American Civil Rights Movement 1950s

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American Civil Rights Movement1950s 1960s

• US History

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Who was Linda Brown?

• Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) 1954
• Facts
• Linda Brown 8 year old African American student
• Nearest elementary school 4 blocks from the
  Brown home (all white)
• Linda Browns school (all black) 21 blocks from
  the Brown home
• NAACP sues Bd of Education challenging the
  separate but equal

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Brown v. Board of Ed

• Supreme Court orders desegregation be implemented
  with all possible speed
• BECAUSE
• Separate but equal inherently unequal

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The Civil Rights MovementTrue or False?
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True or False?
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Answers

1. True
2. True
3. True
4. False there were more than 30 sit ins in 7
   states within a month
5. False children as young as 6 were arrested
6. False over 250,000 people traveled to
   Washington, D.C.
7. False over 30 homes were firebombed, 80
   demonstrators beaten and 3 killed

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Historical Background

• Slavery
• Property vs. Human beings
• Slave codes
• No education, marriage, separate church, freedom
  of movement
• Legal and Social Segregation
• Jim Crow laws legal separation
• Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court upholds
  separate but equal facilities or services is
  protected by the Constitution

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Historical Background

• Legal and Social Segregation (continued)
• Limit voting rights, property rights (Poll tax,
  literacy test, grandfather clause)
• Limit economic opportunity
• Maintain status quo through violence (KKK,
  lynching) or laws
• Economic and Social Competition
• Jobs
• Housing
• Education

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Methods to Maintain Segregation and the Status Quo
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Early Civil Rights Actions
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Early Actions

• 1948 President Truman orders the desegregation
  of the Armed Forces
• First large scale desegregation effort

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Playing for the Dodgers

• Branch Rickey, president and General Manager of
  the Brooklyn Dodgers, noticed Robinsons
  exceptional talent.
• In 1946 Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson.
• Jackie Robinson, at the age of 27, became the
  first Black Baseball player in Major League
  history. He played his first game on April 15th
  1947. (64 years ago)

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Jackie and Civil Rights

• Jackie Robinsons Actions affected the world far
  beyond Major League Baseball.
• His courage and discipline in standing up against
  racism were a preview of the actions taken by
  many members of the Civil Rights Movement.
• The success of the Jackie Robinson experiment was
  a testament to fact that integration could exist.

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Segregated City Bus - 1956
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Events Leading Up To Rosa Parks Arrest

• In the South, Jim Crow laws segregated African
  Americans and whites in almost every aspect of
  life.
• This included a seating policy on buses. Whites
  sat in the front, Blacks sat in the back.
• Buses also drove White students to school. Black
  students were forced to walk.
• Rosa Parks was an active member of The Civil
  Rights Movement and joined the Montgomery chapter
  of NAACP (National Association for the
  Advancement of Colored People) in 1943.
• African Americans made up 75 of the passengers
  in the Bus system but still had to deal with
  unfair rules.

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The Arrest

• On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up
  her seat to a White man on a bus.
• Parks was arrested and charged with the violation
  of a segregation law in The Montgomery City Code.
• 50 African American leaders in the community met
  to discuss what to do about Rosas arrest.

People always say that I didn't give up my seat
because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was
not tired physically, or no more tired than I
usually was at the end of a working day. I was
not old, although some people have an image of me
as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only
tired I was, was tired of giving in. -Rosa Parks
Autobiography
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Montgomery Bus Boycott

• On December 5, 1955, African Americans in
  Montgomery began to boycott the busses.
• 40,000 Black commuters walked to work, some as
  far as twenty miles.
• The boycott lasted 382 days.
• The boycott ended after the Supreme Court ruled
  the law unconstitutional.

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King Becomes a National Figure

• His start as a Civil Rights leader came during
  the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
• Civil Rights group organized by King
• Included over 100 African-American ministers

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Montgomery, Alabama

• Studied tactics of Thoreau, Gandhi, and others
• Preached about soul forcenon-violent resistance
• We will not hate you, but we cannot . . . obey
  your unjust laws
• NONVIOLENCE IS THE KEY TO CHANGE!!!

• Martin Luther King Jr.

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Non-Violent Tactics

• Boycott
• Sit-in
• March

• Refusing to buy a good or service
• Sitting in segregated areas and refusing to move
• Marching with a large group to draw attention to
  a cause

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Civil Disobedience

• In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian
  Leadership Conference (SCLC).
• A group that used the authority and power of
  Black churches to organize non-violent protest to
  support the Civil Rights Movement.
• The civil disobedience led to media coverage of
  the daily inequalities suffered by Southern
  Blacks.
• The televised violence led to mass public
  sympathy. The Civil Rights Movement became the
  most important political topic during the early
  60s.

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Important Court Victories

• Desegregated interstate buses
• Desegregated law schools
• Desegregated graduate schools

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Little Rock High School 1957
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Little Rock, Arkansas1957

• Nine African-American students were to integrate
  Central High School
• Governor ordered Arkansas National Guard to turn
  the students away
• Federal judge ordered the governor to allow the
  students entry
• Governor refusedAfrican-American students were
  turned away

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Little Rock, Arkansas1957

• Eisenhower responds

• Put 1,000 paratroopers in Little Rock
• Stationed in the High Schoolescorted students to
  class, maintained order

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U-46 Schools

• Try to guess the by race / group for the five
  U-46 high schools
• White
• Hispanic
• Black
• Asian

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The Movement Grows

• Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• Group of African-American college students in
  North Carolina

In the summers and over school-holidays
volunteers came south to join the fight for
freedom and justice. Most  but certainly not
all  were college students or recent grads.
Most  but certainly not all  were from the
North. Most  but certainly not all  were
white. Most returned to their campuses and jobs,
but some stayed on as full time freedom fighters.
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Greensboro, North Carolina

• SNCC used sit-ins to protest segregated lunch
  counters
• Media coverage showed racism to the entire country

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Separate Everything
Colored Fountain
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Lunch Counter Sit-in 1960
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Notice the arm band?
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Success!

• By 1960, 48 cities had desegregated lunch counters

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Freedom Riders

• Wanted to test enforcement of Supreme Courts
  decision to desegregate interstate buses.
• Blacks and Whites rode through the South

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Freedom Riders

• Peck (a civil rights activist) rode on Bus One.
  At the Alabama state line, a half dozen white
  racists got on the bus, carrying chains, brass
  knuckles, and pistols. They yanked the young
  African-American riders from their seats and
  shoved them into the aisle. Peck and a
  60-year-old white freedom rider tried to
  intervene. The thugs knocked Peck unconscious
  and kicked the old man repeatedly in the head
  until his brain hemorrhaged.

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Freedom Riders

• When Bus One got to Birmingham, Alabama, a mob
  was waiting at the bus terminal, many holding
  iron bars and pipes. As they entered the white
  waiting room, they were dragged into the alley
  and beaten with the pipes. Peck was again
  knocked unconscious, this time he needed 53
  stitches in his head and face.

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Getting Ready to Meet the Bus!!
Name the gender?
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Freedom Riders

• In Anniston, Alabama, 200 whites attacked Bus Two
  and slashed its tires. Six miles out of town,
  the bus was crippled. The mob barricaded the
  door, smashed a window, and tossed a fire bomb
  into the bus. The freedom riders were barely
  able to force the door open and escape before the
  bus exploded.

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Freedom Riders

• Another group of freedom riders rode from
  Tennessee into Alabama. When they reached
  Birmingham, the Police Chief had them pulled off
  the bus, beaten and driven back to Tennessee.
  The freedom riders returned to Birmingham. When
  they proceeded to Montgomery, a white mob had
  formed and no police were present. The freedom
  riders were again beaten. John F. Kennedy
  finally sent 400 U. S. Marshals to protect the
  riders as they continued to Mississippi

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Ole Miss

• James Meredith won a court case that would make
  him the first African-American student at the
  University of Mississippi.

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Ole Miss

• Federal Marshals escorted Meredith to register
• Riots ensued 2 dead, 200 arrested, 5000
  soldiers needed to stop the rioters
• 1966 Meredith was shot during a freedom march in
  Mississippi he survived

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Ole Miss

• Mascot Rebels
• Symbol Confederate Flag

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No Segregation!!
Police escorting swimmers from a white only
beach
Hotel owner pouring muratic acid in his pool
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Jackson, Mississippi 1963

• Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers was killed in
  his driveway
• The killer, Byron de la Beckwith was released
  after two trials (hung jury)

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Birmingham, Alabama 1963

• Demonstrations to protest segregation
• King was arrested released
• Childrens March- 959 were arrested
• 2nd Childrens March police used fire hoses,
  attack dogs against the marchers
• Finally, negative media attention, boycotts, and
  protests led to desegregation

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March on Washington 1963
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Washington, D. C. 1963

• March organized to persuade Congress to pass
  Civil Rights Bill
• 250,000 met to hear speeches, music
• I Have a Dream speech Martin Luther King, Jr.
• After Kennedy was shot, Civil Rights Act of 1964
  passed ending segregation in Public places
  (schools, restaurants, etc.)

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March On Washington

• More than 200,000 Black and White Americans
  celebrated in a joyous day of song, prayer and
  speeches.
• The march was lead by a group of important
  clergy, civil rights leaders, and politicians.
• Martin Luther Kings I Have A Dream speech was
  the climax of the day.

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I Have A Dream Speech

• In a powerful speech, Martin Luther King Jr.
  stated eloquently that he desired a world where
  Black and Whites could coexist equally.
• Kings speech was a rhetoric example of the Black
  Baptist sermon style.
• The speech used The Bible, The Declaration of
  Independence, The United States Constitution and
  The Emancipation Proclamation as sources.

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I Have A Dream Speech

• The powerful words of Martin Luther King Jr.
• I have a dream that one day this nation will
  rise up and live out the true meaning of its
  creed - 'We hold these truths to be
  self-evident, that all men are created equal.
• I have a dream that one day even the state of
  Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
  injustice, sweltering with the heat of
  oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
  freedom and justice.
• I have a dream that my four little children will
  one day live in a nation where they will not be
  judged by the color of their skin but by the
  content of their character.
• Black men and White men, Jews and Gentiles,
  Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join
  hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
  spiritual "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
  Almighty, we are free at last!"

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Mississippi 1964

• Freedom Summer 1000 college students went to
  Mississippi to register African-Americans voters
• Met violent resistance4 dead many wounded,
  churches and businesses burned

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Mississippi Burning
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Selma, Alabama 1965

• Voter registration drive 2,000
  African-Americans arrested, police beatings
• Police killed a demonstrator
• King announced a protest March from Selma to
  Montgomery
• State police beat marchers, used tear gas
• Federal government stepped in protected marchers
• 25,000 marchers reached Selma

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Selma, Alabama 1965

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 passedeliminated the
  literacy test
• Allowed federal government to enroll voters who
  were denied suffrage
• Twenty-Fourth Amendmenteliminated the poll tax

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Waiting to Vote 1966
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Changes in Philosophy
What was the goal?
What was the strategy?
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Changes in Philosophy
What was the goal? What was the strategy?
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Black Power

• Slogan coined by Stokely Carmichael (SNCC)
• African-Americans should separate from whites,
  define their own goals, and lead their own
  organizations
• Signaled a shift away from non-violent
  resistance

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Black Power
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Mexico City, 1968
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Black Panther Party

• U.S. African American Militant group.
• Founded in 1966 in Oakland.
• Led by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
• Believed violent revolution was the only way to
  receive freedom.
• Urged African Americans to arm themselves.

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Black Panthers

• Sold copies of Mao Zedongs Little Red Book to
  raise money so they could purchase shotguns
• Attended protests and rallies with shotguns and
  law books!

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Black Panthers

• Black Power
• Black Militancysuggested armed revolt
• Power flows out of the barrel of a gun
• Communist
• Got into shootouts with police

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Black Panthers

• Started free daycare and free breakfast program
  in urban ghetto
• Made them popular in Northern cities

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Black Panthers
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Black Panthers
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Black Panthers

• J. Edgar Hoover (head of the F. B. I.) declares
  that the Black Panthers were the "greatest threat
  to the internal security of the country."

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Black Panthers

• Begin to unravel
• Leaders are sent to jail, flee the country,
  killed by police

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Malcolm X

• His father was killed by White Supremacist in
  Michigan, in 1931.
• After time, Malcolm moved to Harlem where he
  became involved in gambling, drug dealing and
  robbery.
• Malcolm was arrested at the age of 20 for armed
  robbery. In jail he studied the teaching of
  Elijah Muhammad.

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Elijah Muhammad

• Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the mostly
  Black political and religious group, The Nation
  Of Islam.
• His teachings, often perceived as racist,
  preached complete separation from Whites in
  society.
• He often expressed the idea the Blacks were the
  first people to rule the world and that the
  Whites tricked them out of power and oppressed
  them.
• Young Malcolm X developed his adept speaking
  skills and political ideas under the direction of
  Elijah Muhammad.

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Nation Of Islam

• The Nation Of Islam (NOI) was an activist group
  that believed that most African slaves were
  originally Muslim.
• The NOI urged African Americans to reconvert to
  Islam in effort to restore the heritage that was
  stolen from them.
• The NOI wanted to create a second Black nation
  within the United States.
• The X in Malcolms name symbolizes the
  rejection of his slave name.

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Malcolm X The Activist

• Malcolm X made constant accusations of racism and
  demanded violent actions of self defense.
• He constantly retold the injustices his people
  suffered in the past.
• Malcolm X gathered wide spread admiration from
  African Americans and wide spread fear from
  Whites.

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Malcolm X Speaks, 1965

• Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect
  everyone but if someone puts his hand on you,
  send him to the cemetery.
• Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you
  equality or justice or anything. If you're a man,
  you take it.
• You can't separate peace from freedom because no
  one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

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Malcolm X Quotes (On King)

• He got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If
  I'm following a general, and he's leading me into
  a battle, and the enemy tends to give him
  rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him.
  Especially if he gets a peace award before the
  war is over.
• I'll say nothing against him. At one time the
  whites in the United States called him a racist,
  and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black
  Muslims came along and the whites thanked the
  Lord for Martin Luther King.
• I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to
  Selma to make his job difficult. I really did
  come thinking I could make it easier. If the
  white people realize what the alternative is,
  perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr.
  King.
• Dr. King wants the same thing I want -- freedom!

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End of X

• After a pilgrimage to Mecca X changed his
  philosophy to promote change without violence (if
  possible) and equality of races
• Assassinated 1965 allegedly by members of the
  Nation of Islam unsolved today!

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Last Testament?

• "Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've
  got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't
  matter with me now. Because I've been to the
  mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I
  would like to live a long life. Longevity has its
  place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I
  just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me
  to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over.
  And I've seen the promised land. I may not get
  there with you. But I want you to know tonight,
  that we, as a people, will get to the promised
  land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried
  about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine
  eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the
  Lord."
•   The final words from Martin Luther King's last
  speech, given in Memphis Tennessee the night
  before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Assassinated in April, 1968

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James Earl Ray
Died 1998
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Conspiracy Theory??

• A racist petty criminal looking to make a name
  for himself stalks a well-protected black civil
  rights leader and finally slays him, then manages
  to make an almost-clean getaway but not before
  dropping the murder weapon (with prints) and his
  personal radio with his prison ID engraved on it.
• Its almost too perfect because nobody would be
  that stupid. It must be a CIA-FBI-White House
  plot. Has to be. There is no way that James Earl
  Ray, the high-school dropout, Army throw-away,
  petty thief could stalk Dr. Martin Luther King
  Jr., kill the most influential civil rights
  leader of the era and evade an international
  manhunt for more than two months, only to be
  busted by Scotland Yard going through a customs
  checkpoint he wasnt supposed to be at.

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Violence Erupts

• 125 cities experience rioting

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Watts
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Detroit
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Washington, D. C.
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Kerner Commission

• Appointed by President Johnson after urban riots
• Decides that the main cause of urban violence is
  white racism

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Civil Rights Act of 1968

• Banned segregation in housing (this wasnt
  included in the 1964 Act)

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De Jure Segregation

• Defined as segregation that is imposed by law
• Outlawed by Civil Rights Acts, Voting Rights Act,
  and amendments
• Different from de facto segregation imposed by
  practice or choice