Happy Friday the 13th!!

Grab your stuff

Lots to do…

Blah, blah, blah…

11.02: THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Background Refresher Civil Rights Act 1875

(no segregation) declared unconstitutional in 1883

Jim Crow Laws Plessy vs. Ferguson

1896: Separate but equal legal

Coming back from war to fight for own freedom

Finding discrimination in North (job competition)

• Action/movement starts with people, not politicians• Ex: SNCC, SCLS, Freedom Riders, etc.

Grassroots

Martin Luther King Jr. Non –violent leader of the

Civil Rights Movement Followed Gandhi & Henry

David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience – Refusing to obey unjust laws

Passive Resistance: Non-violent protest

We will not hate you, but we cannot obey

your unjust laws

Black Power Stokely Carmichael:

Leader of SNCC, beaten while under arrest Calls for Black Power: Call

for black people to define their goals

Encouraged black pride More militant than King King believed it would

provoke more violence against African Americans

Malcolm X

Malcolm Little Member of Nation of Islam called for blacks to retaliate,

militant Challenged King Believed blacks should be separate from white society (did

not like white people)

Ballots or Bullets After pilgrimage to Mecca,

he changed broke away from Nation of Islam by changing his attitude toward whites

“If you & I don’t use the ballot, we’re going to be forced to use the bullet. So let us try to the ballot” Vote before use of violence

Shot will giving speech in Harlem 2/21/65 b/c he left Nation of Islam?

US Presidents

Eisenhower: Does little – believes segregation is a state issue

JFK: Got MLK out of jail

LBJ: Passed most civil rights laws

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Coalition): King helped create Stage non-violent demonstrations for voter

registration across segregated south Ella Baker: Established 65 branches of SCLC &

helped create SNCC

SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee): Shaw University, Raleigh, NC Student activist movement: College students

involved in movement Hired white volunteers to help

Freedom Riders Black & white volunteers

riding interstate buses to test integration laws

If it promoted violence, Kennedy would have to take action

Fire bomb thrown on 1 bus, others beaten & killed

No protection for Freedom Riders in Montgomery (as promised)

White mob waiting Even those critical of Freedom

Riders were outraged that police did not protect them

Kennedy followed Ike’s precedent & sent Fed. Marshals to protect them

Ordered all interstate travel facilities desegregated

Black Panthers Founded by Huey Newton &

Bobby Seale Organized to fight against

police brutality in ghettos Program for the People:

black communities for blacks Wanted blacks exempt from

military service

• Many gun battles with police & FBI

Major Events of the Civil Rights Era

Brown vs. Board of EducationTopeka, Kansas 1954

9 yr. old Linda Brown denied right to attend white school 4 blocks from house – told to cross RxR yard & take bus to black school 21 blocks away

The Supreme Court ruled that Plessy vs. Ferguson was unconstitutional & ordered integration of schools

Thurgood Marshall attorney for Brown family (we see him again)

Affected 12 mil. children in 21 states

Reaction to Brown Decision Many southern states

defiant GA: Keep segregation in

place Feared losing control of

schools Emmett Till murder (video)

2nd Brown Ruling 1955: Ordered district courts to enforce desegregation.

Ajibawo Bennett, Chicago, ILReaction to the “Murder of Emmett Till”

I remember when Emmett Till died I remember when his mama cried

I remember the two men that killed him I remember when they took Emmett away

I remember when I waited all day, for him to come back

I remember the bruises on his back I wish I never remembered

Bus Boycotts

Segregation on city buses Dec. 1955: Rosa Parks refused to

give her seat to a white man (required by law) Arrested sparking bus boycott by NAACP

Walking for Justice: African Americans refused to ride bus Car pools or walked Lasted 381 days

Led by Martin Luther King Jr. New young preacher in town

1956: Supreme Court declares bus segregation unconstitutional

Little Rock, Arkansas Desegregation crisis

escalating in Little Rock, AR in 1957

Admitted black students to state college w/o Federal mandate

Gov. Orval Faubus in election year, needs votes of segregationist

Gov. Faubus ordered the Nat’l Guard to keep 9 black students from attending Central High School

Fed. Judge ordered them to be admitted the next day

Students faced angry white mob: in danger

Ike Takes Action Secretly Ike thought

this was a state issue Sent in military to

enforce integration Nat’l Guard under Fed.

Control Protected students

Faubus closed all public schools to avoid integration

Video

Feb. 1960: Greensboro, NC Woolworth’s

Black students sat at segregated lunch counter

Refused to leave Whites would dump food

over their heads Non-violent protest Whites get violent, beating

students Caught on video TV brought face of racism

into the home

• Rode interstate busses to test desegregation – attacked & not protected as promised•Led to the desegregation of busses & bus stations

Freedom Riders

James Meredith

Won federal court case allowing him to attend Ole Miss Gov. Ross Barnett refused to let him enroll Kennedy sent troops to ensure Meredith’s enrollment 9/30/62: Riots broke out on campus: his parents house was shot at Similar incident at University of Alabama – Gov. George Wallace refused

Vivian Malone & Jimmy Hood entrance Let to integration of colleges

Birmingham, AlabamaMost Segregated City in America

Known for strictly segregated society & racial violence 18 bombs in 6 yrs. (57-63)

March 1963 – Children’s Crusade police use fire hoses & police dogs on marchers

• Footage shown around the world

• Kennedy forced Gov. George Wallace to integrate the University of Alabama

Video

March on Washington 7/28/63: 200,000+

marching for civil rights (black & white)

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech & broke from its outline & started his famous “I Have A Dream” speech

More Violence

16th St. Baptist Church bombed in Birmingham 4 young girls killed

Addie Mae Collines

Denise McNair

Carol Robertson

Cynthia Wesley

Freedom Summer: 1964 Not all blacks have right to

vote 90% kept away from polls 3 civil rights volunteers

disappeared in Mississippi Michael Schwerner Andrew Goodman James Chaney: beaten

before shot Mississippi Burning KKK with support from local

police responsible Still no voting rights

Schwerner

Goodman

Chaney

Selma, Alabama Only 3% of majority black

population could vote Martin Luther King hoped this

campaign would draw violence to help convince Johnson to support Fed. Voting laws

1 protestor killed: Jimmie Lee Jackson

Reason for 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery• 5/7/65: 600 marchers set out

only to be met by club wielding & gas throwing police

• Shown on TV causing more people to join march

• Johnson publicly addressed Congress using words of the movement “We Shall Overcome”

• 5/21/65: 25,000 marchers set out

Video

Watts Riots Sparked over DWI arrest 8/11/65: California 6 days, 34 dead, $30 million Whites don’t understand why

– blacks were just given voting rights Angry over unequal conditions

Death of Civil Rights Leaders Malcolm X killed in Feb. 1965

while giving a speech

King knew his live was in danger

In Memphis supporting striking garbage workers

4/4/68: King assassinated by James Earl Ray

Lead to urban riots in 125 cities Robert Kennedy killed in

same year (6/4/68) Bashara Sirhan a Jordanian

militant upset over Kennedy’s support of Israel