Civil Rights Movement A Gains During Trumans Administration

Civil Rights Movement

A. Gains During Truman’s Administration

Morgan v. Virginia (1946) • Supreme Court decision • Made state laws requiring segregation on busses illegal for interstate travel

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) • Founded in 1942 • Sponsored “Freedom Rides” on busses through the South in 1947 • Testing the enforcement of Morgan • Realized courts willing to help, but there is no enforcement

Desegregating the Armed Forces • Executive Order 9981 signed July 1948

The Dixiecrats • States’ Right Democratic Party – Formed in 1948 as an offshoot of the Democratic Party • Opposed to Truman’s Civil Rights policies • Wanted to uphold segregation and Jim Crow • Started split of the South from the Democratic Party

B. Brown v. Board of Education

The Case • 1951, NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall begins to fight segregation in schools • Linda Brown wanted to attend an all white school • Marshall argued that their 14 th amendment rights were violated • “Equal protection” = equal educational opportunities

The Decision (1954) • Unanimous decision led by Earl Warren • Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson • "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. It has no place in public education. ” • Brown II (1955) – schools must be integrated “with all deliberate speed”

The Response • 80% of Southerners were against Brown decision • Southern Manifesto – 101 Congressmen signed that the decision was a contradiction to the Constitution

Crisis in Little Rock, AK • 9 African-American student enroll at Central High in 1957 • Gov. Faubus orders the National Guard to keep them out

Elizabeth Eckford tries to integrate Central High

• Finally Eisenhower sends 1, 000 troops to Little Rock to protect the students and integrate Central High • The next year all Little Rock schools closed

C. The Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955 -56) • Dec. 1, 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat

• 80% of Montgomery’s bus riders were African-American • Called for an immediate boycott of the bus system

• Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the leader of the movement • Outlined a Civil Disobedience campaign • Boycott lasted 381 days • It took a Supreme Court decision to integrate the busses of Montgomery

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) • Founded in 1957 by MLK • Civil Rights organization led by ministers • Proposed a non-violent campaign to fight for Civil Rights • Realized that government was not going to help

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) • Offshoot of SCLC that led civil disobedience campaigns for students • Founded in 1960

Sit-Ins • Effective new strategy for integration • SNCC targeted lunch counters across the South

• Feb. 1, 1960 1 st sit-in began in Greensboro, NC at Woolworth’s • Led to 70, 000 students for 18 months participating in sit-ins and boycotts

D. Kennedy and Civil Rights

Freedom Rides • May 1961 CORE retests bus interstate travel • Goal was to be arrested to make federal government enforce the law

• Met with severe resistance once they entered Alabama • Many were beaten while the police watched • Then they were arrested

• Kennedy forced to act • Sends federal marshals to protect the riders, but does not stop them from being arrested or force integration • Trying not to anger the Southern Democrats • Robert Kennedy (the AG) petitions the ICC to issue an order for integration in November 1961

Showdown in Birmingham, AL (1963) • Most racially divided city in the South • 1963 Birmingham closed parks, playgrounds, pools, and golf courses to avoid desegregation • MLK decided to begin a campaign there to bring segregation to the national attention

• April 1963, MLK & SCLC begin to march, sit-ins, and boycott stores in the city • 50 were arrested on Good Friday • MLK wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was ‘welltimed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never. " We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that justice too long delayed is justice denied. " -- Martin Luther King,

• SCLC began using children in a “Children’s Crusade” • Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor attacked the children

• Images shown on national television • Public is outraged • Non-violence ends – riots begin in Birmingham • Justice Dept intervenes and negotiations begin

• Several bombings • 3, 000 federal troops sent to end violence • Two sides agree to end campaign and begin integration of business/stores

JFK Announces a Civil Rights Bill • June 11 – JFK announces that he will send a Civil Rights Bill to Congress

March on Washington (1963) • August 28 – 250, 000 protestors • Meet to show support for JFK’s Civil Rights bill • MLK gives his “I Have a Dream” speech

E. Triumphs for Civil Rights

24 th Amendment • Ratified Jan 1964 • Abolished poll tax in national elections

Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Provisions: – Forbid segregation in any public facilities, government, education, and invalidated Jim Crow laws – Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law – Government could deny money to states who were not following the law • Result: Most businesses desegregated

Mississippi: Freedom Summer Project • June of 1964, SNCC wants to register black voters • Less than 5% of the African-American community was registered • Over 900 volunteers (mainly white college students) went to the South to try to register voters

• Violence – – – 6 brutally murdered 80 beatings 35 shootings 30 bombings Over 1, 000 arrests • Registered over 60, 000 African. Americans

March from Selma to Montgomery • Poor black voter turnout in 1964 election • SCLC tried to register voters

• March 7, 1965: protest march from Selma to Montgomery • Were violently attacked by the police

• March 9, 1965 – 2 nd march attempted led by MLK • Ordered by the courts to not march

• LBJ announces a plan to pass legislation protecting African-American voters • March 21 – 3 rd march will make it to Montgomery

Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Authorized federal supervision of voter registration • Outlawed all literacy & other discriminatory tests for voter registration

Affirmative Action (1965) • Executive Order 11375 • Policies that take race, ethnicity, or gender into consideration in an attempt to promote equal opportunity or increase ethnic diversity • Results: more minorities enroll in college

End of Affirmative Action • Began a “reverse discrimination” • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) – Ruled against affirmative action programs that set a rigid quota for minority admissions • California Prop 209 (1996) ended affirmative action in CA

Thurgood Marshall • June 1967 – LBJ appoints Marshall to the Supreme Court

F. Rise of Black Power

Nation of Islam • Religious organization that was in favor of black separatism • Malcolm X became a leader in the early 1960’s

• Encouraged armed resistance “by any means necessary” to break white domination "The white people should thank Dr. King for holding black people in

Stokely Carmichael • Was the leader of SNCC in the late 1960’s • Became disillusioned with the slow progress being made • Believed in “Black Power” – Self-reliance – Self-sufficiency • Transformed SNCC into an all black organization

Black Panthers (1966) • Black Panther Party for Self-Defense • Huey Newton & Bobby Seale • Believed in armed defense against police and white brutality

• Became a paramilitary group • Monitored the local police to protect from brutality • Continuously raided by police & FBI • Jail time was their downfall

Assassination of MLK • April 4, 1968 MLK is shot and killed by James Earl Ray

The Long Hot Summers • Summers 1964 -68, Racial riots in many major cities • Watts Riot (L. A. ) August 1965 – 6 days

End of the Movement • Vietnam and increasing turmoil at home in 1968 brought about an end to the momentum