Ch. 21: The Civil Rights Movement (1950-1968)

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Ch. 21 The Civil Rights Movement(1950-1968)
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Section 1 Demands for Civil Rights

• Centuries of oppression and discrimination came
  to a head during the 1950s, with a historic and
  successful push for African American equal
  rights.

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Rise of African American Influence

• Migration
• Since the end of the Civil War, African Americans
  had increasingly migrating to large northern
  cities.
• The New Deal
• Under FDR the number of African Americans working
  for the government increased.

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Rise of African American Influence

• WWII
• Increased demands led to a dependency on African
  American labor and service in military.
• The Holocaust opened many Americans eyes to
  discrimination within the U.S.
• Rise of NAACP
• Grew in size and strength. Strong legal team led
  by Thurgood Marshall.

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Brown v. Board of Education

• In 1951, Oliver Brown sued the Topeka, Kansas
  Board of Education to allow his daughter to
  attend a school for whites only.
• Fought by Thurgood Marshall, the case eventually
  reached the Supreme Court.
• In 1954, in a unanimous decision, the Court ruled
  that separate but equal was unconstitutional
  and that schools should desegregate.

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Reaction to Brown v. Board of Ed.

• Reactions were mixed
• African Americans rejoiced, as did many white
  advocates of integration.
• Many whites, even if they didnt agree, accepted
  the decision.
• Others, particularly whites in the Deep South
  reacted with fear and anger.

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Deep South/Opposition

• Georgia Governor, Herman Talmadge said he would
  not tolerate the mixing of races in public
  schools
• The Ku Klux Klan became more active.
• 90 members of Congress expressed opposition in
  what became known as the Southern Manifesto.
• Argued that the Supreme Court had overstepped its
  bounds and violated their rights.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

• In 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat at the front of
  the colored section of the bus.
• When the whites only section filled up, she
  refused to give up her seat to the new white
  riders.
• She was arrested and stood trial for violating
  segregation laws.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

• After Rosa Parks arrest, civil rights leaders
  quickly decided to boycott the bus system of
  Montgomery.
• Planned to boycott the buses until they changed
  the segregation policy.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., was the 26-year-old
  minister of the Baptist church where the first
  boycott meeting took place.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Over the next year, 50,000 African Americans in
  Montgomery walked, rode bikes, or joined carpools
  to boycott the buses.
• Although the bus company refused to change its
  policy, in 1956 the Supreme Court ruled bus
  segregation unconstitutional.
• Movement encouraged new leaders like MLK and the
  effectiveness of peaceful protests/boycotts.

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Little Rock Integration

• In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied
  the Supreme Courts ruling of integration.
• Posted Arkansas National Guard troops at Central
  High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to turn away
  the nine African American students who were
  supposed to attend that year.
• Angry mobs formed outside the school in protest
  of the integration.

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Little Rock Integration

• President Eisenhower, although privately opposed
  to integration, was forced to act against a
  disobedient Arkansas government.
• Placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal
  command.
• Sent U.S. soldiers to Arkansas to protect the
  nine students.

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League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

• The League of United Latin American Citizens also
  worked to achieve equal rights for Hispanics.
• Mexican Americans often attended segregated
  schools.
• In 1947, it was ruled that segregating Mexican
  American students was unconstitutional.

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Native Americans

• Most Native Americans lived in terrible poverty
  on reservations.
• In 1953, the government adopted an approach known
  as termination, the elimination of reservations
  with a goal of assimilating Native Americans into
  mainstream society.
• Met with strong resistance and eventually
  abandoned.
• Poverty and lack of political representation
  continue today.

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Section 2 Leaders and Strategies

• The Civil Rights Movement was a grassroots
  movement, started and driven by ordinary
  community members. They acted through a number of
  different organizations.

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NAACP

• Interracial organization founded by W.E.B. Du
  Bois (1909)
• Du Bois stated,
• the main object of this association is to secure
  for colored people free and equal participation
  in the democracy of modern culture.
• NAACP helped win Brown v. Board case.

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National Urban League

• Founded in 1911, sought to assist African
  Americans moving out of the South to find homes
  and jobs in cities.
• Insisted that factory owners and leaders allow
  African American workers the opportunity to learn
  skills that would lead to higher employment.

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Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• CORE was founded in 1942 by pacifists.
• Dedicated to bringing about change through
  peaceful confrontation.
• Organized demonstrations against segregation
  during WWII, after the war it grew into a
  national organization.

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Philosophy of Nonviolence

• Rising civil rights leaders, such as MLK,
  preached nonviolence, despite violence and
  hostility towards African Americans.
• Believed that love and nonviolence was more
  powerful than violent uprising.

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Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• In 1957, MLK helped form the SCLC, which
  advocated nonviolent protest.
• To understand that nonviolence is not a symbol
  of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus
  demonstrated, nonviolent resistance transforms
  weakness into strength and breeds courage in the
  face of danger. SCLC statement

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)

• Grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, father and
  grandfather were both Baptist preachers.
• Eloquent speaker in his youth, graduated early
  from high school.
• Attended
• Morehouse College in Atlanta
• Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania
• Boston University for his doctorate. (at 26)

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Kings Influences

• King was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Gandhi led India in a nonviolent revolution to
  gain their independence from Great Britain.
• Gandhi believed in protest and disobedience, but
  that despite violence, one must not be provoked
  to retaliation.
• This won Gandhi and India widespread
  international sympathy.

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Gandhi Applied

• King began training volunteers to Gandhis
  methods.
• He showed films, songs, and skits demonstrating
  the success of passive resistance in India.
• King understood that violent retaliation would
  only justify discrimination and racism.

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Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• The SNCC helped young people join the activism.
• More aggressive in their demands, sought
  immediate change.
• King praised the organization, calling them a
  revolt against the apathy and complacency of
  adults in the Negro community.

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Robert Moses

• Bob Moses was a Harvard graduate student and math
  teacher in Harlem.
• Moved to Atlanta to join the SNCC.
• Recruited volunteers to help rural blacks
  register to vote.
• Helped the SNCC grow to become a powerful force.

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Section 3 The Struggle Intensifies
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Sit-ins

• Sit-ins became popular.
• Protesters sat down in the white section of
  segregated restaurants and refused to move until
  served.
• Opponents often persecuted the sitters.
• By 1960, 70,000 African American youth had been
  arrested.

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Freedom Rides

• In 1960, the Supreme Court banned segregation on
  interstate buses.
• To see if the South would obey, CORE and SNCC
  organized the Freedom Rides in 1961, where
  African Americans rode the newly integrated
  buses.

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Violence on the Freedom Ride

• Leaving from Washington, D.C., the thirteen
  freedom riders experienced only minor conflicts
  at first.
• In Anniston, Alabama, a mob slashed tires of the
  bus and when the bus broke down outside town,
  they broke a window and threw in a firebomb.
• Riders escaped to the beatings of the mob.

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Reactions

• The nation was horrified to see pictures of the
  burning bus.
• Violence continued as new riders replaced old
  ones.
• In Jackson, Mississippi, riders were arrested
  immediately and the first ride died out.
• 300 more Freedom Riders, however, continued
  riding throughout the rest of that summer.

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Integration at Ole Miss

• In 1961, James Meredith attempted tried to
  transfer to the all-white University of
  Mississippi, Ole Miss.
• He was rejected before the Supreme Court ruled
  him eligible.
• In defiance, Mississippis Governor blocked
  Merediths way into the admissions office.

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Integration at Ole Miss

• President Kennedy was forced to uphold the
  Supreme Courts decision and sent in federal
  marshals.
• Violence erupted, tear gas used.
• 2 people were killed and hundreds hurt.
• Kennedy sent army troops to restore order and
  ensure Merediths safe admission.

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Clash in Birmingham

• MLK when to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 to
  organize protests and boycotts in what he called
  the most segregated city in America.
• Almost immediately, he was arrested and placed in
  jail for trying to organize a march without a
  permit.

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Clash in Birmingham

• MLK was released on bail and reorganized the
  march, this time allowing young people to join.
• During the march, Birminghams police arrested
  900 young people, used fire hoses and violent
  dogs on the marchers.
• Policemen clubbed and jailed the protesters.

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National Attention

• The one-sided violence of the Birmingham police
  sparked national outrage.
• Television cameras and pictures brought the
  images to the entire nation and ultimately led to
  desegregation in Birmingham.

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Section 4 The Political Response
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Kennedy on Civil Rights

• John F. Kennedy became President in 1961.
• Campaigned heavily for the black vote with bold
  rhetoric.
• If the President does not himself wage the
  struggle the battle will be lost. JFK
• Once in office, Kennedy proved more moderate,
  afraid to anger southern senators.

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Medgar Evers

• With escalating Southern violence, JFK spoke up
  on television
• We preach freedom around the world but are we
  to say to the world that this is the land of the
  free except for the Negroes?... The time has come
  for this nation to fulfill its promise. JFK
• Hours after the speech, NAACP leader Medgar Evers
  was gunned down and murdered outside his home.
• White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was
  charged with murder.
• After 2 hung juries, he was convicted in a
  reopened case in 1994 (30 years later).

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March on Washington

• Leaders in the movement organized a massive March
  on Washington in August 1963.
• Over 200,000 people.
• Many celebrities participated including Jackie
  Robinson, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul, and Mary.
• MLK gave the keynote speech I have a dream

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I Have a Dream -MLK

• 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 one day on the red hills of Georgia, the
  sons of former slaves and the sons of former
  slave owners will be able to sit down together at
  the table of brotherhood 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 All
  of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews
  and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be
  able to join hands and sing in the words of the
  old Negro spiritual Free at last. Free at last.
  Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.

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Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Under Lyndon B. Johnson (after JFK assassination)
  government passed its most far reaching civil
  rights act.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Banned use of different voter registration
  standards for blacks and whites
• Prohibited all discrimination in public
  accommodations
• Allowed withholding of federal funds from
  institutions which practice discrimination
• Banned discrimination by employers and unions