Unit 7

A Time of

Upheaval

Chapter 24

The Civil Rights Movement

1954-

1968

I. The Movement BeginsA. The Origins of the Movement

1. The Status of Black Americans in the 1950s

a. Black Children as 2nd class citizens:

- separate schools of inferior quality

- drink from “colored” water fountains

- eat at “colored” restaurants

- ride in “colored” RR cars

- sit in separate sections in movies, concerts, etc

b. Black adults as 2nd class citizens:

- low status, low paying jobs

- little representation in gov’t as many blacks prohibited from voting

- faced all white jury if charged w/ crime

- if injured, had to find “colored” emergency room

c. Jim Crow Laws: Southern system of racial segregation backed by laws

(segregation de jure)

- segregated schools; segregated

railcars; eventually all public facilities

- So…people in the South were breaking the law if they did not discriminate racially

- for this reason, civil rights leaders devoted most of their early efforts to the southern states

d. In the northern states, no laws enforcing segregation, but de factosegregation was common: segregation by custom & tradition

e. Major obstacle facing black Americans was Plessy v.

Ferguson (1896): declared segregation to be constitutional. Established the “separate but equal” doctrine which allowed states to segregate public facilities as long as the separate facilities were equal for both races.

2. The Court Challenges & the NAACP

a. Nat’l Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – founded 1909 (WEB DuBois was 1 of the founders)

b. Fights discrimination and segregation in the courts through the legal system

c. Early NAACP Victories1. Norris v. VA (1935) – to exclude blacks from juries violates right to = protection under the

law

2. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) – law school had to admit blacks even if = black law school

existed

3. New Political Power

a. Before WWI, most blacks in rural South w/o voting rights

b. Great Migration (1930s,40s) – blacks move to northern cities – have voting rights!

- so, northern politicians sought their votes & listened to their concerns

c. Black Ams. benefited from New Deal programs – support Democratic Party

- able to counter Southern Dems who often supported segregation

4. Push for Desegregation

a. After WWII, blacks have new power/rights.

- ended discrimination in factory hiring

- new opportunities in the military

b. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE):

attempted to desegregate public facilities using sit-in strategy – a form of protest involving occupying seats or

sitting down on the floor of a segregated establishment

- successfully integrated many theaters,restaurants etc. & drew

nat’l attention to their cause

c. 1947: Jackie Robinson

1) joined Brooklyn Dodgers

2) became 1st black American to play major league baseball

3) faced death threats and discrimination at first

4) won hearts of millions and paved the way for integration of other

sports

B. Civil Rights Movement Begins

1. Brown V. Board of Education (1954)

a. background: 9 yr old Linda Brown of

Topeka, KS wanted to attend neighborhood white school instead

of going to all black elementary school across town

b. Thurgood Marshall: NAACP chief attorney – focused effort on ending segregation of public schools

Thurgood Marshall

c. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954): the SC case

declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional – violated the = protection clause of the 14th amend.

d. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) (separate by equal)

e. Supreme Court argued that black schools were NOT equal to white schools

2. The Southern Manifesto

a. White southerners outraged – determined to defend segregation regardless of what SC ruled

b. White citizen councils formed to pressure their local gov’t and school boards to defy Supreme Court

c. Southern Manifesto: a document signed by southern representatives

declaring that Brown decision unfairly increased federal powers at the expense of states’ rights

3. Montgomery Bus Boycott

a. The 1955-56 boycott by black citizens of the Montgomery, AL bus system to protest segregated system

b. Background: Rosa Parks refused to give up her set on a bus to whites –

was arrested.People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but

that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I

usually was at the end of a working day.- … No, the only tired I was,

was tired of giving in.

— Rosa Parks, 1995

c. Boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) who believed the only moral way to end segregation and racism was through nonviolence and passive resistance

d. MLK drew on the philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi who used non- violent resistance effectively against British rule in India

e. The Boycott: thousands of blacks participated in a complex system of

carpooling – or walked

f. Avoided violence

g. Supreme Court declared AL’s laws requiring segregation on buses to

be unconstitutional

Black Residents Walking, Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

C. African American Churches

1. Role of Churches

a. Provided civil rights activists with places to meet, plan, pray

b. Mobilized volunteers for specific civil rights campaigns

c. Produced leaders – such as MLK

2. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

* MLK = 1st SCLC

President

a. Goals?

1) eliminate segregation

2) register black Americans to vote

b. Methods?

1) supported boycotts

2) held nonviolent demonstrations

3) registered voters

D. Eisenhower and Civil Rights

1. Didn’t believe in using the fed. gov’t to end segregation – “you can’t change

people’s hearts merely by laws”

a. Feared dividing the nation in Cold War era

b. But also felt it was his duty to uphold the authority of the fed. gov’t

including the court system

2. Crisis in Little Rock (1957)

a. Background: 9 black students assigned to Central High School (2000 white students)

b. Orval Faubus, Gov of AR, opposed plan. Surrounded school with

AR Nat’l Guard to keep black students from going in

- Faubus used the armed forces of a state to oppose the authority of the fed. gov’t (1st time since Civil War)

The Little Rock Crisis

c. Pres. Eisenhower’s response?

1) said “mob rule can’t be allowed to override the decisions of the

courts”

2) sent US Army (101st Airborne – yes, the same Band of Brothers 101st Airborne!) to Little Rock to escort black students to class

- troops remained for 1 yr

The Army at Little Rock

3. Civil Rights Bill of 1957 (the 1st Civil Rights Bill since Reconstruction)

a. established the US Civil Rights Commission

- to investigate violations of civil rights

b. gave Attorney General more power to protect voting rights

II. Challenging Segregation

A. The Sit-In Movement

1. background: Feb 1960: 4 NC college students refuse to leave lunch counter at Woolworth’s Dept Store

- this event launches a new mass movement. By end of 1960, sit-ins in over 100 southern cities

2. Goal? To desegregate public places such as restaurants, theaters etc.

3. opposition? Hostile crowds, hecklers, harassment – those in the sit-ins did not fight back

4. Effect of the sit-ins? Got the nation’s attention and gave young people a

way to get involved in the civil rights movement

B. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) 1960

1. background: student leaders in diff. states recognized need to coordinate efforts.

2. goal: to create a grass-roots movement that involved all classes of black Americans to defeat racism and obtain equality

3. leaders: encouraged by Ella Baker, led initially by Marion Barry (becomes

mayor of Wash DC 1980s-90s)

4. members: black American (& some white) college students across the South

5. Effect: Desegregated public facilities in dozens of southern communities. Also registered blacks in rural south to vote

C. The Freedom Riders (1961)

1. goal? To draw attention to Jim Crow laws requiring segregation on buses

& trains engaged in interstate bus travel

2. leaders? CORE members, James Farmer

3. members? black & white

4. opposition? White mobs often dragged them from bus & beat them, slit tires etc. Violence tolerated by law enforcement

5. Effect? Violence shown on TV – shocked Americans.

a. 1961: ICC outlaws segregation in interstate buses and terminals

b. 1962: SC ordered end of segregation in all public travel accommodations

D. John F. Kennedy & Civil Rights

1. JFK civil rights action

a. promised to support civil rights if elected. RFK helped get MLK from jail. Black Americans voted for JFK

b. Accomplishments?

1) Appointed black Americans to important gov’t positions

- Thurgood Marshall to judgeship

2) Created Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO) to stop fed. bureaucracy from discriminating against black Ams in hiring and promotions

2. Justice Dept. under JFK, led by RFK

a. helped blacks register to vote

b. litigation (to take legal action)

1) filed lawsuits throughout South

2) took legal action against Southern cities that were maintaining

segregated bus terminals

c. with pressure from CORE, ICC & Justice Dept: segregation in

interstate travel ended by 1962

3. NAACP action in the early 1960s

a. Leaders? Thurgood Marshall

b. Role? Offered use of NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s bail bond account to keep Freedom Rides going

4. Integration of Ole’ Miss

a. Sept 1962: James Meredith applied for transfer to Univ. of Mississippi at

Oxford

1) University said no; Gov. Ross Barnett said no; Federal Court said YES

2) Gov. Barnett refuses to obey order – refuses Meredith’s admission

James Meredith

b. School became a war zone “Battle of Oxford”

1) JFK sent 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to campus

2) Mob attacked – full scale riot erupted

3) 30,000 troops sent.

- 2 killed, 375 injured in “Battle of Oxford”

c. JFK had been forced to act

1) Troops stayed to protect Meredith

2) Meredith graduated in a year

“Battle of Oxford”

James H Meredith is led through jeering crowds by US marshals

Troops In Mississippi

5. Birmingham Demonstrations: Spring 1963

a. organized by MLK & SCLC

b. Why Demonstrate in Birmingham?

1) Birmingham, AL = most segregated city in USA

2) Birmingham Sheriff “Bull” Connor & AL Gov. George Wallace were staunch segregationists

3) Fed gov’t didn’t intervene unless violence got out of hand. MLK believed that demonstrations would bring violent response & JFK would

react and support civil rights

c. MLK arrested 8 days after protests began - wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in defense of the nonviolent protests

1) Said although protesters were breaking law, they were following a higher moral law based on divine justice

2) Injustice had to be exposed “to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured”

d. Media coverage of Birmingham demonstrations/protests

1) Sheriff Bull Connor used tear gas, high pressure hoses, cattle prods, attack dogs – camera’s covered it all!

2) Americans outraged by brutality

3) JFK demands new civil rights laws

Bull Connor on Camera

E. Civil Rights Act of 1964

1. Introducing the bill

a. JFK waits for a chance to address the nation on civil rights issues and to introduce the civil rights bill

b. His chance? June 1963. AL Gov George Wallace tries to block the

enrollment of 2 black students into the Univ of AL (scene in Forrest Gump)

1) Fed Marshals order him to step aside

2) JFK speaks about civil rights on TV

JFK’s Civil Rights Speech

2. Nov 22, 1963: JFK assassinated, LBJ is President

a. To civil rights leaders surprise, LBJ supports and works to get Civil

Rights bill passed!

b. LBJ leadership in action

1) knew how to get public support

2) knew how to put pressure on Congressmen

3) knew how to use rules & procedures to get what he

wanted

3. July 1964: LBJ signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law

4. Provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

a. prohibited segregation of public accommodations (restaurants, hotels theaters etc.) + legal consequences for noncompliance

b. barred unequal application of voter registration requirements

c. gave Attorney Gen. authority to use lawsuits to force school desegregation

d. required private employers to end discrimination in the workplace

e. creates an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to review complaints

5. Lester Maddox

a. Rather than comply with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he closed his restaurant

b. Then ran and was elected Governor of Georgia

1) did not allow MLK to lie in state in the GA state capital building

2) but as governor, did appoint many blacks to influential positions

F. The Struggle for Voting Rights

1. Background

a. Civil Rights Act of 1964 focused on segregation & job discrimination –

not much to address voting issues

b. Some progress? 24th Amendment = elimination of poll taxes

c. But, SCLC & SNCC members faced attacks/murder in the South while attempting to register black voters

d. Southern black churches/biz bombed/burned

2. The Selma March: March 1965

a. Selma, AL chosen by MLK & SCLC as focal pt of voting rights

campaign. Why Selma?

1) Black American = majority of population, but only 3% of registered voters

2) Black Ams often intimidated from registering by white harassment

- Sheriff Jim Clark & others carried billy clubs and electric cattle prods to intimidate demonstrators

b. “Bloody Sunday”

1) MLK demands voting rights..joins with SNCC activists & organized a “march for freedom”

2) 500 protesters make the 50 mi march from Selma to

Montgomery, AL (capitol) on Hwy 80 on March 7, 1965

- Sheriff Clark ordered their dispersal as they cross

bridge out of Selma

3) Marchers kneeled in prayer & were attacked by 200 state troopers & deputized citizens

- 70 hospitalized, many more injured

4) Nat’l TV coverage = outrage across America over law enforcement beating peaceful demonstrators

5) LBJ proposed new voting rights law in televised speech in

response LBJ’s Voting Rights Speech

Bloody Sunday

3. The Voting Rights Act of 1965

a. Its Provisions:

1) federal officials could register voters if states blocked registration

2) suspended discriminatory practices such as literacy tests in counties where ½ of all adults had been

allowed to vote

b. The Results:

1) 250,000 black-Ams register to vote in 1965

2) # of black-Ams elected in the South rose from 100 in 1965 to 5000+ in 1990

c. A Turning Point

1) w/ passage of Voting Rights Act, the 2 major legislative goals of the civil

rights mvmt were achieved

- segregation outlawed

- voting rights protected

2) Civil Rights mvmt shifted to addressing social and economic equality for black Americans. The big issues?

- poverty

- urban ghettos

III. New Issues

A. Problems Facing Urban African-Americans

1. Background to the Issues

a. Achievements of Civil Rights Mvmt to date: ended segregation + increased voting rights

b. Continuing Problems

1) racism (prejudice or discrimination based on race)

2) black urban poverty in 1965

- 70% black Americans living in cities (Remember Great

Migration??)

- segregated neighborhoods

- discrimination in banking & real estate

- white flight

- confined to low-paying jobs – blue collar at best (only 15%

in professional jobs compared to 44% whites)

- ½ living in poverty

- avg income = only 55% of avg white family

- unemployment = 2X higher than for whites

3) black urban neighborhood conditions

- overcrowded, dirty

- higher illness, IMR

- high crime, juvenile delinquency, drop-out rate

- high single-parent households

4) rising tensions

- grateful for political gains

- but still many economic and social problems

2. The Watts Riot

a. erupted over allegations of police brutality in Los Angeles

1) 35 dead, 900 injured

2) $45m in property damage

- looting, burning etc.

3) 14,000 Nat’l Guard + 1500 police involved

b. Other riots across the US

1) riots across dozens of US cities btwn 1965-1968

2) Worst riots? Detroit 1967

- 45 dead; 1000 wounded

- 4000 fires destroy 1300 bldgs

- $250m in damages

2. The Kerner Commission

a. LBJ ordered a study on causes of riots & to make recommendations for

prevention

b. The Findings?

1) cause of inner city problems?

- white society & white racism

2) recommendations?

- more jobs in the inner city

- more public housing

- commitment to end defacto segregation

B. The Shift to Economic Rights (N & S)

1. Why the shift? “What good is the right to dine at a restaurant if you can’t afford to eat there anyway?”

2. The Chicago Movement

a. demands: improved housing, education, transportation & job access, income & employment, health, criminal justice system,

community development and quality of life

b. Pledge for improvement from Mayor Daley..not much real change

C. Black Power

1. Call for more aggressive protests

a. aggressive self defense, even violence b. some advocated for separate states for black Americans

2. Emphasis on Black Power grows(the mobilization of the political and economic power of African Americans, especially to compel respect for their rights and to improve their condition)

a. To some, this meant that violence was acceptable

b. To most, meant that blacks should control the social, political, & economic direction of their struggle

c. Stressed pride in African heritage

- African names, clothing, hairstyles

d. Led to calls for African studies in schools & universities

3. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam

a. Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) beliefs 1) blacks should separate from whites

2) blacks should form self-governing communities – self sufficiency

3) self-defense ok

b. Malcolm X (formerly Malcolm Little..took on X to represent African ancestry)

1) charismatic, powerful speaker

2) critical of white society + mainstream civil rights mvmt

c. 1964: Malcolm X broke with Black Muslims

d. Visited Mecca, Saudia Arabia – after seeing Muslims of many races worshipping together, he decided

that integration was possible after all

e. Remained critical of Nation of Islam

f. Assassinated by N of I members in 1965

g. Legacy? Influenced blacks to take pride in their own culture..face the future!

4. The Black Panthers

a. goals?

1) black empowerment

2) end to racial oppression

3) control of institutions & services in black community (schools, law

enforcement, housing, medical facilities)

b. methods? Revolution!

1) black Americans should arm themselves and confront white society – force them to grant

equal rights

c. most significant leader of the Black Panther movement? Eldridge

Cleaver

D. Assassination of MLK jr

1. Civil rights movement fragmented & stalled in late1960s

a. many different orgs

b. whites turned off by the violent message of the Black Power

mvmt

2. MLK planning a campaign to promote economic advancement

3. 4/4/1968: MLK in Memphis in support of a sanitation workers strike

- assassinated by a sniper

4. MLK’s legacy

a. immediate aftereffect?

1) national mourning

2) riots

b. political effects

1) poverty campaign carried on, but objectives not achieved

2) Civil Rights Act of 1968 passed

- outlawed discrimination in housing sales & rentals

- Justice dept enforcement

5. 1968 as a turning point in US History

1) minority participation in the political process had increased

2) racial integration had increased

3) civil rights movement began to fragment and lost some of

its unity of purpose MLK had given it