JFK AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

By Ethan Rutter

JFK

JFk was in the process of running for office as the civil rights movement began.

And after he got elected the movement was still going on

He was active in helping the civil rights movement after he was elected.

Civil Rights Act

This act was enacted on July 2, 1964 The act made it so that all forms of

discrimination against African Americans and women was illegal

This allowed African Americans the ability to eat in the same restaurants as others, stay in the same hotels and use other establishments that they were not allowed into before.

Kennedy’s Election

Before Kennedy was elected he actually voted against a civil rights act proposed by Eisenhower.

By doing this Kennedy did not hurt his chances of becoming the democratic candidate and he eventually defeated Nixon in 1960 and became president.

By RJ Kanson

Black Panthers

• The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966

• Believed the non-violent protests of Martin Luther King had failed and that any other civil rights movement would take too long for them to gain their rights.

• The two original founders were Huey Newton and Bobby Seal

• Samuel L. Jackson was a Black Panther

Bio

• J. Edgar Hoover said that the Black Panthers were “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

• FBI used insider spies to keep track of the Black Panthers leaders which would lead to their arrests

• FBI would eventually take down the Black Panthers

FBI vs. Black Panthers

• The Black Panthers were violent but also did things for the community

• They created a Free Food Program to feed the poor

• They also started an Intercommunal Youth Band to create community pride

Community Service?

ROSA LOUISE MCCAULEY PARKS

By Hailey Neluna

Life___________________________________________________________

• She was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee Alabama

• She died on October 24, 2005 in Detroit Michigan

• Suffered from poor health and chronic tonsillitis as a child

• Was part of the 7% of African Americans who received a high school diploma

• Married Raymond Parks in 1932

Rosa Parks was a Civil Rights Activist. She worked at Montgomery Fair department store, and after a long day at work she paid bus fare and took a seat in the back of the bus. Which was known as the “colored” section. It was a Thursday, December 1st, 1955. As they bus traveled on, the reserved seats for the whites quickly filled up. When they reached the entrance of the Empire Theater, a lot of whites boarded the bus. "The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he says, 'Let me have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't,” says Rosa. Blake, the bus driver, told her that he was

Montgomery Bus Boycott

_______________________

going to call the police and shesaid that he “may do that”. She ended up being arrested, and

that started the Montgomery Bus Boycott and no blacks went on the busses. “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. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

A. Dunwoody

THE RIGHTS TO VOTE

In the beginning….

When America started off, voting rights were only allowed to white male property-owning adults.

Eventually it was allowed where all white males could vote.

After the Civil War and African Americans became free from slavery the fight equal voting rights began.

Summary

To stop African Americans from voting they put in many laws and criteria before one could vote.

An example of a criteria is the Grandfather Clause.

Eventually the Supreme Court outlawed literacy tests and the Grandfather Clause.

Still some states still continued with these things and eventually the topic for equal voting rights came back into full swing.

The President during most of the Civil Rights movement was John F. Kennedy.

To resolve the equal voting rights issue JFK came out with the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting rights act

The Voting Rights Act of 1964 was signed by Lynden B. Johnson.

It’s purpose was to completely eradicate voting discrimination.

So one could say it echoed what the 15th amendment stated.

It also prohibited a state to implement any new changes to voting rules without the approval from the Department of Justice.

This act has been reinstated and amended by Congress four times.

The latest reinstatement of this act was by George W. Bush in 2006 for another 25 years.