Chapter 21 The Freedom Movement, 1954-1965

1. Chapter 21 The Freedom Movement, 1954-1965

2. The 1950s: Prosperity and Prejudice • White American - Fled to the suburbs • More than half owned their homes, 1960 • Plessey v. Ferguson established “separate but equal” facilities. Allowed Jim Crow laws • Black Americans – Rigid segregation • Left behind in economic boom • Higher unemployment rate

3. II. The Road to Brown • NAACP • Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 1940 • Fought segregation and discrimination • Education, housing, employment, and politics • Smith v. Allwright, 1944 • Declared white primaries unconstitutional

4. Segregation at the University of Oklahoma • This black student at the University of Oklahoma was not allowed to sit in a classroom with white students. It took two Supreme Court decisions to end such segregation at the University of Oklahoma. SOURCE: Corbis/Bettmann

5. Brown and the Coming Revolution • 1940’s South Carolina Clarendon county schools – black parents had a request • 6,531 black students, 2,375 white students • County had over 30 busses • Zero served black community • Some black students walked 18 miles round trip per day • Black students had to go outdoors to go to the bathroom or for a drink of water. • Briggs v. Elliott, 1950 – First legal challenge to school segregation

6. Brown and the Coming Revolution • 1950 Topeka Kansas • All white school refused to admit black student Linda Brown • Father filed lawsuit – daughter had to travel 1:20 to attend black school • There was a school 7 blocks away that practiced racial exclusion • US Supreme Court - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka • Thurgood Marshall • Led to the eventual dismantling of Jim Crow

7. III. Brown II • Supreme Court issued 2nd ruling in 1955 -Practical process of desegregation • Ordered prompt compliance • “All deliberate speed” • Blacks thought this meant immediately, white southerners thought a long time or never. • Eisenhower displeased with ruling • Did not push for enforcement • Six states proceed • Moderate politicians urged calm • Hoped to avoid full-scale conflict

8. Massive White Resistance • White supremacy advocated in South • Rev. Jerry Falwell’s views of Bible and law • Destined to be servants due to curse by God • White Citizens’ Councils formed in cities • To preserve southern way of life • Used economic and political power to intimidate black people who challenge segregation

9. Southern Congressmen • “The Southern Manifesto” • Signed in 1956 by nearly one hundred Congressmen • Protested Brown decision and Supreme Court • Southern states “outlawed” NAACP • Claimed NAACP was communist conspiracy • Lost 246 branches in south

10. The Lynching of Emmett Till • Fourteen-year-old Chicago boy visiting Money, Mississippi • Friends dared him to enter store, buy candy and say “Bye, baby” to store owners wife • Allegedly violated racial etiquette • Till was kidnapped at gunpoint by store owner and brother in-law • Tortured, and murdered

11. The Lynching of Emmett Till • Overwhelming evidence, testimony • All-white jury acquitted two white men • Perpetrators gloated about their acquittal, sold confessions to magazine • Till’s mother publicized crime and white racism to raise awareness • Till’s death shocked entire generation of African Americans • 2004 reopened investigation, evidence that 10 people were involved in lynching • 2005 – case still ongoing, looking for new evidence to bring case to a just conclusion.

15. IV. New Forms of Protest: The Montgomery Bus Boycott • Local communities at core of civil rights movement • Montgomery was Alabama’s state capital, home to 45,000 black residents • Brave, committed individuals led grassroots protest

16. The Roots of Revolution • Planning and organization led by Women’s Political Council and NAACP • Pullman porter E. D. Nixon headed NAACP and Montgomery Voters League • Elected officials ignored blacks’ calls • WPC eager to attack segregation with test case of Claudette Colvin • Colvin – 15 year old girl arrested for refusing to give up seat to a white person. • Believed Colvin wasn’t the right case to organize attack.

18. Rosa Parks • Forty-three-year-old seamstress heading home on bus on December 1st, 1955. • Black section of bus was full, sat in white only section. • Arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. • Committed member of NAACP, eager to stand up against segregation • Boycott began under leadership of E. D. Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson of WPC • Flyers and word-of-mouth to black businesses and churches

21. Montgomery Improvement Association • Blacks boycotted buses on December 5th, 1955 • E. D. Nixon joined with others to form Montgomery Improvement Association • At meeting in Holt Street Baptist Church, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was asked to lead MIA • King stressed themes of history, civil rights, and religion in opening address

23. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Twenty-six-year-old pastor unknown to many at time • Came from prominent family in Atlanta, Georgia, that stressed education and civil rights • Father was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church • King attended Morehouse College, then earned Ph.D. in theology from Boston University • Superb orator who knew of non-violent protest • Pastor of Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

24. Walking for Freedom • Women primarily depended on bus transportation for work • Women were key to effectiveness of boycott that lasted 318 days • Some women received support from white female employers • Boycott was aided by NAACP legal challenge to racial segregation • Boycott took 65% of bus company's business • Forced bus company to cut schedules, lay off drivers, raise fares.

25. Friends in the North • King and 100 other MIA leaders arrested for conspiracy to disrupt bus system • Funds came from white and black allies • Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison supported with money and strategy • Rustin favored Gandhian nonviolence, urged to freely, peacefully submit to arrests • Levison was wealthy white attorney, communist beliefs

26. FBI involvement • FBI under J. Edgar Hoover continued racist practices and harassment of King and others • Called King “the most dangerous man in America” • Pressured to find ties to Moscow • Through use of phone taps, discovered extramarital affairs • Threatened to expose affairs if King did not commit suicide • By early 1960’s, FBI stopped contacting King when they uncovered threats to his life

27. Victory • Local all-white government had not backed down, even after a year-long boycott • Federal courts provided victory • Supreme Court ruled on September 13th, 1956 • Bus segregation was illegal in Montgomery • Gayle v. Browder overturned Plessy v. Ferguson • Black riders boarded buses on December 21st, 1956, sat wherever they pleased.

28. Cool Down • Why did the NAACP in Montgomery challenge and boycott the bus system?

29. Section 3 • No Easy Road to Freedom

30. V. No Easy Road to Freedom: 1957-1960 • Montgomery Bus Boycott set example • Highly-organized community led by capable and committed leaders • National media paid attention to civil rights struggle • Federal courts provided support • But white resistance intensified in South

31. Martin Luther King and SCLC • King had become moral leader of national stature • Created Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) • Federation of civil rights groups, community organizations, and churches • Early focus on voting rights • Vote was seen as central to other civil rights goals • SCLC and NAACP shared goals but faced tensions over protest tactics

32. Civil Rights Act of 1957 • First such legislation since Reconstruction • Bill became law despite southern filibuster • Commission created to monitor violations of civil rights and propose remedies for voting problems • Stronger Civil Rights Section in the U.S. Department of Justice • Blacks disappointed by weak law and limited support by Eisenhower administration

33. Little Rock, Arkansas • President Eisenhower not eager to enforce civil rights • Governor Orville Faubus of Arkansas sought to keep nine black students from Little Rock Central High School • Federal court ordered integration • Eisenhower sent troops to defend black students and authority of federal courts

34. Elizabeth Eckerd • Elizabeth Eckerd, one of nine black students who sought to enroll at Little Rock Central High School in September 1957, endures the taunts of an angry white crowd as she tries to make her way to the school.

35. VI. Black Youth Stand Up by Sitting Down • Led by black college students, sit-ins emerged as potent form of protest • Students accelerated pace of social change • sit-ins used during the 1940s

36. Desegregation Sit-ins • February 1, 1960, 4 freshmen attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, decided to desegregate local restaurant • Black people were welcomed to buy food but not allowed to eat at the store. • Symbol of white supremacy • Sat at lunch counter, received no service, until store closed • Sit in lasted 5 days, more joined protest

37. The Second Day of the Sit-in—Greensboro, North Carolina, 1960 • Four students—from the left they are Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Billy Smith, and Clarence Henderson—sit patiently at Woolworth’s lunch counter on February 2, 1960, the second day of the sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina. Although not the first sit-in protest against segregated facilities, the Greensboro action triggered a wave of sit-ins by black high school and college students across the South.

41. Sit-Ins • Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta • Similar experiences in cities in early 1960 • Black college students with NAACP ties • Often faced violence and intimidation • Many trained in non-violent protest tactics

42. Freedom Rides • Sit-in movement paved way for “Freedom Rides” of 1961 • Desegregated buses travel across country • Arrested in North Carolina after meeting violence • Freedom Rides showed whites’ resistance to integration, especially with brutality • John Lewis beaten for entering a white waiting room in SC, in front of police • Federal marshals provided some assistance • Bus firebombed in Alabama, beat escaping riders • May 20, Montgomery, met by angry mob of over 1,000 • All riders were beaten and hospitalized • By summers end, more than 300 freedom riders served time in Mississippi prison

47. Freedom Riders • On May 14, in Anniston, Alabama, a white mob firebombed this Freedom Riders’ bus and attacked passengers as they escaped the flames.