Civil Rights in the U.S.

1. Civil Rights in the U.S. With a focus on the struggle of African Americans

2. Civil Rights • Definition: the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality.

3. Post-Civil War to early 1900s

4. Let’s backtrack… • How were African Americans viewed by the courts in the early 1800s? • “The plaintiff having admitted…that his ancestors were imported from Africa and sold as slaves, he is not a citizen of the State of Missouri according to the Constitution of the United States, and was not entitled to sue in that character in the Circuit Court.” • The Constitution of the United States recognises slaves as property…” • Dredd Scott v. Sandford– 60 U.S. 393 (1856)

5. But then there was a war… • After the Civil War, America went through a period of reconstruction. • Radical Republicans pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Reconstruction Act of 1867

6. Civil rights act of 1866 • Gave citizenship to ALL males in the U.S. “without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.”

7. Reconstruction act of 1867 • Temporarily split the south into 5 military districts. • Governments with universal male suffrage were organized. (Based on 13th Amendment) • Required states to ratify 14th Amendment to rejoin the union. • The 15th Amendment was also passed…

8. The Amendments: • 13th Amendment:(1865) freed the slaves • 14th Amendment: (1868) gave former slaves equal rights, citizenship, & due process • 15th Amendment: (1870) give former slaves the right to vote • Way to remember: Free (13) Citizens (14) Vote (15)

9. effect on the South • Many white Southerners were angry with the civil rights that they felt were imposed on them by the federal government.

10. KKK • The Ku Klux Klan was started. The KKK is an organization that promotes hatred and discrimination against specific racial and religious groups.

11. When opponents of reconstruction gained power in the south, they imposed de jure segregation, or segregation imposed by the law, by creating laws that discriminated against African Americans.

12. Civil Rights Act of 1875 • Protected all Americans, regardless of race, in their access to public accommodations and facilities such as restaurants, theaters, trains and other public transportation, and protected the right to serve on juries.

13. The Fall of Civil Rights in the Late 1800s • In 1877, new President Rutherford B. Hayes removed troops from the south. • The Result? • Jim Crow laws were passed that separated African Americans and whites in everyday life and culture. • Poll taxes required voters to pay a tax for the ability to vote. • Literacy tests required voters to answer questions by reading questions and writing the answer (illiterate former slaves were unable to complete the test) • Grandfather Clauses limited voters to those whose grandfathers had voted before 1867.

14. The fall of civil rights in the late 1800s • The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was not enforced. • The Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional in 1883. • “When a man has emerged from slavery, and, by the aid of beneficent legislation, has shaken off the inseparable concomitants of that state, there must be some stage in the progress of his elevation when he takes the rank of a mere citizen and ceases to be the special favorite of the laws, and when his rights as a citizen or a man are to be protected in the ordinary modes by which other men's rights are protected.” • Civil Rights Cases - 1883

15. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • Enforced into Federal Law the idea of “separate but equal,” where African-Americans would have entirely separate facilities from people who were white. • “Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation. If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly  or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.” • -Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896.

16. Booker T. and W.E.B.

17. Booker T. and W.E.B.

18. Booker T. and W.E.B.

19. Niagara Movement • Started by W.E.B. Du Bois • Name from original meeting location: Niagara Falls. They wanted to meet on the New York side of the Falls, but were denied accommodations, so they were required to go to the Canadian side, where they had no problem finding a place to meet.

20. Niagara movement • Demanded that African-Americans have the right to vote. • Demanded that African-Americans not be forced to be separated in public transportation and elsewhere. • Demanded that they be able to enjoy the things that White people enjoy

21. NAACP • In 1908, a riot happened in Springfield, Illinois, when a crowd wanted to lynch two African-American prisoners in the city jail. • When the crowd found out that the prisoners had been removed to safety, there was a riot against the city’s black residents which resulted in two people dying and 40 homes burned.

22. NAACP • White reformers saw the need to take an active role. They joined with the Niagara Movement to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). • NAACP aimed to help African Americans be “physically free from peonage [forced, low-paid labor], mentally free from ignorance, politically free from disenfranchisement, and socially free from insult.”

23. Urban league • As many African-Americans moved from rural areas to cities to find work, the Urban League was formed was formed to advocate for the rights of those who were poorer workers. • Helped families buy clothes and books • Sent children to school • Helped factory workers and maids find jobs.