Presentation Transcript

1. The Search for Equal Rights

   Unit 12, Section One Notes
2. Discrimination in Texas During World War II, many African Americans fought abroad for their country, but still experienced discrimination at home. Hispanics were also treated unfairly despite their service in the war. Laws kept minorities from voting and having other equal opportunities, such as education or well-paying jobs. Often, racial tensions would lead to violence and deaths.
3. Separate but NOT Equal In 1896, there was a U.S. Supreme Court Case called Plessy v. Ferguson. This court case stated that public facilities could legally be separated by race as long as they were “separate but equal.” Because of this ruling, African Americans, and also Hispanics in some places, had to use different bathrooms, public parks, water fountains, waiting rooms, and even schools. Soldiers in the military were separated by race. It was not until 1948 that the government required the military to desegregate.
4. Poll Taxes In the early 1900’s, there were more and more immigrants coming into America because of the need for cheap labor in the agricultural industry. Also, many Mexicans were fleeing from political problems in their homeland. In order to keep these people and their children from voting, the Texas legislature passed a poll tax in 1901. Voters were required to pay $1.75 to vote. In some communities throughout Texas, groups of Mexican Americans and African Americans organized “pay your poll tax” drives to raise money for people who couldn’t afford to vote.
5. NAACP and LULAC The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (or the NAACP) was founded in New York City in 1909. The first chapter opened in Texas was in El Paso in 1915. The League of United Latin American Citizens (or LULAC) was started in 1929 in Corpus Christi. It is now one of the most well known Mexican American civil rights organizations in the nation. These groups tried to help African Americans and Hispanic Americans gain voting and other such civil rights.
6. Sweatt v. Painter In 1946, there were no law schools for African Americans in Texas. That year, a young man named HemanSweatt decided that he wanted to go to law school, so he applied to the University of Texas Law School. He was not admitted because of his race. With the help of the NAACP, he sued the university. It was then decided that the University would open up a separate school for African Americans, but Sweatt sued again, stating that the separate school was not equal to the white law school. He won and now 650 African Americans have graduated from the University of Texas Law School.
7. Lulu Bell Madison White White was a civil rights activist devoted to ending Jim Crow laws in Texas in the 1940’s and 1950’s. As the president of the Houston chapter of the NAACP, White campaigned for equal rights for voting and work, and for the desegregation of public facilities. She helped with the Sweatt v. Painter case, and later became the chairperson of the state chapter of the NAACP.
8. Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1948) LULAC and other civil rights groups then took on the issue of segregated public schools for Mexican Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that the segregation of Mexican Americans in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution with the court case of Delgado v. Bastrop ISD. They found that many of the Hispanic schools were inadequate, and though they were separate, they were not equal to schools for white children.
9. Desegregating Public Schools For years, schools in Texas were using the “separate but equal” principle to keep schools segregated. But after HemanSweatt won his case, it led the way for Brown v. Board of Education, a lawsuit that challenged the segregation of public schools. The ruling of this case stated that “separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.” This decision angered many Texans. The governor at the time, Allan Shivers, even sent the Texas Rangers to stop the court order from going into effect in a Fort Worth school. The Texas legislature then passed a law that kept Texas schools segregated until the 1960’s.
10. The American GI Forum As veterans returned home from World War II, many looked forward to the education, housing, and medical benefits they would receive for fighting for their country. Once home, many of these benefits were being denied to minorities who fought in the war. After realizing many organizations that could help these war veterans did not allow Hispanic membership, Dr. Hector P. Garcia, a World War II veteran, and others like him decided to organize their own group called the American G.I. Forum. With Dr. Garcia at the helm, the American G.I. Forum began addressing problems of discrimination and inequities endured by Mexican-American veterans. As time went on, the G.I. Forum became an advocate for all Hispanics in all areas that discrimination occurred.
11. Dr. Hector P. Garcia A teacher once told Dr. Garcia that, “no Mexican will ever make an A in my class.” This made him want to fight for equal rights for all Americans. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in World War II. He helped to organize the GI Forum, and fought for equal voting and civil rights.
12. Private Felix Longoria
13. Nonviolent Protest In addition to using the court system, African Americans held demonstrations and marches demanding the recognition of their civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. called for nonviolent resistance, hoping that peaceful demonstrations would call attention to the problem of racial discrimination. Protesters staged boycotts and sit-ins. A number of Texas students held sit-ins at lunch counters and other dining facilities until the employees would serve them.
14. President Johnson and Civil Rights In his first address to Congress, President Johnson urged them to pass a civil rights law, wanting them to make sure that all American’s rights were protected. Congress soon passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned segregation in public places. It also barred employers, unions, and universities with federal contracts from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, religion, or national origin.
15. Voting Rights Act of 1965 On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. It reinforced the 15th Amendment and declared that a citizen of the United States could not be denied the right to vote. States could not use poll taxes, literacy tests, or any other type of restriction to keep people from voting.
16. This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny. In 1957, as the leader of the majority in the United States Senate, speaking in support of legislation to guarantee the right of all men to vote, I said, "This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.“ Last year I said, "Until every qualified person regardless of . . . the color of his skin has the right, unquestioned and unrestrained, to go in and cast his ballot in every precinct in this great land of ours, I am not going to be satisfied.“ Immediately after the election I directed the Attorney General to explore, as rapidly as possible, the ways to ensure the right to vote. And then last March, with the outrage of Selma still fresh, I came down to this Capitol one evening and asked the Congress and the people for swift and for sweeping action to guarantee to every man and woman the right to vote. In less than 48 hours I sent the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the Congress. In little more than 4 months the Congress, with overwhelming majorities, enacted one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom…
17. Hernandez v. The State of Texas In 1950, a migrant worker named Pete Hernandez was accused of murdering Joe Espinosa in Edna, Texas. Even though 14% of the county was Mexican American, no person of Mexican descent had served on a jury in that county for the last 25 years. He was found guilty, but he appealed because of racial discrimination. With the help of the GI Forum and LULAC, Hernandez and his attorneys argued that he was unfairly convicted by the all white jury. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction saying that he had to be tried by a jury of his peers. It ended the elimination of Mexican Americans from the Texas jury system.
18. The Chicano Movement Many Hispanics were worried about the common economic situation for their people. Poverty was a persistent problem, especially among farm laborers. Dr. Hector Garcia was also worried about the poorer areas of Texas where Hispanics often didn’t receive medical attention. In June of 1966, farm laborers went on strike to demand minimum wage. This growing demand for political and social change became known as the Chicano Movement, which took its inspiration from Cesar Chavez. This movement also pushed for more voting and civil rights for Hispanics.
19. Barbara Jordan Barbara Jordan grew up in Houston, Texas. She excelled in school and graduated magna cum laude from Texas Southern University and Boston Law School. She was elected to the Texas State Senate. She was the first woman and the first African American since 1883. Her friendship with President Lyndon B. Johnson led her to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first black woman from a southern state to serve in Congress. She was also the first woman in history to give a keynote speech at the Democratic convention.
20. James Farmer, Jr. Growing up in Marshall, Texas, James Farmer, Jr. was supported by two highly educated and religious parents. His father was a minister and the first African- American in Texas to earn a Ph.D. Like his parents, Farmer excelled in school, graduating from Wiley College at the age of 18 and then earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Howard University in Washington D.C. After college, he decided to devote his life to changing the world by nonviolent means. While working for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in 1942, Farmer and others decided to create an interracial organization devoted to using nonviolent strategies to end segregation and discrimination against African Americans and others. They named it CORE, the Congress for Racial Equality.
21. Freedom Riders As the Civil Rights Movement grew in strength, CORE began their nonviolent campaign by organizing sit-ins to force restaurants to serve African-Americans at their lunch counters. In 1961, they organized a campaign called the Freedom Bus Rides. White and black CORE members wanted to bring to attention the unfairness of making African- Americans sit in the back of public transportation and only being allowed in the “Colored Only” area of the bus station.
22. Freedom Riders The Freedom Bus Rides would begin in Washington, D.C. and continue through the South. At every stop the white CORE members went into the “Colored Only” only areas of the bus station and the black members went into the “White Only” areas. As the Freedom Bus Riders got deeper into the South, violence occurred. CORE volunteers were beaten. They were all arrested and taken to jail for “a breach of peace.” James Farmer and other Freedom Riders stayed in jail for forty days but they stayed committed to changing this injustice through nonviolent means.
23. Freedom Riders The impact of the Freedom Riders led others in the United States to become involved in ending segregation in the South. Finally, on November 1, 1961, the federal government banned segregation at all interstate public facilities based on “race, color or creed.”
24. Henry B. Gonzales Known as don de la Gente, man of the people, Henry B. Gonzalez was the first Mexican-American elected to the Texas Senate, to run for governor of Texas, and elected from Texas to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to the State Senate where he held the longest filibuster (36 hours) in the history of the Texas Legislature. The filibuster succeeded in stopping state bills that would bypass the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Brown v. Board of Education case which outlawed racial segregation of public schools. Throughout his long political career, he encouraged Mexican Americans to become more active in politics.