1950s & 1960sAmerican History II - Unit 6

Ms. Brown

Review• What is the difference between de jure and de facto segregation?

Which is more difficult to change and why?• De jure – segregation by law and enforced by the gov’t• De facto – segregation by cultural traditions and enforced by society

deeply engrained cultural attitudes are harder to change

• How did the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) change the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?• Brown reversed the Plessy ruling by declaring “separate and equal” as

inherently unequal, thus schools need to desegregate

• How does the activism in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, SCLC, and SNCC show that communities and groups initiate change, not individual people?• MLK was the “face” of the MBB and SCLC and Ella Baker established

SNCC, but achievements were made due to the efforts of GROUPS of people working together, not specific individuals giving speeches or conducting sit-ins.

6.5 – CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE 1960S

Freedom Riders• May 1961 - CORE volunteers

set out to ride buses across the south • Test the SCOTUS decision that

banned segregated seating on interstate bus routes and segregated facilities at bus terminals

• Freedom Riders wanted to invoke violence President JFK would HAVE to enforce the law

• Buses immediately attacked, activists beaten, bombs on buses

Freedom Riders• Freedom Riders forced to call off bus

rides due to bus company frustration and damage SNCC volunteers from Nashville picked up the cause

• SNCC members occupied a white-only bus terminal in Birmingham for 18 hours until Attorney Gen. Robert Kennedy convinced the bus driver to transport the riders to Montgomery

• Attacked in Montgomery by white mobs, no actual police protection reported to Attorney Gen. Robert Kennedy, made national and international newspaper headlines

• JFK sent 400 US marshals to protect the riders on their journey to Jackson, MI

• Attorney Gen. Robert Kennedy and Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in all interstate travel facilities (waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters)

Integrating Ole Miss• 1954 – Brown decision• Sept. 1962 – James

Meredith (Air Force veteran) won a federal court case that allowed him to attend Univ. of Mississippi (Ole Miss)

• Gov. Barnett refused to let Meredith register for classes

• JKF sent US Marshals to escort Meredith to the registrar’s office while Gov. Barnett issued a call for white support on the radio

Integrating Ole Miss• Sept. 30, 1962 – riots on

campus resulted in 2 deaths• Thousands of US soldiers, 200

arrests, and 15 hours to end riots

• For several months, federal officials accompanied Meredith to class and protected his home/parents’ home from nightriders who shot up their house.

Desegregating Birmingham • Spring 1963 – activists focused on Birmingham

• “This is the most segregated city in America. We have to stick together if we ever want to change its ways.” – MLK on Birmingham

• April 1963 – MLK and SCLC activists held days of demonstrations and marches in the streets and churches

MLK’s Arrest• April 12, 1963 – MLK and a small group

of SCLC activists arrested• Open letter to white religious leaders

who criticized his actions as a pastor…

• Posted bail on April 20

Children’s Crusade• May 2, 1963 – more than 1,000 black

children marched on Birmingham – 959 children arrested

• May 3 – second Children’s Crusade, met with violent police force and captured on TV• Fire hoses• Attack dogs

• National/international attention Birmingham ended segregation • JFK convinced civil rights legislation needed

to end violence

JFK Takes a Stand• June 1963 – JFK sent federal troops to force Gov.

George Wallace to admit black students to Univ. of Alabama

• Medgar Evers, NAACP secretary and WWII vet, murdered in front of his house killer released after 2 hung juries could not convict him Angered blacks

Civil Rights in DC• JFK proposed a civil rights bill

that guaranteed equal access to public facilities and allowed the Attorney Gen. to file legal suits against school districts refusing to integrate

• A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin (SCLC) organize a march on Washington to pressure Congress into passing civil rights legislation

Civil Rights in DC• August 28, 1963 – March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom• more than 250,000 people (75,000

whites) marched on DC from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial

• Various speakers presented arguments for the passage of the civil rights bill

• MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech

Church Bombing• Sept. 1963 – 16th Street Baptist

Church Bombing• KKK members in a car hurled a

bomb into a church in Birmingham• 4 young girls killed, extreme

violence and mobs followed 2 male teenagers died

• KKK member found not guilty of murder and was merely fined for dynamite possession

• 1977 – tried again, found guilty as of 2000, the living culprits have been tried and convicted

Civil Rights Act of 1964• Nov. 1963 - JFK (civil rights

supporter) assassinated

• Lyndon B. Johnson = POTUS Signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964• Prohibited discrimination because of

race, religion, national origin, and gender

• Established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Freedom Summer• 1964 – SNCC and SCLC volunteers began a voting

registration campaign in Mississippi Freedom Summer• Hoped to pass a voting rights law

• Mostly young students• Many whites• 1/3 female

Freedom Summer Violence• Increased violence in Mississippi• June 1964 – 3 SNCC volunteers

(2 white, 1 black) go missing• Stopped by police for a traffic

violation outside of Meridian, MS• Jailed, then released that night• Stopped by the KKK, beaten, shot,

buried• Not found for over 40 days• Conspiracy between KKK and local

police• Longest sentence – 6 years

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

• African Americans needed a political voice to be successful…• remember the Populists for the

farmers in the 1890s?

• Wanted a seat in the MS Democratic Party (all-white) at the 1964 Democratic National Convention (DNC) impossible, so formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party with Fannie Lou Hamer as the main voice

Hamer at the 1964 DNC• At the DNC, Hamer recalled a story about violence

against her while trying to register to vote… TELEVISED!

“The first [prisoner] began to beat [me], and I was beat by the first until he was exhausted… The second [prisoner] began to beat… I began to scream and one white man got up and began to beat me in my head and tell me to ‘hush’… All of this on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party isn’t seated now, I question America.”

– Fannie Lou Hamer

Hamer at the 1964 DNC• Johnson (LBJ) afraid of losing white votes if he allows the

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to have recognized seats

• Pressured Hamer and other delegates to take a deal – 2 seats in exchange for no discrimination at the 1968 DNC• Accepted but not happily• “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats.” - Hamer

The Selma Campaign• 1965 – major voting rights campaign in

Selma, AL• More than 2,000 SCLC and SNCC members

arrested• Demonstrator Jimmy Lee Jackson shot and

killed outrage

• MLK announced a 50-mile protest march from Selma to Montgomery, began on March 7, 1965 with 600 protestors met with extreme violence (bombs, beating, whips, clubs, tear gas) and had to turn back

• March 17 – LBJ proposed a new voting rights act

• March 21 – Marchers set out for Montgomery again, with federal protection – eventually reached 25,000 people

Voting Rights Act of 1965• Summer 1965 – Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed

• Eliminated literacy tests• Allowed federal examiners/officials to register voters (taken out the

hands of local gov’ts)

• Percentage of registered black voters tripled in the South• Some felt legislation did not do enough… still serious

social and economic inequities