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America’s Civil Rights Movement. “We shall Overcome”. Segregated Billingsville School, Charlotte, NC, 1951. American Society. 1950 – 15 million black citizens in USA. 2/3 live in the South under segregationist laws. Blacks in the South: Attended separate schools.
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America’s Civil Rights Movement “We shall Overcome”
American Society • 1950 – 15 million black citizens in USA. • 2/3 live in the South under segregationist laws. • Blacks in the South: • Attended separate schools. • Ate in segregated restaurants. • Public places: theatres, bus stations, drinking fountains were all segregated. • Trains and buses had whites only sections. • 20% of eligible southern blacks were registered to vote and in the Deep South (AL/MS) only 5%! • Where the law failed, lynch mobs enforced justice in the South. • 1946 – 6 black war veterans were lynched for demanding rights they felt entitled to in the South. • 1955 – Emmit Till (14) murdered by two white men in MS for speaking to a white woman!
American Reaction • 1946 – Truman commissioned Federal investigation of Civil Rights violations. • 1948 – Truman ended segregation in Federal jobs. • 1954 – Brown vs. Bd. Of Ed. Overturns Plessy vs. Ferguson. (Separate but Equal) • 1955 – Supreme Court orders desegregation to occur with all deliberate speed. • 1956 – “Declaration of Constitutional Principles” becomes the basis for massive resistance in the south. • 1957 – Civil Rights Commission established by Congress. • 1964 -2% of eligible blacks in the South were attending integrated classrooms!
The “Southern Manifesto” • US Congressmen • 1956 – Said that Brown v Bd of Ed was a clear abuse of judicial power! • US Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. (VA) • February 25, 1956, he called for what became known as Massive Resistance. • This was a group of laws, passed in 1958, intended to prevent integration of the schools. • Pupil Placement Boards were created with the power to assign specific students to particular schools. • Tuition grants were to be provided to students who opposed integrated schools. • The linchpin of Massive Resistance was a law that cut off state funds and closed any public school that agreed to integrate.
Civil Rights Movement • Consisted of many different groups, each with slightly different goals and beliefs. • Martin Luther King, JR and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference preached non violent protest. • Student Groups like SNCC focused their attention on College Campuses and public protests. • Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam focused on separating themselves from white America. • The Black Panthers focused on uniting all African Americans with a sense of Unity.
Brown vs Board of Education 1954 Chief Justice: Earl Warren (Fred Vinson died during the arguments phase) Supreme Court Case that ended forced segregation for African American Students. Supreme Court overturned 1896 Plessy vs Ferguson decision. Ordered integration of all public schools with “All deliberate speed.” First challenge to authority of Supreme Court decision came in 1957 at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Little Rock 1957 • The NAACP took court action when Negro students were denied entrance to white schools. • Arkansas was ordered to allow 9 Negro students to attend Central High School of Little Rock Arkansas. • Governor Orval Faubus called out the state National Guard to block the students from entry.
When the students tried to enter they were attacked by a mob of white students.
President Eisenhower sent in Federal Troops to ensure their safe entry.
Montgomery Bus Boycotts Bus company refused to change! Supreme Court eventually ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional just like school segregation. Martin Luther King becomes leader of the movement! • December 1955 • Rosa Parks, a seamstress refused to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a white woman. • She was arrested and jailed. • It had been an organized and planned attack on the laws of segregation that existed in the South. • Parks got arrested on purpose, she had worked as a volunteer in the local NAACP office. • She became a symbol of the Civil Rights movement. Church leaders organized a bus boycott of all city buses. For one year, 50,000 African- Americans walked, rode bikes or car pooled so as to avoid the bus.
NAACP –founded in 1909 • They chose to focus on the legal aspects of the movement. • Thurgood Marshall had successfully argued the Brown case and was retained as legal counsel. • It was an interracial group made up of whites and blacks. • They focused attention on the crime of lynching and tried to get the Government to end it. • The NAACP is today a leader in the civil rights movement for all Americans.
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) • Founded in 1942 to bring about change through peaceful confrontations. • Director was James Farmer. • Gained national recognition by sponsoring (1961) the Freedom Rides, a series of confrontational bus rides throughout the South. • Interracial groups of CORE members and supporters that ultimately succeeded in ending segregation on interstate bus routes. • After 1966, when Farmer resigned, the organization concentrated more on black voter registration in the South and on community problems.
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) • Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King, Jr. • Urged African Americans to assert their dignity and to refuse further cooperation with evil. • King had a background as a preacher and used that to push forward with his plans to turn Montgomery into a national movement. • He preached a strategy that involved non violent confrontation based on ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.
SNCC (Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee) • Organized in 1960 by Ella Baker. • She wanted to provide younger generations of African Americans a means to participate in the movement. • Eventually formed their own group because they wanted to concentrate on keeping the movement alive. • Robert Moses becomes the voice of the SNCC.
The sit ins • First used by CORE in 1943. • Idea was to target racially segregated businesses and go in and attempt to be served with other white customers. • Many of them endured hateful remarks, abuse and even physical violence without retaliating. • First one in Greensboro, NC in 1960 at a Woolworth’s. • Eventually spread across the country. • 1,000’s of people became involved!
Freedom Rides • Spring of 1961 - Supreme Court ruled that segregation was prohibited on buses that crossed state lines. • CORE and SNCC placed riders on buses to test the validity of the law. • When they arrived in the south, they were met by mobs. • Anniston, AL - mob overturned and set on fire a Greyhound bus. • People across the country were horrified. • Robert Kennedy eventually assigned FEDERAL MARSHALLS to protect them
The Albany Movement • African Americans in Albany, GA had begun a year long campaign of protest marches. • Demanded desegregation of all bus terminals. • Talks opened with White community leaders. • Martin Luther King came to Albany to help. • Many leaders in Albany resented King’s presence. • King tried to promoted anti - violent protest. • Government leaders in Albany would not arrest them though and when they did, they released them. • Albany movement fizzled and was not successful.
September of 1962 - James Meredith wanted to transfer to all white Ole Miss but because he was black, he was denied. He carried his quest all the way to the Supreme Court. Governor declared that Meredith would not be admitted no matter what the Court said. He declared that Supreme Court did not apply in Miss. A Riot took place and the campus was destroyed. Two people died and Kennedy was forced to send in the Army to restore order. Meredith entered the University and stayed until he graduated in 1963. Ole Miss Integration
Birmingham • Birmingham was rigidly segregated. • Martin Luther King invited to lead a non violent demonstration. • A plan was orchestrated to use high school children to initiate the march. • The plan was to use 13 to 18 year old kids to fill up the city's prisons. • With the media there, this would surely embarrass city officials. • Bull Connor was the chief of police. • May 2nd - the protest began and the Police were waiting.
Birmingham - the violence • As soon as they turned the corner, he ordered the arrest of all of the students. • Over nine hundred children were jailed ranging from the age of 6 to 18. • Connor was furious and many of his officers were embarrassed. • The following day, Connor called out the water cannons and the dogs. • As marchers came parading down the streets, the police attacked. • First came the water cannons, then the billy clubs, and lastly the dogs.
Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor in Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, AL, 1963
Martin Luther King arrested • When asked how long he would stay, King replied until “Pharaoh lets his people go.” • Connor responded that he had plenty of room in the jail. • King was arrested for parading without a permit. • Writes “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” • King stayed in jail for more than a week to protest what was happening in Birmingham.
Impact of Birmingham • The non violent protests were captured on TV. • Images of Police Dogs, Water cannons and riot police attacking peaceful demonstrators were etched into people’s brains. • The Protesters won. The Assistant Attorney General negotiated a desegregation of facilities, both public and private, and effectively ended the Birmingham standoff. • The non violent technique did not always work, but it did in Birmingham.
March on Washington • August of 1963 - 200,000 people came from all over the US to protest the slow pace that the White House was taking with the movement. • Celebrities participated and the event was televised nationally. • At this event is when King gave his most famous speech
Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Banned discrimination in all public accommodations. • Gave the Justice Department authority to act more vigorously in school segregation and voting rights cases. • Included an Equal opportunity clause that prohibited discriminatory hiring on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin in companies with more than 25 employees. • President Johnson had told Congress that he would accept no compromise on the Civil Rights Act. • The Civil Rights Act would lead to violence against black civil rights workers in the South and elsewhere. • Johnson felt that the Civil Rights Act needed more muscle.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Authorized the Attorney General to appoint federal examiners to register voters where local officials had prohibited African Americans from exercising their constitutional rights. • The Act specifically targeted Southern States. • It called for them to have a minimum of 50% of the voting age population registered in 1964. • By 1968, one million people were registered to vote. • The two acts together were landmark pieces of legislation for African Americans. • Many people were impatient with the pace of change and they turned to violence.
Alabama police attack Selma-to-Montgomery marchers, March 1965
Malcolm X • Born Malcolm Little in 1925. • His father had been part of the “Back to Africa” message spread by Marcus Garvey. • At age of 20, he was put in jail for a 7 year sentence for burglary. • While in prison, he became interested in the Nation of Islam. • The Nation of Islam was founded in 1933 and would attempt to bring about a “Black Nation”.
Principle beliefs of Malcolm X • He disagreed with the tactics and pace of the Civil Rights movement. • Malcolm X preached that the black people of America should rise up and fight back against their oppressors. • He said that integration would not work and that blacks needed to take their destiny into their own hands. • Malcolm and the leader of the nation of Islam differed in their beliefs on the direction that the movement should take. • He split with the Nation of Islam and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned he said he had been wrong to preach violence against Whites. • In 1965, he was assassinated by three members of the nation of Islam.
Stokely Carmichael • Had been leader of SNCC. • He got tired of beatings he took in non violent protest. • He advocated carrying guns for SNCC members. • He called upon African Americans to take an active role in their destiny. • He promoted what he called “Black Power” which would “Unite, recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community…”
The Black Panthers • Fall of 1966 - a new political party was formed. • Founded by Huey Newton. • “Power flows from the barrel of a gun.” • They developed day care centers, health care facilities and free breakfast programs in black communities. • The Black Power movement gave rise to the “Black is Beautfiul” slogan.
Riots spread across the country • Segregation still existed in America even though there were no more “Whites only” signs. • Rochester, NY: New York, NY: Watts in LA and many places in New Jersey. • August 11, 1965 - Police pulled over a 21 year old African American for driving drunk. • A crowd of people had gathered to watch the arrest. • The suspect resisted arrest and one police officer panicked and began swinging his baton. • The crowd became outraged and it touched off six days of rioting in Los Angeles. • 1,000’s of people burned cars, torched buildings and stole merchandise. • “Get Whitey” and “Burn baby Burn” engulfed American cities in 1966 and 1967.
