The Civil Rights Movement 1945-1968. Free Template from Truman: 1945-1953 NAACP increased efforts...

The Civil Rights Movement

1945-1968

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Truman: 1945-1953

• NAACP increased efforts against segregation during WW II

• 1946- creates National Civil Rights Commission – called for expanded federal role in civil rights

• 1947- Jackie Robinson breaks color line in baseball


Truman, continued

• 1948- desegregates armed forces

• Southerners block other attempts to pass legislation

• 1950s- blacks choose non-violence as means to protest; want to use court system


Eisenhower (1954-1961)

• Had little interest in civil rights- thought it was a states’ issue

• Yet, his hand would be forced many times

• He would be first president since Reconstruction to use federal troops to enforce the rights of blacks


Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka (1954)

• NAACP –chief counsel is Thurgood Marshall• He argued that segregation stigmatized an

entire race and denied equal protection under the law of the 14th Amendment

• Unanimous decision: 9-0• Overturns 1896 decision: Plessy v. Ferguson

that had stated separate but equal” was okay• Supreme court would use Brown precedent to

overturn segregation in other areas of society, not just in schools


“Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. 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 they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.” –Brown decision


Thurgood Marshall

1954

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1905106

Thurgood Marshall

• First African American Supreme Court Justice

• Nominated by LBJ 1967

• Retired from court in 1991

• Died at age of 84 in 1993


Reaction to Brown• Solid resistance to integration in South• 1956: Southern Manifesto- 100 Congressmen

signed it – said Brown decision was a clear abuse of judicial power

• Membership in Klan reaches all time high

1956


Montgomery Bus Boycott• Where non-violent protest was born• December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her

seat to a white man• Arrested• Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., local pastor, leads the

black community in a boycott of the buses• 381 days – black citizens carpooled or walked• Bus company almost bankrupt• Supreme Court- ruled in 1956 segregation on busses is

unconstitutional • Boycott brought King into national spot light

Cold War Hypocrisy• International attention was

drawn to segregation• Soviet Union criticized how

preachy U.S. was about democracy, yet it denied it to its own black citizens

• Many blacks used cold war as justification to pressure politicians for change and reform

http://www.animationlibrary.com/a-l/?n=image.php3&image_id=9313


Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• Founded by King• Moral and organizational face of the civil

rights movement• Major voice for racial justice• Few successes in 1950s


Little Rock, 1957

• Governor Orval Faubus led fight against desegregating Little Rock’s Central High School

• He called out the National Guard to block the “Little Rock Nine” trying to enroll in all white school

• T.V. captures the harassing mobs• Criticism hits Eisenhower – does not want to react• Forced by public opinion to send in 1000 federal troops

and 10,000 nationalized members of the Arkansas National Guard to protect students

http://www.centralhigh57.org/guardlineup.htm

Elizabeth Eckford, 1957


Kennedy: 1960-1963

• New phase of movement: 1960• Greensboro, NC. – 4 blacks sit at an all white lunch

counter at Woolworth’s – “sit-in” was born• Teenagers were arrested, but sit-ins as a form of

protest in the South was born• 70,000 joined this passive resistance movement• SNCC- Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee is

formed by Ella Bakers• 126 cities had desegregated lunch counters in the

South

Greensboro


Freedom Rides

• 1961- blacks and whites ride interstate busses to draw attention to fact busses are not integrates

• Met violence in Alabama• Robert Kennedy sent in

troops to regain order• JFK against freedom

rides


• Why rides worked?• Many that rode and

were hence arrested were wealthy, ivy league, white, northern students

• They refused to post bail, crowded local jails

• For 40 days this made front page news – no longer just a “Southern problem”

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize• Hold on, hold on,

Keep your eyes on the prize,Hold on, Hold, on.(Chorus)

• But the one thing we did right,Was the day we started to fight.(Chorus)

• We're gonna board that big Greyhound,Carrin' love from town to town.

• We're gonna ride for civil rights,We're gonna ride for both black and white.(Chorus)

• We've met jail and violence too,But God's love has seen us through.


Birmingham, Alabama

• “most segregated city in America” –MLK• Thousands of blacks march downtown• Met by Eugene “Bull” Conner – Police Chief- with

vicious dogs and firehoses• T.V. captures it all• MLK arrested; writes famous “Letter from Birmingham

Jail”

• Kennedy feels pressure- promises legislation to empower justice department in enforcing desegregation – called the Second Emancipation Proclamation


March on Washington, August 1963

• To help support Kennedy, MLK organized a massive march

• 250,000 blacks and whites gathered at Lincoln Memorial in D.C.

• “I have a Dream Speech”• More than any other event this gathered

acceptance of civil rights movement by many white Americans who now see MLK as clear leader of movement


Lyndon Baynes Johnson (LBJ)

• LBJ president after Kennedy’s assassination- a Texan

• To pay respect to Kennedy’s plans, he pushed civil rights legislation through Congress

• Wanted to make a mark on history


Civil Rights Act 1964

• June 1964• Title VII – outlawed

discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, national origin or sex.

• Also barred discrimination in public accommodations and facilities

• Did not address voting restrictions


Freedom Summer

• Focused in Mississippi, this was a massive movement to get blacks registered to vote

• Only 6.7% of eligible black votes in Mississippi were registered

• Death of three volunteers; Mississippi Burning

• Overall, positive legacy due to Voting Rights Act of 1965



Mississippi Burning• June 21 -- Civil rights workers Michael

Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, disappear in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

• The three were volunteers traveling to Mississippi to aid in the registration of African American voters as part of the Mississippi Summer Project.

The FBI recovered their bodies, which had been buried in an earthen dam, 44 days later. The Neshoba County deputy sheriff and 16 others, all Ku Klux Klan members, were indicted for the crime; seven were convicted. Sentences ranged from 3 to 10 years.


March from Selma to Montgomery

• King organized march in protest to murders

• Marchers were attacked by clubs and tear gas

• Again, nation watches


Voting Rights Act, 1965

• 1964- 24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax• Freedom summer drew attention to

problems African Americans still had voting• Bill removed all obstacles to voting• Increased number of blacks who were

registered to vote dramatically


Malcolm X

• Influenced by Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI); X joins in 1952

• NOI taught that whites prevented blacks from taking power in politics, education, and economics

• Favored a separate black state• Malcolm became national spokesman for NOI• Malcolm separates from NOI after learning of

Muhammad’s numerous affairs and illegitimate children• Assassinated February 21, 1965 by three members of

NOI


Black Power• Phrase most commonly

associated with Stokley Carmichael of SNCC

• Rejecting integration with whites on any level

• Re-assertion of black pride emphasizing that blacks can do anything on their own

• MLK condemned this approach – said black supremacy would be as bad as white supremacy

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-carmichael.2.jpg.html


Black Panthers

• Oakland 1966- founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton

• Believed in militant self-defense

• Wanted massive organization and community based programs

• Wanted emancipation for minorities and working class Americans


Ten Point Plan

1)Freedom; the power to determine the destiny of the Black and oppressed communities.

2) Full Employment; give every person employment or guaranteed income.

3) End to robbery of Black communities; the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules as promised to ex-slaves during the reconstruction period following the emancipation of slavery.

4) Decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings; the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people can build.

5) Education for the people; that teaches the true history of Blacks and their role in present day society.


6) Free health care; health facilities which will develop preventive medical programs.

7) End to police brutality and murder of Black people and other people of color and oppressed people.

8) End to all wars of aggression; the various conflicts which exist stem directly from the United States ruling circle.

9) Freedom for all political prisoners; trials by juries that represent our peers.

10) Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and community control of modern industry."


MLK Assassination

• April 4, 1968 shot by a sniper at the Motel Lorraine in Memphis, Tennessee

• James Earl Ray convicted of the crime

• Many conspiracy theories; even King family believes he is innocent

• Ray died in jail in 1998

Two month man-hunt that ended in London

The Civil Rights Movement 1945-1968. Free Template from Truman: 1945-1953 NAACP increased efforts...

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