The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement Unit 13: The Tumultuous Sixties RUSH Mrs. Baker

2. Do-It-Now:Origins of Segregation • Identify the name of the laws which began segregation? • What Supreme Court case legalized segregation? • What was the court’s reasoning for allowing segregation? • What did this decision demonstrate about the nation?

3. The Beginnings of Change: 1945 - 1957

4. The Truman Presidency:The Civil Rights Movement Begins to Change • 1947: • Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in major league baseball. • 1948: • Truman ordered the end of segregation in the armed forces. • Ordered an end to discrimination in hiring of government employees.

5. The Eisenhower Presidency:The Court Takes Action • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) • State the issue before the Supreme Court in this case. • What was the decision of the Court? What was the rationale behind it? • What was the effect of this decision?

6. Reacting to the Brown Decision • Resisting desegregation • While over 500 schools quickly desegregated… • Many areas where African American were the majority resisted desegregation. • Supreme Court responds • Brown II • Ordered that school desegregation be implemented “with all deliberate speed.” • Eisenhower initially refused to enforce ruling… Until the Crisis in Little Rock began in 1957

7. The Little Rock Nine Explain the significance of the Little Rock events.

8. The Montgomery Bus Boycott(1955 – 1956) • Despite threats and violence, the civil rights movement quickly moved beyond school desegregation to challenge segregation in other areas. • December 1955 • Rosa Parks, a member of the Montgomery, Alabama branch of the NAACP, was told to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. • Parks refused to move • She was arrested

9. The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955 – 1956) • In response to Parks arrest • Local African Americans rallied together to begin year plus long boycott. • A leader emerges… • Martin Luther King Jr. • A young Baptist minister from lead the boycott. • King studied the nonviolent methods of Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. • His dynamic speaking style drew the attention and support from a large portion of the population. • Becomes a national figure in the civil rights movement. • The boycott lasted 381 days. • In the end the Supreme Court outlawed the segregation of buses.

10. The Civil Rights Movement Heats up 1957 - 1965

11. Organizations of the Civil Rights Movement

12. The Sit-In Movement • On February 1, 1960 at Walworth’s in Greensboro, NC • 4 African American students sat down at a segregated lunch counter and refused to leave until they were served. • Used the strategy of civil disobedience – the deliberate breaking of the law to show a belief that the law is unjust. • Style of protest became very popular and by late 1960, students had desegregated lunch counters in 48 cities in 11 states. • Endured arrests, beatings, suspension from college, and tear gas and fire hoses

13. Freedom Riders:Fighting Segregation on Interstate Transportation • After the sit-in movement, some SNCC members participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides organized by CORE. • Freedom Rides • Both African Americans and whites • Traveled around the South on buses testing the Supreme Court decision declaring segregation illegal in bus stations open to interstate travel. • Began in Washington, D.C. • Trip was mostly peaceful until the buses reached Alabama. • Buses were burned, riders were beaten and mobbed as they exited the buses.

14. Route of Freedom Rides

15. The Violence of the Freedom Rides • The violence brought national attention and fierce criticism of Alabama officials for allowing the brutality to occur. • JFK stepped in to protect Freedom Riders. • Riders continued to Jackson, Mississippi where they were arrested • Ending the protest. • Freedom Rides brought the fight for desegregation to the attention of the American people. • Television cameras caught the violence first hand for all to see.

16. Desegregating Southern Universities • 1962 • James Meredith, an African American, applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. • The university attempted to block his admission. • Meredith filed suit against the university. • Federal courts found in favor of Meredith and ordered the desegregation of the school. • The Governor of Mississippi attempted to prevent Meredith from enrolling in the school. • JFK intervened and upheld the court order. • Sent in federal troops to protect Meredith. • Riots broke out on his first night on campus. • Whites began to harass federal marshals.

17. Desegregating Southern Universities • 1963 • Alabama Governor George Wallace • Threatened a similar stand when he attempted to block desegregation of the University of Alabama. • Kennedy administration responded with full power of the federal government • Including U.S. Army • Confrontations with Barnett (Gov. of Mississippi) and Wallace pushed JFK into full commitment to end segregation. • June 1963, Kennedy proposed civil rights legislation.

18. Integration in Birmingham, AL • 1963 • MLK Jr., and the SCLC began a campaign bring integration to Birmingham. • City was considered the most segregated city in the South. • At a protest march, police used dogs and fire hoses to break up the marchers and arrested more than 2,000 people.

19. Letter from a Birmingham Jail “I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at whims; when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters; … when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in the air-tight cage of poverty; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year old son asking: … ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’ … then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

20. March on Washington (1963) • The growing civil rights movement moved President Kennedy to deliver a televised speech to the nation in June 1963. • Focused on the need to guarantee the civil rights of African Americans. • 8 days later, he sent the most comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation’s history to Congress. • August 1963, civil rights groups organized a huge march onto Washington, D.C. to show support for the bill. • At the march, MLK, Jr. delivered his famous speech “I have a dream” • Spoke of his hopes for a unified nation.

21. “I Have a Dream”Martin Luther King, Jr.

22. Bombing in Birmingham 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing

23. Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 • After the assassination of JFK • Johnson recognized the urgency of pushing forward the civil rights legislation. • July 1964, Johnson gained passage of the bill and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964: • Protecting of voting rights for all Americans • Opening of public facilities to people of all races. • A commission to protect equal job opportunities for all Americans. • Came a few months after the passage of the 24th Amendment • Abolishment of poll taxes in federal elections.

24. Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Eliminated voter literacy tests. • Enabled federal examiners to register voters in areas suspected of denying African Americans the right to vote. • Attorney General can take legal action against any state that continues to use poll taxes in state elections.

25. The Civil Rights Movement Changes Course After 1965

26. The Demand for Change • By the mid-1960s, some civil rights activists became frustrated that the new legislation had not improved conditions enough. • These activists began to demand “Black Power.” • Idea stressed that African Americans should take control of the political and economic aspects of their lives. • Advocated violence. • Brought about division in the Civil Rights Movement and ultimately weakened the effectiveness of nonviolent and violent strategies.

27. The New Faces of the Movement:Malcolm X • A new, more militant leader who spoke to African American who were growing frustrated with the pace of the movement. • Spoke against integration • Promoted black nationalism • Belief in the separate identity and racial unity of the African American community. • Originally a member of the separatist group the Nation of Islam or the Black Muslims. • In 1964, Malcolm X left the organization and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. • After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X began to change his views on integration and began to call for a more unified civil rights movement. • Assassination • February 1965

28. The New Faces of the Movement:Stokely Carmichael • Leader during the second wave of the civil rights movement. • Became the leader of the SNCC. • Transformed them into a militant organization. • Following in the strategies of the Black Power movement. • Urged the SNCC to stop recruiting whites and to focus on developing African-American pride. • Encouraged violence as well.

29. The New Faces of the Movement:The Black Panthers • Based out of Oakland, California • Demonstrated the growing radicalism of the movement. • Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale • Goal = fight police brutality in the ghetto. • Party advocated: • Self-sufficiency for African American communities • Full employment • Decent housing

30. 1968:Turning Point in Civil Rights • Assassination of MLK, Jr. • King objected to the Black Power movement • Believed that preaching violence could only end in grief • On April 3, 1968 King spoke in front of a crowd in Memphis, TN. • The following morning, King stood on his hotel balcony and was shot to death by James Earl Ray. • Impact: • The worst series of urban rioting in American history took place through out 100 cities. • Assassination of Robert Kennedy • 3 months later, presidential candidate Kennedy was killed by a Jordanian immigrant angered over Kennedy’s support of Israel.