Unit: The Civil Right Era

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Unit The Civil Right Era Essential Question How
do people overcome fear?
Dont worry about your children dont hold them
back if they want to go to jail, for they are not
only doing a job for themselves, but for all of
America and for all of mankind. -Martin Luther
King, Jr.
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Has anyone in your life ever tried to intimidate
you
through words?
or actions?
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Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the
leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies
swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit
hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging
eyes and the twisted mouth. Scent of magnolias,
sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of
burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the
rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the
sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a
strange and bitter cry."
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The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s
In the 1950s, the South was still guided by Jim
Crow Laws, subjecting African Americans to
second-class citizenship in many ways
Can you name a few?
Public transportation
Theaters
Restaurants
Schools
Cemeteries
Parks
Blacks who violated social norms risked the
threat of lynching, a form of vigilante justice
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Responding with Peaceful Protest

• Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Pastor of a Baptist church
• Renowned spokesman for the civil rights movement
• Developed a strategy to oppose racial segregation
  by nonviolent means

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Protests in Birmingham

• Local government attempted to maintain racial
  segregation
• Earned nickname The Tragic City
• MLK asked to participate in Project Confrontation

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As support began to wane
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) looked for ways to jumpstart the campaign.
Even the arrest of Dr. King did little to attract
more protesters.
If you were a member of the community, would you
join in the fight or would you carry on with your
daily life?
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SCHOOLS OUT!
On May 2, 1963 more than 1,000 African American
students skipped their classes
They gathered at Sixth Street Baptist Church to
march downtown to Birmingham
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Hundreds were arrested and carried off to jail in
paddy wagons and school buses
Hundreds more gathered the following day
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Then the tactics changed
Negroes and whites will not segregate together
as long as I am Commissioner." -Commissioner
Bull Connor
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All across the nation, images were shown of
Birminghams children being blasted by
high-pressure fire hoses
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clubbed by police officers
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and attacked by police dogs
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The Birmingham campaign was the largest of
several mass protest movements in 1963, that
culminated in the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom.
The success in Birmingham, according to King,
could largely be attributed to the thousands of
young people who participated and affirmed a
personal commitment to justice.
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How would you combat hate?

• Through peaceful protest like MLK?
• Through aggressive action like Malcolm X?
• Or would you try to live separately and
  peacefully like Marcus Garvey?

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Sources

• http//www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/ency
  clopedia/childrenscrusade.htm
• http//www.stanford.edu/group/King/liberation_curr
  iculum/childrenscrusade/index.htm
• http//www.crmvet.org/images/imgbham.htm