Civil Rights

1. Civil Rights 1950s -1970s Thinking Skill: Explicitly assess information and draw conclusions Objective: Assess the impact and tactics of the early Civil Rights Movement

2. Identify Assumptions • What was life like in the 1950’s for African Americans? • What changes did people seek? • What tactics did they use? • Who were the leaders? Lesser known individuals? • How successful were they? • What issues are still present today? • Caution – do not oversimplify as a “southern thing” (Yet understand the unfinished legacy of the region)

3. African Americans Begin to Seek Change • Short-lived success post Civil War • Slow changes from 1880s-1950s • South was segregated • De-facto segregation and/or De-jure segregation • Jim Crow laws • Dubois and B.T. Washington • Limitations on Progressive Reforms • African Independence movements • Harlem Renaissance • Move to Northern cities • WWII • Cold War Politics

4. Early Gains • Jackie Robinson - 1947

5. A. Philip Randolph Action: Randolph threatens to march on Washington in June, 1941. Result: FDR issued Executive Order 8802 (Fair Employment Act), barring discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus._______________________________________ Action: After WWII, Randolph led a campaign in favor of racial equality in the military. Result: Truman issued executive order 9981 in July, 1948, banning segregation in the armed forces.

6. The Murder of Emmett Till • Money, Mississippi; August 1955 • Till was pulled from his bed at 2:30 AM • Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam beat Till, crushed his head, shot him, tied him to an industrial fan and threw him in the Tallahatchie River • Bryant and Milam were acquitted in sham trial; later admit guilt in magazine article which they were paid for • Murderers were mostly upset about “miscegenation” • Open casket galvanized the Civil Rights Movement • One researcher claimed as many as 14 may have been involved in the lynching

7. The impact of Emmet Till His murder and the subsequent trial of his accused killers became a lightning rod for moral outrage, both at the time and to this day. The case was not just about the murder of a teenage boy. It was also about a new generation of young people committing their lives to social change. As historian Robin Kelley states, The Emmett Till case was a spark for a new generation to commit their lives to social change. They said, "We're not gonna die like this. Instead, we're gonna live and transform the South so people won't have to die like this." And if anything, if any event of the 1950s inspired young people to be committed to that kind of change, it was the lynching of Emmett Till.

8. Till’s Legacy Civil rights activists used the murder of Emmett Till as a rallying cry for civil rights protest, transforming a heinous crime into a springboard for justice. The Montgomery Bus Boycott followed closely on the heels of the case. Indeed, Rosa Parks is quoted as saying, "I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated."

9. Till’s Legacy Black men, including black teenage boys, had been brutally lynched by white men before the murder of Emmett Till. Likewise, before Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were acquitted for this crime, other white men had also gone unpunished for the murders they committed (and even confessed to committing outside of the courtroom). So why, then, did the lynching of Emmett Till and the subsequent trial "set in concrete the determination of people to move forward," according to Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, in a way that previous events of a similar nature did not? What factors contributed to making this event a pivotal moment in the history of the civil rights movement? The answer to this question reveals the dynamic relationship between individual actions and historical context and highlights the power of courageous acts to transform society

10. Till’s Legacy • “Somehow [Till's death and trial] struck a spark of indignation that ignited protests around the world... It was the murder of this 14-year-old out-of-state visitor that touched off a world-wide clamor and cast the glare of a world spotlight on Mississippi's racism.” ---Myrlie Evers

11. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • Supreme Court ruled that segregation of facilities was constitutional if “separate but equal” • Upheld Jim Crow laws, De jure segregation

12. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954) • Oliver Brown sued to allow his daughter to attend an all-white school, challenged segregation • Supreme Court: separating children “solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone” • Supreme Court ruled “separate facilities are inherently unequal” • Desegregate “with all deliberate speed”

13. Brown v. Board of Education 1954Brown family sued to allow their daughter to attend an all white school, challenge segregation

14. Chief Justice Earl Warren

15. Brown v. Board of Education 1954 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i20d11fGz-0&playnext=1&list=PL43D9C89B6A0A3A61&feature=results_video The “doll study” by Kenneth Clark (1940s) was key evidence in this court case - It demonstrated the negative impact of internalization of race on academic performance and self-image

16. School Segregation- Local history • The Tredyffrin-Easttown‘School Fight’1932 – 1934 • An attempt to segregate in the north after decades of having been integrated

17. Raymond Pace Alexander was a Philadelphian born in 1897, the first black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, class of 1920, and a 1923 graduate of the Harvard Law School. By 1932 he had been in practice for 9 years.

18. The Coatesville RecordMay 1, 1934 “Tredyffrin township's segregated school controversy ended yesterday when Negro boys and girls and white children attended the same schools.   Announcement was made by Raymond Pace Alexander, colored attorney representing the parents of more than 220 Negro children who refused to attend schools specially designated for them, that the joint school boards of Easttown and Tredyffrin townships had notified him yesterday that the segregated system would be done away with at once.  Alexander, in turn, sent notice to the parents that they should send their children to school yesterday morning, and a check up showed that nearly all of the parents had complied.”

19. Civil Rights Organizations • NAACP= National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) • SCLC= Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957) • SNCC= Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (1960) • CORE= Congress of Racial Equality (1942)

21. Myths/Oversimplifications • There were no black activists before King and his followers • Rosa Parks - a saint - was a simple woman who had just "had enough" that day (she said “the only tired I was, was tired of GIVING IN”) • The whole movement and its successes came down to Martin Luther King • King was basically a Christian version of Gandhi

22. Bayard Rustin-an over-looked CR activist • Locally significant • Embraced Gandhi techniques • Key CORE member • “Journey of Reconciliation” • Spent time in prison • Controversial Lifestyle • Varied protests • March on Washington 1963

23. Rosa Parks • Rosa Parks was an educated, principled activist who pursued civil rights activism in significant ways – before the bus boycott. • She was active in the local NAACP • She attended classes about school desegregation at the Highlander Folk School (1955) • Founded in 1930s as a ‘labor school’ • Focused on racial equality in the 1950s • Held integrated workshops, investigated as “communist training school” by a McCarthy-era committee • Had a powerful impact on Parks’s thinking about race relations

24. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) • Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on segregated bus—planned well in advance • Black leaders led by Martin Luther King Jr. (27 yrs old) organized boycott • It took the mobilization and individual sacrifices of an entire community to make this happen • This Boycott helped save CORE • 1956 Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional (inter-state travel segregation had been ruled unconstitutional already in 1946) • Freedom Riders – (1961) - challenged the status quo

26. “Little Rock Nine” (1957) • Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to desegregate with 9 black students • Gov. Orval Faubus sent National Guard to block students • White students blocked entrance • Eisenhower sent 101st Airborne to protect students

27. Late 1950s---Early 1960s • Optimism faded by end of decade • Montgomery seemed an isolated success • Even King had concerns about the movement • Eisenhower presidency - significance of Civil Rights Act of 1957 (reduced to symbolic terms?) • 1960 election, Kennedy promise vs. politics of Cold War • Impact of Cold War on CR movement

28. Lunch Counter Sit-ins - NC, TN (1960) Major Confrontations (early 1960’s) CORE Freedom Rides (1961) James Meredith and Ole Miss (1962) Birmingham, AL (1963)

29. Diane Nash • Diane Judith Nash (born May 15, 1938) was a leader and strategist of the student wing of the 1960s Movement. A historian described her as: "…bright, focused, utterly fearless, with an unerring instinct for the correct tactical move at each increment of the crisis; as a leader, her instincts had been flawless, and she was the kind of person who pushed those around her to be at their best—that, or be gone from the movement."

30. Nash's campaigns were among the most successful of the era. Her efforts included the first successful civil rights campaign to de-segregate lunch counters (Nashville); the Freedom riders, who de-segregated interstate travel; founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and the Selma Voting Rights Movement campaign, which resulted in African Americans getting the vote and political power throughout the South.

31. Freedom Riders • Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. • Sponsored by CORE and organized by SNCC

32. Freedom Riders

33. James Farmer (CORE), John Lewis

34. Freedom Riders • The Freedom Riders challenged this status quo by riding interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation in seating. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. • They called national attention to the disregard for the federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Police arrested riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses (“disturbing the peace”), but they often first let white mobs attack them without intervention. • Not really “civil disobedience” – why?

35. “We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal. We knew our lives could be threatened, but we had made up our minds not to turn back”- john Lewis

36. John Lewis and Jim Zwerg

37. Patterson and RFK, the politics of Civil Rights

39. Even people who supported the cause were sometimes reluctant • The Freedom Rides presented a dilemma for the new Kennedy administration. Were these leaders prepared to face the political risks of standing up for civil rights? Journalist Evan Thomas points out that the civil rights issue was not one that President John Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy had chosen to spotlight as they tried to usher America into a new era. • As Thomas notes, The Kennedys, when they came into office, were not worried about civil rights. They were worried about the Soviet Union. They were worried about the Cold War. They were worried about the nuclear threat. When civil rights did pop up, they regarded it as a bit of a nuisance, as something that was getting in the way of their agenda.

40. 1962, James Meredith

41. Medgar Evers-- killed June 12, 1963 • Civil Rights activist from Mississippi • involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi • He became a field secretary for the NAACP. • His murder and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music, and film

42. Birmingham 1963 • The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the unequal treatment that black Americans endured in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign ran during the spring of 1963, culminating in widely publicized confrontations between black youth and white civic authorities, that eventually pressured the municipal government to change the city's discrimination laws. Organizers, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. used nonviolent direct action tactics to defy laws they considered unfair. King summarized the philosophy of the Birmingham campaign when he said: "The purpose of ... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation".

43. Birmingham 1963 • High school students are hit by a high-pressure water jet from a firehose during a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, as photographed by Charles Moore. Images like this one, printed in Life, inspired international support for the demonstrators

44. Birmingham Jail, MLK • King's letter was a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963 titled, "A Call for Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. They criticized Martin Luther King, calling him an “outsider” who causes trouble in the streets of Birmingham. • To this, King referred to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated. He wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider…” King expressed his remorse that the demonstrations were taking place in Birmingham but felt that the white power structure left the black community with no other choice • “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”

45. JFK’s TV address “moral issue” asks Congress for new Civil Rights Bill 1963 March on Washington and MLK’s “I Have a Dream speech” to rally support Civil Rights Legislation “The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights”

46. March on Washington 1963 • Historian Howard Zinn wrote: "At the great Washington March of 1963, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), John Lewis, speaking to the same enormous crowd that heard Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, was prepared to ask the right question: 'Which side is the federal government on?’ That sentence was eliminated from his speech by organizers of the March to avoid offending the Kennedy Administration. But Lewis and his fellow SNCC workers had experienced, again and again, the strange passivity of the national government in the face of Southern violence.“

47. The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963 as an act of racially motivated terrorism. The explosion, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

48. Civil Rights Part II Thinking Skill: Explicitly assess information and draw conclusions Objective: Assess the impact and changing tactics of the Civil Rights Movement 1964-1970

49. Civil Rights Act 1964 • LBJ uses Kennedy assassination to gain passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Outlawed racial discrimination in all public places • Justice Dept. intervene in voting and schooling • Equal Opportunity provision for hiring –no discrimination based on race, gender, religion or national origin

50. Voting in the South • Freedom Summer (1964) • Selma March to Montgomery (1965) • “Bloody Sunday” • Voting rights Act of 1965 • Federal examiners to register voters • 400,000 voters in 1965 • 1 million in 1968 “We shall overcome…” -LBJ, 1965