Civil Right Movement Early vs Modern Civil Rights

Civil Right Movement • Early vs. Modern Civil Rights Movement • Searching for an Identity and Leadership • Leaders, Activities, and Organizations

Civil Right Movement • Plessy v Ferguson – 1896 – “ 14 th amendment does not prevent private organization from discriminating” – Legalized Jim Crow Laws – Segregated accommodations were legal provided they were equal – “separate but equal”

Civil Right Movement • Booker T. Washington – Not for social equality – Remain apart – Founder of Tuskegee Institution in 1891 – Focus – industrial education/learn a skill – Vocational jobs to improve economic situation – Problem?

Civil Right Movement • W. E. B. Du Bois – Ph. D. from Harvard – Founder of the NAACP in 1910 • Grew out of the Niagara Movement – Never except inferiority – Use courts to fight discrimination – Rejected Washington’s ideas – “The Talented Tenth”

Civil Right Movement • Marcus Garvey – Black nationalist – United Negro Improvement Association in 1914 – Stressed racial separation from white – Black only businesses etc. – Encouraged a return to Africa

Civil Right Movement • In the 1950 s – 15 million African Americans living in the United States – 2/3 living in the south – Jim Crows laws ruled their lives – Legal segregation in schools, parks, transportation, hospitals etc

Civil Right Movement • Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) – Bring about change through peaceful measures – Founded by James Farmers in 1942 James Farmer 1920 -1999

Civil Right Movement • Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas – May 17, 1954 – Supreme Court unanimously decided segregation violates the 14 th amendment Brown Family

Civil Right Movement • Chief Justice Earl Warren • 1. Education plays a vital role in training children for citizenship, employment and leisure-time activities • 2. Separating black children from others solely on the basis of race “generates a feeling of inferiority that may affect them in a way unlikely to be undone” • 3. therefore, separate educational facilities are inherently unequal – Reversed Plessy v Ferguson – Thurgood Marshall argues the case

Civil Right Movement • Emmett Till – Killed in 1955 – Brings the problem to the attention of the nation

Civil Right Movement • Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 -1956 – Rosa Parks “mother of the civil rights movement” refused to leave seat for a white man – Arrested for violating the city’s segregation law – Year long boycott of the bus company – Calls by pastors of church to lead resistance – City agreed to change the law to allow black to sit anywhere – Event produced a leader, an organization, technique • Martin Luther King Jr. • SCLC • Non- violent civil disobedience

Civil Right Movement • Integration at Little Rock 1957 – Orval Faubus, gov. of Arkansas, mobilized the National Guard to prevent nine African-Americans students from attending – Direct challenge to federal authority – Eisenhower sent in army (paratroopers) to restore order and protect the “Little Rock Nine”

Civil Right Movement • Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina – Greensboro four – Feb. 1 st Bought items at Woolworth than sat down to order coffee – Not served – Result • July desegregated lunch counters • Over 70, 000 people participated in sit-in through out the South • Press they received

Civil Right Movement • Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) – – Grew out of SCLC For students Leaders was Robert Moses was organized to advance the "sit-in" movement

Civil Right Movement • Freedom Rides – Spring of 1961 – SNCC members joined with activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a New York -based civil rights organization to encourage the Freedom Rides – Placed white and black students on interstate busses to test the new court decision to desegregate waiting rooms and dining facilities at bus stops – In deep South response was violent – Attorney General Robert Kennedy assigned federal marshals to protect riders

Civil Right Movement • Integration of “Ole Miss” – 29 yr old veteran James Meredith – Arrival touched off riots • Mostly KKK members NOT students • Gov Ross Barnett refused to allow to register • Announced state laws were superior to federal laws – Pres. Kennedy federalized Miss. National Guard – Took 400 Marshals and 3000 troops to enroll him – Meredith remained and graduated in 1963 – Cost 200 lives and 4 million in taxpayer’s $

Civil Right Movement • University of Alabama – – Vivian Malone Gov George Wallace stood in doorway National Guard was federalized Wallace walked away

Civil Right Movement • Birmingham, Alabama – Rev. Shuttlesworth asked MLK to come to city – Most segregated big city in America – Test nonviolence – It was a planned non-violent campaign – Police Commissioner “Bull” Connor decided to crush the protest – Police used fire hoses, police dogs and clubs – TV carried scene to the nation

Civil Right Movement • MLK arrested – Leaders felt MLK was pushing too hard/too fast – Response “Letters from Birmingham” – Kids march, 1000 arrested – Result • End to segregation in Birmingham • HUGE victory • Kennedy on TV asked Congress to pass a Civil Rights Bill • Nation saw racism in the South at its worst

Civil Right Movement • March on Washington (Aug 1963) – To support and pressure Kennedy – 250, 00 African Americans marched on nation’s capital – “I have a Dream”

Civil Right Movement • Civil Rights Act – Three months later Kennedy was assassinated – Bill wasn’t close to passing • Southern Congressmen had a filibuster going – Johnson addressed Congress • “…couldn’t more eloquently honor Pres. Kennedy’s memory” – Passed in June 1964

Civil Right Movement • Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Elections: • Prohibited election officials from applying different standards to blacks and whites voting – Public Accommodations: • Forbade discrimination in public places • Forbade discrimination in government owned or operated facilities – Federally Assisted Programs • Allowed the government to withhold aid from states involving discrimination – Employment • Prohibited discriminatory practices by employers, agencies, and labor union • No discriminatory hiring on basis of race, sex , religion or nationality

Civil Right Movement • 24 th Amendment – Passed in 1964 – Prohibited the use of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in a federal election

Civil Right Movement • Voting Act of 1965 – A result of Selma, Alabama incident – State troops assaulted demonstrators as they marched to the state capital – President Johnson “We shall over come” – Outlawed literacy test – Federal examiners in to register voters where irregularities existed – Signed 100 years after the Civil War ended

Civil Right Movement • Results of Civil Rights – Right to vote • South would never be the same again • Served in politics at all level – Segregation became illegal – Ended an Era • Civil Rights campaigns in the South led by peaceful moderates • Lets go North!

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil………must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. " » Martin Luther King Jr.