Civil RightsCivil RightsCivil RightsCivil Rights

The History of a People’s Struggle

Early Slave HistoryEarly Slave HistoryEarly Slave HistoryEarly Slave History

• African slaves inhabited the English colonies in North America continuously after 1619.

• The South's plantation agriculture depended on slaves for cheap labor; northern states profited financially from the slave trade.

• Southern states restricted slave activity and tried to prevent uprisings with laws and "codes“.

• Some slaves and free blacks tried to use the courts, publications and other means available in white society to improve their condition.

Important People early Important People early in the Movementin the Movement

Important People early Important People early in the Movementin the Movement

•Nat Turner

•Sarah C. Roberts

•Dred Scott

•Harriet Tubman

•Sojourner Truth

•Frederick Douglass

•William Lloyd Garrison

•John Brown

•President Abraham Lincoln

Nat TurnerNat TurnerNat TurnerNat Turner

• Nat Turner (1800-1831), who felt he was ordained by God for a "great purpose," organized one of the most famous slave revolts in North America.

• He and several sympathizers murdered over 50 white people before they were caught by the militia. Nat Turner was discovered, found guilty and hanged.

• His actions and those of other revolt leaders terrified white Southerners, who responded with harsher slave codes.

Sarah C. Roberts Sarah C. Roberts Sarah C. Roberts Sarah C. Roberts

• In 1849, Boston schoolgirl Sarah C. Roberts challenged the constitutionality of separate schools when she sued the city for the right to attend the public school with white children.

• Her lawyer, Charles Sumner (1811-1874), clearly foreshadowed the famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case over a century later in his denunciation of segregated schools.

• Roberts lost her case, and the decision formed the basis for the "separate but equal" decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 that remained law until 1954.

Dred ScottDred ScottDred ScottDred Scott

• Dred Scott (ca. 1795-1858) sued for his freedom in a Missouri state court, arguing that he had become free when he went to Illinois and Minnesota with his owner.

• The case reached the United Stated Supreme Court, which decided Dred Scott v. Sandford that black people

had always been considered "subordinate and inferior"in this country. • The Dred Scott decision made all anti-slavery laws, such as the Missouri Compromise, unconstitutional.

Harriet TubmanHarriet TubmanHarriet TubmanHarriet Tubman

• Harriet Tubman (ca. 1821-1913), sometimes called the "Moses of Her People," reputedly led hundreds of slaves to freedom as a "conductor" for the Underground Railroad.

• Supporters in the South and North provided food, shelter, clothing and hiding places for her "passengers."

Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth

• Isabella Baumfree (ca.1797-1883) was freed when New York abolished slavery in 1827.

• In 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth to symbolize what she felt was her God-given mission in life: to travel and preach for abolition, temperance, prison reform and women's suffrage.

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass

• Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass (ca. 1817-1895) became a noted antislavery lobbyist, an eloquent speaker, and a newspaper editor.

• Douglass argued not only against slavery, but the right of blacks to serve in the Civil War, the political and civil rights of women, and many other causes involving human liberties.

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison

• William Lloyd Garrison was a Boston abolitionist who demanded immediate freedom for slaves.

• He published reformist views in his newspaper, The Liberator, and promoted his efforts through the American Antislavery Society.

• Garrison proved effective in bringing his message to the white community.

John BrownJohn BrownJohn BrownJohn Brown

• John Brown (1800-1859) believed that "slaves had the right to gain their liberty in any way they could."

• He helped antislavery settlers move to Kansas, and when pro-slavery men burned Lawrence, he retaliated by killing five of them in Pottawatamie.

• John Brown wanted to create a safe place for fugitive slaves in Virginia, and led a raid on the government arsenal at Harper's Ferry in preparation for a slave revolt.

• The militia stormed the arsenal, and Brown was hanged for treason.

President Abraham President Abraham Lincoln Lincoln

President Abraham President Abraham Lincoln Lincoln

• President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by proclamation in 1862, during the Civil War.

• Despite its immediate effects, the Emancipation Proclamation didn't change the legal basis of slavery, which could be abolished only by state action or a constitutional amendment.

Other African Other African Americans that Helped Americans that Helped

the Causethe Cause

Other African Other African Americans that Helped Americans that Helped

the Causethe Cause• Thousands of African

Americans willingly participated in the military actions in the Civil War, and many more offered support behind the lines.

Important Legal Important Legal ChangesChanges

Important Legal Important Legal ChangesChanges

• 13th Amendment: ended slavery in this country.

• 14th Amendment: granted civil rights to the former slaves and states can not deny rights granted by the federal government.

• 15th Amendment: former slave men were granted the right to vote.

Early Civil Rights Acts Early Civil Rights Acts Early Civil Rights Acts Early Civil Rights Acts

• The Civil Rights Act of 1866: granted black citizens equal rights.

• The Reconstruction Act of 1867: allowed former slaves to participate fully in the political arena.

• The Enforcement Act of 1870: no denying the vote because of race.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1871: set up a system of federal supervision of elections.

• The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871: intended to protect black citizens against intimidation by illegal action in cases where states could not, or would not, provide protection.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1875: This act entitled all persons the "full and equal enjoyment" of the law.

The End of The End of ReconstructionReconstruction

The End of The End of ReconstructionReconstruction

• Northern troops were removed from the South as part of a bargain that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency in 1877.

• After the election, the South quickly replaced Reconstruction laws with new ones that restricted the rights of blacks.

• This period is sometimes known in the South as “Redemption”.

• Election fraud, violence, harassment and the new “grandfather clause” passed in 1898 effectively prevented most of the black population from voting.

Jim Crow Jim Crow Jim Crow Jim Crow

• Racial segregation, called "Jim Crow," excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, jobs, juries, and neighborhoods.

• Blacks had separate hospitals, prisons, orphanages, parks and pools.

• The Supreme Court decided in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that "separate but equal" public facilities were legal, putting the federal stamp of approval on Jim Crow.

EducationEducationEducationEducation

• Schools and facilities for black students rarely equaled those for white.

• The cramped, unheated rooms often lacked water, plumbing, textbooks, paper or other teaching supplies.

More Important People More Important People to the Causeto the Cause

More Important People More Important People to the Causeto the Cause

• Booker T. Washington • L. J. Rosenwald• Ida B. Wells • William Edward Burghardt

DuBois

Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington

• Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), a former slave, advocated training blacks to become independent and socially useful.

• Washington delivered his controversial "Atlanta Compromise" address were he urged hard work and patience.

L. J. RosenwaldL. J. RosenwaldL. J. RosenwaldL. J. Rosenwald• The Julius Rosenwald Fund (est.

1912) helped build over 5,000 public schools for southern black students.

• Generous donations from philanthropists such as George Peabody, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller provided schools, libraries, endowments, scholarships and support for teacher training and industrial education.

Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells

• Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a Mississippi-born teacher, journalist and civil rights activist.

• Ida Wells vigorously protested lynching, and published several books, such as The Real Record (1895) documenting facts and statistics about the crime.

William Edward William Edward Burghardt DuBois Burghardt DuBois William Edward William Edward

Burghardt DuBois Burghardt DuBois

• William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963), was a Harvard-educated teacher, writer and scholar.

• DuBois wanted to see African Americans integrated--with full equality-- in American society.

• DuBois served as publications director for the NAACP and edited Crisis

magazine for two decades.

The Niagara MovementThe Niagara MovementThe Niagara MovementThe Niagara Movement

• In 1905 DuBois invited a group of black intellectuals to meet and discuss how to combat racism. They met in Niagara Falls, Canada.

• The new "Niagara Movement" produced a manifesto promising "organized, determined and aggressive action" in the struggle for equality.

Racial Conflict Racial Conflict Racial Conflict Racial Conflict

• Racial conflict flared in many large cities early in the 20th century, including Harlem (1900), Atlanta (1906), Springfield, IL (1908), East St. Louis (1917), Chester and Philadelphia, PA (1917), Houston, TX (1917) and Chicago (1917).

•From May 10 to September 30, 1919, over 25 riots rocked cities from Texas to Illinois, Nebraska to Georgia.

The National Association for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored the Advancement of Colored

PeoplePeople

The National Association for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored the Advancement of Colored

PeoplePeople • The NAACP grew out of a

conference to protest a lynching and race riot in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908.

• The NAACP led the fight against racism and segregation in the first half of this century.

• Its influence reached across religions, political and class lines, as it promoted equal protection for all under the Constitution.

World War IWorld War IWorld War IWorld War I

• When the United States entered the Great War in 1917, it barred African Americans from military service. Later, it changed that policy.

• Nearly 400,000 black men and women served in the military, most segregated into colored units.

• The many medals and honors they won didn't change American racial attitudes after the war.

• There were many reports of black veterans returning home to beatings and lynchings.

Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance • From 1920 until about 1930 an

unprecedented outburst of creative activity among black Americans occurred in all fields of art.

• Black Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage and to become "The New Negro," a term coined in 1925 by sociologist and critic Alain LeRoy Locke.

• One of the factors contributing to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the great migration of black Americans to northern cities (such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) between 1919 and 1926.

The Great DepressionThe Great DepressionThe Great DepressionThe Great Depression

• African Americans suffered more than most during the Great Depression.

• New Deal programs either excluded blacks or provided for them at lower levels than whites.

• However, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt worked hard to defend human rights, even resigning from the Daughters of the American Revolution when it refused to let black singer Marian Anderson perform in Constitution Hall.

World War IIWorld War IIWorld War IIWorld War II

• Again, many African Americans served in the military.

• Again, it was segregated.• At home, the “Double V Campaign” was

started. It stood for victory over fascism abroad, and victory over racism at home.

• A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for an end to discrimination in the defense industry.

• When President Roosevelt refused to meet their demands, Randolph planned his first March on Washington.

After World War IIAfter World War IIAfter World War IIAfter World War II

• The Civil Rights movement began to see small gains after the war.

• The start of military integration was in 1948.

• Jackie Robinson would be the first person to break the color

barrier in baseball in 1947.• Which brings us to the 50s.