Chapter 28 – The Civil Rights Movement

Section NotesThe Civil Rights Movement

Takes ShapeKennedy, Johnson, and Civil

RightsRights for Other Americans

VideoThe Impact of Equal Rights

and Justice for All

ImagesElizabeth EckfordBiography: Rosa ParksMartin Luther King Jr.Lyndon Johnson and Civil

RightsAssessment: Women in the

Labor Force

Quick FactsThe Great SocietyChapter 28 Visual Summary

MapsFreedom Rides, 1961

The Civil Rights Movement Takes Shape

The Big Idea

Civil rights activists used legal challenges and public protests to confront segregation.

Main Ideas

• Civil rights leaders battled school segregation in court.

• The Montgomery bus boycott helped end segregation on buses.

• Students organized sit-ins to protest segregation.

Main Idea 1:Civil rights leaders battled school

segregation in court.

• In 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson established the “separate-but-equal” doctrine.– Federal, state, and local governments could allow segregation so long

as separate facilities were equal.

– States in North and South maintained separate schools for white and black students.

• In reality, segregated schools were not equal.– Schools for black children typically received less funding.

• Early civil rights leaders focused on ending segregation in public schools.– Led by members of National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People (NAACP)

Brown v. Board of Education

• NAACP worked to show that separate schools did not provide equal educational opportunities for black students.

• NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall led courtroom battles against segregation.

• Brown v. Board of Education

– “Brown” was a seven-year-old African American girl named Linda Brown from Topeka, Kansas.

– Linda’s father and the NAACP sued to allow Linda to attend school closer to her home.

• May 17, 1954– Supreme Court issued an unanimous ruing that segregation in public schools was illegal.

• The next year, the Court ordered public schools to desegregate.

Little Rock Nine

• Most schools in South implemented gradual integration plans.

• Little Rock, Arkansas school board decided to start by integrating one high school.– Invited nine outstanding black students, who became known as the

Little Rock Nine, to attend Central High School

– Arkansas governor Orval Faubus worked to prevent desegregation by using National Guard troops to block the nine students from school.

• For weeks, Faubus refused to allow them to attend school.

• Finally President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort students into the school.

• Little Rock Nine began attending classes.– Faced hostility and discrimination from other students

– Eight of the nine remained in school and graduated.

Main Idea 2: The Montgomery bus boycott helped end

segregation on buses.

• Black passengers required to sit at back of city buses and to give up seats to white passengers

• On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.– Bus driver called police and she was taken to jail.

• Local leaders organized a Montgomery bus boycott.– Thousands of African Americans stopped riding buses.

– Bus ridership fell by 70 percent.

– Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister, helped lead the boycott.

– Lasted 381 days

• Finally in November 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was illegal.

Main Idea 3: Students organized sit-ins to protest

segregation.

• Many private businesses in the South were segregated.

• On February 1, 1960, four students went into a Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, and staged a sit-in—a demonstration in which protesters sit down and refuse to leave.– They sat in the “whites only” section of the lunch counter.

– The next day, they returned with dozens more students.

– Soon another sit in began at a nearby store.

– Despite harassment, they refused to respond with violence.

• Over time, some businesses began process of integration.

• Leaders of student protests formed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.– Trained protesters

– Organized civil rights demonstrations

Kennedy, Johnson, and Civil Rights

The Big Idea

The civil rights movement made major advances during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Main Ideas

• John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

• Civil rights leaders continued to fight for equality.

• Lyndon B. Johnson became president when Kennedy was assassinated.

• Changes occurred in the civil rights movement in the late 1960s.

Main Idea 1:John F. Kennedy was elected president in

1960.

• Won the election of 1960

– Became youngest person ever elected president

– First Roman Catholic to become president

• Kennedy pursued set of proposals he called the New Frontier.

– Higher minimum wage and tax cuts to stimulate growth

– New spending on military and the space program

– Programs to help poor and unemployed

– Financial help for public schools

• Kennedy also supported the goals of civil rights movement.

New Frontier

President Kennedy

Main Idea 2: Civil rights leaders continued to fight for

equality.• In 1960 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of bus stations

was illegal.

• May 1961– Congress for Racial Equality organized Freedom Rides.

– Protests in which black and white bus riders traveled to segregated bus stations in South

– Hoped to put pressure on President Kennedy to enforce ruling

• Violence against riders forced end of protest

• SNCC decided to continue the Freedom Rides.

– Attacked by furious mob

– Many were jailed

• Kennedy then ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce strict bans on segregation in interstate bus terminals.

Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham, Alabama

• In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. organized marches in Birmingham.

• King was jailed for marching without a permit.

• Released and led new marches

• May 1963– 2,500 demonstrators marched.

• Police chief ordered attack dogs and blasted marchers with high-pressure water hoses.

• Televised images shocked nation.

Fight for Rights

March on WashingtonMarch on Washington

• June 1963– Kennedy announced support for a civil rights bill.

• African American leaders held the March on Washington to show support for the bill.

• August 28, 1963– Martin Luther King Jr. gave his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech before 200,000 people.

Main Idea 3:Lyndon B. Johnson became president when

Kennedy was assassinated.

• On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

– Shocked the nation

• Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was quickly sworn in as president.

– Vowed to continue Kennedy’s work

– Urged Congress to pass a civil rights bill

Civil Rights Act of 1964Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Signed into law on July 2, 1964

• Banned segregation in public places

• Outlawed discrimination in the workplace on the basis of color, gender, religion, or national origin

Civil Rights Legislation

Voting Rights Act of 1965Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Signed into law in August 1965

• Gave federal government new powers to protect African Americans’ voting rights

• Within three years, more than half of all qualified African Americans in the South registered to vote.

The Great Society

• President Johnson won 1964 elections by a huge margin.

• Planned program of reforms that he called the Great Society

– Included Medicare and Medicaid to help senior citizens and low-income citizens afford health care

– Gave local schools more than $1 billion to help students with special needs

– Created the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help low-income families get better housing

• Congress quickly passed most of Johnson’s legislation.

Main Idea 4:Changes occurred in the civil rights

movement in the late 1960s.

• African American activist

• Founder of the Black Power movement

– Called for African American independence

– Believed blacks should reject integration, focusing instead on controlling their own communities

• Leader of the Nation of Islam– Combined ideas about African American independence with teachings of

Islam

– Helped inspire Black Power movement

– Believed African Americans had right to defend themselves, using violence if necessary

Malcolm X

Stokely Carmichael

Rights for Other Americans

The Big Idea

Encouraged by the success of the civil rights movement, many groups worked for equal rights in the 1960s.

Main Ideas

• Hispanic Americans organized for civil rights and economic opportunities.

• The women’s movement worked for equal rights.

• Other Americans also fought for change.

Main Idea 1: Hispanic Americans organized for civil rights

and economic opportunities.

• America’s Hispanic population growing

– 1960: 4 million

– 1970: 10 million

– Diverse origins– Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other Latin American countries

• Success of African American civil rights movement encouraged Hispanic Americans to fight for their own rights.

Cesar Chavez

• Hispanic American activist• Formed union in 1962 that would later become the United Farm

Workers (UFW)– Committed to goal of better pay and working conditions for

migrant farm workers• Led the UFW in a five-year strike and boycott against California

grape growers– Workers won better wages and benefits in 1970.

• Committed to non-violent protest• Inspired young leaders in Chicano movement• His work impacted new legislation.

– Amendment to 1968 Elementary and Secondary Education Act required schools to teach students whose first language was not English in both languages until they learned English.

– Voting Rights Act of 1975 required communities with large immigrant populations to print ballots in the voters’ preferred language.

Main Idea 2:The women’s movement worked for

equal rights.• Activists brought attention to women’s position in society

– A 1963 government commission reported fewer job opportunities and lower pay for women.

• Legislation was passed to help equalize rights.– 1963 Equal Pay Act– required many employers to pay men and women

equal salaries for same work.

– Civil Rights Act of 1964– banned discrimination based on gender and race

• Women began questioning traditional roles.

• The women’s movement worked for equal rights.– Author Betty Friedan became a leader of modern women’s rights

movement.

– National Organization for Women (NOW) founded in 1966.

– Women like Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, worked for change by running for office.

Women’s Rights in the 1970s

• Women’s rights organizations supported an amendment to the Constitution

• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

– Outlaw all discrimination based on sex

– Conservative activists, such as Phyllis Schlafly worked to stop it.

– Though initially approved by Congress, it did not get ratified.

• Despite failure of ERA, women’s movement achieved many goals.

– New opportunities in education and workplace

– Began winning political offices at all levels

New Opportunities

Equal Rights Amendment

Native AmericansNative Americans

• National Congress of American Indians helped win passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 allowing tribes to gain more control over reservation lands.

• American Indian Movement founded in 1968 to fight for rights

• Protests were organized, some of which ended in violence.

Main Idea 3:Other Americans also fought for change.

DisabledDisabled

• Disabled in Action created in 1970 to raise awareness of challenges facing people with disabilities and to work for legislation.

• The Rehabilitation Act of 1973

• The Education of Handicapped Children Act of 1975

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) outlawed all discrimination against people with disabilities.

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