Evolution of Civil Rights Movement: Early vs. Modern Struggles for Equality

2. Civil Right Movement • Early vs. Modern Civil Rights Movement • Searching for an Identity and Leadership • Leaders, Activities, and Organizations

3. Civil Right Movement • Plessy v Ferguson • 1896 • “14th amendment does not prevent private organization from discriminating” • Legalized Jim Crow Laws • Segregated accommodations were legal provided they were equal • “separate but equal”

4. Civil Right Movement • Booker T. Washington • Not for social equality • Remain apart • Founder of Tuskegee Institution in 1891 • Focus – industrial education/learn a skill • Vocational jobs to improve economic situation • Problem?

5. Civil Right Movement • W.E.B. Du Bois • Ph.D. from Harvard • Founder of the NAACP in 1910 • Grew out of the Niagara Movement • Never except inferiority • Use courts to fight discrimination • Rejected Washington’s ideas • “The Talented Tenth”

6. Civil Right Movement • Marcus Garvey • Black nationalist • United Negro Improvement Association in 1914 • Stressed racial separation from white • Black only businesses etc. • Encouraged a return to Africa

7. Civil Right Movement • In the 1950s • 15 million African Americans living in the United States • 2/3 living in the south • Jim Crows laws ruled their lives • Legal segregation in schools, parks, transportation, hospitals etc

8. Civil Right Movement • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) • Bring about change through peaceful measures • Founded by James Farmers in 1942 James Farmer 1920-1999

9. Civil Right Movement • Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas • May 17, 1954 • Supreme Court unanimously decided segregation violates the 14th amendment Brown Family

10. Civil Right Movement • Chief Justice Earl Warren • 1. Education plays a vital role in training children for citizenship, employment and leisure-time activities • 2. Separating black children from others solely on the basis of race “generates a feeling of inferiority that may affect them in a way unlikely to be undone” • 3. therefore, separate educational facilities are inherently unequal • Reversed Plessy v Ferguson • Thurgood Marshall argues the case

11. Civil Right Movement • Emmett Till • Killed in 1955 • Brings the problem to the attention of the nation

12. Civil Right Movement • Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956 • Rosa Parks “mother of the civil rights movement” refused to leave seat for a white man • Arrested for violating the city’s segregation law • Year long boycott of the bus company • Calls by pastors of church to lead resistance • City agreed to change the law to allow black to sit anywhere • Event produced a leader, an organization, technique • Martin Luther King Jr. • SCLC • Non- violent civil disobedience

14. Civil Right Movement • Integration at Little Rock 1957 • Orval Faubus, gov. of Arkansas, mobilized the National Guard to prevent nine African-Americans students from attending • Direct challenge to federal authority • Eisenhower sent in army (paratroopers) to restore order and protect the “Little Rock Nine”

16. Civil Right Movement • Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina • Greensboro four • Feb. 1st Bought items at Woolworth than sat down to order coffee • Not served • Result • July desegregated lunch counters • Over 70,000 people participated in sit-in through out the South • Press they received

18. Civil Right Movement • Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) • Grew out of SCLC • For students • Leaders was Robert Moses • was organized to advance the "sit-in" movement

19. Civil Right Movement • Freedom Rides • Spring of 1961 • SNCC members joined with activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a New York-based civil rights organization to encourage the Freedom Rides • Placed white and black students on interstate busses to test the new court decision to desegregate waiting rooms and dining facilities at bus stops • In deep South response was violent • Attorney General Robert Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect riders

21. Civil Right Movement • Integration of “Ole Miss” • 29 yr old veteran James Meredith • Arrival touched off riots • Mostly KKK members NOT students • Gov Ross Barnett refused to allow to register • Announced state laws were superior to federal laws • Pres. Kennedy federalized Miss. National Guard • Took 400 Marshals and 3000 troops to enroll him • Meredith remained and graduated in 1963 • Cost 200 lives and 4 million in taxpayer’s $

23. Civil Right Movement • University of Alabama • Vivian Malone • Gov George Wallace stood in doorway • National Guard was federalized • Wallace walked away

25. Civil Right Movement • Birmingham, Alabama • Rev. Shuttlesworth asked MLK to come to city • Most segregated big city in America • Test nonviolence • It was a planned non-violent campaign • Police Commissioner “Bull” Connor decided to crush the protest • Police used fire hoses, police dogs and clubs • TV carried scene to the nation

26. Civil Right Movement • MLK arrested • Leaders felt MLK was pushing too hard/too fast • Response “Letters from Birmingham” • Kids march, 1000 arrested • Result • End to segregation in Birmingham • HUGE victory • Kennedy on TV asked Congress to pass a Civil Rights Bill • Nation saw racism in the South at its worst

27. Civil Right Movement • March on Washington (Aug 1963) • To support and pressure Kennedy • 250,00 African Americans marched on nation’s capital • “I have a Dream”

28. Civil Right Movement • Civil Rights Act • Three months later Kennedy was assassinated • Bill wasn’t close to passing • Southern Congressmen had a filibuster going • Johnson addressed Congress • “…couldn’t more eloquently honor Pres. Kennedy’s memory” • Passed in June 1964

29. Civil Right Movement • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Elections: • Prohibited election officials from applying different standards to blacks and whites voting • Public Accommodations: • Forbade discrimination in public places • Forbade discrimination in government owned or operated facilities • Federally Assisted Programs • Allowed the government to withhold aid from states involving discrimination • Employment • Prohibited discriminatory practices by employers, agencies, and labor union • No discriminatory hiring on basis of race, sex , religion or nationality

31. Civil Right Movement • 24th Amendment • Passed in 1964 • Prohibited the use of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in a federal election

32. Civil Right Movement • Voting Act of 1965 • A result of Selma, Alabama incident • State troops assaulted demonstrators as they marched to the state capital • President Johnson “We shall over come” • Outlawed literacy test • Federal examiners in to register voters where irregularities existed • Signed 100 years after the Civil War ended

33. Civil Right Movement • Results of Civil Rights • Right to vote • South would never be the same again • Served in politics at all level • Segregation became illegal • Ended an Era • Civil Rights campaigns in the South led by peaceful moderates • Lets go North!

34. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil………must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." • Martin Luther King Jr.