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III. The Struggle for Equal Rights. Many struggles for minority groups in 1960’s to gain equal rights: A. Civil rights for African Americans B. American Indian Movement C. Equal rights for Hispanic Americans D. Women’s Liberation Movement. A. Black Civil Rights Movement.
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III. The Struggle for Equal Rights • Many struggles for minority groups in 1960’s to gain equal rights: A. Civil rights for African Americans B. American Indian Movement C. Equal rights for Hispanic Americans D. Women’s Liberation Movement
A. Black Civil RightsMovement 1. JFK’s Civil Rights Record • Kennedy’s hand forced by civil rights groups • 1961: JFK sendsfederaltroops to the southafter white mobs savagelyattackCORE (Congress of Racial Equality) freedomriders in Alabama (defyingunconstitutionalsegregation of interstate buses)
JFK hesitated to support civil rightsfully: afraid of splitting up the Democratic Party & setting of filibusters in the Senate and losing the re-election • AppointedmanyAfricanAmericans to federal offices, but alsoplaced white segregationists to many positions • Took 2 years to fulfillhiscampaign promise of signing an executiveorder to end segregation in federallyfundedhousing
1962 JFK sendstroops to Univ. Mississippi to protect James Meredith (1st black studentenrolled)
2. Martin Luther King, Jr. • 2. Baptist Pastor, head of Southern Christian Leadership, Conferencefall of 1960 MLK joins forces with CORE • Mississippi Freedom Summer Project (volunteer college students to run freedom schools (literacy skills to blacks) • used sit-ins, etc to challenge the status quo in MI & GA to encourage Blacks to resist segregation and to register to vote. Video: SNCC Brown University video
1963 – MLK Jr exposes viciousness of black racists in the south and compels JFK to act, • Leads marches, sit-ins, and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham Police Chief Bull Conner send police in front of cameras withelectriccattleprods, pressure water hoses and attackdogsagainst the peacefuldemonstrators • Televisedbrutalityarousedintl indignation
Allows Kennedy to convince Alabama leaders to desegregate stores and upgrade African American employees • Concessions won encourage Freedom NOW protest in hundreds of othercities • Kennedy begins to realizethat if the federalgovtdidn’t commit the nation to peaceful and constructive reform of racial relations, AfricanAmericansmightbegin to follow leaders whopreached the need for violence
JFK forces segregationistgoverner George Wallace (Alabama) to desegregateUniv. Of Alabama (Wallace attempted to block entry to 2 black students) • June, 1963 JFK proposed a broad civil rights bill
March on Washington, August 28, 1963 MLK delivers “I have a Dream” speech Video: I have a dream Speech
MLK Unable to convince congress to pass the civil rights bill • Southern white terrorism against African Americans continues: • Medgar Evers, head of MI chapter NAACP assassinated by KKK in June 1963 • Church bombing in Birmingham, killing 6 children in September 1963
Civil RightsMovement Under JFK • Mood of black movement insistent but goals still moderate • Directed against segregation and inequality, not against white America • MLK Jr by far mostpopular leader • 90% of black population supported JFK Goal of the revolution = integration “wanted not to get out of white society but to get deeper into it.”
LBJ takes up the torch • LBJ urges Congress to pass Civil Rights Bill and proposes Tax cut as a memorial to JFK • Johnson’s speech at Gettysburg: “we do not answer those who lie beneath this soil – when we reply to the Negro by asking, ‘Patience’.” • MLK :“I am happy to know that a fellow Southerner is in the White House who is concerned about civil rights.”
A Time of Revolution • Summer of 1963 ‘vast majority’ of blacks now demanded an immediate end to all forms of discrimination. ‘We have woke up,” one Alabama woman said. Black leaders were all more or less militant, ‘partly by choice-and partly because they have no choice.’ Their followers wanted ‘complete equality, nothing less.’ They wanted it right away. And three out of four of them would not be deterred if that meant bloodshed. ‘Fights, shooting’, said an unemployed black man in Miami, shrugging, ‘it takes that to make the world better.’
Building Tensions • Nations’ resources deflected by Vietnam • Liberals and blacks frustrated by limits of Great society • Race riots in hundreds of U.S. cities in 1964=alienating white middle class from movement
The Long, Hot Summers • (1965-1968) • Race riots in cities around the country • $5 M in property damage, 7,000 injured; 200 casualties
Johnson’s Response • Johnson’s investigation found causes: persisting white racism which subjected black Americans to poverty, slum housing, poor education, police brutality • Report recommended more Federal aid to poor urban African Americans • Johnson did not act
Black Power • Radicalization of the civil rights movement • Initially influenced by teachings of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Mohammed then Malcom X • Race pride, self determination • Rejected MLK’s non-violence
Malcolm X, Black Muslims, Nation of Islam • Questioned value of integration • After 1966, SNCC and CORE switch from interracial, integrationists to all black militant separatists willing to engage in violent confrontations • Angry rhetoric of Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown • Black panthers: same violent message
Video: Malcom X and MLK Debate What are the main differences between their approaches concerning the following: • Non-violent resistance • whites • desegregation • riots
Inspired by Civil Rights Movement for African-Americans • Sense of pride and redress of grievances • 1961 400 members of 67 tribes gather to denounce Termination policy • Withdrawal of federal gov’t recognition of tribes as legal entities • Subject to same local jurisdiction as whites • Policy of cultural assimilation, loss of cultural distinctiveness
Demands to include Indians in War on Poverty program • Johnson responded by ending Indian Termination Policy and endorsing Indian self-determination • Created National Council on Indian Opportunity: directed more Federal funding into improving conditions on Indian reservations
1968 because of persistent poverty, militant young native Americans organize AIM (American Indian Movement) • Call for Red Power • 1968 Congress passes Indian Civil Rights Act • Accords protection of Bill of Rights + legitimacy of tribal laws within reservations • 1969 – Dissatisfaction – Occupy federal prison on Alcatraz Island offshore from San Francisco for 1 ½ years
1970 – Nixon promises increased tribal self-determination & federal aid • 1972 – demonstrators occupy building of Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington 6 days • 1973 - Wounded Knee, SD – AIM seizes and occupies town - symbolic place of suffering • Demand radical changes of administration of reservations • Federal gov’t treaty obligations • Hostages, starved out by federal troops • Equality and Justice not attained but new legal rights and protections strengthen their position
Homework: Reading Assignments • Unfinished Nation, Chapter 30: The Other America, pp. 797-803 • Rural poverty; inner cities; The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement; The Brown Decision and Massive Resistance; The expanding movement; Causes of the Civil Rights Movement • Unfinished Nation, Chapter 31: The ordeal of Liberalism pp. 819-824; 834-839 • The Battle for Racial Equality, expanding protests, a national commitment; the battle for voting rights; the changing movement; urban violence; black power • The King Assassination; The Kennedy Assassinationand Chicago • Unfinished Nation, Chapter 32: The Crisis of Authority pp. 848-855 • The mobilization of minorities; seeds of Indian Militancy; The Indian Civil Rights Movement; Latino Activism; The New Feminism • Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, Chapter 19: Surprises (see blog) • Women’s Movement and Native American Movement