The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. 1940’s • During WWII African-Americans had more opportunities for work and equality in the military and in the work place • In 1948 President Truman issued Executive Order 9981-desegregated the armed forces. • In 1942 a group called CORE was created – Congress of Racial Equality, dedicated to nonviolent protest • 1947 – Jackie Robinson became the first African-American professional baseball player since the 1800’s.

3. Change through the Courts • The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) continued its strategy of fighting segregation and racism through the courts. • In 1896 the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation was legal as long as it was “separate but equal”. • In 1954 the Supreme Court heard the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case. • In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for African-Americans violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law • The lawyer who argued against school segregation, Thurgood Marshall, became the first African-American Supreme Court justice in 1967

4. School Integration • Little Rock Nine

5. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Intro Video • SHEG: Montgomery Bus Boycott • The success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott inspired African-Americans across the south to start boycotts of their own. • In January 1957 representatives from around the South met in Atlanta to form the SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference, designed to organize protest activities taking place across the south. • Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the boycotts in Montgomery, was elected leader of the SCLC • While the SCLC was founded on Christian principles, it was open to members of all races and faiths, and devoted to nonviolent action.

6. Nonviolence • Many of the strategies used during the civil rights movement were based on those of Mohandas Gandhi, a leader of the independence movement in India. • Gandhi taught that nonviolent protest, even if it led to suffering for the participants, would expose injustice and was the best way to achieve change. • Leaders like King and James Lawson, who went to India to study Gandhi’s teachings, began training hundreds of students in the use of nonviolent protest.

7. Sit-in Movement • On February 1, 1960, four college students in Greensboro, NC went into a Woolworth’s store and ordered coffee. When they were refused service because of their race the four men stayed in their seats as a form of protest, fully expecting to be arrested. • The Greensboro Sit In • The next day they returned with more students, and on day 3 protesters filled 63 of the 66 seats at the Woolworth counter. • During the next two months protestors in over 50 cities began to use the sit in tactic. • Around 2000 protestors were arrested across the South. • By July Greensboro, NC integrated all lunch counters, and in October Woolworth’s integrated nationwide. • Many of the sit in leaders formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to conduct other nonviolent protests.

8. Freedom Rides • The success of the sit ins inspired CORE to plan its own nonviolent action against segregation in bus terminals. • On May 4, 1961 a group of 13 volunteers left Washington DC by bus heading for New Orleans, LA. • According to leader James Farmer “we felt we could count on the racists of the South to create a crisis so the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law” • The Freedom Rides • While the Freedom Rides never reached its final destination, it brought national attention to the issue of racial segregation and brought about President Kennedy’s increased enforcement of the integration of bus and train stations.

9. The Albany Movement • In November 1961 a sit in began in a bus station in Albany, GA. The demonstrators were arrested. • SNCC notified the US Justice department, but the federal government did nothing to stop the illegal arrests. • Martin Luther King Jr. was brought in to lead the Albany Movement. He was arrested and refused to pay the fine, vowing to remain in jail until the city agreed to desegregate. • However, the local police chief made plans with other local prisons to house all the protestors and paid King’s fine and had him released. • There was also division between the local Albany leaders and the SNCC leaders, including King. The city refused to negotiate with SNCC, so King called off his demonstrations and left. • Even then, the city refused to talk with local civil rights leaders. • The Albany Movement was a major defeat for King but he learned an important lesson: SNCC would only start its own campaigns, rather than helping those already begun by others.

10. Birmingham Campaign • MLK turned his focus to Birmingham, AL and its enforcement of segregation. • In April 1963 protestors began sit ins and marches, leading to King’s arrest. • While in prison King was criticized by a group of local white clergy, prompting King to write his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. • Birmingham police chief Eugene “Bull” Connor used police and fire fighters to break up a group of about 2500 students who had gathered for a protest march. • Birmingham Police Action • In Birmingham King’s hotel was bombed and after a group of African-Americans began rioting President Kennedy sent in federal troops to restore order. • READING: MLK Letter from a Birmingham Jail

11. Medgar Evans • Medgar Evans was the head of the Mississippi NAACP and in June 1963 he was murdered outside his home. • Police arrested a KKK member who shot Evans. After two trials before all white juries he was set free. • It wasn’t until 1994 that the murderer was finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison

12. The March on Washington • To build support for the civil rights movement African-American leaders planned a huge march on Washington DC for August 1963. • The demonstration took place on August 28, 1963 with over 200,000 people covering the National Mall. • There were several speakers and singers, but at the end of the event Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the final speech of the event. • I Have a Dream Speech

13. The Civil Rights Act • The positive momentum from the March on Washington was short lived. • In September a bomb exploded in a Birmingham church killing 4 young African-American girls. • In November President Kennedy was assassinated • When President Johnson took office he supported a civil rights act, and on July 2, 1964 the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed – banned discrimination in employment and public accommodations and gave the federal government the authority to speed up school desegregation. • SHEG: Did JFK support civil rights?

14. Voting Rights • In 1962 SNCC, CORE and other groups founded the Voter Education Project (VEP) to register southern African-Americans to vote. • However, project workers were routinely beaten or jailed and protest movements were broken up by police. • In spite of these terror tactics the VEP registered over 500,000 African-American voters. • 24th Amendment – passed in August 1962, banned states from taxing citizens to vote

15. Freedom Summer • After the passage of the 24th amendment a call went out for college students willing to spend their summer in Mississippi registering African-Americans to vote. • Freedom Summer – workers in Mississippi spent the summer of 1964 registering blacks to vote, teaching summer school, and sparking interest in continued civil rights activities • Unfortunately, tragedy and violence hit the Freedom Summer • Three workers went missing, and were found dead a month later • 2/3 of the volunteers went home • Those that remained endured arrests, shootings, beatings, and other attacks • However, there were some successes • Over 17,000 African-Americans registered to vote • When only 1600 of those applications were accepted, it showed the need for a federal law to secure voting rights for African-Americans.

16. Political Organizing • In 1964 SNCC helped create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party with the goal of replacing the all white delegation to the Democratic Convention. • The Democratic Party agreed to allow 2 of their members, which the MFDP and SNCC opposed (they wanted all 68 of their delegates to be admitted), while the NAACP and the SCLC supported the compromise. • The MFDP’s challenge eventually failed, and it demonstrated the widening gap that was developing between the various civil rights groups.

17. The Selma Campaign • Bloody Sunday and the Selma March

18. Voting Rights Act • A week after the Selma march to Montgomery, President Johnson gave a speech supporting a federal voting rights act. • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – gave the federal government the power to break down barriers to African-Americans voting. • Led to many more African-American voters, candidates, and eventually, politicians.

19. Expanding the Movement • Up to this point the civil rights movement had done much to end de jure segregation – segregation by law. • Now many civil rights leaders turned their attention to de facto segregation – segregation that exists through custom and practice rather than by law. • Examples: white people unwilling to sell their home to an African-American, real estate agents not showing houses in “white” neighborhoods to blacks, banks making it difficult for blacks to borrow money, etc.

20. Urban Unrest • From 1964-1967 racial unrest erupted into violence across the country. • In 1965 35,000 African-Americans took part in a 6 day riot in Watts, an African-American neighborhood of Los Angeles • Watts Riots Footage • 3000 people were arrested, 34 were killed before police and troops restored order. • Riots continued across the country causing President Johnson to appoint the Kerner Commission to study the causes of urban rioting. Their report blamed poverty and discrimination.

23. Black Muslims • The Nation of Islam was created in the 1930’s and was based on the Islamic religion. • In the 1960’s under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, promoted economic independence for African-Americans and for racial separation. • One of the Black Muslim pastors Malcolm X (several Black Muslims changed their last name to X to represent the loss of their original, African identity) offered a message of hope, defiance, and black pride. • At first Malcolm X supported Black Power and revolution, and was critical of MLK. • In 1964 Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and began to call for racial harmony. • In 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam who considered him a traitor to their cause.

24. Malcolm X and MLK

25. Fractures in the Civil Rights Movement • By the mid 1960’s conflicts among the various civil rights groups began to increase. • In 1966 Stokely Carmichael became the new leader of SNCC. • Under Carmichael SNCC abandoned its nonviolent means • “This is the 27th time I have been arrested-and I ain’t going to jail no more. The only way we’re going to stop them white men from whippin us is to take over. We been saying freedom for six years-and we ain’t got nothin’. What we gonna start now is ‘Black Power’!” • Black Power movement – the belief that African-Americans should depend only on themselves to solve their problems and to form their own political and economic organizations.

26. Black Panthers • The Black Power movement inspired Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to found a group called the Black Panther Party – called for violent revolution to achieve African-American freedom. • The Black Panthers carried guns and monitored African-American neighborhoods to guard against police brutality, leading to many confrontations in the late 1960’s.

27. King’s Assassination • King was in Memphis, TN to aid African-American sanitation workers who were on strike against discrimination and unfair pay policies. • King's Final Speech • News Footage of King Assassination • King was assassinated by James Earl Ray • After the assassination riots broke out in over 120 cities across the U.S., something King would have been outraged over. • RFK's Speech in Indianapolis

28. A Change in Goals • In 1967 MLK had begun the Poor People’s Campaign – the belief that blacks were still prevented from achieving equality because they were poor. • After King’s death the head of the SCLC Ralph Abernathy took over and led a group in the creation of Resurrection City – thousands of demonstrators who occupied the National Mall in protest of poverty • The Poor People’s Campaign was a disaster due to weather, the influx of inner city gangs, and the fear of Communism from the government.

29. Decline of Black Power • Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the FBI, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, monitored civil rights leaders, especially MLK. • Hoover then shifted his attention to members of the Black Power movement. • The FBI used spies and informants within groups to fight against SNCC (which disbanded in the early 1970’s) and the Black Panthers

30. New Changes and Gains • Civil Rights Act of 1968 – signed a week after MLK’s death, banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing (also called the Fair Housing Act). • In the 1970’s courts began forcing public schools to begin bussing students across neighborhoods to decrease segregation in the public schools. • The government, many businesses, and schools began setting up affirmative action programs – gave preference to minorities and women • By 1970 the new Black Power came in politics. • Thurgood Marshall – first black Supreme Court justice • John Lewis – elected in 1986 to the House of Representatives • Andrew Young – a staff member of SCLC became Georgia’s first African-American member of Congress • Jesse Jackson – became the first legitimate black candidate for President in the 1980’s.

31. The Women’s Movement • In the 1960’s and 70’s women were also fighting for equality. • In 1963 Betty Friedan wrote a book called The Feminine Mystique, writing that many women felt trapped by domestic life. • Feminism – the belief that women and men should be socially, politically, and economically equal • In 1966 a group of feminists formed NOW – National Organization for Women, which campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment – promised equal treatment for men and women. • Opponents of the ERA argued that it was a threat to traditional family life and would lead to women in the military and shared restrooms. The ERA was not passed. • Roe v Wade – 1973 Supreme Court case that struck down state laws that banned abortion.

33. Native Americans • In 1968 the American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed. Called for renewal of traditional cultures, economic independence, and better education for Indian children. • In 1972 the AIM took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington DC as a form of protest. • In 1973 members of AIM occupied Wounded Knee, the sight of an Indian massacre in 1890. • This and other changes demanded by Native Americans became known as the Red Power movement.

34. Latino Rights • In 1965 Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association staged a boycott of grapes to protest unfair treatment of Hispanic workers in California vineyards. • Chicano movement – similar to the Black Power movement, but by Mexican-Americans • MAYO – Mexican American Youth Organization, wanted to achieve economic independence for Mexican-Americans, gain local control over their education, and start a new political party. Led by Jose Angel Gutierrez

35. Counterculture • Counterculture – a rebellion of teens and young adults against mainstream American society. • Hippies, young people involved with the counterculture fought against the Establishment – traditional government and cultural beliefs. • Free speech movement – starting at UC Berkeley, a series of protests at college campuses that questioned the government and demanded the right to speak out against authority. • Summer of Love – the height of the hippie movement in 1967 in San Francisco. • Mainstream society was shocked by the disrespect, appearance, and beliefs of hippies. • In 1969 the Woodstock Music Festival took place in rural New York . • Woodstock