Civil Rights Movement

From 1940s-1960sFrom Non-violence to violence

Essential Question

What were the goals and tactics of the different leaders of the Civil

Rights movement?What are the landmark Civil Rights

laws and events?

Origins of the Civil Rights Movement

1950s African American Life in the South• School segregation• Poll taxes• Literacy tests• Grandfather clauses• Intimidation• Social segregation

All of these conditions kept Afr. Amer. poorly educated Economic discrimination kept them in a state of poverty

Civil Rights• Truman-first modern president to use the powers

of his office to challenge racial discrimination– Used his executive powers to establish the Committee

on Civil Rights in 1946– Strengthened the civil rights div. in Justice Department– 1948 ordered the end of racial discrimination in the

fed. dept. and all three branches of the armed forces• Urged Congress to pass the Fair Employment

Practices Commission that would prevent employers from discriminating against the hiring of Afr. Amer. Southern Dems blocked the legislation.

Jackie Robinson

1947 1st African American to play

Jackie Robinson, at the age of 27, became the first Black Baseball player in Major League history.

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Jackie’s Courage

Jackie Robinson faced virulent racism.Members of his own team refused to play with him.Opposing pitchers tried to beam his head, while base runners tried to spike him.He received hate mail and death threats daily.Fans shouted Racist remarks at him in every ball park. Hotels and restaurants refused to serve him

Jackie and Civil Rights

Jackie Robinson’s Actions effected the world far beyond Major League Baseball.

His courage and discipline in standing up against racism were a preview of the actions taken by many members of The Civil Rights Movement.

The success of the Jackie Robinson experiment was a testament to fact that integration could exist.

Social Changes

• US reputation of democracy and freedom in Cold War doesn’t match treatment of African Americans=this needs fixing

• Origins trace back to Great Migration

• Join Dems in New Deal and growing influence in party politics in 50s

Attitudes in the Cold War Changes in Demographics

School Desegregation/NAACP• NAACP worked for desegregation in the overturn of the Plessy

vs Fergusson case• Won some cases in 1940s

Brown Decision**Landmark Case**

• May 1954-overturned the Plessy case • Lawyer Thurgood Marshall

• Argued segregation of black children in public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th amendment=equal protection of laws

• Chief Justice Earl Warren• Separate facilities are inherently unequal and

unconstitutional• Segregation in schools should end with all deliberate speed

Pre-Court OpinionsPre-Court Opinions

Warren•Reston, 1953•About the times:•“Nothing has divided the nation in the post-war era more than questions involving racial segregation or the freedoms … protected by the First Amendment”

•About Warren: •“As Governor of California, he generally was ranked with the liberals in his party”

Warren•Reston, 1953•About the times:•“Nothing has divided the nation in the post-war era more than questions involving racial segregation or the freedoms … protected by the First Amendment”

•About Warren: •“As Governor of California, he generally was ranked with the liberals in his party”

RehnquistRehnquist

1971, the year Rehnquist is appointed a justice aide

Rehnquist is quoted as saying, “I am opposed to all civil rights laws” in an affidavit

1971, the year Rehnquist is appointed a justice aide

Rehnquist is quoted as saying, “I am opposed to all civil rights laws” in an affidavit

Significance of Brown for Civil Rights Significance of Brown for Civil Rights • Brown V Bd. Of Ed: Most important 20th C. case re: Race

Relations

• Integration of schools equal opportunity for success, employment

• The Warren Court reveals itself as a liberal, activist court• Liberal court: for human, individual, civil rights• Activist court: the Supreme Court assumes responsibility for

the racial status of public education in the nation • Unexpected: Warren follows FDR and the New Deal• Rejects the Jeffersonian Ideal: “The government that governs

least governs best”• The Warren court view: states hinder the improvement of

justice in America• Brown desegregation of the entire country• The federal government has finally begun to enforce the 13th,

14th, and 15th Amendments

• Brown V Bd. Of Ed: Most important 20th C. case re: Race Relations

• Integration of schools equal opportunity for success, employment

• The Warren Court reveals itself as a liberal, activist court• Liberal court: for human, individual, civil rights• Activist court: the Supreme Court assumes responsibility for

the racial status of public education in the nation • Unexpected: Warren follows FDR and the New Deal• Rejects the Jeffersonian Ideal: “The government that governs

least governs best”• The Warren court view: states hinder the improvement of

justice in America• Brown desegregation of the entire country• The federal government has finally begun to enforce the 13th,

14th, and 15th Amendments

Brown, For and Against

Brown, For and Against

•Anti-Brown•John Kennedy, •Arkansas Democrat, •May 22, 1954•(left)

•Anti-Brown•John Kennedy, •Arkansas Democrat, •May 22, 1954•(left)

•Pro-Brown•Chicago Defender, June 12, 1954•(right)

•Pro-Brown•Chicago Defender, June 12, 1954•(right)

Resistance in the South

• States fought the decision• Arkansas 1956 Gov. Orval Faubus used state

National Guard to prevent 9 African American students from entering Little Rock Central HS– Known as the “Little Rock Nine”

• Eisenhower used Fed. Troops to protect students as they entered

Rosa ParksRosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913. She grew up in Pine Level, Alabama, right outside of Montgomery.In the South, Jim Crowe laws segregated African American’s and whites in almost every aspect of life.

– This included a seating policy on buses. White’s sat in the front, Blacks sat in the back.

– Buses also drove White students to school. Black students were forced to walk everyday.

Events Leading Up To Rosa’s Protest

Parks was an active member of The Civil Rights Movement and joined the Montgomery chapter of NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1943.In 1944 Jackie Robinson refused to give up his bus seat in Texas.In 1955, Black Activist in Montgomery were building a case around Claudette Colvin, a 15 year old girl who refused to give up her seat on a bus. She was arrested and forcibly removed from the bus.African Americans made up 75% of the passengers in the Bus system but still had to deal with unfair rules.

The ArrestOn December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a White man on a bus.Parks was arrested and charged with the violation of a segregation law in The Montgomery City Code.50 African American leaders in the community met to discuss what to do about Rosa’s arrest.

“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.” -Rosa Parks Autobiography

Montgomery Bus BoycottOn December 5, 1955, through the rain, the African Americans in Montgomery began to boycott the busses.40,000 Black commuters walked to work, some as far as twenty miles.The boycott lasted 382 days.The bus companies finances struggled. Until the law that called for segregation on busses was finally lifted.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• 1955-Year long boycott• Organized by MLK• Emerged as a leader of non-violent movement• 1956-Supreme Court ruled segregation laws

are unconstitutional

Martin Luther King Jr.

• Born in Atlanta, Georgia.• Graduated Morehouse College with a Bachelor of

Arts degree in Sociology.• Later, at Boston University, King received a Ph.D.

in systematic theology.• In 1953, at the age of 26, King

became pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama.

• His start as a Civil Rights leader came during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Emmett Till [video]

• After their trial, they infamously admitted their part in the murder.

**Tills death, which made national headlines, set off a firestorm that launched the Civil Rights Movement.

• Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi on August 24, 1955 when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store.

• Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till, beat him, and shot him in the head.

• The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them.

• Till's murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging civil rights movement.

Emmett Till

Medger Evers

• Medgar Evers, whose civil rights activism in Mississippi began with the death of Emmett Till in 1955. Evers was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963.

Federal Laws

• Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960• Civil Rights Commission

– Gave Justice Department new powers to protect voting rights

*Despite this legislation, southern officials used an arsenal of obstructive tactics to discourage African Americans from voting.

Nonviolent Protests

• SCLC-Southern Christian Leadership Conference– 1957-formed by MLK– Organized ministers and churches in south

• SNCC-Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee– 1960s, Sit-in tactic: restaurants, hotels, buildings,

pools, libraries, transportation in south

Greensboro, North Carolina

• Sit-in movement @ Woolworth Lunch Counter

Ruby Bridges In 1960, at the age of 6, Ruby Bridges became the first black

elementary school child to attend a white school. Due to White opposition of integration, Ruby needed to be

escorted to school by federal marshals. After Ruby entered the school, many of the teachers refused

to teach and many of the White students went home. Ruby went to school everyday.

At the young age of 6 Ruby Bridges stood up to the most horrific kind of hatred, racism. No one warned Ruby about the mob she would face or told her about the incredible feat that she would reach by entering the school. It is hard to imagine just how much courage it took for Ruby Bridges to wake up every morning and go to school. Norman Rockwell tries to capture the loneliness and fear that Ruby must have felt.

The Problem We All Live With, By Norman Rockwell

Career As A Leader• In 1955 he became involved in The

Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Boycott was the start to his incredible career as the most famous leader of the Civil Rights movement.

• He went on to deliver numerous powerful speeches promoting peace and desegregation.

• During The March On Washington he delivered one of the most famous speeches of 20th century titled, “I Have A Dream”

• Before he was assassinated in 1968, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Civil Disobedience• In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference (SCLC). A group that used the authority and power of Black

churches to organize non-violent protest to support the Civil Rights Movement.

King believed in the philosophy used by Gandhi in India known as nonviolent civil disobedience. He applied this philosophy to protest organized by the SCLC.

The civil disobedience led to media coverage of the daily inequities suffered by Southern Blacks.

The televised segregation violence led to mass public sympathy. The Civil Rights Movement became the most important political topic during the early 60’s.

March On Washington

• More than 20,000 Black and White Americans celebrated in a joyous day of song, prayer and speeches.

• The march was lead by a group of important clergy men, civil rights leaders, and politicians.

• Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech was the climax of the day.

I Have A Dream Speech

• In a powerful speech, Martin Luther King Jr. stated eloquently that he desired a world were Black’s and whites to coexist equally.

• King’s speech was a rhetoric example oh the Black Baptist sermon style.

• The speech used The Bible, The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution and The Emancipation Proclamation as sources. He also used an incredible number of symbols in his poetic address.

I Have A Dream Speech (cont.)

• The powerful words of Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out

the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

“black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Stony the Road we Trod:Alabama’s role in the Modern

Civil Rights Movement

Ms. ClarkeBirmingham, Alabama

August 2-8, 2010National Endowment for the Humanities

Landmark Workshop

• In the deep south of the early 1960s, black families experienced some kind of humiliation or suffering every day.

In 1963, Birmingham, Ala., was one of the most violent and segregated cities in the country, where many parents were terrified of losing their homes and jobs. Because of that, they were afraid to speak out.

•But Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was about to change all that, appealing to the black community to fill the city’s jails in protest. It was the children — the baby boomers —who rose up and heeded his call to action.

Freedom Riders• In 1961, a dedicated group of men and

women, black and white, young and old (many from university and college campuses) across the country boarded buses, trains and planes bound for the deep South to challenge that region‘s outdated Jim Crow laws and the non-compliance with a US Supreme Court decision already three years old that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities.

• John Lewis and a white rider were the first to be attacked

Freedom Riders [video]• Trained in Non-Violence, but received a warm-welcome of beatings after beatings• Undaunted by the beatings, the Freedom Riders continued on their journey until Mother’s

Day, May, 14th, 1961 • Met by an angry mob (dressed in their Sunday finest as if they’d just come from church) in

Anniston, Alabama. • Due to the ferocity of the mob, the bus decided not to stop at the station and it quickly left,

already wounded by the mob who had slashed the bus’s tires at the station. • A few miles outside of Anniston the tires began to deflate and the bus was forced to pull over. • As the bus driver fled in glee, a mob of men who had been following the bus got out of their

cars and surrounded the stricken bus. • From somewhere in the crowd a firebomb was thrown inside the bus and exploded. As the

Freedom Riders tried to escape the smoke and flames they found they could not as the exit doors were blocked by the surging mob. Just then one of the gas tanks exploded on the bus and the mob rushed back allowing the Freedom Riders to push the doors open and escape.

• As they exited the burning bus, the Freedom Riders rushed outside still choking from the thick smoke and were beaten by the waiting vigilantes.

• As lead pipes and baseball bats were swung, only an onboard undercover agent prevented the Freedom Riders from being lynched that day as he fired his gun into the air.

• Later that same day the Freedom Riders were beaten a second time as they arrived in Birmingham, Alabama.

• In 1962, Connor ordered closing of 60 Birmingham parks rather than follow a court order to desegregate public facilities.

• Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decided to put their efforts on the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States, Birmingham. It was called Project C (for "Confrontation").

• SCLC wanted to target the business section of Birmingham through economic boycott and demonstrations.

• Throughout April 1963 Martin Luther King led smaller demonstrations, which resulted in his arrest along with many others.

Bull Connor, Birmingham, AL

• April 1963, King and the SCLC looked for ways to jumpstart the campaign.

• When the arrest and jailing of King did little to attract more protestors, SCLC staff member James Bevel proposed recruiting local students, arguing that while many adults may be reluctant to participate in demonstrations for fear of losing their jobs, their children had less to lose.

Letter From a Birmingham

Jail

• King, wrote the letter after being arrested at a peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was in response to a letter sent to him by eight Alabama

Clergymen called, “A Call For Unity.” The men recognized that injustices were occurring in Birmingham

but believed that the battles for freedom should be fought in the courtroom in not in the streets.

In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King justified civil disobedience by saying that without forceful action, true civil rights would never be achieved. Direct action is justified in the face of unjust laws.

Letters From a Birmingham Jail (cont.)• In the letter King justifies civil disobedience in the town of

Birmingham. “I cannot sit idly in Atlanta and not be concerned about what

happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“There can be no gain saying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts.”

“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.

“Wait has almost always meant 'never.‘”

The Children’s Crusade [video]• The final phase of Project C introduced a revolutionary and

controversial new tactic that used young people in the demonstrations.

• On May 2, 1963, the first children came out and marched through the streets of Birmingham.

• 959 children ranging from ages 6–18 had been arrested. • By May 3, massive amounts of demonstrators were participating and

Connor ordered the use of fire hoses and attack dogs. • This didn’t stop the demonstrators, but generated bad publicity for

Connor through the news media. • The use of fire hoses continued for several days, and by May 7,

Connor and the police department had jailed over three thousand demonstrators.

The marchers — some as young as 6 and 7 — were arrested. But the courage of these baby boomers had an effect. A week later, downtown Birmingham agreed to desegregate its lunch counters, restrooms and water fountains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-MuWDsv5pg [video]“Bombingham”

The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963 as an act of racially motivated terrorism

• Only in death did Denise McNair get her wish to speak out for equal rights. Her senseless murder along with three other girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing became a turning point in the fight for civil rights.

As outrage replaced fear, America finally said enough. Only months after the church bombing, President Lyndon Johnson led the passage of the civil rights act.

• And so began the idea for a children’s march through downtown. Thousands of kids — baby boomers all — wanted to take part, and Chris and Maxine McNair’s daughter Denise was no exception.

"She wanted to go and march," Chris McNair recalls. "And her mother and another lady told her that, ‘You are too small to march.’ And she immediately looked at them and said, ‘Hey, you're not little. Why aren’t you marching?‘”

• Denise wasn't allowed to march, but she was about to make an even greater

impact on the civil rights front.

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Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964 [video]

• Voter registration, established health centers, freedom schools

• Although approximately 17,000 black residents of Mississippi attempted to register to vote in the summer of 1964, only 1,600 of the completed applications were accepted by local registrars.

*Highlighting the need for federal voting rights legislation, these efforts created political momentum for the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964

• In an effort to address Mississippi’s separate and unequal public education system:

• Established 41 Freedom Schools attended by more than 3,000 young black students throughout the state. – Taught math, reading, and other traditional courses,

black history, the philosophy of the civil rights movement, and leadership skills that provided them with the intellectual and practical tools to carry on the struggle after the summer volunteers departed.

The Alternate Civil Rights Movement

Non-violence isn’t the only method

Malcolm X [video, student made, stop at 10

minutes]

X Born in Omaha Nebraska, Malcolm Little was the son of a Baptist preacher who urged Blacks to stand up for their rights.

X His father was killed by White Supremacist in Michigan, in 1931.

X After time, Malcolm moved to Harlem where he became involved in gambling, drug dealing and robbery.

X Malcolm Was Arrested at the age of 20 for armed robbery. In jail he studied the teaching of theElijah Muhammad.

Elijah MuhammadX Elijah Muhammad was the leader of

the mostly Black political and religious group The Nation Of Islam.

His teachings, often perceived as racist, preached complete separation from Whites in society.

He often expressed the idea the Blacks were the first people to rule the world and that the Whites tricked them out of power and oppressed them.

Young Malcolm X developed his adept speaking skills and political ideas under the direction of Elijah Muhammad.

Nation Of IslamX The Nation Of Islam

(NOI) was an activist group that believed that most African slaves were originally Muslim.

X The NOI urged African Americans to reconvert to Islam in effort to restore the heritage that was stolen from them.

X The NOI wanted to create a second Black nation within the United States.

X The “X” in Malcolm’s name symbolizes the rejection of his slave name.

Malcolm X: The Activist

X Malcolm X made constant accusations of racism and demanded violent actions of self defense.

X He constantly retold the injustices his people suffered in the past.

X Malcolm X gathered wide spread admiration from African American’s and wide spread fear from Whites. However White college students could not ignore the harsh realities of his preaching's.

Tension In The Nation Of IslamX By the start of the 60’s Tension

was growing in The Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was exposed to rumors

that Elijah Muhammad had indulged in extramarital affairs. Adultery is shunned in the Muslim

doctrine.

X Malcolm Believed that Elijah Muhammad was jealous of his increasing popularity.

X The Nation of Islam blamed Malcolm X for his controversial remarks regarding John F. Kennedy Jr.

The JFK ControversyX After the assassination of John

F. Kennedy, Malcolm X made a speech. Malcolm claimed that the

violence Kennedy failed to prevent ended up to come back and claim his life.

He stated that assassination was an example of “the chickens coming home to roost"

He later stated, "Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. It only made me glad."

This comment lead to widespread public dismay.

Pilgrimage to MeccaX In 1964, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm

discovered that orthodox Muslims preach equality among races.

X Malcolm’s new knowledge and growing distrust with the NOI, caused him to desert his argument that all Whites are the devil.

X Malcolm X never abandoned his theory that Racism had destroyed the nation and that only Blacks could free themselves.

X In February, 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated by a

Black Muslim at a New York City rally.

Malcolm X Speaks, 1965X “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey

the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”

X “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.”

X “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”

Malcolm X Quotes (On King)X He got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If I'm

following a general, and he's leading me into a battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him. Especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over.

X I'll say nothing against him. At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King.

X I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King.

X Dr. King wants the same thing I want -- freedom!

Black PowerBlack Power is a term that emphasizes racial pride and the desire for African Americans to achieve equality.The term promotes the creation of Black political and social institutions.The term was popularized by Stokely Carmichael during The Civil Rights Movement.Many SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) members were becoming critical of leaders that articulated non-violent responses to racism.

Stokely Carmichael

Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Tommie Smith and John Carlos give the Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics.The two men were suspended by the United States team and banned from Olympic village.The action is considered a milestone of The Civil Rights Movement.

Black Panther Party

• U.S. African American Militant group.• Founded in 1966 in Oakland.• Led by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.• Believed violent revolution was the only

way to receive freedom.• Urged African Americans to arm themselves.

The Violent Panthers• In the late 60’s party

leaders got involved in violent confrontations with the police. The results was death on

both sides.• Huey Newton was tried in

1967 for killing a police officer.

• Black Panther activist Bobby Seale, was a member of the Chicago Eight. A group of eight people who

disrupted the 1968 Democratic convention.

LBJ’s The Great Society: Civil RightsProgram Year What it did…

Civil Rights Act 1964 Segregation illegal and federal government more power to enforce school desegregation

Equal Employment Commission

1964 End racial discrimination in employment

24th Amendment 1964 Banned poll tax

Voting Rights Act 1965 In reaction to violence in Selma/King marches-no literacy tests and federal registrars

Conclusion• During The American Civil Rights Movement many

different and unique leaders and groups came to power.

• Some preached violence, some preached peace, some preached protest and some preached resilience.

• However, every leader had one thing in common. They all wanted freedom and they all wanted equality for their race.

• Today we celebrate the leaders struggles because it was there work that got us to the point we are at today.

• Now, not everything is completely equal. But it is clear that we have come a long way since Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Washington and cried out, “I Have A Dream”