Chapter 18 Section 3 New Civil Rights Issues

Racism…Still

• • • • In the 1960s, racism, discrimination toward someone because of his or her race, was still common. In 1965 about 70 percent of African Americans lived in large cities. They were often trapped by poverty in the inner city. Real estate agents, local banks, and landlords refused to rent or sell to African Americans.

Gains…Hopes…Frustration

• • African Americans were aware of the gains made by the civil rights movement, but knew the gains did not address their social and economic problems. The gains of the civil rights movement contribute to the frustrations of African Americans living in urban areas because people had raised their hopes that changes would occur, but everyday conditions did not improve.

Watts

• • • Their anger at the situation erupted into violence. Race riots broke out around the country. Thirty-four people were killed during a six-day riot in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Detroit

• • • The worst riot occurred in Detroit in 1967. The U.S. Army was called in to control the situation. However, the results of the riot damage in Detroit included…43 deaths and over 1,000 wounded, 1,300 buildings destroyed by fire, and property losses estimated at $250 million.

Kerner Commission

• • President Johnson picked Otto Kerner to head a commission to look at the causes of the riots. It blamed racism for most of the problems in the inner city and recommended more jobs (job creation), more public housing units, and a renewed federal commitment to fight de facto segregation.

Endorsing the Kerner Commission

• However, President Johnson never endorses the recommendations of the Kerner Commission because federal government was burdened by its spending for the Vietnam War.

Chicago Movement

• • • In 1965 Dr. King decided to focus on improving the economic conditions of African Americans. He and his wife moved into a slum apartment in Chicago to call attention to the problems there. The Chicago Movement was largely unsuccessful in ending urban poverty.

Dr. King Losing Support

• Dr. King’s failure in Chicago convinced some African Americans that nonviolence was not the solution to their problems because it failed to improve their economic position.

Turning Away from Nonviolence

• • • Many poor, young African Americans turned away from King’s movement. They turned to more aggressive forms of protest. A few believed that the term meant that self defense and violence were acceptable when defending one’s freedom.

Stokely Carmichael

• Stokely Carmichael, the leader of SNCC explained “black power” to mean controlling the social, political, and economic direction of the struggle for equality.

Black Power

• • • Black power stressed pride in African American culture. It rejected the idea that African Americans should try to imitate white society. Black power was very popular in the poor urban neighborhoods where many African Americans lived.

Nation of Islam

• • • By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had become the symbol of black power. He gained fame as part of the Nation of Islam, or the Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam was an organization led by Elijah Muhammad.

Malcolm X Changing his Tune

• • Malcolm X broke away from the Nation of Islam by 1964. Malcom X conclude that an integrated society was possible because he witnessed Muslims of many races worshipping together in Mecca.

Malcolm X Death and Legacy

• • • • In February 1965 members of the Nation of Islam killed Malcolm X in New York. Malcolm X is remembered for encouraging African Americans to believe in their abilities to make their own way in the world.

Malcolm X’s ideas affected a new generation of militant African American leaders. One group, the Black Panthers, preached black power, black nationalism, and economic self sufficiency.

Black Panthers

• • • The Black Panthers’ main belief was that a revolution was necessary within the United States. The Black Panthers' “Ten-Point Program” call for an end to racial oppression, and community control of major institutions such as schools, housing, law enforcement, and hospitals. They urged African Americans to arm themselves and confront white society to force whites to grant them equal rights.

Divided Movement

• • • By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement was divided into dozens of competing organizations. Some African Americans called for violent action. This angered many white supporters of the civil rights movement.

Dr. King’s Death

• • • In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike of African American sanitation workers. On April 4 he was shot to death as he stood on his hotel balcony. The result of Dr. King’s death touched off riots in more than 100 cities.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

• • After Dr. King’s death, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The key element of the law banned discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.

Civil Rights Movement, Legacy

• • The civil rights movement continued, but it lacked the vision that Dr. King had given it. Still, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s had created many new opportunities for African Americans.