civil rights introduction & background. introduction does treating people equally mean treating...
TRANSCRIPT
Civil Rights
Introduction & Background
Introduction
Does treating people equally mean treating them the same? A man & woman apply for
job as shoe sales person… 2 patients come to the doc
with a headache. 1 has a brain tumor the other a headache..
2 students enter school with stairs to entrance. 1 is in a wheelchair…
2 students live in the same school district. They are the same age but different races…
What are civil rights?
Where are they “guaranteed?” Rights to full legal,
economic, political & social equality by virtue of citizenship
Guaranteed in U.S. Constitution (including 13th & 14th Amendments) & acts of Congress (civil liberties, due process, equal protection, freedom from discrimination)
History of Civil Rights
Colonial America Early slavery
1800s Abolition movement – End
slavery (Frederick Douglass)
Civil War 1860-65
Reconstruction 13th -
14th -
15th -
Late 1800s Legalized racism in
the South (Jim Crow laws)
Early Figures
Booker T. Washington Blacks should work within the systems Economic value Ex. Tuskegee School
WEB DuBois Founded NAACP End racism, violence & segregation Improve legal rights *Used the courts to achieve change
Atlanta Compromise
“… No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is not at the bottom of life we must begin, & not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities… In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet as one hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
- Booker T. Washington
Important Events Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
Upheld constitutionality of racial segregation Railroads “separate but equal” is OK
Great Depression 1930s: Blacks suffered as a group > voted for New
Deal Shift from voting for Republicans to Democrats FDR: fails civil rights because he fears lack of support
from whites
Early Civil Rights Victories1940 NAACP Legal Defense Fund founded by
Thurgood Marshall
1941 Ban against discrimination in defense industry (A. Phillip Randolph)
1942 Funding of CORE
1947 Integration of MLB with Jackie Robinson
1948 Truman desegregates military
Integrating Schools
Brown v. Board of EducationSeparate schools for blacks & whites violates
the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection
Clear ruling but lack of enforcement or deadline
School Integration continued
Little Rock Nine
1957 Gov. Orval Faubus violated court order to integrate Arkansas
9 Black students harassed on 1st day of school
Eisenhower tried to talk to Gov. but Sept. 24th he announced on TV sending in federal troops
Little Rock Nine
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama
Blacks made up 2/3 of all riders
Couldn’t sit in front rows, couldn’t share row with whites…
In 1955, Rosa Parks sat in the black section but when the white section filled, she refused to move > arrested
Boycott continued
BoycottNAACP called for 1-day boycott (90% of
riders obliged)Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. Churches set up carpools (rolling churches)
but whites denied insurance*1956 Supreme Court ruled segregation on
buses unconstitutional
Non-Violent Resistance SCLC emerges
Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by MLK Jr.
Inspired by success of bus boycott
Committed to non-violence
Non-Violent Influence
Based on influence from GandhiCORE & SCLC used non-violenceOrganizations set up training on how to resist
& passive behaviorLed to the sit-in movement