CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

(1940-1965)

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A. Philip Randolph (1889 – 1979)

Son of an A.M.E. Minister

Attended NY City College

Co-Founder of Harlem

Magazine: The Messenger

Radical magazine that promoted Blacks fighting for their rights

Published articles by Ida B. Wells opposing lynching

Promoted opportunities for Blacks in the Military Services

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A. Philip Randolph (1889 – 1979)

1919 Federal Government

report indicated:

“He’s the most dangerous

Negro in America”

Negotiated decreased working hours (400 to 200 hrs per month)

Promoted increased hiring of African-Americans in U.S. Industries

1927: He Organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping

Car Porters

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A. Philip Randolph (1889 – 1979)

Persuaded President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802

Banning race discrimination in Wartime Defense Industries

1941: He Organized the

First “March on Washington”

Designed to eliminate

discrimination in the

Wartime Defense Industries

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

A. Philip Randolph (1889 – 1979)

Persuaded President Truman to issue Executive Order 9981

Ordering the Desegregation of the U.S. Military (Completed by 1956)

1946 : He Organized the

“Committee Against Jim

Crow in Military Service and

Training”

Designed to Desegregate

the U.S. Military

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Thurgood Marshall (1908 – 1993)

1940: Won first major Civil Rights Case of Chambers -vs- Florida

(Overturning conviction of 4 Black Men due to violation of due process)

Father was a Railroad Porter

He earned degrees at Lincoln

University & Howard

University Law School

1934: Hired as an Attorney by the NAACP

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Thurgood Marshall (1908 – 1993)

1944: Smith -vs- Allwright over Voting Rights violations in Texas

1948: Shelley -vs- Kraemer over Real Estate Discrimination

1940: He established the

NAACP Legal Defense

and Education Fund

Won 29 out of 32 key Cases

1950: Sweatt -vs- Painter over Racial Discrimination for Admission

at the University of Texas Law School

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Thurgood Marshall (1908 – 1993)

He argued that School Segregation was a violation of Individual Rights

under the 14th Amendment

1954: He became the lead

Counsel for the NAACP in the

case of Brown -vs- The Board

of Education of Topeka

Case ultimately overturned “Separate But Equal” decision set forth in

the 1896 case of Plessy -vs- Ferguson

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Thurgood Marshall

1954: Brown -vs- The Board

of Education of Topeka

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

James L. Farmer (1920 – 1999)

Sought to implement Gandhi’s non-violent civil disobedience tactics

1947: Promoted the development of “Sit-ins” and “Freedom Rides”

Father was a Professor &

Methodist Minister

He earned degrees at Wiley

College & Boston University

1942: Founded the Congress of Racial Equality

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Bayard Rustin (1912 – 1987)

1942: Joined James L. Farmer in supporting creation of C.O.R.E.

Sought to implement Gandhi’s non-violent civil disobedience tactics

Parents were active as

founders of the NAACP

Attended Wilberforce

University in Ohio

1936: He joined the Young Communist League

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Martin Luther King, Jr.

(1929 – 1968)

Agreed with adopting Gandhi’s non-violent civil disobedience tactics

1955: Joined others in leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957: Co-Founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Father was a Baptist

Minister in Atlanta

Graduated from Morehouse

College & Boston University

“We will match your capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate

you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will wear you down by pure capacity

to suffer.”

“If cursed, do not curse back. If struck, do not strike back, but evidence love and goodwill at all times”

Legal Action Nonviolent

Protest

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

(1955-1956)

Rosa Parks

& MLK both

Arrested

Protesters Carpooled and Hitch-hiked

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT LITTLE ROCK NINE (1957)

Court enforced decision

against Gov. Orval

Faubus’ refusal to comply

with Brown -vs- Board

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT GREENSBORO FOUR (1960)

Four College Students opposed

Woolworth’s segregation policies

First successful Sit-in

under the Student

Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee (SNCC)

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FREEDOM RIDERS MOVEMENT

(1961)

Opposed bus

segregation on

Interstate buses

Black & White

Activists

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT MARCH ON WASHINTON

(1963)

A. Philip Randolph

Joined forces with

other activists to

promote a new March

on Washington

Bayard Rustin

took the lead in

organizing a march to

Promote Jobs and

Freedom for Blacks

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT MARCH ON WASHINTON (1963)

250,000 people answered the call

to gather in Washington, D.C.

MLK Jr. made his famous

“I Have a Dream” speech

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT CHURCH BOMBING ACTIVIST MURDERED (1963)

Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed by the KKK, killing

4 black girls

Regional field secretary for the NAACP named Medger Edvars was murdered

MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail (1963) articulated the non-violent

protest of the civil rights movement

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT March on Birmingham (1963)

Exposed Police

Brutality against

unarmed

protestors in the

South

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 – 1977)

Youngest of 20 children in

a Southern

Sharecropping Family

1962: Joined the SNCC

1963: Arrested and Beaten by the police

1964: Organizer of the Mississippi Freedom

Democratic Party

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FREEDOM SUMMER (1964)

Attempt to

register many

African-

American voters

in Mississippi

Increased anti-black violence across the South

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT March on Selma (1965)

Continued to

expose Police

Brutality in the

South

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT March on Selma (1965)

Continued to

expose Police

Brutality in the

South

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT A. Philip Randolph

received the Congressional Medal of Freedom (1964)

Thurgood Marshall named the U.S. Solicitor General in 1965

Appointed First African-American Supreme Court Justice in 1967

Blacks became a voting force in Southern politics for the 1st time since Reconstruction