XXII. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1. XXII. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT A. Truman's Civil Rights program 1. In 1948 Truman needed Black vote for close election a. 1946 National Emergency Committee Against Mob Violence i. gave report on lynching & beatings in south b. Truman appoints Committee on Civil Rights to investigate c. 1948 Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in baseball i. Brooklyn Dodger, would not fight even though goaded ii. proved he could play in same league as whites iii. Nate 'Sweetwater' Clifton,1st Black NBA player 1950 a. N.Y Knickerbockers d. Oct 1948 Committee returns with findings i. Blacks are treated as second class citizens ii. inadequate housing, education & medical care

2. iii. recommended government establish civil a rights agenda e. Truman sent 10 point program to congress & desegregated army B. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 1. started in 1909, wanted to overturn segregation a. legalized in Plessey v. Ferguson 1896 2. most practical way was to go after education a. graduate schools easiest target, effected fewest people 3. Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada 1938 a. Missouri has only one law school, claims it's for whites b. willing to pay tuition in another state's law school c. Court ruled no segregation without a Black law school 4. Sweat v. Painter 1950 a. Texas law school lacked faculty, library prestige b. connections & associations necessary for law career lacking

3. 5. Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka Kansas 1954 & 1955 a. court ruled separate but equal was inherently unequal i. system generated feelings of inferiority b. Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled it violated due process, 14th am. c. 1955 ruled lower courts implement segregation C. President Eisenhower takes action 1. realizes importance of decision a. desegregates Washington D.C. schools as model for nation b. also desegregates navy yards & veteran's hospitals 2. AR Governor Orval Faubus resists courts & desegregation a. believed integration would lead to violence b. Governor send national guard to turn away Black students c. Federal court orders troops to leave d. teachers & students made it impossible for Blacks, Little Rock 9

4. e. President ordered paratroopers & nationalized national guard f. integration continues nation wide D. The Grass Roots Movement 1. Dec. 1955 Montgomery Alabama buss strike a. Rosa Parks 42, seamstress & secretary for NAACP i. refuses to move to the back of the buss ii. arrested for violating segregation laws b. local NAACP met a Baptist church to discuss action i. Martin Luther King Jr. emerged leader of movement a. forms Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC b. studied Mahatma Gandhi & nonviolence in India c. hoped to do the same in U.S. for equal rights ii. urged African-Americans to boycott busses a. over 50,000 boycott for almost 1 year

5. b. city lost 65% of buss revenues & merchants lost business c. Supreme court ruled interstate bus segregation illegal i. bus boycott ended with city desegregating busses 2. Lunch counter protest at Woolworth's drug stores a. 1960 SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) b. sit at segregated lunch counter in Woolworth's i. police arrest protesters (Greensboro, NC) ii. media televises and thousands join the movement 3. Freedom Riders 1961 a. SNCC & CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) organize rides b. Supreme Court rules segregation on interstate busses illegal c. students board busses in north & ride into south d. faced mobs of whites yelling & throwing stones i. in one case they rolled & burnt a buss

6. e. police arrest riders, inciting a riot or disturbing the peace 4. 1963 SCLC organizes the Children's Crusade a. fills streets of Birmingham with protesters of all ages b. Police fill jails, claim they are parading without license i. Chief Eugene "Bull" Connor knew plans to fill jails a. sent prisoners out of city but overcrowded jails c. Connor calls out 7 police dogs uses cattle prods d. also orders fire department to turn hoses on protestors e. Media shows excesses & middle class start support 5. J.F. Kennedy did little to help in struggle for civil rights a. 1960 election promised to help Blacks b. worried about angering southern whites needs c. 11/1962 ex. order ends discrimination federally financed housing 6. Robert Kennedy does much more for Civil Rights struggle

7. a. Once Supreme court rules on bussing he helps desegregate b. tries to change voting registration in south i. allows more Blacks to vote any time since Reconstruction ii. not all the work on voting rights done by administration c. Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas Dem. i. believed time for Black civil rights ii. helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 a. established Civil Rights Commission b. Justice Dept. prosecutes those who deny Blacks vote iii. Civil Rights Act of 1960 fills loop holes a. stiffer penalties for denying voting rights 7. 1962 James Meredith & University of Mississippi a. refused admission & takes case to Supreme Court b. Court rules in favor of Meredith

8. c. Governor Ross Barnett refuses to let him enter d. Kennedy sends in federal troops to protect Meredith e. under pressure Kennedy forced others to desegregate i. Univ. of Alabama ii. desegregated municipal facilities in Birmingham 8. Violence against protestors escalates a. Southern terrorists start bombing Black churches & homes b. even assassinated some activists (Medgar Evers) 9. March on D.C. a. Kennedy wanted Civil Rights bill but congress divided b. 63% of nation supports bill c. Civil rights leaders call for march to lobby congress d. high point of movement, celebrities & speeches a festival i. King delivers "I have a dream" speech

9. e. Southern congressmen held bill in committee until Kennedy dies f. with death of Kennedy Johnson breaks filibuster & gets act 10. King receives recognition for nonviolence wins Nobel Peace Prize 11. Malcolm X as an alternative to King and nonviolence a. troubled youth involved with drugs and crime b. converts to Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad i. preaches black nationalism & blames whites ii. calls for separation of the races c. unhappy with nonviolence urges to fight racism by any means d. 1963 broke from Elijah Muhammad & went on pilgrimage to Mecca e. 1963 started Organization for Afro-American Unity i. advocated a socialist revolution f. 2/27/1965 while at meeting shot by 3 assassins (Nation of Islam) g. showed whites an alternative if they don't deal with king

10. 12. 1964 Summer of Freedom a. SNCC organized college students to register voters in south b. three students two whites, one black murdered i. after months no prosecutions ii. No Federal law against murder a. charged men with denying the registrars their civil rights c. summer extremely violent i. 80 workers beaten, 1,000 arrested & 37 churches bombed ii. King proposed march to dramatize issues a. from Selma to Montgomery, heart of southern bigotry d. Johnson responded, urged passage of Voting Rights Act of 1965 e. law authorized examiners in areas of past discrimination 13. Stokey Carmichael leader of SNCC influence by violence & X

11. a. tired of senseless deaths urges workers to carry weapons b. claims whites have no place in SNCC wants only Blacks c. demands change & leads cheers for Black power 14. Other militant Black groups start all over country a. Black Panthers in Oakland led by Huey Newton b. called for end of capitalism c. argued, "power comes through the barrel of a gun" 15. Riot of 1965, Los Angeles a. Black activism encourages violent responses b. Watts riots last 5 days i. 34 die, 1,000 injured & hundreds of buildings burnt 16. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated April 4, 1968 a. King continued to work for civil rights b. joined his movement to the anti-war movement

12. i. was organizing another march on Washington to end war c. flew to Memphis to help striking sanitation workers d. shot from roof in his hotel balcony by James Earl Ray 17. End of de facto Segregation in Schooling a. Nixon rejected Civil Rights movement & fought against it i. won white conservative & moderate vote in 1968 b. Supreme Court took action regardless i. most neighborhoods segregated not all legal segregation ii. schools reflect the neighborhoods c. Supreme Court orders districts to start bussing children i. buss children in any school that is over 50% Black ii. parents on both sides upset, rich upset pay high taxes iii. no one wants children bussed over an hour away iv. issue declines by 1976 with more conservative court

13. E. Mexican Americans slower to react to their situation 1. Mendez v. Westminster 2/18/1846 2. Braceros program 1948-1964 a. loss of labor from WWII i. business & farmers recruit in Mexico ii. brought 4.5 million Mexicans into country b. Braceros signed contract provide unskilled labor & return home 3. Operation wetback a. small recession of 1953-1954 government deported 1.1 mil. 4. Mexican Americans had unsure status a. depending on local authorities, ignored or abused b. in Texas treated as Blacks and subject to Jim Crow c. some cases brutalized by police 5. Opposition to discrimination divided a. late 1940 several Mexican American groups started

14. b. some felt their condition helpless others believed in the system 6. By 1960s Mexicans are aware of advances being made by Blacks 7. 1960 César Chavez & Dolores Huerta organize migrant farmers a. since 1900s unions have tried to organize migrant workers b. Chavez started door to door & field to field campaign c. by 1965 had 1,700 members & attracted volunteer support 8. Grape boycott and United Farm Workers (UFW) a. UFW launches campaign for decent living age b. targeted grape growers of California for action i. grapes take years to reach production ii. they require manicuring several times a year c. boycott crippled wine industry & several signed with UFW d. 1966 the DiGiorgio Corp. held a rigged election i. Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. investigated UFW won 2nd election

15. 9. Chavez continued struggle led boycott of lettuce in Salinas valley a. growers finally gave in 10. Just before Chavez's death in 1993 led a hunger strike a. interested in conditions in the fields b. trying to stop spraying pesticides i. trying to convince consumers of danger c. concerned about deaths, cancers & diseases and heat stroke d. Arturo Rodriguez (son-in-law) new president of UFW 11. Student Activism a. 1967 Mexican American Student Org. later(youth org.) spreads i. UCLA, CSLA, Loyola, USC, CSLB, ELAC, & CSUN & Austin ii. spread north-Fresno, Hayward, Sac, Colorado & Berkeley iii. teachers, classes, & Latin Am. studies programs b. 3/3/68 "Blow Out" Abraham Lincoln HS in East L.A.

16. i. 1,000 students walked out & Sal Castro (teacher) ii. 1 ½ weeks effected over 10,000 students in LA c. 13 Chicanos indicted by Grand Jury for conspiracy & acquitted i. Identified leaders as communists, a. Sal Castro, teacher b. Eliezer Risco, editor of "La Raza" c. Patricio Sanchez member of MAPA d.10 others were students 12. Moratorium Riot in LA Aug. 29, 1970 a. 20,000 attend march to end Vietnam war rest in Laguna Park b. liquor store hold up and police break up crowd c. three dead including Ruben Salazar a reporter from Times d. organized several new groups to bring reform & accountability F. Native Americans gained some identity & activism in 1950s

17. 1. 1953 eliminates reservations as legitimate political entities a. hoped to force assimilation b. offered small subsidies to families to leave reservation c. took away federal protection & denied treaty rights 2. National Congress of American Indians formed to oppose policy 3. Kinzua Dam project started in 1928 a. would flood 10,000 acres guarantee to Seneca in 1794 b. public hearings did not invite Indian response c. Indian groups approached Kennedy in 1961 d. Kennedy refused to acknowledge Indian claim i. continued pattern of stealing land for better good e. government paid $15 million but did not cover losses 4. 1968 American Indian Movement (AIM) a. started by Dennis Banks and George Mitchell

18. b. Nov. 1968 AIM captured Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay i. Federal government closed old prison ii. 1963 declared the rock surplus property iii. Fort Laramie Treaty 1868 a. permitted male Indians to homestead iv. Indians claim land & want a cultural center v. 1971 federal officials removed them vi. government gives some tribes money & land for education c. 1972 militant group starts Broken Treaties Caravan to D.C. i. several people take over the Bureau of Indian Affairs ii. hold out in office for six days d. 1973 AIM takes over the village of Wounded Knee, SD i. dramatize unemployment & drop out rate, alcoholism & poverty ii. bring attention to 371 broken treaties

19. iii. 2 FBI agents are killed under mysterious circumstances iv. tribal council is conservative and wants AIM out v. small civil war between factions (Lenard Peltier) vi. AIM leaves but government agrees to reexamine treaty rights 5. Casinos and other treaty rights a. 1970 Bryan v Itasca County, Mn property tax on Chippewa couple b. 1988 National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act i. BIA has oversight of gaming ii. Pechanga Casino one of largest with 3,400 slots (Luiseño)