Title: U.S. History
1U.S. History
- The Civil Rights Movement
2Who
- The Civil Rights Movement was led by African
Americans. - The movement enlisted the support of people from
all walks of life.
3What
- The Civil Rights Movement was a political
movement during the 1950s and 1960s, - devoted to securing equal opportunity and
treatment for members of minority groups.
4When
- In the mid-20th century.
- It began right after World War II.
5Where
- The Civil Rights Movement was centered in the
South. - Southern states never accepted the Reconstruction
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
6Why
- A belief in the superiority of and inferiority of
races
7How
- It was a reform movement.
- It was a movement for peaceful change.
- Its participants used civil disobedience - that
is, they broke the law in a peaceful, nonviolent
way. - It was a movement to make the U.S. more
democratic - in politics, in economics, and in
social life. - It was a long and difficult process to achieve
change for people long deprived of political and
economic power. - It involved overturning the entrenched interests
who were hostile to change that would reduce
their power and privilege
8The Premise
- The Civil Rights Movement was the culmination of
a long struggle with deep roots. - It was a struggle to achieve equality expressed
in the Declaration of Independence (1776) - and to gain the guarantees of the Constitution
and Bill of Rights (1789).
9The Civil Rights Movement
10The Dred Scott Case Origins
- Slave whose master had moved him to free
territory for several years - Sued for his freedom
- Lost in state and federal courts
- Case appealed to U.S. Supreme Court in 1857
11The Dred Scott Case Decision
- Majority opinion written by Chief Justice Taney
- Ruled that a slave wasnt a citizen and couldnt
sue in court - Also ruled the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional
12The Emancipation Proclamation
- Announced by Lincoln in 1862 after the Battle of
Antietam - Freed slaves only in territories in rebellion,
not border states - Signed on January 1, 1863
- Essentially unenforceable
13The Civil War Amendments
- 13th Amendment abolished slavery
- 14th Amendment granted ex-slaves citizenship
guaranteed equal protection, due process - 15th Amendment gave African American men the
right to vote - Supreme Court ruled these only applied to the
federal government
14Civil Disobedience
- definition
- refusal to obey a law that is considered
- unjust by using nonviolent techniques such
- as boycotting, picketing, and sit-ins,
- especially for the purpose of bringing about
- change to said unjust law
15An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts
on a minority that is not binding on itself. This
is difference made legal.
16On the other hand a just law is a code that a
majority compels a minority to follow that it is
unwilling to follow itself. This is sameness made
legal.
17Jim Crow Laws
- From the 1880s to the 1950s, laws enforced
complete racial separation in the South. - Jim Crow, a minstrel-show character, was a
derogatory term for black people. - Southern states passed laws requiring the
complete separation of whites and blacks on
public transportation, schools, restaurants, and
other public places.
18Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
- The Jim Crow laws were tested in 1896.
- Homer Plessy, an African American living in
Louisiana, was arrested for riding in a
white-only railway car. - The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was
constitutional! - Segregation was legal as long as public
facilities were kept "separate but equal". - Justice John Harlan was the only justice who
disagreed. Vehemently.
19Washington vs. Du Bois
- Booker T. Washington
- Believed that blacks should assimilate into the
world of work by learning technical skills - Established the Tuskegee Institute
- W.E.B. Du Bois
- Contended that blacks should receive a
liberal-arts education - Co-founded the NAACP
20The New Deal and Civil Rights
- FDRs commitment to civil rights was lukewarm
- Several New Deal agencies discriminated against
blacks - Tenant farmers and sharecroppers protested
- A. Phillip Randolph proposed a March on
Washington
21FDR Civil Rights
- As president during the Great Depression and
World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt cut a wide
swath through the history of the period. - However, FDRs record regarding civil rights is
at best mixed. - He rarely supported civil rights legislation,
especially laws that would have made lynching a
federal crime. - FDR did not support expansive civil rights
legislation, primarily because he needed the
votes of white Southern Democrats in order to
maintain his New Deal Coalition. - To push for civil rights for African Americans
might have cost him support for New Deal
legislation, or even the presidency.
22Civil Rights Movement
23Segregation
- generally is taken to mean the practice of
forcibly separating people based upon their race
or ethnicity. - However, under modern civil rights law force
doesn't have anything to do with the legal
definition of segregation. - From a legal standpoint, there are two types of
segregation which affect preferred racial
minorities in the U.S. de jure segregation and
de facto segregation.
24De jure segregation
- means racial separation forced by specific laws.
All such laws were eliminated in the U.S. by the
mid-1960s. Therefore, today in the U.S. there is
no such thing as de jure segregation
25De facto segregation
- means racial separation that occurs "as a matter
of fact", e.g., by housing patterns (where one
lives) or by school enrollment (where one goes to
school).
26Separate but Equal
- Photo Gallery Activity
- Picture 1 Create a title for the picture
- Write your initial feelings
- Write down the Jim Crow Example you see
- Explain why this is social injustice
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34Jim Crow Justice
- Lynching is the illegal execution of an accused
person by a mob. - In the South, white mobs lynched African
Americans. - Between 1880 and 1920, two African Americans a
week were lynched in the United States. - In none of these cases was a white person ever
punished for these crimes. - In the South, white juries never convicted white
Klansmen.
35The Civil Rights Movement
36The Ku Klux Klan
- In 1867, the KKK was formed by leaders of the
Confederacy who lost the Civil War. - From then on, the number of lynching of African
Americans increased dramatically. - The main objective of the KKK was to maintain
white supremacy in the South.
37Ida B. Wells
- In 1884 Ida B. Wells was born a slave near
Memphis, Tennessee. - She became a newspaper reporter there and
published The Red Record, an expose of
lynching - 728 African Americans had been lynched by white
mobs. - Two-thirds were accused of small offenses - like
public drunkenness or shoplifting - not rape. - In 1909, she became a founding member of the
NAACP.
38Emmett Till
- Emmett Till was a 14-year-old boy who lived in
Chicago. - In the summer of 1955, he went to visit his
grandparents in Mississippi. - Being 14 (and not realizing the ugly climate of
the South), he winked at a white woman. - In the middle of the night, two white men
kidnapped Emmett Till. - Three days later, Emmett Till's body was found in
the Tallahatchie River. - His eye was gouged out, his head was crushed in,
and he had a bullet in his brain. - The corpse was nearly unrecognizable.
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40The Civil Rights Movement
- Death of Innocence Reading
41Civil Rights Movement
- The Fight for Justice Begins
42Causes of the Movement
- 1776- A Dream Deferred
- World War II
- 14th Amendment
- Brown vs. Board of Education
43A Dream Deferred
- What happens to a dream deferred?
- Does it dry up
- Like a raisin in the sun?
- Or fester like a sore -
- And then run?
- Does it stink like rotten meat?
- Or crust and sugar over -
- like a syrupy sweet?
- Maybe it just sags
- like a heavy load.
- Or does it explode?
44Segregation in World War II
- When World War II began, 2.5 million
African-Americans registered for the draft. - African American soldiers served in the Army, Air
Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. - But the armed forces were segregated.
- To resolve the contradiction, the black press
called for The Double V Campaign - A victory against Hitlers racism abroad and
racial discrimination back home. - When the war was ended, segregation should come
to an end. - African American soldiers fought for their
country with one understanding - Ending segregation would be one of the fruits of
victory.
45The Civil Rights Movement
46Leaders
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (SCLC) The top leader
of the Civil Rights Movement. Won Nobel Peace
Prize. - Thurgood Marshall (NAACP) Lawyer who won the
Brown v. Board of Education. - James Farmer (CORE) Organized the Freedom Rides
through the South.
47The Leaders
- Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (SCLC) led the civil
rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama. - Rev. Jesse Jackson Convinced Chicago businesses
to hire African-Americans. (Rainbow Coalition) - A. Philip Randolph (Labor leader) Threatened to
hold a March on Washington during World War II to
protest discrimination in defense jobs. This
prompted FDR to desegregate the defense
industries. Was the symbolic head of the March on
Washington, 1963.
48The Civil Rights Movement
49NAACP
- (National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People) - It was the first organization to fight for civil
rights. - Formed in 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois, it was a
multiracial group that waged legal battles in
court. - Organizers set up branches in 50 major cities.
But few in the South. - During the Civil Rights era, it set up legal
defense funds to aid jailed protesters. - Thurgood Marshall, the lead attorney, won the
landmark case Brown v. Board of Education.
50Early School Segregation Cases
- Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
- McLaurin v. Oklahoma State
- Regents for Higher Education (1950)
- Both provided a framework for the 1954 Brown v.
Board of Education case
51Brown v. Board Origins
52Brown vs. Board of Education
- In this landmark case, the Supreme Court ruled
unanimously that segregation in public schools
was unconstitutional. - The court orders that desegregation proceed "with
all deliberate speed." - This paved the way for desegregation of all
public facilities. - In 1967, Thurgood Marshall, the lead NAACP
lawyer, became the first African American justice
on the Supreme Court.
53Brown NAACPs Arguments
- The strategy the NAACP employed consisted of
several arguments. - First, the NAACP noted that the decision in
Plessy v. Ferguson had misinterpreted the 14th
Amendment. - In Plessy, the Supreme Court had confirmed the
legality of separate facilities for whites and
blacks, provided that they were qual. In Brown,
the plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to
overturn the 1896 ruling. - Second, the NAACP argued that the 14th Amendment
not only prohibited discrimination on the federal
level, but also on the state level. - This gave federal courts the right to order state
governments (and school boards) to
integrateschools.
54- The NAACP also believed that the 14th Amendment
did not guarantee the right of state governments
to discriminate in the area of public education. - The NAACP had already used this defense on other
occasions, particularly in higher-education
cases, and felt the same argument would be
effective in K12 schools as well. - Finally, in a departure from typical
discrimination lawsuits, the NAACP attempted to
prove that school segregation not only violated
the provisions of the 14th Amendment, but also
had an adverse psychological effect on children
forced to attend all-black schools. - The NAACP used testimony from noted child
psychologists that substantiated claims that
discrimination fostered a sense of inferiority in
black children well beyond their school years.
55The Little Rock Nine
- According to the Supreme Court case Brown v.
Board of Education, it was unconstitutional, and
therefore illegal, to have segregated schooling. - In 1957, nine African-American students were
enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas. Initially Arkansas
Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas
National Guard to stop the students from
attending the school. - In September, President Eisenhower intervened and
sent federal troops and took the Arkansas
National Guard out of the governors control. - The students were escorted by these federal
troops and entered school on September 25, 1957.
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57The Civil Rights Movement
- SCLC, MLK, Montgomery, SNCC, CORE, the strategy
58SCLC
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- Formed in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
other African American ministers. - Dr. King became its first president.
- It began as a coalition of black churches to
fight segregation in the South. - It became an umbrella organization that
coordinated direct action across the South. - Its main objective was to coordinate nonviolent
protests throughout the South. - It provided leadership for all the major actions
Birmingham, Selma, and the March on Washington.
59The Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Parkss arrest provided the catalyst for a
boycott of Montgomery buses. The origins of the
bus boycott actually predated Rosa Parks arrest.
- The brainchild of E.D. Nixon, head of the local
NAACP as well as an officer in the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters union, the plan was
originally to use the arrest of 15-year-old
Claudette Colvin as the event that would spark
the boycott. - However, since Colvin was also charged with
assault, the boycotts organizers searched for a
more suitable symbol. - Rosa Parks, a respected figure in Montgomerys
black community, fit the bill.
60- In order to effectively organize and conduct the
boycott, Nixon and others met at a local Baptist
church, where they formed the Montgomery
Improvement Association. - Since several black ministers had already refused
to support the boycott, the MIA appointed Martin
Luther King Jr. (the churchs pastor) as
president.
61- As the boycott spread throughout Montgomery,
blacks found other ways to get to school or work.
- Most walked, while others rode bicycles or
hitchhiked to their destination. Some blacks
carpooled. - When local car insurance companies threatened to
cancel the policies of carpoolers, the famous
insurance house Lloyds of London offered to
insure their vehicles. - Black taxicab drivers supported the boycott by
charging blacks ten-cent fares (the typical bus
fare), instead of the usual 45-cent fare, even
after city officials threatened to fine any
driver who undercharged. - In some instances, white housewives picked up and
drove their black maids to and from work
however, it is unclear if they supported the
boycott or simply wanted to make sure that their
maids put in a full day of work.
62The Boycott White Resistance
- Some joined the White Citizens Council
- Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathys homes
were fire bombed - Boycotters physically attacked
- Some boycotters were arrested
63SNCC
- Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
- Founded in 1960 by college students at all-black
Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. - It was an organization exclusively for young
African Americans. - After the first Greensboro sit-in, SNCC launched
sit-ins throughout the South. - Its young leaders became famous
- John Lewis, head of SNCC from 1963 to 1966,
became a famous Congressman from Georgia. - Julian Bond became a state legislator in Georgia.
- Stokely Carmichael launched the Black Power
movement in 1966.
64Congress of Racial Equality
- Formed in 1942 in the middle of World War II.
- Led by James Farmer, an African American, this
multiracial group was dominated by whites.. - In 1960, CORE began sending Northern college
students - 1,000 black and white volunteers - on
bus trips throughout the South. - As they rode through Southern states, they
stopped at Greyhound bus stations and tried to
use the restaurants and restrooms. - Their goal was to test new federal laws
prohibiting segregation in interstate travel
facilities. - The first group of "freedom riders were attacked
by a mob in Alabama that set their bus on fire.
65White Citizens Councils
- The first White Citizens Council was born in
Mississippi just after Brown v. Board of
Education. - It was an all-white group that opposed
integration. It believed in white supremacy. - In 1956, 100 Southern Congressmen issued The
Southern Manifesto, calling upon Southern whites
to oppose - desegregation.
- Every Southern governor opposed desegregation. As
a result, these groups sprung up in every white
community in the South. - Most held the same philosophy as the Ku Klux
Klan They opposed the Supreme Court, federal
government, and desegregation. - They used violence against African Americans.
- They attacked individuals, like James Meredith.
- They attacked groups, like the Freedom Riders.
- The average member carried a baseball bat.
66The Strategy
-
- a. Legal action
- Lawyers filed lawsuits - in federal courts,
against the Southern states. - Upholding the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court
always ruled in their favor. - b. Direct action
- Massive demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins to
protest unfair state laws and practices. - c. A publicity campaign
- To show on TV how unfair discriminatory laws
were. - They appealed to Americans' sense of fair play.
- d. Shame
- To show Americans how un-American life was in
the South. - To show white Southerners how un-Christian they
were being. - At that time, the South was known as the Bible
Belt. - People cared about being good Christians.
67The Results
- The impact of the new legislation
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Civil Rights Act of 1968
- The Civil Rights movement spread to Northern
cities - Model for other struggles in the U.S
- Model for struggles around the world