The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. Segregation • De jure segregation – imposed by law • 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson – separate but equal ok • De facto segregation – by unwritten custom or tradition • Jim Crow laws – south segregated everything and prohibited voting

3. CORE • Congress of Racial Equality – 1940s founded by James Farmer • Apply non violent methods to gain civil rights • 1947 – Jackie Robinson – joined the Brooklyn Dodgers – 1st Af.Amer to play professional baseball

5. Brown v. Board of Education • 1954 – Topeka, Kansas • Thurgood Marshall and a team of lawyers from the NAACP • Based on precedent of other cases - college • Separate NOT equal- violated Constitution • New Chief Justice Earl Warren – All nine Supremes unanimous • Had to desegregate – with all deliberate speed. • Some faster than others

7. Little Rock, Arkansas • Plan to gradually desegregate schools • Central High School • Nine African Amer. volunteered to be first • Elizabeth Eckford • Gov Orval Faubus blocked the way • President called out federal troops – they stayed all year to guard the students on school grounds • Ernest Green – 1st to graduate

10. Civil Rights Act of 1957 • Commission to investigate violation of civil rights • Lacked teeth

11. Montgomery Bus Boycott • December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks • Montgomery, Alabama • Arrested for refusing to give up her seat • Some civil rights activists organized a bus boycott – one day • NAACP organized legal battle

13. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Non violent protest • Based on writings of Thoreau and actions of Gandhi. • Baptist minister • Urged Montgomery Improvement Assoc to continue bus boycott • It continued for over a year. • 1956 – Supreme ct ruled segregated bussed unconstitutional

15. SCLC • Southern Christian Leadership Conference • King and Ralph Abernathy • Nonviolent resistance to fight injustice

16. Sit Ins • Feb 1, 1960 – students ordered coffee and doughnuts at a Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro, NC – refused service • 4 students staged a sit in – stayed until closing time • Kept coming back every day with more people until served

19. SNCC • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee • 175 students from 30 states • Create a grass roots movement that involved all classes of Af. Amer.

20. Freedom Riders • Interstate transportation - segregated • Supreme Ct had already ruled illegal • 1961 – CORE staged a “freedom ride” from Wash. DC to New Orleans – 2 buses • Violated segregation laws • Alabama, one bus firebombed – the other attacked by a mob in Birmingham

23. Kennedy • Had helped get MLK freed from jail – helped him win narrow election over Nixon • Had Mississippi police protect the riders – but would not protect the activists who started it

24. Meredith and Evers • James Meredith – Air Force vet who wanted to enroll at Univ of Mississippi (all white) • 1962 won Sup. Ct case which ordered desegregation – Medgar Evers instrumental in this effort • Kennedy – “Americans are free to disagree with the law, but not to disobey it” • Meredith graduated Ole Miss in 1963 and then went to Columbia Law School • Medger Evers was assassinated on his front doorstep in June 1963

26. MLK in Birmingham • SCLC began a campaign in Birmingham – the most segregated city in the south • Began nonviolently – City got a court order to prohibit march • Good Friday – April 12 1963, MLK defies order and marches anyway • Arrested • Letter from Birmingham Jail • Kids joined marches • Eugene “Bull” Connor would not tolerate demonstrations and set the dogs and fire hoses on protestors

28. March on Washington • Aug 28, 1963 • NAACP, SCLC, SNCC • More than 200,000 • One of the largest political demonstrations in US history. • I Have A Dream speech

30. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Three weeks after march – bomb exploded in the Sixteenth St Baptist Church in Birmingham. • 4 young girls killed • Two months later JFK assassinated in Dallas, TX • Lyndon B. Johnson – • Banned segregation in public areas and gave the fed govt. the ability to demand the desegregation of schools. • EEOC – Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • Senate tried to block by filibuster- went on for 80 days

31. Freedom Summer • 1964 – SNCC staged volunteer education projects in Mississippi • Three civil rights workers disappeared – later found out they had been murdered • Fannie Lou Hamer – Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party MDFP

32. March on Selma • 1965 – MLK and the SCLC organized a march in Selma, Alabama • March 7 – Bloody Sunday- State troopers attacked marchers as they walked across the bridge. • TV coverage outraged the nation.

33. New Legislation • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – banned literacy tests • 24th Amendment – banned poll tax

34. Malcolm X • Radical activist – by any means necessary • Malcolm Little – Omaha, Nebraska • Converted to Nation of Islam – religious sect founded by Elijah Muhammad • Rules of strict behavior, no drugs or alcohol, separation of races. • Malcolm X – Nations most popular minister • Made pilgrimage to Mecca – changed his outlook • Feb 1965 – assassinated – 3 members of Nation of Islam convicted of his murder

36. Black Power • Stokely Carmichael – SNCC leader • Began to question role of integration • Black Power movement

37. Black Panthers • Huey Newton and Bobby Seal founded the Black Panthers • Organized armed patrols to protect people from police abuse • Created antipoverty programs • Afros • Black rather than negro or colored

39. MLK • Disagreed with calls for “black power” – still nonviolent • Campaign to protest poverty in cities • Traveled to Memphis, TN • April 4 – assassinated by James Earl Ray on the balcony of his motel.