to send federal marshals to protect the
  Freedom Riders.

16
Birmingham

• In the spring of 1963 King launched a campaign
  against discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama,
  the most segregated big city in America.
• Blacks constituted almost 50 of the population,
  but made up fewer than 15 of the citys voters.
• King along with SCLC launched a campaign to break
  the racial barriers.
• King was arrested and put in solitary confinement.

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Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail

• We know through painful experience that freedom
  is never voluntarily given by the oppressor it
  must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I
  have never yet engaged in a direct action
  campaign that was well timed in the view of
  those who have not suffered unduly from the
  disease of segregation. For years now I have
  heard the word Wait! It rings in the ear of
  every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This
  Waithas almost always meant Never. Justice
  too long delayed is justice denied.

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• SCLC continued to recruit students for a
  children crusade to fill the jails with
  protester.
• The police used high-powered water cannons, billy
  clubs, electric cattle prods and dogs to break up
  the demonstration.
• More than 900 Birmingham school children were
  arrested.
• SCLC finally ended the protest in exchange for
  the desegregation of business and a city
  committee to oversee desegregation of public
  facilities.

19
Medgar Evers

• On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy, who was
  trying to get Congress to pass stronger civil
  rights legislation, delivered a stirring appeal
  to the nation on television. He asked his
  audience, Are we to saythat this is a land of
  the free except for Negroes that we have no
  class or caste system, no master race, except
  with respect to Negroes?
• That night Evers, head of NAACP of Miss. was
  murdered outside his home.

20
March on Washington

• In Aug.1963 King led the famous march on
  Washington to support a bill which guaranteed
  equal access to all public accommodations.
• More than 200,000 people listened as he delivered
  the classic I have a dream speech.
• Two weeks after Kings speech, four young
• Birmingham girls were killed by a car bomb.

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I Have A Dream

• I have a 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. I have a dream
  that my four little 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

22

• In 1964 King won the Nobel Prize for peace.
• On April 4, 1968 Kings life was cut short in
  Memphis by a bullet that struck him in the head.
• Fun Fact His birthday is now celebrated as a
  national holiday.

23
Johnsons Policies 1963-1969

• On July 2, 1964, Johnson passed the Civil Rights
  Act of 1964., which prohibited discrimination
  because of race, religion, national origin, and
  gender.
• It banned discrimination in public
  accommodations.
• Enlarged federal power to protect voting rights
  and speed up school desegregation.
• Established the Equal Employment Opportunity
  Commission to ensure fair treatment in employment.

24
Freedom Summer

• Thousands of student volunteer-mostly white, went
  into Mississippi to help register voters.
• In June 1964, three civil rights workers James
  Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were
  killed by unknown assailants in Mississippi.
• Throughout the summer, the racial beating and
  murders continued.

25
Selma

• In 1965, the SCLC conducted a major voting rights
  campaign in Selma, Alabama.
• By the end of 1965, more than 2,000 African
  Americans had been arrested in SCLC
  demonstrations.
• A demonstrator Jimmy L. Jackson was shot and King
  announced a 50 mile protest march from Selma to
  Montgomery.
• On March 21, 1965, about 3,000 protesters set out
  for Montgomery, with federal protection.

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24th Amendment

• Ratified in January 1964, abolished the poll tax
  in federal elections.
• States had used the 10th Amendment, which
  reserves all power not given to the federal
  government for the states, as the basis for
  making laws that deprived African Americans of
  their voting rights or 15th Amendment rights.

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Voting Rights Act 1965

• Eliminated the literacy tests that had
  disqualified many voters.
• Enabled federal examiners to enroll voters who
  had been denied suffrage by local officials.
  (Suffrage rose in 4yrs. 10-60)
• Enabled people to vote regardless if they had or
  had not paid taxes.
• Directed the attorney general to take legal
  action against states that continued to use poll
  taxes in state elections.

28
Watts Riots

• Five days after Johnson signed the Voting Act one
  of the worst race riots occurred in the streets
  of Watt, Los Angeles.
• During a routine traffic stop, a police officer
  stopped two black men for erratic driving.
• A local mob gathered as the two suspects were
  being questioned. They began throwing rocks at
  the police men and the two suspects were
  arrested.
• This minor traffic incident resulted in six days
  of looting, burning and violence. 34 people were
  killed and over 100 wounded.

29

• More than 100 riots raged in American cities in
  the 1960s.
• The unrest and violence spread to San Francisco,
  Harlem, Cleveland, and Detroit. Over 141 people
  were killed and 4,550 injured.
• In the worst riot of the decade, the city of
  Detroit was on fire for seven days and 43 people
  died and property damage exceeded 200 million.

30
Kerner Commission

• On March 1, 1968, President Johnson established a
  commission to study urban violence.
• The report stated race riots were primarily a
  result of white racism. Our nation is moving
  toward two societies, one black, and one
  white-separate and unequal
• The report called for the nation to create new
  jobs and construct new housing to wipe out the
  destructive ghetto environment.

31
Civil Rights Act 1968

• Prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental
  of most housing
• Strengthened anti-lynching laws
• Made it a crime to harm civil rights workers.

32
Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee

• SNCC was founded in 1960 to eliminate segregation
  through nonviolent means.
• SNCC began to change their methods of nonviolence
  when Stokely Carmichael, a more militant leader,
  took over.
• Carmichael SNCC became enraged when James
  Meredith was shot by a white racist on a 225-mile
  walk against fear. (1966)
• We shall overrun

33
Black Power

• Black Power-stressed that African Americans
  should take total control of the political
  economic aspects of their lives.
• Carmichael refused and urged SNCC to stop
  recruiting whites and to focus on developing
  African-American pride.

34
Black Panthers

• In Oct 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded
  a political party (Black Panthers) to fight
  police brutality in the ghetto.
• The party advocated self-sufficiency for African
  American communities, as well full employment and
  decent housing.
• They also wanted blacks to be exempt from
  military service because unfair numbers of young
  black men were drafted during Vietnam.

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• The Panthers dressed in black leather jackets,
  black beret, and sunglasses.
• They preached self-defense and sold copies of the
  writing of Mao Zedong.
• Several police shootouts occurred between the
  Panthers an the police.
• The Panthers established daycare, free breakfast
  programs, free medical clinics in their
  communities.

36
Black Muslims

• Elijah Muhammads Nation of Islam called Black
  Muslims rejected integration and sought to
  establish a separate African American government.
• Its best known member was Malcolm X, who later
  broke with the Black Muslims and formed his own
  organization.
• Malcolm dropped his slave name and added X
  after he became an Islamic minister.

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• Concerning nonviolence It is criminal to teach
  a man not to defend himself when he is the
  constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal
  and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We
  believe in obeying the lawThe time has come for
  the American Negro to fight back in self-defense
  whenever and wherever he is being unjustly and
  unlawfully attacked.

38
Nixons Administration

• To attract white voters in the South, President
  Nixon decided on a policy of slowing the
  countrys desegregation efforts.
• Nixon stated, There are those who want instant
  integration and those who want segregation
  forever. I believe we need to have a middle
  course between those two extremes.

39
Desegregation

• In 1969, Nixon ordered the Department of Health,
  Education and Welfare (HEW) to delay
  desegregation plans for schools districts in
  South Carolina and Mississippi.
• His actions violated the Supreme Courts second
  Brown v. BOE ruling, which called for the
  desegregation of schools with all deliberate
  speed.
• In responses to an NAACP suit, Nixon abided by
  the Supreme Court ruling.

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• By 1972, nearly 90 of children in the South
  attended desegregated schools-up from about 20
  in 1969.
• He proposed that Congress ban court-ordered
  busing, ordered the Justice Department to oppose
  busing orders in pending lawsuits, and called for
  a 1.5 billion program of new federal aid for
  school districts in the process of dismantling
  their segregated facilities.

41
A Southern Boston mother on School Busing

• Im not against any individual child. I am not
  a racist, no matter what those high-and-might
  suburban liberal with their picket signs say. I
  just wont have my children bused to someslum
  school, and I dont want children from God knows
  where coming over her,

42
Affirmative Action

• In August 1969, President Nixon issued Executive
  Order 11478, which required all federal agencies
  to adopt "affirmative programs for equal
  employment opportunity."
• These programs were meant to increase access to
  education and employment for historically
  underrepresented minorities, including blacks,
  Latinos, Asians, women, and disabled persons.

43
Revised Philadelphia Plan

• The revised plan was enacted by Nixons
  administration in 1969.
• It required federal contractors to meet certain
  goals for the hiring of African American
  employees by specific dates in order to combat
  institutionalized discrimination on the part of
  specific skilled building trades unions.
• The plan was quickly extended to other cities.

44
Reverse Discrimination

• The plan was then extended to all federal
  contracts requiring thousands of employers to
  establish quotas for hiring minority
  subcontractors.
• Educational institutions also adopted this
  controversial approach.
• Critics began to criticize the affirmative-action
  programs as reverse discrimination that set
  minority hiring or enrollment quotas and deprive
  whites of opportunities.

45
California v. Bakke (1978)

• In 1973, Allan Bakke applied to the University of
  California at Davis medical school.
• The school had a quota-based affirmative-action
  plan that reserved 16 out of 100 spots for racial
  minorities.
• Bakke, a white male, was not admitted to the
  school despite his competitive test scores and
  grades.

46
Supreme Courts decision

• Bakke sued for admission, arguing that he had
  been discriminated against on the basis of race.
• The Courts ruling in Bakke allowed race to be
  used as one factor in admission decisions.
• Schools could consider a prospective students
  race, but they could not use quotas or use race
  as the ONLY factor for admission.