SSUSH22 A thru E

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

Early Developments

• 1896 – Landmark Court Case: Plessy vs Ferguson

African American Homer Plessy challenged Louisiana’s Separate Car Act.

Louisiana Judge John Howard Ferguson found him guilty of riding in a “white’s only” railroad car.

• 1890’s – 1960’s – Segregation laws in America became known as Jim Crow Laws.

Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court

Supreme Court decision confirmed the “Separate but Equal” idea of law

Mostly common across the South.

Local Communities usually given authority

Areas without laws requiring segregation often had de-facto segregation:

Segregation by custom or tradition

Civil Rights Movement

0

Riots

Blacks: 14 Whites: 33

Lynchings

Anti-Miscegenation

School Segregation

Separate but Equal

Transportation

Education

Mixed Marriages

1

Riots

Blacks: 86 Whites: 15

Lynchings

1882 - 1968

School Segregation

Education

Separate but Equal

Transportation

Anti-Miscegenation

Mixed Marriages

0

Riots

Blacks: 299 Whites: 48

Lynchings

Anti-Miscegenation

Mixed Marriages

No Segregation

Education

No Segregation

Transportation

Anti-Miscegenation

Mixed Marriages Blacks: 0 Whites: 0

Transportation

No Segregation 0

Riots

Education

School Segregation

School Segregation

Education

Separate but Equal

Transportation

Anti-Miscegenation

Mixed Marriages

Blacks: 352 Whites:141

Lynchings

0

Riots

Texas

Lynchings

Civil Rights Movement

Early Developments

• 1905: 32 African American leaders started meeting at Niagara Falls

Discussed problems of Colored People and possible solutions

Eventually became known as the Niagara Movement.

• 1909: Creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP)

7 Members from the Niagara Movement became organizing members

Chartered to promote equal rights and eliminate racial prejudice among American Citizens

Promoted court cases designed to overturn segregation laws

• 1935: Norris vs Alabama

Alabama had excluded African American’s from juries

Supreme Court declared that it violated equal protection under the law

Civil Rights Movement

Changes between two Wars

• WWI to WWII: The African American Great Migration to the North & West

Many gained voting rights that had been restricted in the South

Many still experienced racial discrimination concerning jobs, pay, and housing

• 1930’s: Many African Americans benefited from FDR’s New Deal Programs

World War II

• 1941 - A. Philip Randolph joined other African American leaders to organize the March on Washington Movement.

An effort to eliminate job discrimination in the Defense Industries that were supporting the war

Civil Rights Movement

World War II

• 25 Jun 1941: FDR issued Executive Order 8802

Prohibited Racial Discrimination in Defense Industry

• 1942: African American Leaders and Newspapers began the Double V. Campaign

Promoted African American military service in the war

Dedicated to obtaining two victories:

Against Fascism in Europe and Racism in America

• 1942: Congress of Racial Equality formed

Founded by James Farmer and George Houser

Used “sit-ins” to desegregate public facilities like restaurants and theaters

Refusing to leave if service was denied

Post World War II

Civil Rights Movement

• 26 Jul 1948: Executive Order 9981

Abolished Racial Discrimination in the Armed Forces

Led to the Desegregation of the U.S. Military

• 1940’s - A. Philip Randolph joined other African American leaders to form the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training

Their goal was to persuade President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the military

World War II

• 1942: U.S. Army Officer’s Candidate School (OCS) was the first experiment of integration in the military

Among its graduates was 2nd Lt Jackie Robinson

• 1947: Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he started his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers

Civil Rights Movement

Post World War II

• Southerners leaders in Congress adopted “massive resistance” to school desegregation by signing the Southern Manifesto

Encouraging white southerners to defy the Supreme Court ruling

• 1951: An African American parent of a middle school student filed a suit to allow his daughter attend an all white school closer to home

The U.S. District Court decided against the suit citing the Supreme Court precedence in Plessy vs Ferguson

• 1954: NAACP Chief Counsel, Thurgood Marshall, decided to take on the suit and the issue of school desegregation

The issue was taken to the Supreme Court, becoming the landmark case of Brown vs Board of Education

The Supreme Court ruled against the Board of Education, declaring School Segregation to be Unconstitutional.

A violation of Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment

Ending “Separate but Equal” as set forth in Plessy vs Ferguson

Civil Rights Movement The Movement Begins

• 13 Jun 1956: Browder vs Gaile

The U.S. District Court in Alabama ruled that Bus Segregation was Unconstitutional according to the Fourteenth Amendment

20 Dec 1956: The Supreme Court confirmed the ruling and ending the bus boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott had begun

They chose 26 year old pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead them

Several African American leaders form the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott city busses

• 1 Dec 1955: African American female, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to white passengers in Montgomery, Alabama.

Civil Rights Movement

• The Montgomery Bus Boycott proved that nonviolent protests could be successful

• 1957: A group of African American ministers joined to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The SCLC set out to eliminate segregation and encourage African American’s to vote

• Sep 1957: Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas

Court order to admit 9 African American students attend all white Central High School

Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent entry by the students

Ordered to remove the troops by the court, White mobs attacked and beat the students

President Eisenhower order the U.S. Army in to end the violence

Civil Rights Actions under Eisenhower

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under Eisenhower

• Civil Rights Act of 1957: Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Landmark Civil Rights legislation intended to protect African American voting rights

• 1960: Woolworth Sit-In by the Greensboro Four

African American college students chose to challenge the All White policy at Woolworth diner

Sit-ins spread to 54 cities in 9 states

College students like Jesse Jackson proved that sit-ins were a useful form of non-violent protest

• Apr 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed

Established by Ella Baker, executive director of the SCLC

Created to allow college students to coordinate their own civil rights activities and make a difference

Civil Rights Actions under Eisenhower

Civil Rights Movement

• 1961: CORE Leader James Farmer organized both black and white volunteers into teams called Freedom Riders

• 1960: Boynton vs Virginia

Supreme Court Case outlawing racial segregation in public transportation facilities and on trains & buses

Due to violation of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887

To draw attention to the South’s refusal to integrate bus terminals and transportation

Resulted in attacks by white mobs, beating with baseball bats, and burned buses

Civil Rights Actions under JFK

• Appointed about 40 African Americans to federal positions

• Appointed Thurgood Marshall as a Circuit Court Judge

• Created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under JFK

• President Kennedy’s hesitance to act and preoccupation with the Cuban Missile Crisis caused concern among Civil Rights leaders

• Spring 1963: The Birmingham Campaign Crisis

Nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Intended to provoke violence and gain media attention

Martin Luther King was arrested

Police Brutality increased violence

16th Street Baptist Church bombed

• June 1963: The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door

Alabama Governor George Wallace opposed desegregation of at University of Alabama

JFK used the military to enforce the law.

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under JFK

• Civil Rights Act of 1964:

Announced by President John F. Kennedy

Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson

Outlawed discrimination based on Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion, & Gender

• 28 Aug 1963: The March on Washington

200,000 demonstrators of all races

Motivational Speeches and Songs

MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Civil Rights Actions under LBJ

Established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• Jun – Oct 1964: African American Churches and Businesses across the south are burned or bombed by the KKK

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under LBJ

• Jan 1965: Voting Rights in Selma, Alabama

Sheriff Jim Clark prevented African Americans from registering to vote

Police brutality resulted in beatings, arrests, and murder

SCLC leader Hosea Williams organized a march to focus on voting rights

• 7 Mar 1965: The March on Selma, Alabama

500 protestors marched

200 State Troopers and Deputies

Attack by police on demonstrators hospitalized 70

Event became known as “Bloody Sunday”

Infuriated the President into action

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under LBJ

• Civil Rights Act of 1965: known as the Voting Rights Act

Prohibited discrimination in Voting and Voter Registration

• New Civil Rights legislation did not eliminate Racism in the United States

• 11 Aug 1965: The Watts Riot in Los Angeles

Caused by allegations of Police Brutality

Rioters burned and looted whole neighborhoods

34 People killed and over 900 hospitalized

14,000 National Guardsmen deployed

• 1965 - 1967: The Chicago Movement

Civil Rights Activist Albert Raby invited Martin Luther King, Jr., to Chicago, Illinois

To cause change in deplorable housing

Marches & Meetings caused little change

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under LBJ

• 1967: President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission

Headed by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois

Tasked with studying Causes of Urban Riots

Commissioned to make key recommendations

More Inner City Jobs and better Housing

• After 1965 many young African Americans began turning away from Martin Luther King’s nonviolent movement

• By 1965: Malcolm X had become a symbol of Black Power.

• The Black Power movement promoted the idea that African Americans should control their own direction and destiny

• 1966: A militant group known as the Black Panthers formed

Considered themselves the heirs of Malcolm

Promoted armed revolution by African Americans

Ten Point Program promoted “Black Empowerment”

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Actions under LBJ

• Civil Rights Act of 1968: also called the Fair Housing Act

Provided for equal housing laws regardless of race, creed, or national origin

• Mar 1968: SCLC planned a national Poor People’s Campaign

Try and get the government to end poverty in U.S.

4 Apr 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to Memphis Tennessee to make a speech

He made his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech at the local Church in God and Christ

That evening he was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his hotel room

His assassin, James Earl Ray, confessed and was sentenced to 99 years in prison (where he died)

Ralph David Abernathy of Georgia took over the leadership of the Poor People’s Campaign & SCLC

Civil Rights Movement Comparing Key Civil Rights Legislation

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957

First major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction

Intended to protect African American Voting Rights (clarify 15th Amendment)

Sen. Strom Thurmond of S.C. held a Filibuster for 24hrs and 18min

9 Sep 1957: Signed by Dwight Eisenhower

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

Landmark legislation against discrimination

Outlawed discrimination based on Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion, & Gender

Group of Southern Senators conducted a Filibuster for 54days

1963: Proposed by John F. Kennedy (died) 2 Jul 1964: Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson

VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

Landmark legislation against discrimination

Prohibited discrimination from Voting and Voter’s Registration Restrictions by States

Cloture Vote was used to prevent another Filibuster by Southern Politicians

6 Aug 1965: Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson

FAIR HOUSING ACT OF 1968

Landmark legislation against discrimination

Outlawed discrimination against rental or purchase due to Race, Creed, & Nationality

Re-enforced the Civil Rights Act of 1866 Re-enforced Executive Order 11063 (signed by President John F. Kennedy)

11 Apr 1968: Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson

Filibuster = extended speech or debate used to delay a legislative vote

Cloture = a petition signed by at least 16 senators to end a filibuster and cause vote