The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement 1954 - 1968

2. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) • Rosa Parks – arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus • Martin Luther King organized a boycott of city busses until policy of segregation was changed • Boycott lasted 381 days until the courts ordered an end to segregation in public transportation

3. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a movement • Civil Disobedience • Violate a law considered to be unjust • Be willing to accept the consequences • Non-violence • Don’t strike back • “rivers of blood will be shed…”

4. Crisis at Little Rock (1957) • Attempt to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School by 9 African American students • Governor OrvalFaubus sent National Guard to prevent students from entering • President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the integration order

5. Sit-ins • To challenge local laws throughout the South that required separate restaurants & lunch counters • Demonstrators sat at the counter until they were served or forcibly removed

6. Freedom Rides • To test the integration of busses on interstate routes, college students volunteered to ride in an integrated fashion • These “freedom riders” were often met with extreme violence

7. Birmingham, Alabama (1963) • Birmingham Marches • Use of non-violent, civil disobedience in one of the most segregated cities in the country • Public attention to problem with pictures of fire hoses and police dogs used on demonstrators • (The Childrens’ March Video)

8. Marches in Birmingham

9. March on Washington (1963) • March on Washington • Peaceful demonstration for the support of major civil rights legislation • MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech • (Video clip)

10. March on Washington

12. Civil Rights Legislation

13. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • No discrimination in public facilities • Established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end discrimination in hiring, firing and promotions (Title VII – included gender as well as race) • Strengthened voting rights laws • Federal funds would be withheld from school districts that violated integration orders

14. Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Suspended the literacy tests as requirement to vote • Appointed “federal examiners” to register voters • (Selma, Alabama video clip)

15. Effect of Voting Rights Act of 1965(voter registration rates)

16. Amendment #24 - 1964 • Abolished the poll tax • (took reserved power from the state government)

17. Civil Rights Organizations

18. NAACP

19. SCLC

20. CORE

21. SNCC

22. Nation of Islam

25. Long Hot Summers (1964 – 1967) • Civil Unrest • Watts in LA • Detroit • Newark • Over 100 cities, over 100 deaths, Millions of $ in property damage • (Promised Land Video clip)

26. National Commission on Civil Disorders • Headed by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois • Findings • Riots caused by white racism → discrimination in employment, education, and housing • “Our nation is moving toward two societies – one black, one white – separate and unequal” – that threatens our democratic values • US must enrich ghetto life and work to integrate blacks into society outside of the ghetto

27. Recommendations of the Kerner Commission • Creation of jobs – in both public & private sectors • Job training and On-the-Job training for “hard core” unemployed • Increase efforts to eliminate de facto segregation • Improve schools that serve disadvantaged students • Increased welfare payments to the needy to encourage families to stay together • Additional public housing for low- & moderate- income families

28. Fate of these programs • Raised expectations only to bring disappointment • Many programs were cut or never implemented because of increased costs associated with the War in Vietnam • Economic principle: Opportunity Cost • Even the gov’t can’t afford everything • Item rejected becomes “opportunity cost”