Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

1
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

• Democratic Values

2
Jim Crow Laws1880s-1960s

• Jim Crow laws barred African Americans from
  access to employment and to public places such as
  restaurants, hotels, and other facilities. In the
  South especially, Blacks lived in fear of
  racially motivated violence.

3
Civil Rights Movement

• In the early 1950s the National Association for
  the Advancement of Coloured People concentrated
  on bringing an end to segregation on buses and
  trains.
• 1952 segregation on inter-state railways was
  declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

4
Birmingham, Alabama 1963

• 18 unsolved bombings in black neighborhoods in
  the last 6 years
• April 3rd staged sit-ins
• April 6th police arrested 45 protesters
• Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested

5
Letter From Birmingham City Jail

• While imprisoned, King read an ad in the
  Birmingham News taken out by local white
  ministers that called him a troublemaker.
• He responded to the ad, writing in the margins of
  the newspaper and on toilet paper.
• His response was eventually published as his
  Letter from Birmingham City Jail

6
Jim Crow Laws vs. Colonial Oppression A Search
for Freedom

• Stamp Act, Townsend Act, Coercive Act
• Oppression of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
  happiness leads to Revolution

• Jim Crow Laws
• Oppression of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
  happiness leads to protest

7
Democratic ValuesSome questions to think about

• What do Martin Luther King Jr.s letter and
  Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of Independence
  have in common?
• What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of
  non-violent protest versus violent protest?
• Civil Rights Movement vs. American Revolution