Struggle for Civil Rights

Constitution-

Federal system national government is supreme, states have reserved power not given to national.

I. Background: Doctrine of “states rights” and “home-rule”

***Civil War tested Federalism-

Do states have the right to secede from the Union?

***Gettysburg Address:Preserve the nation dedicatedto “all men are created equal” and a government “of the people, by the people,and for the people”

“one nation” not sovereign states

During Reconstruction, the Radical Republicans in Congress pushed for “radical reform” in the South.

“Civil War Amendments”-13th (Abolish Slavery)14th (Equal Rights)15th (Voting Rights)

Military Occupation

Former slaves vote in Richmond, Va.

Compromise of 1877- Ends Reconstruction.Republicans end military occupation of South in return for White House. Allow return of Democratic control of South and “home rule.”

Jim Crow- long periodAfrican Americans deniedfull rights as citizens.

What Supreme Court decision ruled that “separate but equal” did NOT violate the 14th Amendment, upholding Jim Crow.

What Supreme Court decision ruled that “separate but equal” did NOT violate the 14th Amendment, upholding Jim Crow.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) - Separation did “not imply the inferiority of one race over the other”

II. Challenges to Plessy v. Ferguson, Jim Crow, and “home-rule”

Accept social separation in short term

Equality through vocational education and economic success

Demand immediate equality, especially political

(NAACP)- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du Bois

Ida Wells- Led an anti-lynching crusade and called on the federalgovernment to take action

Tuskegee Airmen

Dorie Miller

WWII increased demands for Civil Rights

Linda Brown

III. Turning Point: Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas

(1954)- Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are unequal and must desegregate

Thurgood Marshall- NAACP Legal Defense Team, proved segregation was psychologically damaging to African American children

Virginia case led by NAACP attorney, Oliver Hill

“to separate them [African-American schoolchildren] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone…. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits which they would receive in a racially integrated school system.”

Chief Justice Earl Warren

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore we hold that the plaintiffs… [have been] deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Senator, Harry F. Byrd (Va.)-Advocated “Massive Resistance”

*Close schools*Block state funding to integrated schools*Private academies with tuition for whites*“White flight” from urban school systems

Resistance to Brown

(1957)Governor Orval Faubus calls out Arkansas National Guard to block African American students from attending Central High School, Little Rock

President Eisenhower calls out National Guard to protect students,force Arkansas to comply with federal law

“Little Rock 9”

IV. Civil Rights in the 1960s

Martin Luther King, Jr. – Civil Rights leader during 1950s and 1960s

1st well-known for advocatingcivil disobedience during the Montgomery, Al. bus boycott, after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat (1955)

Rosa Parks

Civil disobedience swept through the South during 1950s and early 1960s- “sit-ins”

"It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be. Indeed, they will be mentally healthier if they do not suppress rage, but vent it constructively and use its energy peacefully but forcefully to cripple the operations of an oppressive society. Civil disobedience can utilize themilitance wasted in riots…..“ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom Riders (1961)-White civil rights activisttravel to integrate the south

Resistance in Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama (1963)- police attack protesters with attack dogs and high pressure fire hoses.

How did T.V. coverage of Birmingham influence public opinion of Civil Rights?

March on Washington (1963)

“I Have a Dream” speech

Demonstrated power of non-violent, mass protest

Increased support for civil rights

Civil Rights Act (1964)-

Prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender

Desegregated public places

Who is the U.S. President who played an important role in its passage?

3 workers disappear in Mississippi

Freedom Summer (1964)- college students go South to register African Americans to vote

Selma, Alabama (1965) turns violent as police attack protesters

Voting Rights Act (1965)-

Outlawed literacy tests

Federal registrars sent South

Increased African American voters

The scene on April 4, 1968—assassination of MLK

James Earl Ray