Civil Rights Movement

1945-1970

Second Class Citizens

Colored, Negro, boy, etc…“Know your place”Segregation abounded (restaurants, theaters, etc…)

No representation in gov’tWas a national problem

LawyersNAACP: fought for racial equality in the courtrooms

Thurgood Marshall (1st black person on the Supreme Court)

Brown v. Board of Education: reversed Plessy v. Ferguson ruling (separate but equal)

Emmett Till (1955)

From Chicago, visited family in Mississippi

14 yr. old, killed by 2 white men for talking to a white woman

Both men were found innocent

Montgomery Bus Boycott1955-56Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, was arrested

Dr. King led boycott lasted 381 days

Supreme Court desegregated buses

Little-Rock Arkansas (1957)“Little Rock Nine”; 9 black students who enrolled at Central H.S.

Governor opposed & prevented their entry

Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the 9

Sit-insPassive form of protestingWhite section of lunch counters, stores, etc…

By 1960: people in 100 cities were participating

Freedom RidesBlacks & some whites rode on interstate buses into the South to fight segregation

1962: Supreme Court outlawed segregation of all public transportation

OrganizationsSNCC: Student Non-violent

Coordinating CommitteeSCLC: Southern Christian Leadership

Coalition fought for civil rights through churches

approach was too conservative for some

Sources of the Movement

1. Black Urbanization: many moved from rural to urban areas

2. Religious faith: faith in God, prayer, church as central meeting place…

3. U.S. Constitution: felt basic rights were guaranteed

4. Media Coverage: cameras brought shock value, sympathy, & support

5. African independence: some were inspired by the recent independence won by African nations

Mississippi

James MeredithAir Force veteran1962: federal court ordered U. of Miss. to admit him

Federal marshals had to protect him until his graduation in 1963

Medgar EversWWII veteran; NAACP director for Miss.

Registered voters, investigated lynchings, challenged segregation

1964: shot & killed at homeCharges were dropped after 2 trials

Birmingham, Alabama

Worst violence against civil rights activists & protestors

Police used hoses, dogs, & cattle prods

Jails filled with demonstrators1963: gained Kennedy’s attentionSome businesses began desegregating

March on Washington

200-250,000 met in Washington D.C.

“I have a dream”Purpose was to encourage support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Freedom SummerLed by SNCCmostly white college students went South to register black voters

Some were killed, churches burned & bombed, others were arrested

Selma, AlabamaMarch 1965: attempted march was stopped

3 were killedLater they marched from Selma to Montgomery

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (anti-discrimination & helps register voters)

Malcolm XMuslim minister, Nation of Islamblack separatism: blacks could only improve their situation by creating a separate society

Violent, racist views1964: modified his views 1965: assassinated

Black PowerNever had a fixed meaningBlack Panthers: first a political

party, later a revolutionary groupaffirmative action: businesses &

schools that receive federal funds, must hire/recruit minorities & women

“reverse discrimination”

Memphis, Tenn.April 4, 1968James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.