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ut of Many

A History of the American People Brief Sixth Edition Seventh Edition Chapter

28 The Civil Rights Movement 1945-1966

Out of Many: A History of the American People

Chapter Focus Questions

• • What were the legal and political origins of the African American civil rights struggle?

What accounts for Martin Luther King ’ s rise to leadership?

• How did student protesters and direct action shape the civil rights struggle in the South?

Chapter Focus Questions (cont

’

• • • How did the civil rights movement intersect with national politics in the 1950s and 1960s?

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 accomplish?

How did America ’ s other minorities respond to the African American struggle for civil rights?

North America and Montgomery

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• • • An African-American Community Challenges Segregation  1955: Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a boycott of buses.

Local activists organized carpools.   Leaders endured violence won court ruling —segregation ordinance was unconstitutional.

Origins of the Movement

Signs designating

“

White

” “

Colored

”

rest rooms and

Origins of the Movement

• Following WWII, African American demands for equality began increasing, leading to the civil rights movement of the 1950s-60s.

Civil Rights After World War II

• • Mass migration to North  Brought political power to African Americans (Democratic Party) The NAACP grew  Legal Defense Fund —lawsuits to win key rights

Civil Rights After World War II (cont'd)

• African Americans were breaking color barriers  Jackie Robinson ’ s entrance into major league baseball   Ralph Bunche ’ s winning a Nobel Peace prize A new generation of jazz musicians created be-bop.

• Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, The Three Deuces, in 1947

Charlie Parker (alto sax) and Miles Davis (trumpet)

The Segregated South

• • In the South, segregation and unequal rights were still the law of the land. Law and custom kept blacks as second class citizens with no effective political rights. African Americans had learned to survive and not challenge the situation.

The Segregated South (cont'd)

• The 1955 murder of Emmett Till galvanized the black community in the north, but received less attention in the white press, while Till ’ s murderers were acquitted.

Brown v. Board of Education

• • The NAACP initiated a series of court cases challenging the constitutionality of segregation. In

Brown v. Board of Education

, newly appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren led the court to declare that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Brown v. Board of Education

(cont'd)

• The court postponed ordering a clear timetable to implement the decision until 1955, and then only ordering desegregation “ with all deliberate speed.

”

Crisis in Little Rock

• • • Southern whites declared their intention to nullify the Brown decision and issued a defiant “ Southern Manifesto.

” In Little Rock, Arkansas, a judge ordered integration. Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to keep African-American children out of Central High.

Crisis in Little Rock (cont

’

• When the troops were withdrawn, a riot erupted, forcing President Eisenhower to send in more troops to integrate the school.

• • The Little Rock schools were closed completely the next year to prevent what Faubus called “ violence and disorder.

”

Four African American students walk swiftly past barricaded sidewalks

Crisis in Little Rock (cont'd)

• • Four African American students walk past barricades to enter Central High School, 1957 How did compelling visual images help turn the civil rights movement from a regional struggle to a national one?

Visualizing Civil Rights

No Easy Road to Freedom 1957–62

The second day of the sit-in at the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth lunch counter

No Easy Road to Freedom, 1957-62

• Brown opened the door to the use of federal courts to push for civil rights, but reluctant federal and state government support weakened the strategy and black communities realized they would have to help themselves.

Martin Luther King and the SCLC

• Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged from the bus boycott as a prominent national figure. A well-educated son of a Baptist minister, King taught his followers nonviolent resistance, modeled after the tactics of Mohandas Gandhi. • The civil rights movement was deeply rooted in the traditions of the African American church.

King and the SCLC

• • King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to promote nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation. King believed that playing southern racists off against moderates could promote change.

Sit-Ins: Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta

• • African-American college students, first in Greensboro, North Carolina, began sitting in at segregated lunch counters. Nonviolent sit-ins were:  widely supported by the African-American community,  accompanied by community-wide boycotts of businesses that would not integrate.

Sit-Ins: Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta (cont'd)

• By 1961, Atlanta had been largely desegregated peacefully.

SNCC and the

“

Beloved Community

” • • A new spirit of militancy was evident among young people. Inspired by long-time activist Ella Baker, 120 African American activists created the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to promote nonviolent direct challenges to segregation in 1960.

SNCC and the

“

Beloved Community

”

(cont'd)

• The young activists were found at the forefront of nearly every major civil rights battle.

MAP 28.1 The Civil Rights Movement

The Election of 1960 and Civil Rights

• 1960: Race issue center-stage  As vice president, Nixon had strongly supported civil rights.

 But Kennedy pressured a judge to release Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail.  African-American voters provided Kennedy ’ s margin of victory, though an unfriendly Congress ensured that little legislation would come out.

The Election of 1960 and Civil Rights (cont'd)

• 1960: Race issue center-stage  Attorney General Robert Kennedy used the Justice Department to force compliance with desegregation orders.

Freedom Rides

• • The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored a freedom ride of biracial teams to ride interstate buses in the South. The FBI and Justice Department knew of the plans but were absent when mobs firebombed a bus and severely beat the Freedom Riders.

Freedom Rides (cont'd)

• • There was violence and no police protection at other stops. A Freedom Riders ’ bus burns, May 14, 1961.

Bus burns after being firebombed

Freedom Rides

• • • The Kennedy administration was forced to mediate a safe conduct for the riders, though 300 people were arrested. A Justice Department petition led to new rules that effectively ended segregated interstate buses.

Violence in Alabama made it hard for northerners and moderates to ignore hardcore racism.

Freedom Rides (cont'd)

• Activists realized that moral persuasion alone would not bring change.

The Albany Movement: The Limits of Protest

• • • Where the federal government was not present, segregationists could triumph.

In Albany, Georgia, local authorities kept white mobs from running wild and kept police brutality down to a minimum. Martin Luther King, Jr. was twice arrested, but Albany remained segregated.

The Albany Movement: The Limits of Protest (cont

’

• Integration at the University of Mississippi led to a two-day riot with two killed and hundreds, including 160 federal marshals, hurt. • The violence only ended when JFK sent in Army troops.

The Movement at High Tide 1963–65

Part of the huge throng of marchers at the historic March on Washington

The Movement at High Tide, 1963-65

• After the events of 1960-62, Civil Rights movement leaders looked to build a national consensus by broadening their base of support.

Volunteers singing in front of a bus

Birmingham

• • In conjunction with the SCLC, local activists in Birmingham, Alabama, planned a large desegregation campaign. • Demonstrators, including Martin Luther King, Jr., filled the city ’ s jails. King drafted his Letter From a Birmingham Jail.

Birmingham (cont'd)

• • A TV audience saw water cannons and snarling dogs break up a children ’ s march.

A settlement was negotiated that desegregated businesses.

Birmingham (cont'd)

• • Violence continued when a church bombing killed four young black girls. Birmingham changed the nature of the civil rights movement by bringing in black unemployed and working poor for the first time.

JFK and the March on Washington

• • The shifting public consensus led President Kennedy to appeal for civil rights legislation. A. Philip Randolph ’ s old idea of a march on Washington was revived for August 1963. • The march presented a unified call for change and held up the dream of universal freedom and brotherhood.

JFK and the March on Washington (cont'd)

• King ’ s “ I Have a Dream ” speech electrified the audience of 250,000 and reached many Americans on television.

LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• • The assassination of John Kennedy threw a cloud over the movement as the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had never been a good friend to civil rights. LBJ used his skills as a political insider to push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that put a virtual end to Jim Crow.

LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (cont'd)

• Johnson realized Democrats would pay a high price as the law pushed the south toward the Republican Party.

Mississippi Freedom Summer

• 1964: Mississippi targeted for a “ freedom summer ”  900 volunteers come to open up this closed society  Two white activists and a local black activist were quickly killed.  Tensions between white volunteers and black movement veterans.  Riveted national

Mississippi Freedom Summer (cont'd)

• 1964: Mississippi targeted for a “ freedom summer ”  Efforts to integrate the state delegation at the Democratic National Convention were less successful, alienating some from the party.

Malcolm X and Black Consciousness

• Many younger civil rights activists were drawn to the vision of Malcolm X, who:   ridiculed integrationist goals urged black audiences to take pride in their African heritage  break free from white domination • He broke with the Nation of Islam, made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and returned to America with changed views.

Malcolm X and Black Consciousness (cont

’

• He sought common ground with the civil rights movement, but was murdered in 1965. • Even in death, he continued to point to a new black consciousness, foreshadowing “ Black Power.

”

Malcolm X

Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

• • In Selma, Alabama, whites had kept blacks off the voting lists and brutally responded to protests. • A planned march to Montgomery ended when police beat marchers. Just when it appeared the Selma campaign would fade, a white gang attacked a group of Northern whites who had come to help out, one of whom died.

Impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (cont'd)

• • • President Johnson addressed the nation and thoroughly identified himself with the civil rights cause, declaring “ we shall overcome.

” The march went forward.

In August 1965, LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act that authorized federal supervision of voter registration in the South.

MAP 28.2 Impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Civil Rights Beyond Black and White

• The civil rights movement inspired other minorities to adopt more militant strategies in pursuit of their civil rights and immigration reform:  Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Japanese Americans and American Indians.

Voting rights demonstrators in front of the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery.

Delegates to the 1948 National Convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens met in Kingsville, Texas.

Mexican Americans & Mexican Immigrants

• • Mexican Americans formed groups to fight for their rights and used the courts to challenge discrimination. Legal and illegal Mexican migration increased dramatically during and after WWII. During the 1950s, efforts to round up undocumented immigrants led to a denial of basic civil rights and a distrust of Anglos.

Mexican Americans & Mexican Immigrants (cont'd)

• By the 1960s the la raza movement began to stress Mexican ’ s shared heritage.

Puerto Ricans

• • • Although Puerto Rican communities had been forming since the 1920s, the great migration came after WWII.

Despite being citizens, Puerto Ricans faced both economic and cultural discrimination. In the 1960s and 1970s, the decline in manufacturing jobs and urban decay severely hit them.

Puerto Ricans (cont'd)

• Like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans became more culturally conscious, calling for bilingual education.

Japanese Americans

• The harsh relocation program devastated the Japanese American community, but the war on Nazism weakened racism.

• • During the 1950s, Congress removed the old ban against Japanese immigration and naturalization. • By 1965 some 46,000 immigrant Japanese had taken citizenship oaths.

Indian Peoples

• • During the 1950s, Congress passed a series of termination bills that ended tribal rights in return for cash payments and division of tribal assets. Indian activists challenged government policies leading to court decisions that reasserted the principle of tribal sovereignty.

Indian Peoples (cont'd)

• Reservation Indians remained trapped in poverty.

Indian Peoples

• • Indians who had left the reservation lost much of their tribal identities.

Urban Indian groups arose and focused on civil instead of tribal rights.

Remaking the Golden Door: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

• 1965: Congress abolished all origin quotas and substituted overall hemispheric limits.

 The consequences for the Asian American community were profound.

 Hemispheric quotas replaced national quotas, leading to massive illegal immigration from Latin America.

 By the 1980s, Asians and Latinos dominated immigration.

Conclusion

The Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1966

• Beginning in Montgomery in 1955 and continuing through the 1960s, the mass movement for civil rights transformed American society and politics.

The Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1966 (cont

’

• Using the Constitution, the courts, and federal law, the legal equality of blacks was assured, but by 1967 continuing poverty and lack of opportunities in the black community led many, including Dr. King, to begin shifting focus to economic equality, a problem that would prove far more difficult to solve than legal segregation.

Chronology