CIVIL RIGHTS

• Civil Rights Act of 1875– outlawed segregation in

public facilities– declared unconstitutional

in 1883

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– “separate but equal”

did not violate 14th amendment– result was Jim Crow laws restricting social &

religious contact between races

INTO THE 20TH CENTURY• WORLD WAR ONE:

– many poor southern blacks migrated north

• found that racial prejudice extended north

• WORLD WAR TWO:– huge demand for labor

opened opportunities for blacks, Latinos, & women

– 1 million blacks served in army forcing changes in discriminatory policies

– FDR issued presidential directive to end discriminatory hiring practices by gov’t and all companies doing war work

Segregation & the Supreme Court• NAACP (1909)

– Thurgood Marshall

• Morgan v. Virginia (1946)– states could not mandate

segregated seating on interstate buses

• Sweatt v. Painter (1950)– state law schools must admit

black students

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)– segregation in schooling was a

violation of the 14th amendment’s Equal Protection Clause

Reaction to Brown Decision• Ranged from compliance to outright

defiance– areas of white minority resisted the most– KKK and White Citizens Councils

reappeared• Brown II

– SC ordered school desegregation to be implemented quickly

– Eisenhower refused to force compliance• Central High School in Little Rock, AR

– governor supported segregation & ordered National Guard to turn students away

– Eisenhower forced to federalized the National Guard & send in the army

– governor closed the Central High to avoid desegregation

Montgomery Bus Boycott• Rosa Parks refused to give

up her seat on a bus (‘55)• Montgomery Improvement

Association formed to protest

• Rev. Martin Luther King chosen as their leader

• 381 day boycott• Supreme Court ruled bus

segregation unconstitutional (’56)

• Proved: – black community could unite – power of nonviolent

resistance

SCLC & SNCC• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)• King influenced by

– Jesus: love one’s enemies– Thoreau: refusal to obey an unjust law– A Philip Randolph: to organize massive demonstrations– Gandhi: resist oppression without violence

• “Carry on nonviolent crusades against evils of second-class citizenship”

• Used African-American churches as their base to build a grassroots movement

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)– organized protests on college campuses– called for more confrontational strategy – changed the face of civil rights movement

SIT-INS

• Modeled after sit-ins staged in 1940s by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC

• Television coverage brought events into people’s homes

• Movement spread from south to north

• By 1960 lunch counters desegregated in 11 states

FREEDOM RIDERS• CORE bus trip to test SC decisions

banning segregated seating on interstate buses & in terminals

• Riders attacked by angry whites & police

• RFK & Justice Dept ordered riders’ protection– police ignored order

• Violence provoked the desired response– media denounced the violence

– JFK ordered federal marshals to protect the riders

– ICC banned segregation in all interstate travel facilities

JAMES MEREDITH• Meredith won federal

court case allowing him to attend all white University of Mississippi

• Mississippi governor barred him from enrolling

• JFK ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to registrar’s office

• Resulted in riots with 2 deaths

Oxford Town in the afternoonEv'rybody singin' a sorrowful tuneTwo men died 'neath the Mississippi moonSomebody better investigate soon

Oxford Town, Oxford TownEv'rybody's got their heads bowed downThe sun don't shine above the groundAin't a-goin' down to Oxford Town.

Oxford Town, Oxford TownEv'rybody's got their heads bowed downThe sun don't shine above the groundAin't a-goin' down to Oxford Town

He went down to Oxford TownGuns and clubs followed him downAll because his face was brownBetter get away from Oxford Town

Oxford Town around the bendHe come in to the door, he couldn't get inAll because of the color of his skinWhat do you think about that, my frien'?

Me and my gal, my gal's sonWe got met with a tear gas bombI don't even know why we comeGoin' back where we come from

MARCH AGAINST FEAR

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA• Most segregated city in America• King & SCLC demonstrated &

were arrested• “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”• Children’s Crusade

– two marches of 1000+ children

– beaten, sprayed with fire hoses, attacked by dogs, & arrested

– all on national television

– news coverage & economic boycott ended segregation

– convinced JFK of need for new civil rights act

• Murder of Medgar Evers by KKK– Byron de la Beckwith

MARCH ON WASHINGTON• To gain support for JFK’s

proposed civil rights bill• 250,000 blacks and

whites marched on DC• Martin Luther King’s “I

Have a Dream” speech• Appeal for peace &

harmony• Birmingham church

bombing killed 4 young black girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA (6 min)

“A Problem We All Live With” Ruby Bridges

“Southern Justice (Murder in Mississippi)” by Norman Rockwell

• Civil Rights Act of 1964– prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national

origin, and gender– gave attorney general power to enforce and file school

desegregation suits

• Freedom Summer (1964)– to convince Congress to pass a voting rights act by getting

southern blacks to register to vote– mostly white college students (1/3 female)

• Selma to Montgomery Protest March– violence erupted swelling group from 600 to 25,000

• Voting Rights Act of 1965– eliminated literacy tests– federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied local

registration– percentage of registered black southern voters tripled

NORTHERN SEGREGATION• de facto segregation vs

de jure segregation • post-WWII “white flight”• Blacks wanted economic

equality of jobs, housing, and education

• Urban violence– Watts (1965)

• 36 dead, 900 injured, 4,000 arrested, $200 million in property damages

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRDvY_anJdc

BALLOTS OR BULLETS?• Malcolm Little aka

Malcolm X• Followed Elijah

Muhammad & the Nation of Islam

• Preached:– whites were the cause of

blacks’ situation and they should separate from white society

– armed self-defense

• Killed while giving speech in NYC (’65)

BLACK POWER• Stokely Carmichael

• (SNCC)

– “A call for black people to begin to define their own goals…and to lead their own organizations.”

– MLK believed he would provoke blacks to violence & antagonize whites

• Black Panthers– Huey Newton & Bobby Seale

– protest police brutality in ghettoes

– self-sufficiency for blacks, full employment, decent housing, & draft exemption

– secured free day care, breakfasts, medical clinics

1968 – A TURNING POINT• April 3, 1968• Assassination of Martin

Luther King– Memphis, Tennessee

– James Earl Ray

• Sparked riots in 100 cities– worst riots in American

history

– Stokely Carmichael called for violent retaliation by the black community

• Conspiracy?• Wiretapping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g379nEkAspEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8

LEGACY OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

• Kerner Commission– study causes of urban violence– white racism – “moving toward 2 separate societies, one black,

one white –separate but unequal”– LBJ ignored commission’s recommendations

• Civil Rights Act of 1968– ended segregation in housing

• Civil Rights movement:– ended de jure segregation– instilled greater pride in racial identity– brought about political gains (100/1972; 7,000/1992)– affirmative action

• reverse discrimination?