Civil Rights

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Civil Rights

• U.S. History 2 College Prep
• ELL American Studies 2

Mr. Ryan L. Foster Red Bank Regional High School
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Do states have the right to segregate?

• or should the federal government get involved?

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Jim Crow Era

• Segregation is a way of life in the South

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Background
Jim Crow

• In 1828, Thomas Rice appears as an highly
  exaggerated, stereotypical African-American
  Character.
• By 1838, Jim Crow became a racist term against
  African-Americans.
• In the 1890s, states all through the South passed
  laws that discriminated against
  African-Americans.

"Come listen all you galls and boys,I'm going to
sing a little song,My name is Jim Crow.Weel
about and turn about and do jis so,Eb'ry time I
weel about I jump Jim Crow."
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What are Jim Crow Laws?

• Laws that made the segregation of blacks and
  whites LEGAL.
• Laws that took away the civil rights of
  African-Americans.
• Examples of Jim Crow Laws
• 1870 Georgia sets up separate schools
• 1900 S. Carolina sets up separate railroad cars
• 1910 Baltimore creates separate residential
  blocks

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The Impact of the Laws

• It was hard for African-Americans to exercise
  their right to vote.
• Poll Tax Taxes that African-Americans had to
  pay in order to vote.
• Property Test A rule that says a man must own a
  certain amount of property in order to vote.
• Literacy Test In order to vote, a man must b e
  able to read white election officials decide who
  passes the test.
• Grandfather Clause Waives literacy and property
  tests for men whose grandfathers had been
  eligible to vote before the Civil War.
• Society in the South was divided by race
• Separate sections of theaters
• Separate water fountains
• Separate railcars and street cars
• Separate waiting areas at rail stations

How does this picture illustrate segregation?
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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Challenging the Status Quo
• Homer Plessy rides in a whites-only railroad car.
• Louisiana law requires separate accommodations
  for African-Americans and whites in public
  facilities.
• Plessy was found guilty by a Louisiana court for
  breaking this law.
• The case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• The court said as long as facilities for
  African-Americans and whites were equal,
  segregation of races was constitutional.
• Separate, but equal principle

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Terror Strikes!

• African-Americans living in fear

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Background

• The Klan

• Founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee.
• Their goal was to maintain white supremacy
  through violence and intimidation.
• They targeted ANYONE who was a threat to their
  way of life
• African-Americans
• Homosexuals
• Latinos
• Jews
• The group punished them in different ways
• Beatings
• Shootings
• Lynchings
• Between 1880 and 1950, the KKK was 3 million
  members strong.

What other group in history has the kind of
salute pictured here?
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Power in Numbers

• Lynchings
• In the 1890s, one African-American was lynched
  about every 2 days.
• Between 1882 and 1900, over 3000 people, mainly
  African-Americans in the South, were lynched.
• Most of these killings were never investigated by
  the police.

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Change in the Tide

• The straw that breaks the camels back

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NAACP

• Founded in 1909 by W.E.B. Dubois
• Fought for equality

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NAACP fought in the courts

• Thurgood Marshall was hired by the NAACP to argue
  in the Supreme Court against school segregation.
  He won.
• He was later the 1st Black Supreme Court Justice.

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Thurgood Marshall
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Emmett Till

• Brutally murdered in the summer of 1955
• Born and raised in Chicago Illinois by his mother
• Death considered to be the spark of the American
  Civil Rights Movement
• Traditionally viewed as being Rosa Parks refusal
  to give up her seat in Montgomery (more on that
  later)

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Emmett Tills Arrival

• Sinking to knees, Mrs Mamie Bradley weeps as body
  of slain son, Emmett Louis Till, 14 arrives at
  Chicago Rail Station. The youth was found dead in
  a Mississippi creek with a bullet hole behind the
  ear. Being sought in connection with the slaying
  is Mrs. Roy Bryant, at whom the youth is supposed
  to have whistled a "wolf call". Held also are
  store keeper Roy Bryant and his half brother,
  J.W. Milam. With the bereaved woman are left to
  right, Bishop Louis J. Ford Gene Mabley and
  Bishop Isiak Roberts, of St. Paul's Church of
  Christ and God.

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Read Respond

• Write your feelings and reactions to the
  following
• "Have you ever sent a loved son on vacation and
  had him returned to you in a pine box, so
  horribly battered and water-logged that someone
  needs to tell you this sickening sight is your
  son -- lynched?"
• -- Mamie Bradley, mother of Emmett Till

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The Fight

• Many African Americans and whites risked their
  lives and lost their lives to remedy this
  situation.
• Rosa Parks was not the first, but she was the
  beginning of something special.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

• Rosa Parks was arrested for violating the
  segregation laws of Montgomery, Alabama.

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In Response. . .

• For over a year, Blacks boycotted the buses.
• They carpooled and walked through all weather
  conditions

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us.gif

• While the NAACP fought in the courts, MLKs
  organization led the boycott.

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Kings sacrifice

• King was arrested thirty times in his 38 year
  life.
• His house was bombed or nearly bombed several
  times
• Death threats constantly

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• Gandhi inspired King to be direct and nonviolent
  towards Whites.

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• Violence never solves problems. It only creates
  new and more complicated ones. If we succumb to
  the temptation of using violence in our struggle
  for justice, unborn generations will be the
  recipients of a long and desolate night of
  bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future
  will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
• --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Facing the
  Challenge of a New Age"

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