The Struggle for Civil RightsThe Struggle for Civil Rights1950s – 1960s

The Great MigrationThe Great Migration

First wave (1915-25) caused by need for black labor to replace immigrants during World War I

Second wave (1930s-60s) in response to Depression & AAA programs that drove sharecroppers off land

Significance: made blacks politically visible– Able to vote & enjoyed

greater civil liberties– Became swing vote in cities

World War II & the Cold WarWorld War II & the Cold War WWII led to great increase in black

activism– Pittsburg Courier launched “Double V”

campaign to fight racism at home as well as abroad

– NAACP membership increased from 50,000 to 400,000

– James Farmer founded CORE (Congress Of Racial Equality) to fight segregation in Chicago

Cold War put pressure on U.S. gov’t to live up to stated ideology

Desegregating the SchoolsDesegregating the Schools NAACP Legal Division made strategic

decision to devote limited resources to school desegregation

Took gradual approach to overturn Plessy– Ex rel. Gaines (1938): Missouri must build

separate black law school or admit Gaines to white law school

– Sweatt v. Painter (1950): separate black law school couldn’t be equal due to “intangible factors”

Brown v. Board of Ed. of Topeka (1954): “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”

Charles Houston

Thurgood Marshall

The ReactionThe Reaction White backlash:

– Southern Manifesto– Revival of Ku Klux Klan

Little Rock (1957):– Gov. Orval Faubus called out state

militia to prevent integration of Central High School

– Pres. Eisenhower sent in 1,000 troops to escort 9 black students

Ole Miss (1962):– Gov. Barnett refused to allow

James Meredith to enroll– Kennedy sent federal marshals &

troops to escort Meredith onto campus

Little Rock, 1957

James Meredith, 1962

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycottthe Montgomery Bus Boycott

Attended Crozer Seminary in Philadelphia & B.U. for doctorate

Became pastor of Dexter Ave. Baptist Church in Montgomery, Sept. 1954

Lead Montgomery Improvement Association’s bus boycott, Dec. 1955 - Dec. 1956

Time did cover story in Feb. 18, 1957 issue, & King received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in June 1957

Coretta & Martin King after hisconviction, March 22, 1956

The Southern Christian The Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceLeadership Conference

Based on Christianity & Gandhi’s exampleDramatized evil to shock white consciencesBased on respect for laws & American idealsIntegrationist, not separationistDeliberately picked virulent racists whom they

knew would provide violent drama– Bull Connor in Birmingham, 1963– Jim Clark in Selma, 1965

March on March on Washington,Washington,

Aug. 28, 1963Aug. 28, 1963

A. Philip Randolph orginally planned it to be about jobs

Became rally in support of Kennedy’s civil rights bill

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech appealed to patriotism, using lyrics from “America” Photos from David Cone,

Martin & Malcolm & America

Congress Of Racial Equality Congress Of Racial Equality and the Freedom Ridesand the Freedom Rides

CORE had sponsored initial Freedom Rides in 1947, to test Morgan v. Virginia decision

1961 Freedom Rides tested Boynton v. Virginia ruling

Met with violence in Alabama

The Greensboro Sit-Ins, 1960The Greensboro Sit-Ins, 1960 Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph

McNeil, David Richmond & Franklin McClain = original four– All Southerners, NAACP– Dressed neatly & acted

politely– 100s joined them by

Saturday Woolworth’s sales

declined 20% & profits 50% in 1960

July 25 – integration finally achieved

Student Nonviolent Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeCoordinating Committee

April 15-17, 1960 conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. called & funded by SCLC– More than 200 delegates from 50 schools & 13 states– Ella Barker was SCLC advisor to SNCC

By Spring 1964, SNCC had over 150 field workers across the South, concentrating on voter registration

Major effort = Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

Senator Lyndon B. JohnsonSenator Lyndon B. Johnsonand Civil Rightsand Civil Rights

Refused to sign Southern Manifesto Got Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress:

– Est. Civil Rights Commission & Civil Rights Division in Justice Dept.

– Watered down by removing section that accelerated school desegregation & adding right to jury trials (guaranteeing acquittals for whites)

Civil Rights Act of 1960: – extended life of CRC – provided federal court referees to register blacks– made it a federal crime to interfere with court orders or cross

state lines to commit violence

The Civil Rights Act of 1964The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Discrimination in all places of public accommodation outlawed (hotels, restaurants, etc.)

Required literacy tests to be administered in writing, & presumed all 6th grade graduates were literate

Attorney General empowered to bring school desegregation suits

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission created

Pres. Johnson hands pen toRev. King after signing theCivil Rights Act of 1964

Extending African-American Extending African-American Voting RightsVoting Rights

24th Amendment (1964) ended poll tax Court ruled Congressional districts must have “substantial

equality”:– Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) – “one man, one vote” rule est.– Reynolds v. Sims (1964) applied rule to state legislatures

Voting Rights Act of 1965:– Authorized Attorney General to send federal registrars of voters– Suspended literacy tests in counties where less than half of adults

had voted in 1964– Required any change in voting laws to be pre-cleared with Justice

Dept.

The Impact of the Voting Rights ActThe Impact of the Voting Rights Actand other legal changesand other legal changes

Copyright 1997, Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Black PowerBlack Power New SNCC leaders Stokely

Carmichael & Rap Brown abandoned nonviolent strategy and goal of integration

Malcolm X & the Nation of Islam espoused radical black separatism

Spawned growing white backlash– Riots seemed to show ingratitude

of blacks– Northerners couldn’t see ghettoes

as products of racism– Affirmative action seemed to be

reverse discrimination

Stokely Carmichael

Malcolm X & Elijah

Mohammed