THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Timeline of Events

America’s Civil War 1861-1865

A House Divided

BACKGROUND• 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery• 14th Amendment (1868) citizenship rights • 1896-legal to have segregated facilities ‘JimCrow Laws’

(discriminated against African Americans with concern to attendance in public schools and the use of facilities such as restaurants, theatres, hotels, cinemas and public baths. Trains and buses were also segregated and in many states marriage between whites and African American people.)

• Believe gradual progress is the best for blacks• lynchings and riots claim hundred of lives• After WWII, marches, protests, boycotts civil disobedience, non-

violent resistance, ‘freedom rides’, and rallies.

"Jim Crow" Laws (examples)• Intermarriage The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a

Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona • Cohabitation Any negro man and white woman, or any white man

and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. Florida

• Amateur Baseball It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race. Georgia

• Parks It shall be unlawful for colored people to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the benefit, use and enjoyment of white persons...and unlawful for any white person to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the use and benefit of colored persons. Georgia

• Teaching Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each offense. Oklahoma

• Fishing, Boating, and Bathing The [Conservation] Commission shall have the right to make segregation of the white and colored races as to the exercise of rights of fishing, boating and bathing. Oklahoma

• Textbooks Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina

4,742 lynchings occurred between 1882-1968.

90% of the victims were

Southern73% of the victims were black27% of the victims were white

LynchingLynching took the place of “the merry-go-round, the theatre, symphony orchestra” (H.L. Mencken)

• For illegal crimes, such as murder, rape, or theft

• But also, people were lynched for insulting a white person, buying a car…

• Or even, especially if it was a black lynching, for no crime at all. Just to remind blacks to stay in their place.

Marion, Indiana -- 1930Marion, Indiana -- 1930

ARMED FORCES

• 1948 integrated units into the armed forces.

1954 BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

• Oliver Brown (Linda) v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Landmark decision on segregation in Education. “Separate is not equal”

• not a smooth transition, bussing a problem

1957 DESEGREGATION IN LITTLE ROCK

• The Governor of Arkansas sent Arkansas National Guard to prohibit 9 Black children from entering the high school.

• 3 Days later court injunction granted against the Governor.

• A mob of 1,000 people prevented their admittance.

• Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsman to protect the children. Showed the President would enforce court orders with federal troops.

THE LITTLE ROCK NINE

1955 MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

• Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on the bus.

• African American leaders of Alabama organized a boycott of busses. (Martin Luther King)

• Perfect person, member of NAACP, no arrest record.• Continued for over a year.• Cab drivers prosecuted if they charged the same fare as

the bus, therefore, organized private cars to help with rides.

• Whites bombed Black houses• Blacks jailed for boycotting.• Victory at the Federal court.• Snipers shot at buses, bombings

1960 LUNCH COUNTER SIT-INS

• Four students in Greensboro, North Carolina sat down at a lunch counter in a Woolworth’s store. Stayed until closing, but were not served.

• Next day 25 more students arrived to sit down at counter. Within two weeks demonstrations had spread to several cities, and within the year peaceful sit-in occurred at lunch counters across the country.

• If served they would move on, if not served stay until they were. If arrested another would take their place.

• Faced violence, but in 1964, the Civil Rights Act declared that segregation at lunch counters was unlawful.

FREEDOM RIDES• Campaign to end segregation at bus terminals• Interracial group would board buses destined for the south: whites in the back

and blacks in the front.• Left Washington on May 4th, 1961. When they went through Alabama they

split in two buses. One bus encountered a mob of 200. The bus was stoned, tires slashed, and firebombed. The other bus’ riders were severely beaten.

• Nashville students went to Birmingham to continue the ride.• Attorney General Robert Kennedy attempted to convince the bus company

and the local police to let the riders continue on. • There was also a Supreme Court decision that called for integration of

interstate travel. • Birmingham police arrested the students and deported them to the state line.

They went right back to Birmingham. Kennedy convinced Greyhound to take the riders. Protection was given to the city limits by state police. When they arrived at the terminal some riders, along with city officials, were beaten unconscious.

• State Troopers finally arrived and Kennedy sent in federal marshals and King arrived to rally. Martial Law declared.

• Continued to Mississippi where they were arrested. 60 Days in prison. More and more took their place. Over 300 arrested.

• Never arrived at their final destination, New Orleans, but forced Kennedy administration to take a stand on civil rights.

1963 BIRMINGHAM• King led a protest march in Birmingham—one of the most severely

segregated cities in the 1960s—school’s segregated the city parks were closed to avid integration, and the libraries became integrated only after all of the chairs were removed.

• Nicknamed “Bombingham” because there were 18 unsolved bombings in black neighbourhoods.

• Birmingham Manifesto—45 protestors were arrested while marching to city hall. King was arrested while marching to city hall.

• He published letter to the newspaper. “Letter from Birmingham Jail• Children protested next. 6 to 18 year olds marched in the street.

959 children arrested and sent to jail. The next day more children marched. There was no more room in the jail, so firefighters turned their hoses on the children. They rolled in the streets. Also K-9 forces were sent after children seeking refuge in a church.

• Businesses were fearful of damage, so they agreed to integrate lunch counters and hire more black people despite the attitude of city officials.

• President Kennedy proposed a new civil rights bill after this incident.

1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON

• August 28, over 250, 000 marched on Washington to show support for the civil rights bill.

• King’s “I Have A Dream” speech was delivered.

• Success

1963 Bombing at Birmingham Church

• 4 Black girls are killed by bomb planted in church

1964, Mississippi Summer Freedom Project

• Civil rights workers seek to register blacks to vote. 3 are killed and many black houses and churches are burned. National outrage helps pass civil rights legislation.

BLOODY SUNDAY, 1965SELMA to MONTGOMERY MARCH

• In Marion, Alabama a state trooper kills a peaceful demonstrator.

• King leads 54-mile march to support black voter registration. Despite attacks from police and interference fro Governor Wallace, marchers reach Montgomery. President Johnson addresses nation in support of marchers.

1965 VOTING RIGHTS APPROVED

• Many black people wanted to vote, but worried about losing their jobs.

• 1962, in Mississippi over 260 black people waited in line to register to vote. Only 7 of these people got to vote after waiting for two days. Why? There was a test which required them to read and interpret the constitution. After Act was passed 61% registered to vote (’69) and 23% before Act passed.

"By the way, what's the big word?"

WATTS RIOTS, 1965

• In first of more than 100 riots, Los Angeles black suburbs erupts in riots, burning, looting and 34 deaths.

1967, RACE RIOTS IN DETROIT AND NEWARK

• Worst riots in U.S. history results in 43 deaths in Detroit and federal troops called out to restore order.

THE GREAT SOCIETY

• set of domestic programs initiated by LBJ. Voting Rights Act (see separate heading) was a part of it.

• Other programs included: VISTA, Job Corps, Upward Bound, Neighborhood Youth Corps, Head Start, an unconditional war on poverty, and Medicare/Medicaid.

• The Great Society was never fully funded because of the Vietnam War, during the period of most active American involvement (1965-1975), drained available resources.

IS THE CIVIL RIGHT’S

STRUGGLE OVER?

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

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