The Early Civil Rights Movement 1954 1957 Objectives

The Early Civil Rights Movement 1954 -1957

Objectives 1)Examine the lives of African=Americans following the American Civil War. 2)Discuss Plessy v. Ferguson and its effects on American society. 3)Reflect what segregation would make African. Americans feel like.

African-American lives following ACW • Total U. S. population is 33, 000 o 3. 5 million of that were slaves. o 13 th Amendment abolished slavery! • Many Southern states try to restrict African. Americans following the war. o Deny them rights through laws o Ku Klux Klan violence

African-America lives following ACW • Congress responds! o 1800 s, Republican Party = Northern U. S. . Democrats = Southern U. S. . o Congress passes laws to protect African-Americans. • 14 th, 15 th Amendment, Civil Rights Acts 1866/1875 • Supreme Court strikes down protection. • U. S. army withdrawn after 1876 election. o Democrats in South pass Jim Crow laws. Justice Harlan

African-American lives following ACW • Jim Crow Laws o De Jure Segregation of Blacks in South from whites. • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) o Separate-but-equal discrimination a-okay so long as everything is equal.

African-American lives following ACW • Many reduced to share-cropping o Farming someone else’s land. o Lots of debt, most families are tied to land. • Constant discrimination and intimidation o No legal protection from violence. o No rights. • Options? o Migration. o Stay in South.

African-American responses to Jim Crow • Booker T. Washington (1856 -1915) • Accommodated Jim Crow laws. • Stressed education and economic advancement for blacks. • WEB du Bois (1868 -1963) • Stressed full political equality had to come first. • Co-founded the NAACP (1909)

African-American resistance to Jim Crow • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)(1909) o Used legal system to achieve civil rights. • World Wars I and II. o Emboldened African-Americans who served as soldiers/worked in factories.

The Civil Rights Movement Begins • Brown v. Board of Education Topeka. (1954) o Kansas allowed segregated schools. o Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), banned de jure segregation in public facilities (schools). Thurgood Marshall

The Civil Rights Movement Begins • Murder of Emmitt Till (1955) o 14 -year old African-American kid from Chicago. o Went down to Mississippi to visit relatives. o Accused of “Whistling” at a white woman, kidnapped and murdered. • Murderers acquitted, trial acts as catalyst to change the South.

The Civil Rights Movement Begins • Largely non-violent, active resistance. • Protesters attempt to provoke responses from Segregationist society.

Objectives 1) Infer about Martin Luther King Jr. ’s, Rosa Parks’, and Malcolm X’s motivations. 2) Examine the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 3) Compare the Little Rock Nine experience to high school problems today.

The Civil Rights Movement • Lots of African-American groups working together to fight segregation. • NAACP o Focuses on legal court cases mostly. • SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) o Organized traditional protests. • CORE (Congress of Racial Equality o Organized students for more direct action. • Black Nationalist groups o Advocated more violent efforts to achieve civil rights.

The Civil Rights Movement • Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) o Bus lines in Alabama segregated by law • Rosa Parks (1913 -2005) o Seamstress o Worked at local NAACP chapter

Montgomery Bus Boycott • Rosa Parks challenged her arrest. • Local Civil Rights leaders form Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to boycott. o MLK jr. chosen as leader. • Martin Luther King jr. o Born in Atlanta, GA o Baptist Preacher, SCLC o Stressed non-violence as best approach.

Montgomery Bus Boycott • Protest lasts for 384 days. o Supporters carpool/walk instead of taking the bus. o Segregationist supporters attack protestors/arrest them. . • (Dec. 17 th, 1956) Supreme Court rules bus segregation unconstitutional. o Browder v. Gayle • MIA wins!

Little Rock Nine in Arkansas (1957) • 3 years after Brown v. Board… o Most school systems still segregated. o Arkansas schools making progress. • Central High about to desegregate. o AR. Governor Orval Faubus orders National Guard to stop it.

Little Rock Nine in Arkansas (1957) • AR. Governor orders Natl. Guard to stop desegregation. o 3 weeks Little Rock Nine barred from entering school • POTUS Eisenhower orders 101 st Airborne in to force school to integrate.

• Result: Little Rock High is desegregated.

Early Civil Rights Legislation • Civil Rights Movement puts pressure on U. S. • Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957 o Very basic, set up commission to investigate voter discrimination. o Only supposed to last 2 years. o No real enforcement provisions. • Civil Rights Act of 1960 o Extended 1957’s Commission by several years.