Chapter 21Civil Rights

Section One: Taking on Segregation

• The SET-UP• 1896: Plessy vs. Ferguson- “separate but equal” does not

violate the 14th Amendment. • Segregation is legalized

Homer Plessy was 7/8th white and only 1/8th black

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Civil Rights Act of 1875 -segregation in

public facilities is unlawful

United States Supreme Court of 1883

- Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional

- all white court, BIG SURPRISE (sarcasm)

Rash of JIM CROW laws are passes

- who was Jim Crow?

- what were the laws designed to do?

Popular minstrel Jim Crow stereotypes blacks

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Segregation was not a problem easily defined or easily solved. Segregation was not just separate schools, pools, or seating areas. Segregation was racism and resentment. WWII would be a catalyst in fashioning an atmosphere that would create domestic battlefields all over the US fighting over segregation.

Sign probably on a restaurant in Texas

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How WWII assisted in sparking the civil rights movement

1. African-Americans filled labor jobs vacated by white soldiers. When war ends, whites want their jobs back. African-Americans are not standing idly by as their jobs taken away.

2. African-Americans took on combat roles in WWII. Since they are asked to risk their lives, they feel they are entitled to the same rights as other soldiers.

3. President Roosevelt issues presidential directive that gives fuel to civil rights movement . (appearance of federal support for civil rights)

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Challenging Segregation in Court

Charles Houston of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had Thurgood Marshall lead his best law students in civil rights cases in front of the US Supreme Court.

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Morgan vs. Virginia – interstate buseswhy interstate buses?

Sweatt vs. Painter – State law schools even if all black schools exist

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS – segregation of schools violates the 14th Amendment

United States Supreme Court

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After Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka, KS, states immediately started desegregating schools throughout the South.

That’s Not True!!

Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to not let the “Little Rock Nine” enter Central High School.

The Little Rock Nine with military escort

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leader The civil rights

movement in the South was able to have success because of African-American’s ability to organize. Their ability to organize was heavily influenced by their leadership. It takes a special person to organize and persuade large groups of angry people to follow his methods. It takes a special person to inspire scared people to take a stand when doing so could bring pain and suffering to them. But Martin Luther King Jr. was THAT kind of leader.

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MLK Jr. got his start during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. An NAACP leader named E.D. Nixon asked a 26 year old preacher to lead the African-Americans of Montgomery, AL after Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. He led and organized a bus boycott that lasted for 381 days until the US Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.

King was arrested for loitering during bus boycott

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MLK Jr. himself was inspired by different people that shaped his philosophy called “Soul Force”

Martin Luther King Jr. with his wife, Coretta, and daughter, Yolanda

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Jesus: Love one’s enemies

Mohandas Gandhi: Resist oppression without violence

Soul Fo

rce A. Philip

Randolph: Organizing massive demonstrations

Henry David Thoreau: disobeying unjust laws / civil disobedience

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MLK Jr. and other civil rights leaders organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) after the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Ella Baker ran many of the day-to-day operations of the SCLC and also helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The SNCC reflected the values of the SCLC and is largely known for their sit-ins and segregated lunch counters throughout the South.

Ella Baker: older and younger

Effort to prevent a sit-in and being tossed out for sitting-in.

Section tWO: Triumph of a crusade

• The SET-UP• The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a time of

determination on both sides of the fight• Civil rights victories were numerous, but they had a cost

The Cost

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Freedom Rides- bus trips organized to cross state lines and challenge to lack of enforcement of the US Supreme Court decision in Morgan vs. Virginia. The rides were also meant to provoke violent reactions that would hopefully spur the federal government to more proactive at enforcing that decision.

The freedom riders were blacks and whites from the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). The would depart from Washington DC and travel to Mississippi.

They got exactly what they hoped for…

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Another stand-off reflective of the Little Rock Nine situation happened at the University of Mississippi aka Ole Miss

Governor Ross Barnett did not allow James Meredith to register for classes at Ole Miss even though James Meredith won a federal court case allowing him to do so.

Ross

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Meredith was escorted by federal agents to and from classes. A riot broke out on campus as well that resulted in the death of two people and the arrests in the neighborhood of 200.

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The difficulties faced by James Meredith and assaults faced by the Freedom Riders would have an impact, but not one as potent as the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, AL. Birmingham was often called the most segregated city in America. Segregation laws were strictly enforced by Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city police commissioner.

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MLK Jr. arrived in Birmingham on April 3rd, 1963 and was arrested on Good Friday, April 12th, 1963

Once bail was posted, MLK Jr. and members of the SCLC organized the children’s crusade. You have seen the film chronicling the event.

What you may not know was that MLK Jr. faced a lot of criticism for exposing children to the violence of “Bull” Connor.

“Real men don’t put their children on the firing line.” – Malcolm X

MLK Jr. fired back that it allowed the children to develop, “a sense of their own stake in freedom.”

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Birmingham desegregated downtown stores and released the protestors. “Bull” Connor was relieved of his duties.

The children were suspended from school or expelled by the Birmingham School Board

The SCLC and NAACP challenged the decision in a local federal court.

They lost

They appealed

They won

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A few months later MLK Jr. and numerous other civil rights leaders from the North and South, black and white, marched to Washington DC where MLK Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech

These events did not end racism or violence against African Americans

They did lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 close to 7 months later.

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The civil rights movement now focused on voting rights in the South.

Freedom Summer: bi-racial effort to register African Americans to vote

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Fighting for voting rights meant that a political voice was needed. Fannie Lou Hammer becomes the voice of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She gave a speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention that gave the voting rights movement a new wave of support that concerned many prominent white politicians in the Democratic Party.

Fanny Lou Hammer felt betrayed by the MFDP when they compromised with President Johnson

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Reactions to this movement didn’t go unopposed though. The Selma Campaign led to the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson. This led to a non-violent protest in the Alabama state capitol of Montgomery. The non violence quickly gave way to violent reaction as clubs and tear gas were used to break up the crowds.

Again, a nonviolent march turns violent

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President Johnson urged Congress to act immediately and sent federal protection to protect demonstrators who marched on Montgomery again in March of 1965.

That summer Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Signed, sealed, and delivered by the President of the United States

Section Three: Challenges and changes in the Movement

• The SET-UP• Civil rights movement takes a violent stand against de facto

segregation in the North• Civil rights leadership splinters and looses unity about the

direction of the movement

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In the mid 1960s, de jure segregation had been defeated, but de facto segregation was another story. De facto segregation had to be defeated by changing a person’s heart and mind instead of laws. I don’t know that this kind segregation and racist thought can ever truly be overcome. De facto segregation was mostly a Northern issue.

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When white men left to fight in WWII, Many blacks migrated north to fill the labor jobs left by white men going to war.

When the soldiers came back they created two distinct problems for those African-Americans who had migrated north.

1st: The returning soldiers wanted their jobs back

2nd: The returning soldiers moved to the suburbs starting the “white flight” (Review, what was the “White Flight"

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Harlem Race Riot 1964

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The needs of African-Americans in the North differed from those in the South. Northern blacks sought economic and housing equality. President Johnson initiated programs to address these issues, but funding for these programs disappeared with the onset of the Vietnam War.

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es Malcolm X:Nation of Islam

Believed races should remain separate

Changes beliefs during

pilgrimage

Ballots over bullets

Co-existing races

Assassinated by Nation of Islam (97% likely)

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Black Power!!MLK Jr., Floyd McKissick, and Stokely

Carmichael pick up James Meredith’s march to Mississippi after he was shot and unable to continue.During the march, SNCC marchers were changing MLK Jr.’s chant of “we shall overcome” to “we shall overrun.” Later in the march, Carmichael was arrested in Mississippi. He was released later and attended a rally. He spoke to crowd with his battered face, courtesy of the police when he was arrested earlier. Carmichael spoke about Black Power. Black Power meant defining your own goals and leading their own organizations. MLK Jr. pleaded with Carmichael to not use the phrase Black Power. (WHY?) Carmichael refused and called for the SNCC to quit recruiting white members.

Huey Newton and Bobby Seal

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Black Panthers (a political party) started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal in Oakland, CA.

Political Platform of the Black Panthers

Believed in Mao Zedong’s version of communism.They did some good things for their communities, but the FBI declared the Black Panthers were the biggest threat to national security.

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Events of 1968 that impacted the civil rights movement-James Earl Ray assassinates MLK Jr. on April 4th

-Sirhan Sirhan shoots RFK on June 5th. RFK dies on June 6th.

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Kerner Commission appointed to find causes of urban violence.

Findings:-Main reason was WHITE RACISM-supporting reasons

-creation of jobs-construct new housing-eliminate ghetto environment

Warned that two unequal and separate societies were developing within the US.

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Accomplishments of civil rights movement

-Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968

-Voting Rights act of 1965-End of school segregation-More HS graduates and College

admissionsamong African-Americans

-More exposure on TV and in movies-More African-Americans registered

to vote-More African-Americans in political

office

Moving backwards:-Public support declined with more

militant civil rights activism-Affirmative action programs lead to criticism about reverse racism a

decade later

THE END