Chapter 21 African American Civil Rights Section 1: Taking on Segregation

1. Chapter 21African American Civil RightsSection 1:Taking on Segregation

2. The Segregation System • Civil Rights Act of 1875 • Outlawed segregation • Supreme Court overturned it in 1883 • Plessy v. Ferguson • “separate but equal” did not violate the 14th amendment (equal treatment) • Allowed Southern states to pass Jim Crow laws (separating the races) • Allowed restrictions on inter-race contact

3. Civil Rights Movement • WW2 set the stage for the civil rights movement • Opened new job opportunities • One million African Americans served • Came home and fought to end discrimination • During the war, civil rights organizations fought for voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws

4. Challenging Segregation in Court • Campaign led by the NAACP • Focused on inequality between separate schools that states provided • Thurgood Marshall argued many of these cases • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka • Marshall’s most stunning victory • Supreme Court struck down segregation in public schools as a violation of 14th amendment • To be implemented “with all deliberate speed”

5. Reaction to Brown • Official reaction was mixed • Within a year, 500 school districts had desegregated • Some areas resisted • Reappearance of KKK • Governor of Georgia – “Georgia will not comply”!

6. Crisis in Little Rock • State had been planning for desegregation • Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine” • The 9 African American students who would integrate Little Rock Central High • A Federal judge ordered Faubus to let the students attend the school • Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control to watch the 9 attend school • A year later, Faubus shut down the high school

7. Montgomery Bus Boycott • African Americans were impatient with the slow speed of change • Took direct action • 1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested • JoAnn Robinson suggested a boycott of the buses • Leaders of the African American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) • Elected 26 yr old Martin Luther King to lead

8. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Dr. King made a passionate speech and filled the audience with a sense of mission • African Americans boycotted the buses for 381 days and filed a lawsuit • Organized car pools • Walked long distances • 1956 – Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

9. Martin Luther King, Jr. • MLK called his nonviolent resistance “soul force” • Influences • Jesus – love one’s enemies • Henry David Thoreau – concept of civil disobedience (refusal to obey an unjust law) • A. Philip Randolph – massive demonstrations • Gandhi – non violent resistance

10. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) • SCLC founded in 1957 by MLK and other civil rights leaders • Purpose – carry on nonviolent crusades against discrimination • Used protests and demonstrations • Helped organize a student protest group (SNCC) – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee • Challenge the system!

11. Movement Spreads • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) staged the first sit-in in 1942 • African Americans would sit at segregated lunch counters and refuse to leave until they were served • 1960 – students in North Carolina staged a sit-in at a lunch counter • Television crews covered the protest • African Americans were non-violent, but white resistance was not • Movement spread across nation (sit-ins in 48 cities)

12. Freedom riders • Freedom riders expose Southern resistance to federal desegregation rulings. • They rode buses throughout the south hoping to provoke white racists and force Kennedy and the administration to act • The Freedom Riders were attacked and the bus line refused to take them any further after one bus was fire bombed • CORE Freedom Riders stopped, but SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) resumed…

13. Freedom riders (Continued) • When the SNCC riders went to Birmingham the Police Chief “Bull” Connor had them beaten and taken to Tennessee. • But they returned and sat in a white only bus terminal until they could get a ride to Montgomery • Attorney General, Robert Kennedy finally forced the bus company to take them on May 20, 1961 after waiting for 18 hours • In addition, a federal order banning segregation in all interstate travel facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters was handed down

14. James Meredith • Federal troops are needed to get James Meredith into the all-white University of Mississippi • Meredith won a court case that allowed him to enroll • The governor, Ross Barnett refused to let him register as a student • JFK ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to the registrar’s office

15. Reaction in mississippi • Barnet appealed over the radio to Mississippians to “never surrender” • Riots broke out on September 30, 1962 • 2 deaths resulted • it took 5,000 soldiers, 200 arrests, and 15 hours to stop the rioters • Meredith was escorted to class following the incident and nightriders shooting at his parents house forced federal protection

16. Problems in birmingham • Television coverage of the brutal treatment of marchersin Birmingham leads President Kennedy to call for passage of a new civil rights bill • Birmingham was strict on its total segregation policy and had 18 bombings between 1957 and 1963 • MLK Jr. and SCLC invited to Birmingham to desegregate city by Fred Shuttlesworth, head of Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights • MLK Jr. arrested and write a “letter from Birmingham jail” • Economic boycott and negative press convinced Birmingham officials to end segregation

17. “I have a Dream…” • August 28, 1963 250,000 people (75,000 whites) march on Washington and hear MLK Jr. deliver his improvised “I have a Dream” speech • The violence continued with more bombings of churches. • President Johnson pushes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress

18. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • This act prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender. • It also gave citizens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations.

19. Freedom summer • Violence and intimidation prevent millions of African Americans in the South from registering to vote • Two groups, the SNCC and CORE began going through the south to register as many people as possible. • This became known as the “Freedom Summer” • The group consisted of primarily student volunteers, mostly white. • In June of 1964, three workers disappeared in Mississippi. • It was later found out that local police and KKK members had killed them. • Through the summer, the beatings continued, along with the burning of businesses, homes, and churches

20. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) • African Americans wanted a voice to try and make the political changes occur. • In 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed. • They were led by Fannie Lou Hamer • The MFDP were given 2 seats in the Mississippi Democratic Convention. • Hamer’s response “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats.”

21. In the beginning of 1965, the SNCC began a major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama. • After demonstrator Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed, a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama was announced. • This was lead by Martin Luther King Jr. • 600 protestors set out on March 7, 1965. • That night, police swung whips, clubs, and used tear gas to stop the march. • On March 21, 1965, 3,000 marchers set out again for Montgomery with federal protection. • Soon the number grew to 25,000 The Selma Campaign

22. In the summer of 1965, the Voting Rights Act was finally passed. • It prohibited any literacy tests that had previously stopped many voters. • In Selma, 10% of African Americans were registered to vote in 1964. • By 1968, 60% of the population was registered. • Some felt the law did not go far enough The Voting Rights Act of 1965

23. In the mid 1960s differences over tactics create divisions in the civil rights movement. • In the north, de facto segregation traps many African Americans in decaying slums. • De facto segregation exists by practice and customs • De jure segregation is created by laws. • Urban riots revealed that many African Americans suffer economic and political inequality. • 1964 – Riots broke out in Harlem over the death of a 15 year old student. • 1965 – One of the worst riots in the nation’s history took place in the Watts area of Los Angeles. • The rage baffled whites since they had accomplished so much in the south. African-americans Seek Greater Equality

24. Malcom X appeals to a growing sense of African American pride. • He encouraged African-Americans to take control of their communities, livelihoods, and culture. • His later efforts to temper African American separatism alienate many Black Muslims, three of whom assassinate him. • Stokley Carmichael and the Black Panthers signal the growing radicalism of some segments of the African American community. • The Black Panthers were started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, • Even though militant, the efforts of the Black Panthers to improve neighborhoods won support from many in the ghettos. New Leaders Voice Discontent

25. 1968 – A Turning Point in Civil Rights • Martin Luther King attempts to organize a Poor People’s Campaign to counter the angry rhetoric of Black Power. • King is assassinated in Memphis, where he was helping African-American trash collectors fight for fair treatment from the city. • King’s death sets off the worst wave of race riots in the nation’s history.

26. Legacy of the civil Rights MOvement • The civil rights movement wipes out de jure segregation from the laws of America. • De facto segregation and unequal economic opportunities remain entrenched. • The lingering affects of racism, as reported by the Kerner Commission, remain one of the greatest challenges facing the nation in the years ahead.