The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. Topic: Social Transformations in the United States (1945-1994) A period of post-war prosperity allowed the United States to undergo fundamental social change. Adding to this change was an emphasis on scientific inquiry, the shift from an industrial to a technological/service economy, the impact of mass media, the phenomenon of suburban and Sun Belt migrations, the increase in immigration and the expansion of civil rights. • Content Statements: 23. Following World War II, the United States experienced a struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil rights. Ohio Standards

3. 1. What are civil rights? 2. What were the key events that brought the Civil Rights Movement national attention? 3. What were the goals of the Civil Rights Movement? 4. What were the strategies of the movement? 5. In what ways did the movement succeed and fail? Essential Questions

4. Founding principle of the US Yet blacks were treated unequally and declared unequal by the law. • Unable to sleep in most hotels • Unable to eat in most restaurants • Most sit in the balcony in movie theaters and in the back of the bus • … “All Men are Created Equal”

5. Ordinary men and women challenge this “way of life” • Boycotts • Marches • Protests • Most say the Civil Rights Movement began in the 50’s and ended in the late 60’s, but it started much earlier. 1950’s

6. Early Struggles

7. Africans were brought to America as indentured servants but within a few years were forced into slavery. • By 1860 the US had about 4 million slaves. • The US had a feeling of white superiority, we had slave codes to govern the millions of slaves • Blacks could not own property, buy or sell goods, make contracts, have a gun, assemble without a white person present… 1600’s

8. 1807- 2 boat loads of slaves starved themselves to death so they would not be sold into slavery. • Amistad slave ship, 1839- mutinied • Nat Turner’s rebellion- 70 slaves killed 57 whites in Virginia. • Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad led 300 slaves to freedom. • Frederick Douglass fought his cruel master and escaped. Taught himself to read and write and became the leading spokesman. • Sojourner Truth- defied segregation laws • These early activists would inspire others 100 years later. Early Resistance

9. By 1792 they were in every state • They wrote and spoke about the Abolitionist Movement • Gave shelter to escaped slaves • Helped elect a president who would eventually free the slaves. • After the Emancipation Proclamation, 200,000 blacks left their masters and fought with the Union army. Anti-Slavery Societies

10. 13th- ended slavery • 14th- gave blacks citizenship and protected their rights • 15th- right to vote. • Reconstruction let blacks see what freedom was about, but it was short-lived. • Whites (especially in the South) wanted to keep blacks poor, uneducated and powerless. • KKK The Civil War Amendments

11. Firmly in control by 1910 • Separate restrooms, water fountains, schools… • 1896-Plessy v Ferguson- “separate but equal” Jim Crow Laws

12. “So far as the colored people of the country are concerned, the Constitution is but a stupendous sham… fair without and foul within, keeping the promise to the eye and breaking it to the heart.” Frederick Douglass

13. Black • Harvard-educated sociologist • “American society must be transformed if blacks are to achieve full equality.” • Established the NAACP in 1909 • Began documenting racial violence • Published a magazine (Crisis) W.E.B. DuBois

14. Blacks in the war and working in war-related industries yet mob violence against African-Americans was growing. • Lynchings • NAACP has a silent march against lynchings (10,000) • Klan march on Washington in 1925 (40,000) WWI era

15. Black creativity • Painters, writers, musicians, poets.. • Express dignity and defiance in their work • Showed a deep awareness of the impact of racism Harlem Renaissance

16. Jamaica • United Negro Improvement Association • Black pride building a black nation in Africa • Later convicted of fraud and deported in 1927. • Black pride and black self-sufficiency led to a new movement  black Nation of Islam (Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X) Marcus Garvey

17. Black leaders were some of FDR’s advisors • New Deal programs made available to blacks • No racial discrimination in defense industries • But when blacks returned to the US after WWII they remained victims of racism at home • Black leaders need new strategies to bring democracy to America. FDR

18. Non-violence • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decides to use non-violence in America. • Training and discussion • Blacks and whites enter segregated restaurants, quietly sit down and refuse to leave until served. • They would not raise their voices or strike back. Gandhi

19. Six Principles of Nonviolence 1. Nonviolence is not passive, but requires courage. 2. Nonviolence seeks reconciliation, not defeat of an adversary. 3. Nonviolent action is directed at eliminating evil, not destroying an evil-doer. 4. A willingness to accept suffering for the cause, if necessary, but never to inflict it. 5. A rejection of hatred, animosity or violence of the spirit, as well as refusal to commit physical violence. 6. Faith that justice will prevail.

20. Interstate busses have outlawed segregation in 1946 • CORE wants to see if the new rules are being obeyed. • Blacks and whites rode together on busses through the south and endured harassment without retaliating. • CORE sit-ins and Freedom Rides of the 40’s led to the civil rights activists of the 50’s and 60’s. More on CORE

21. Harry Truman integrates the armed forces after WWII • Civil rights Commission established Early Civil Rights Victories

22. Blacks moved north in record numbers • What 2 reasons? • 1940-1960- 5 million blacks leave the south • Still faced with poverty, unequal education and discrimination in the north but racial restrictions were less harsh. • Blacks could vote in northern states. Great Migration

23. A movement of the People

24. Linda Brown’s parents don’t want her to go to a rundown black school when there was a nice white school in their neighborhood. • Topeka, Kansas Brown vs. Board of Education

25. Blacks all over the country were angered over the conditions of the black schools. • NAACP decided it was not enough to fight for equal facilities… they want all schools INTEGRATED NAACP takes the lead

26. NAACP takes 4 cases to argue that segregation was unconstitutional. • They lose in the lower courts but win in the Supreme Court. If at first you don’t succeed…

27. “Segregated schools are inherently unequal” • “To separate black 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 very unlikely ever to be undone.” U.S. Supreme Court

28. Southerners do not believe that blacks deserve the same education as whites. • They do not want their children attending the same schools. • Southern governors state they will not abide by the ruling. Enrage in the south

29. Montgomery, Alabama • Want fair treatment on city buses. (Blacks were 75% of the bus riders) • Blacks entered the bus in the front and paid then re-entered from the rear where they would sit in the “colored seats” • If white seats were full, blacks had to give up their seats. City Busing

30. Many were arrested for refusing to give up their seats. • One man was shot dead by the police after an argument with a bus driver. • Blacks were jammed together in the isles while rows of “white” seats were empty,

31. Dept. store seamstress • Trained in non-violence and civil disobedience • Dec. 1, 1955 • Bus was full and then a white man boarded. • Driver stopped the bus and ordered Rosa and 3 others to vacate a row so the white man could sit down. • 3 of the blacks stood up, Rosa would not and was arrested. Rosa Parks

32. Boycott suggested • Women’s Political council organizes it • Worked with black students • MLK selected as the leader Bus Boycott

33. Holt Street Baptist Church http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGtp7kCi_LA

34. 381 days • Blacks would not ride the buses in Montgomery • Car pools, walked.. • Non-violent • MLK’s house was bombed Montgomery Bus Boycott

35. US Supreme Court outlaws bus segregation (Dec. 1956) • Showed the south that blacks could unite and launch a successful protest movement. • King goes on to establish the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) Victoryhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7da7I6BxrU

36. Whites fight back • Expel students • Close public schools to avoid integration • Swimming pools filled and tennis courts closed • Removed library seats Now to other public facilities

37. 1957, Governor Faubus orders troops to surround Central High School to keep 9 black teenagers from entering. He wants schools segregated!! • Federal judge ordered him to let the students in Little Rock 9

38. The next day Elizabeth Eckford tried again but was turned away by the National Guard. • Faubus again is ordered to let the students into the school. • Faubus removes the troops but will give the students no protection. • Students go to their first class but are removed after it because of the mob scene outside the school. Elizabeth Eckford

39. President Eisenhower must send in federal troops to protect the students. • They will stay for the entire school year. • The next year Faubus shuts down all public schools rather than integrate them. • A year later, the Supreme Court rules that “evasive schemes” could not be used to avoid integration. The Little Rock schools were finally opened to black and white students. Eisenhowerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iH4Zx96xbY&list=PLC388F5621BBD47DB&index=28

40. Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans. • Univ. of Miss. is a state school, it gets federal funds, so it must be open to blacks. 1962- James Meredith

41. Meredith is denied admission twice. • Filed a suit in a district court stating the only reason he was denied was his color. • Supreme Court says he is allowed to be admitted. • Miss. governor Ross Barnett, tried to block him by having the Legislature pass a law that “prohibited any person who was convicted of a state crime from admission to a state school.” • The law was directed at Meredith, who had been convicted of “false voter registration.” • After talking to RFK, Barnett lets Meredith enroll. • Riots begin. US Marshalls and National Guard sent in. Hundreds injured, 2 dead. • Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus but others accepted him. • Students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table • Meredith graduates. Majored in Political Science. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VvNkTXVCM

42. Invite confrontation but remain nonviolent

43. Greensboro, NC • Woolworth store • 4 black students purchase some school supplies and then head to the lunch counter and order coffee. • Told by the waitress, ”We don’t serve colored here.” • They kept their seats until the store closed. • The next day 19 more students joined in, sitting in shifts at the lunch counter • Spreads throughout NC Sit-in’s

44. Within a year 70,000 people had participated in sit-in’s • Integration happened quietly and easily in some states, but not in the Deep South. • Activists were spit on, kicked, had food thrown on them, burned with cigarettes… • Many of the students were arrested or expelled from school. • SNCC formed. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They were becoming impatient with the slow changes and wanted to lead themselves. Sit in’shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbbcjn4d1cE

45. Led the SNCC • “It is honorable to go to jail for the cause of equality.” • Nonviolence was effective • Protestors were hit with fists and clubs simply for trying to exercise their rights. • Seeing these images upset Americans and forced the federal gov’t into action. James Lawson

46. Blacks and whites- 1961 • They want to test a supreme court order outlawing segregation in bus terminals • Highly publicized • They pull into Alabama on a bus and are confronted with a mob of white men carrying pipes… • Bus driver drives off • The mob catches up with the bus and smashes the windows and throws in a firebomb. • As the bus was burning the riders rush out of the bus into the mob and were beaten. Freedom Rides (1)

47. Busload 2 pulls into Alabama • 8 white men board the bus and beat all the occupants. • Now on to Birmingham, and this time attacked by a mob and no policemen are there to protect them. • Several hospitalized. Freedom Rides (2)

48. Students in Nashville want to finish the Freedom Rides. • Drove to Birmingham, arrested at the bus station and driven back to the Tenn. State line (at night). • They made their way back to Birmingham and managed to get a bus to Montgomery. • When the bus got to Montgomery they were met by a mob of 1,000 whites who beat the freedom riders without police interference. • Federal government must act to protect them. • Robert Kennedy (AG) asks the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue regulations against segregated terminals. Freedom Ride (3)

49. Young protestors are exposing the injustices of segregation and forcing the federal government to defend constitutional rights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zBY6gkpbTgFreedom Rides

50. Birmingham The South’s most segregated city also known as Bombingham