L14: The Civil Rights Movement 1948-1975 (Six)

Equality and Hierarchy: The African American ExperienceAgenda

Objective: 1. To analyze how/why the

Civil Rights Movement Ends.

2. To analyze what the Civil Rights Movement achieved.

3. To evaluate whether the Civil Rights Movement was successful.

Schedule: 4. Lecture5. Small Group

Discussions

Homework:1.Consult

Unit Schedule. Final Paper Due Friday Nov 9

Essential Questions to Explore Today:

• Today we will look at the events that bring about an end to the Civil Rights movement.

• As we learn about and reflect on these events we will want to consider:–Why does the Civil Rights Movement end?–What did the Civil Rights Movement achieve?– Do you think the Civil Rights Movement was

successful?

The Civil Rights Movement Ends

Phase One: The Dream Come True?

1964-1966

Civil Rights Act of 1964• Law that outlawed major forms of

discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, as well as women.

• Ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at workplaces, and by facilities that served the general public.

• Passed by Congress and signed by President Johnson.

24th Amendment (1964)(Anti-Poll Tax Amendment)

• Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.

Voting Rights Act (1965)• Outlawed discriminatory voting practices. • Prohibited states from imposing any “voting

qualification or perquisites to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure…to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or

color.”• Law passed by Congress and signed by President Johnson.

Loving Vs. Virginia (1967)• Supreme Court declared Virginia’s

anti-miscegenation statue unconstitutional.

• Ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States

• Unanimous decision

Civil Rights Act of 1968(Fair Housing Act)

• Law that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin– Banned discrimination in both the sale or rental of

housing• Follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1965• Law passed by Congress and signed by President Johnson• Was signed during the MLK assassination riots

The Civil Rights Movement Ends

Phase Two: The Era of Disillusionment

1968-1975

King Tries to Broaden the Civil Rights Movement

• In 1967 King began to speak out publically against the Vietnam War– Lost many allies in the Johnson Administration

• He also began to shift his focus away from issues of explicit racial injustice and towards issues of economic and political inequality.• He begins to critique and criticize America and Capitalism.

– Cost him many white liberal allies• Organized a “Poor People’s Campaign” in 1968

– Traveled the country to assemble a multiracial army of the poor that would march on Washington to engage in

nonviolent civil disobedience demanding economic aid to the poorest communities in the US

Racial Tensions Build in Northern Cities: Northern Blacks Lose Economic Opportunities• Beginning in the 1950s deindustrialization of

America’s cities meant that railroad, meatpacking, steel, and car jobs were moving overseas.

• This disproportionately effected Blacks– As the last population to enter the industrial job market, they were the most disadvantaged by its collapse

Racial Tensions Build in Northern Cities:The Emergence of the Ghetto

• At the same time, investment in highways and the development of suburbs drew many whites out of cities into the suburbs.

• Urban blacks became concentrated into increasingly poor, black-only neighborhoods.

• The only whites left in these neighborhoods were patrolling police officers.

Racial Tensions Build in Northern Cities:

Race Riots 1964-1970• Black sparked riots protesting police brutality and a lack

of economic opportunities in Northern Cities.• Riots Happen in:

– Watts in Los Angeles (Summer 1965)– Chicago and Cleveland (1966)– Newark and Detroit (1967)– Washington, D. C. (1968)

• Riots help to accelerate “white flight” and “middle class black flight”

Boston Busing Crisis 1974• Series of protests and riots that occurred in Boston in response to the passing of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act, which ordered public schools in MA to integrate in order to end de facto segregation.• Plan was to bus students from predominantly white

areas of the city to schools with predominantly black student populations.

• There were numerous protest incidents that turned severely violent, even resulting in deaths.

Vietnam is the New Civil Rights Struggle

• Activism began to turn away from Civil Rights Issues and toward ending the war in Vietnam.

Our Essential Questions

• Working in groups, reflect on our essential questions:–Why does the Civil Rights Movement

end?–What did the Civil Rights Movement

achieve?– Do you think the Civil Rights Movement

was successful?