JFK, LBJ & THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1. JFK, LBJ & THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

2. DOMESTIC POLICY: KENNEDY’S NEW FRONTIER (1961-1963) • Emphasis on Technology & Science • Increased Minimum Wage • Expanded Social Security • Furthered Slum Clearance and Public Housing • Space Exploration

3. Peace Corps: Program to Assist Underdeveloped Areas : Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Latin America, & Mideast • Alliance for Progress: Program to Improve Living Conditions in Latin America • Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963): U.S. & Great Britain Agree to Ban Above Ground Nuclear Tests

4. FOREIGN POLICY • Bay of Pigs (1961) • Erection of Berlin Wall (1961) • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

5. THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY (NOVEMBER 1963) • Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald • Conspiracy? • Johnson Becomes President

6. JOHNSON’S GREAT SOCIETY (1963-1969): • “WAR ON POVERTY” • Economic Opportunity Act (1964): Job Creation • Medicare (health care for elderly) & Medicaid (health care for poor) • Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)--increased Funding for Public Schools • Ended immigration quotas from certain countries 1965

7. DESEGREGATION STRUGGLES • 1947: Jackie Robinson integrated pro baseball • But Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision of “separate but equal” still law of land • In 1952, NAACP brought case to Supreme Court to challenge Plessy

8. May 1954: Brown v. Board of Education vs. Topeka, Kansas decision • Argued by Thurgood Marshall (NAACP) • Argued segregation was psychologically damaging to black children by lowering their self-esteem • May 1954 t unanimously overruled Plessy • Held: separate educational facilities are inherently unequal (by their nature) • create feelings of inferiority

9. De facto segregation= segregation by custom or tradition • De jure segregation = segregation required by law

10. Brown ruling was followed up by Sup Ct in 1955 (Brown II): • Federal courts were told to implement desegregation “with all deliberate speed”

11. Many So. states opposed Brown decision • 1956: 100 Southern members of Congress signed the “Southern Manifesto” supporting states who resisted forced integration (not LBJ)

12. Rosa Parks & Montgomery bus boycott • Dec 1955: Parks arrested on public bus b/c refused to give up seat to whites • Blacks of Montgomery protested her arrest & started bus, led by 26 y.o. Baptist minister new to town = Martin Luther King, Jr. • Intimidation & violence against boycotters, loss of jobs & hardship • By end of 1956, Montgomery desegregated its bus system

13. 1957—MLK started Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) • Philosophy of nonviolent resistance; modeled on Mohandas Gandhi • Never use violence even if attacked

14. 1957: “Little Rock Nine” • 1957: Little Rock Ark announced its desegregation plan accg to Sup Ct’s directions • Set to begin Sept 1957 w/ 9 students at Central High School • Governor Faubus ordered Ark state’s Natl Guard to surround school • (supposedly to “protect” protesters)

15. Pres Eisenhower sent in Natl Guard & ordered them to protect “Little Rock 9” • **1st time since Reconstruction in 1870s that federal troops in South!

16. DDE timid re speaking out against Jim Crow • But couldn’t allow state to disobey federal govt • Next year, all whites left LR public schools; eventually integrated in 1959

17. Little Rock showed: • (1) Fed govt could be pushed to use its powers; encouraged blacks to fight for their rights • (2) Vital role of TV in helping civil rights cause to sway white public opinion outside South

18. Sit-ins • Feb 1960—4 blk college students sat at whites only section of Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greenboro, NC, • Other sit-ins spontaneously started in South • Had success by end of 1960 in getting restaurants integrated

19. April 1960—students started Student Non-Violent Coordinating Cmte (SNCC) • Often arrested; MLK called it “badge of honor” • “Jail not bail”  to call attention to injustice • Idea of civil disobedience • American tradition dating from Henry David Thoreau who refused to pay tax to protest Mexican War

20. Freedom Riders • May 1961—started by another group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) • Wanted to test whether Sup Ct decision requiring integration of interstate buses was being followed • Started in DC, down to South

21. In Birmingham, ALA, riders were attacked; buses set on fire • Riders arrested by Sheriff Bull Connor • Atty General Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) sent federal marshals to protect them • More than 300 Freedom Riders became involved over Summer 1961 • Angry responses: KKK bombed 4 AA churches in 1961-2

22. Sept 1962—another confrontation when James Meredith tried to attend Univ of Miss • Federal marshals sent in; riot broke out; 2 people died. • JM attended under protection of armed guards

23. Apr 1963—lots of activity in Birmingham • Very segregated & racist city; 100s jailed including MLK • Connor set high pressure hoses, electric cattle prods, dogs & clubs on demonstrators incl kids

24. Results: • --Helped increase public support for civil rights b/c saw on TV; affected nation’s conscience • --Birmingham agreed biz would desegregate & hire blacks

25. Aug 1963: March on Washington • > 250,000 people came to pressure Congress to pass civil rights bill • Famous “I Have A Dream” speech by MLK

26. After JFK assassinated, new Prez LBJ worked to get civil rights law passed • Southern Senators tried to prevent vote w/ filibuster (unlimited debate until 2/3 of Senate stops them)

27. July 1964: LBJ signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Outlawed segregation by restaurants, hotels, any public facilities • Also made discrimination in hiring illegal & enabled US Justice Deptto sue to force desegregation

28. VOTING RIGHTS • June 1964: effort to register black voters in South “FREEDOM SUMMER” • Focused on Mississippi • Only 5% blacks registered despite being 45% of population

29. Famous case: bodies of Chaney, Schwermer & Goodman found lynched

30. LBJ & civil rtsactivists used outrage over their deaths to bring about passage of civil rtslaws • Later determined KKK responsible • In 2005, 80 yr old Klan member finally convicted

31. “Bloody Sunday”: March from Selma to Montgomery • Early 1965: also tried to register voters in Selma, ALA w/ MLK joining them • Started protest march over 50 mile Selma-Montgomery span • Met by violent resistance

32. SUCCESSES! • Voting Rights Act 1965 ended literacy tests • Feds came to South to register voters under federal control • 24th Amendment to Constitution banning poll tax ratified 1964 • By 1968, > half all eligible blacks were registered in South.

33. More militant approach • Many black activists impatient w/ MLK’s non-violent resistance • Thought violence in self-defense OK • Some also favored separating from white society to gain econ & polit power = black separatism

34. Malcolm X • Built on ideas of Marcus Garvey from 1920s • Focused on “black pride” in common African heritage & roots = “Black nationalism” • Became Black Muslim while in prison & changed name

35. Later changed his mind about racial separatism (although not violence if provoked) after pilgrimage to mecca • Assasinated Feb 1965 b/c internal struggles w/in Nation of Islam movement

36. Black Power movement • Stokely Carmichael chairman of SNCC • Leader of “Black Power” movement; more militant • Threw whites out of leadership positions at SNCC

37. Black pride reflected in adoption of African culture in • Hairstyles (Afros) • Clothes (dashikis) • Terminology (“black” not “colored”)

38. RIOTING • By mid 1960s, riots breaking out in ghetto areas (Harlem, Watts in LA, Chicago, Newark, Detroit) • 1966—Black Panther party formed; tried to protect against police harassment • Pro- violence in self-defense & to retaliate • Kerner Report 1968 found: • rioting was due to discrimination & prejudice • must improve job opportunities, education & housing

39. April 1968—MLK assassinated