The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. True During the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War, three amendments were added to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th guaranteed the rights of citizenship to former slaves and the 15th granted former slaves the right to vote. Unfortunately, these amendments were vague and difficult to enforce. Therefore, the next 100 years were dominated by discrimination (“Jim Crow”), segregation (Plessey v Ferguson) and terrorism (The Klan) “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. “ 1. Equality between the races was legally established by the Constitution within five years after the end of the Civil War.

3. True While some presidents in the past, such as FDR, wanted to improve the situation for African Americans, they also counted on white, southern political support. In 1948, President Truman made a decision that almost cost him his re-election. He issued an executive order to racially integrate the military. The order was carried out with few problems. 2. The military became the first major institution within American society to officially become integrated.

4. False It is true that the case of Brown v Board of Education in 1954 ended the practice of “separate but equal” segregation in the public schools. However, this decision met with much resistance, such as that faced by the “Little Rock Nine”. By itself, this decision did not start a movement. Instead, most historians believe that the Montgomery Bus Boycott, begun when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and led by Martin Luther King, was the spark that ignited a national movement. The event which sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement was a Supreme Court decision handed down in 1954.

5. The Civil Rights Movement • 1954 -- U.S. Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. • 1955 -- Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus as required by city ordinance; boycott follows and bus segregation ordinance is declared unconstitutional. • Federal Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation on interstate trains and buses. • 1956 -- Coalition of Southern congressmen calls for massive resistance to Supreme Court desegregation rulings. • 1957 -- Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus uses National Guard to block nine black students from attending a Little Rock High School; following a court order, President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to ensure compliance. • 1960 -- Four black college students begin sit-ins at lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant where black patrons are not served. • Congress approves a watered-down voting rights act after a filibuster by Southern senators. • 1961 -- Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states. • 1962 -- President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend. • The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all transportation facilities. • The Department of Defense orders full integration of military reserve units, the National Guard excluded. • 1963 -- Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is killed by a sniper's bullet. • Race riots prompt modified martial law in Cambridge, Maryland. • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington. • Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young black girls dead. • 1964 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Act declaring discrimination based on race illegal after 75-day long filibuster.

6. “All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.” False During the administration of President Kennedy, the Civil Rights Movement, especially under the leadership of Martin Luther King, resorted to more and more non-violent demonstrations, boycotts and protests. However, because JFK barely won the election in 1960 and because he needed southern support to be reelected, Kennedy hesitated to push too hard for Civil Rights legislation until shortly before his assassination in November of 1963. When vice-president Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) took over after Kennedy’s death, he successfully brought about passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 4. The most important civil rights legislation was passed during the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

7. False In the early 1960’s, many African Americans followed the ideas of Malcolm X and the Black Muslims. This approach was more militant and was more opposed to achieving racial integration. During the “long, hot summers” of the late sixties, violent riots broke out in a number of American cities. Many of these were based on the perceived lack of economic progress. The worst round of riots came after Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. 5. The vast majority of African Americans supported Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach to achieving racial equality.

9. True In 1957, when the courts ordered the racial integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor called up the state national guard to keep the “Little Rock Nine” from attending. President Eisenhower then sent in troops from the 101st Airborne division to protect the students. These troops were present for the entire year in order to successfully integrate the school. 6. Army troops were sometimes necessary to achieve racial integration of the nation’s public schools.

10. True Greensboro, North Carolina is where lunch counters were first successfully integrated. Birmingham and Selma, Alabama were the focal points of Martin Luther King’s marches and demonstrations. Birmingham was also the location where four little girls were killed during the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Mississippi was the location of the “Freedom Summer” where civil rights workers tried to register African Americans to vote. Three of these civil right workers disappeared in 1964. The FBI later found their bodies buried in an earthen dam. There was also violence when African Americans attempted to integrate the Universities of Alabama and Mississippi. 7. Southern states like North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi became the focal point of the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960’s.

11. True When Dr. King gave his speech to 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it brought significant pressure on Congress and the President. Combined with Kennedy’s assassination, and Johnson’s support, Congress finally agreed to respond. The result was passage of the most important civil rights and voting rights legislation. 8. The turning point of the modern Civil Rights Movement was Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

12. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."² This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

13. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

14. False The success of the Civil Rights Movement became infectious. Women became more aware of their own inferior status with the publishing of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. Pretty soon, they were joining the National Organization for Women, marching in demonstrations and demanding an Equal Rights Amendment. Similar developments also took place with Hispanics, Native Americans and within the Gay Community. 9. Unlike African Americans, the Civil Rights Movement had little effect on women and other minorities.

15. Following is an excerpt from "The Feminine Mystique," by Betty Friedan. • “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night — she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — "Is this all?" • “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. “

16. False While legislation enacted in the 1960’s abolished overt forms of discrimination, minorities were still way behind in education, job opportunities and pay. In addition, some groups, like senior citizens, those with physical and mental handicaps and the gay community still had no legal protection. Programs like school bussing and affirmative action have met with much controversy. Many would argue that the Civil Rights Movement is not over. The Civil Rights Movement reached a successful conclusion with passage of key federal legislation in the mid 1960’s.