Civil Rights Movements and the Assertion of Equal Protection of the Laws

1. Civil Rights Movements and the Assertion of Equal Protection of the Laws Political Science 61 / Chicano/Latino Studies 64 October 23, 2007

2. Midterm Tuesday, October 30 • My goal: • Evidence that you are thinking about the lecture and the readings and looking for connections across lectures and readings • How will you demonstrate this? • Description of key themes, events, legislation, and social forces we’ve covered so far • Analysis that connects themes with evidence from various sources

3. Format • Possible Question Types • Essay • Identifications (key people, laws, events, concepts from readings) • Short answers (no more than 100 words) • Definition • Significance • Other? • Balance between parts of the exam?

4. Example • National Origin Quota Laws Legislation passed in 1921 and 1924 to limit the overall number of immigrants and to allocate visas primarily to residents of Northern and Western Europe.This legislation was the only successful effort to reduce the number of legal immigrants coming to the United States and reflected the growth of anti-immigration sentiment that began with the Chinese exclusion legislation passed by Congress in 1882.

5. Assignment • Please bring a possible ID to class on Thursday • Must appear in the readings • Ok if it has also been discussed in class

6. Background/Review • Late 19th Century • African Americans – loss of post-Civil War citizenship protections • Native Americans – decline of sovereignty and loss of land rights • Mexican Americans – loss of land rights and political marginalization of elites • Asian Americans – exclusion • White ethnics – increasing immigration restriction

7. Building Black Citizenship 1:Elites (1900-1940) • Organization • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded 1909 • Mobilization • NAACP becomes membership driven-1920s • Litigation • Challenge to the legal foundations of segregation • Representation • Some Blacks elected in North

8. Changing Black Population Dynamics, 1945-65 • Migration north • Increasing education opportunity • Slow expansion of the black middle class • World War II and the G.I. Bill of Rights • Unionized jobs and public employment • New resources for mass organization • Churches • Unions

9. Changing Political and Legal Environments • Political • Northern “race moderates” confront Southern segregationists • Changing notions of federalism • Legal—Progressive challenges to Black exclusion • Equalization • Professional access • “Separate, but Equal” • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

10. Building Black Citizenship 2:Mass Mobilization (1940-1965) • Protest • 1956 – 18 peaceful demonstrations • 1960 – 173 peaceful demonstrations • 1965 – 387 peaceful demonstrations • Organizations • 1957-Southern Christian Leadership Conference • 1960-Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

11. Direct Confrontation (1960 – 1965) • Sit-ins at Woolworth lunch counters (1960) • Freedom rides (1960) • March on Washington (1963) • “I have a dream” speech • Freedom summer (voter registration) (1964) • Selma-Montgomery march leads to nationally televised violence

12. Political Victories Slow • Civil Rights Act of • 1957 – Establishes the Civil Rights Commission (monitoring) • 1960 – Establishes principle that federal government can monitor voting (monitoring and limited enforcement) • 1964 – Barred discrimination in public accommodations and in employment (enforcement)

13. Lessons of the African American Civil Rights Movement • Objective remained consistent – Right to exercise full and equal citizenship • Success depended upon active support throughout African American community • Most successful social movement in U.S. history • Federal government institutions came to support objectives of movement • Overcame institutional obstacles of Southern whites in Congress

14. Civil Rights Struggles and Latino Communities • Early struggle • Elite movements seeking to “Americanize” immigrants • Labor-led efforts to demand equal protection regardless of citizenship • 1960s civil rights struggles • Demands for equal citizenship following African American victories • New generation of leaders demands more radical change • Created of national Latino civic institutions and the foundation for contemporary “Latino” politics

15. Civil Rights Struggles and Asian Americans • Youth movements of the late 1960s and 1970s • “Yellow power” • Anti-discrimination • Rediscovering history—Asian American Studies on college campuses • Balancing achievement and civil rights demands • Asian American Civil Rights struggle primarily focused on California

16. Significance of Civil Rights Organizing to Contemporary Ethnic Politics • African American Civil Rights Movement united blacks; other groups more divided • Can unity appear when the state no longer sanctions discrimination and when groups are more heterogeneous? • Does the civil rights era resonate with immigrants and descendants of immigrants who arrived after 1965? • Period of learning across groups • Will Black role in the fight for equal citizenship be recognized in the future? • Courts enforced equal citizenship • Will any federal institution assume this role?

17. Question to Consider for Next Time • What is a racial campaign appeal?