Transcript The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights
Movement
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Topic: Social Transformations in the United States (1945-1994)
A period of post-war prosperity allowed the United States to
undergo fundamental social change. Adding to this change was
an emphasis on scientific inquiry, the shift from an industrial to a
technological/service economy, the impact of mass media, the
phenomenon of suburban and Sun Belt migrations, the increase
in immigration and the expansion of civil rights.
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Content Statements:
23. Following World War II, the United States experienced a
struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil
rights.
Ohio Standards
1. What are civil rights?
2. What were the key events that brought the
Civil Rights Movement national attention?
3. What were the goals of the Civil Rights Movement?
4. What were the strategies of the movement?
5. In what ways did the movement succeed and fail?
Essential Questions
Founding principle of the US
Yet blacks were treated unequally and declared
unequal by the law.
 Unable to sleep in most hotels
 Unable to eat in most restaurants
 Most sit in the balcony in movie theaters and in
the back of the bus
 …
“All Men are Created
Equal”
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1950’s
Ordinary men and women challenge this “way
of life”
Boycotts
Marches
Protests
Most say the Civil Rights Movement began in
the 50’s and ended in the late 60’s, but it started
much earlier.
Early Struggles
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1600’s
Africans were brought to America as
indentured servants but within a few years
were forced into slavery.
By 1860 the US had about 4 million slaves.
The US had a feeling of white superiority, we
had slave codes to govern the millions of slaves
Blacks could not own property, buy or sell
goods, make contracts, have a gun, assemble
without a white person present…
Early Resistance
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1807- 2 boat loads of slaves starved themselves to death so
they would not be sold into slavery.
Amistad slave ship, 1839- mutinied
Nat Turner’s rebellion- 70 slaves killed 57 whites in Virginia.
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad led 300
slaves to freedom.
Frederick Douglass fought his cruel master and escaped.
Taught himself to read and write and became the leading
spokesman.
Sojourner Truth- defied segregation laws
These early activists would inspire others 100 years later.
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By 1792 they were in every state
They wrote and spoke about the Abolitionist
Movement
Gave shelter to escaped slaves
Helped elect a president who would eventually
free the slaves.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, 200,000
blacks left their masters and fought with the
Union army.
Anti-Slavery Societies
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13th- ended slavery
14th- gave blacks citizenship and protected their
rights
15th- right to vote.
Reconstruction let blacks see what freedom was
about, but it was short-lived.
Whites (especially in the South) wanted to keep
blacks poor, uneducated and powerless.
KKK
The Civil War
Amendments
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Firmly in control by 1910
Separate restrooms, water fountains, schools…
1896- Plessy v Ferguson- “separate but equal”
Jim Crow Laws
“So far as the colored people
of the country are concerned,
the Constitution is but a
stupendous sham… fair
without and foul within,
keeping the promise to the
eye and breaking it to the
heart.”
Frederick Douglass
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Black
Harvard-educated sociologist
“American society must be transformed
if blacks are to achieve full equality.”
Established the NAACP in 1909
Began documenting racial violence
Published a magazine (Crisis)
W.E.B. DuBois
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Blacks in the war and working in war-related
industries yet mob violence against AfricanAmericans was growing.
Lynchings
NAACP has a silent march against lynchings
(10,000)
Klan march on Washington in 1925 (40,000)
WWI era
Black creativity
 Painters, writers, musicians,
poets..
 Express dignity and defiance
in their work
 Showed a deep awareness of
the impact of racism
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Harlem Renaissance
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Jamaica
United Negro Improvement Association
Black pride building a black nation in Africa
Later convicted of fraud and deported in 1927.
Black pride and black self-sufficiency led to a
new movement  black Nation of Islam (Elijah
Muhammad and Malcolm X)
Marcus Garvey
Black leaders were some of FDR’s advisors
 New Deal programs made available to blacks
 No racial discrimination in defense industries
 But when blacks returned to the US after WWII
they remained victims of racism at home
 Black leaders need new strategies to bring
democracy to America.
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FDR
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1.
2.
3.
Non-violence
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decides to
use non-violence in America.
Training and discussion
Blacks and whites enter segregated
restaurants, quietly sit down and refuse to
leave until served.
They would not raise their voices or strike
back.
Gandhi
Six Principles of Nonviolence
1. Nonviolence is not passive, but requires courage.
2. Nonviolence seeks reconciliation, not defeat of an adversary.
3. Nonviolent action is directed at eliminating evil, not
destroying an evil-doer.
4. A willingness to accept suffering for the cause, if necessary,
but never to inflict it.
5. A rejection of hatred, animosity or violence of the spirit, as
well as refusal to commit physical violence.
6. Faith that justice will prevail.
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Interstate busses have outlawed segregation in
1946
CORE wants to see if the new rules are being
obeyed.
Blacks and whites rode together on busses
through the south and endured harassment
without retaliating.
CORE sit-ins and Freedom Rides of the 40’s led
to the civil rights activists of the 50’s and 60’s.
More on CORE
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Harry Truman integrates the armed
forces after WWII
Civil rights Commission established
Early Civil Rights
Victories
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Blacks moved north in record
numbers
What 2 reasons?
1940-1960- 5 million blacks leave
the south
Still faced with poverty, unequal
education and discrimination in
the north but racial restrictions
were less harsh.
Blacks could vote in northern
states.
Great Migration
A movement of the People
Linda Brown’s parents don’t
want her to go to a rundown
black school when there was
a nice white school in their
neighborhood.
 Topeka, Kansas
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{
Brown vs. Board of
Education
Blacks all over the country
were angered over the
conditions of the black
schools.
 NAACP decided it was not
enough to fight for equal
facilities… they want all
schools INTEGRATED
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{
NAACP takes the lead
NAACP takes 4 cases
to argue that
segregation was
unconstitutional.
 They lose in the
lower courts but win
in the Supreme
Court.
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{
If at first you don’t succeed…
“Segregated schools are inherently
unequal”
 “To separate black children solely
because of their race, generates a
feeling of inferiority as to their
status in the community that may
affect their hearts and minds in a
way very unlikely ever to be
undone.”
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U.S. Supreme Court
Southerners do not believe
that blacks deserve the same
education as whites.
 They do not want their
children attending the same
schools.
 Southern governors state
they will not abide by the
ruling.
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{
Enrage in the south
Montgomery, Alabama
 Want fair treatment on city
buses. (Blacks were 75% of
the bus riders)
 Blacks entered the bus in the
front and paid then reentered from the rear where
they would sit in the
“colored seats”
 If white seats were full,
blacks had to give up their
seats.
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City Busing
{
Many were arrested for
refusing to give up their
seats.
 One man was shot dead by
the police after an argument
with a bus driver.
 Blacks were jammed
together in the isles while
rows of “white” seats were
empty,
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{
Dept. store seamstress
 Trained in non-violence and
civil disobedience
 Dec. 1, 1955
 Bus was full and then a
white man boarded.
 Driver stopped the bus and
ordered Rosa and 3 others to
vacate a row so the white
man could sit down.
 3 of the blacks stood up,
Rosa would not and was
arrested.
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Rosa Parks
{
Boycott suggested
 Women’s Political council
organizes it
 Worked with black students
 MLK selected as the leader
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Bus Boycott
{
Holt Street Baptist
Church
{
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=GGtp7kCi_LA
381 days
 Blacks would not ride the
buses in Montgomery
 Car pools, walked..
 Non-violent
 MLK’s house was bombed
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{
Montgomery Bus Boycott
US Supreme Court outlaws
bus segregation (Dec. 1956)
 Showed the south that
blacks could unite and
launch a successful protest
movement.
 King goes on to establish the
SCLC (Southern Christian
Leadership Conference)
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Victory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7da7I6BxrU
{
Whites fight back
 Expel students
 Close public schools to
avoid integration
 Swimming pools filled
and tennis courts closed
 Removed library seats
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{
Now to other public facilities
1957, Governor Faubus
orders troops to surround
Central High School to keep
9 black teenagers from
entering. He wants schools
segregated!!
 Federal judge ordered him
to let the students in
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Little Rock 9
{
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The next day Elizabeth Eckford
tried again but was turned away
by the National Guard.
Faubus again is ordered to let the
students into the school.
Faubus removes the troops but
will give the students no
protection.
Students go to their first class but
are removed after it because of the
mob scene outside the school.
{
Elizabeth Eckford
President Eisenhower must
send in federal troops to
protect the students.
 They will stay for the entire
school year.
 The next year Faubus shuts
down all public schools
rather than integrate them.
 A year later, the Supreme
Court rules that “evasive
schemes” could not be used
to avoid integration. The
Little Rock schools were
finally opened to black and
white students.
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{
Eisenhower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iH4Zx96xbY&list
=PLC388F5621BBD47DB&index=28
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Meredith decided to exercise his
constitutional rights and apply
to the University of Mississippi.
His goal was to put pressure on
the Kennedy administration to
enforce civil rights for African
Americans.
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Univ. of Miss. is a state
school, it gets federal
funds, so it must be
open to blacks.
1962- James Meredith
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Meredith is denied admission
twice.
Filed a suit in a district court
stating the only reason he was
denied was his color.
Supreme Court says he is
allowed to be admitted.
Miss. governor Ross Barnett,
tried to block him by having
the Legislature pass a law that
“prohibited any person who
was convicted of a state crime
from admission to a state
school.”
The law was directed at
Meredith, who had been
convicted of “false voter
registration.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VvNkTXVCM
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After talking to RFK, Barnett lets
Meredith enroll.
Riots begin. US Marshalls and
National Guard sent in.
Hundreds injured, 2 dead.
Many students harassed
Meredith during his two
semesters on campus but others
accepted him.
Students living in Meredith's
dorm bounced basketballs on the
floor just above his room through
all hours of the night. Other
students ostracized him: when
Meredith walked into the
cafeteria for meals, the students
eating would turn their backs. If
Meredith sat at a table with other
students, all of whom were
white, the students would
immediately get up and go to
another table
Meredith graduates. Majored in
Political Science.
Invite confrontation but
remain nonviolent
Greensboro, NC
 Woolworth store
 4 black students purchase
some school supplies and
then head to the lunch
counter and order coffee.
 Told by the waitress, ”We
don’t serve colored here.”
 They kept their seats until
the store closed.
 The next day 19 more
students joined in, sitting in
shifts at the lunch counter
 Spreads throughout NC
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{
Sit-in’s
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Within a year 70,000 people
had participated in sit-in’s
Integration happened quietly
and easily in some states, but
not in the Deep South.
Activists were spit on, kicked,
had food thrown on them,
burned with cigarettes…
Many of the students were
arrested or expelled from
school.
SNCC formed. Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee. They were
becoming impatient with the
slow changes and wanted to
lead themselves.
{
Sit in’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Xbbcjn4d1cE
Led the SNCC
 “It is honorable to go to jail
for the cause of equality.”
 Nonviolence was effective
 Protestors were hit with fists
and clubs simply for trying
to exercise their rights.
 Seeing these images upset
Americans and forced the
federal gov’t into action.
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{
James
Lawson
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Blacks and whites- 1961
They want to test a supreme
court order outlawing
segregation in bus terminals
Highly publicized
They pull into Alabama on a
bus and are confronted with a
mob of white men carrying
pipes…
Bus driver drives off
The mob catches up with the
bus and smashes the windows
and throws in a firebomb.
As the bus was burning the
riders rush out of the bus into
the mob and were beaten.
{
Freedom
Rides (1)
Busload 2 pulls
into Alabama
 8 white men board
the bus and beat
all the occupants.
 Now on to
Birmingham, and
this time attacked
by a mob and no
policemen are
there to protect
them.
 Several
hospitalized.
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{
Freedom
Rides (2)
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Students in Nashville want to
finish the Freedom Rides.
Drove to Birmingham, arrested at
the bus station and driven back to
the Tenn. State line (at night).
They made their way back to
Birmingham and managed to get a
bus to Montgomery.
When the bus got to Montgomery
they were met by a mob of 1,000
whites who beat the freedom riders
without police interference.
Federal government must act to
protect them.
Robert Kennedy (AG) asks the
Interstate Commerce Commission
(ICC) to issue regulations against
segregated terminals.
{
Freedom
Ride (3)
Young protestors are
exposing the injustices of
segregation and forcing
the federal government to
defend constitutional
rights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zBY6gkpbTg
Freedom Rides
Birmingham
{
The South’s most segregated city also known as
Bombingham
MLK goes into Birmingham
to lead boycotts and
marches.
 Police commissioner “Bull”
Connor orders the police to
respond with force.
 Police use clubs, police dogs,
water guns…
 All seen on TV.
 Hundreds arrested,
including King.
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{
MLK
MLK revives Birmingham
 School children as young as
6 march
 They walk through the
police dogs and water hoses
and are arrested.
 Americans are horrified
 The federal government
comes to Alabama to work
out a settlement between
MLK and Birmingham’s
business community.
 Business community agrees
to integrate downtown
facilities and hire more
blacks.
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{
http://historicaltextarchive.com/se
ctions.php?action=read&artid=40
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Civil Rights are
spreading
{
JFK and reform
“We face … a moral crisis, a
great change is at hand, and our
task, our obligation, is to make
that revolution… peaceful and
constructive for all.”
Days later JFK sends a
comprehensive civil rights bill
to Congress.
JFK and Civil Rights
250,000
 August, 1963
 Lincoln Memorial
 “I Have a Dream Speech”
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{
March on Washington
Short version
{
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcbpGK9_aw
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wDU-oYQN04
3 weeks later 4 Sunday
School students were killed
by a dynamite explosion in
Birmingham, Alabama.
 2 months later President
Kennedy is assassinated
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{
This was a big step, but…
Outlawed segregation in
public accommodations
Sit-ins and freedom rides
validated.
Did not address the
problem of voting rights.
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1964 Civil Rights Act
Fighting for the Ballot
1963
 First black to fill out a voter
registration form in Holmes
County, Mississippi since
the turn of the century
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{
Hartman Turnbow
2 firebombs at his house two
days after registering to vote
 Tried to lead his wife and
daughter out of the house
but had to fight off a gang of
white men waiting outside.
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consequences
{
Turnbow and the voter
registration worker were
arrested for arson.
 Sheriff said they did it to
draw sympathy for the
voting rights campaign.
 By 1965 blacks were 50% of
the population of
Mississippi, but only 5%
were registered to vote. In
some counties no blacks
were registered.
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{
Dangerous business in the
south
 Elaborate regulations were
set
 Those who tried to vote
were punished.
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Voting
{
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Poll taxes
Literacy tests
Read and interpret sections
of the state constitution.
Blacks who
mispronounced a word
were rejected, whites were
approved even when they
could not read at all.
Local officials could purge
“unqualified voters”
{
Tactics to keep blacks
from voting
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Blacks who register can expect to lose their job.
Denied loans
Rents doubled
To intimidate further, Mississippi newspapers
printed all names of all voter applicants
Food cutoff in Mississippi for blacks in need
More tactics
Voter registration workers
were arrested for disturbing
the peace…
 But some blacks still risked
their lives to vote.
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Jail
{
The only way for blacks
to get their rights
protected was to vote.
Help blacks fill out voter
registration forms.
 Helped the poor get
government assistance
 Taught black children how
to read and write.
 Because of this voter
registration goes up.
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{
Voter registration projects
Bring attention to voter
rights abuses.
 College students brought to
Mississippi to register voters
and teach.
 If the white volunteers were
beaten maybe the country
would take notice.
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{
1964- Freedom Summer
Day 1- three civil rights
workers were kidnapped
and killed.
 By the end of the summer 37
black churches were burned.
30 homes bombed, 80 civil
rights workers beaten, more
than 1,000 arrested.
 The American public takes
an interest.
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{
Mississippi Burning
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80,000 blacks registered
The end of the summer
Also fighting for voting
rights.
 MLK and the national press
come to Selma
 Violence
 March from Selma to
Montgomery (4 days)
 “The Civil Rights Act of
1964 gave negroes some part
of their rightful dignity, but
without the vote it was
dignity without strength.”-MLK
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{
Selma,
Alabama
Viola Gregg Liuzzo, killed
while helping transport
Selma marchers.
 Rev. Reeb, beaten to death
on Selma street.
 In response to the killings
and the Selma march,
Congress passed the voting
Rights Act of 1965.
 Outlawed obstacles to
blacks voting and
authorized federal officials
to enforce fair voting
practices
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{
killings
Civil Rights Act of ‘64- federal
government can monitor school
integration and prosecute racially
motivated crimes.
 Voting Rights Act of ‘65- Federal
government can protect black
voters
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The legislation of the 60’s
Some blacks critical of MLK
 Some question nonviolence
 Others object to whites
being involved
 Some believe that blacks
should build their own
independent political
structures.
 Vietnam War took money
away from the war on
poverty
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Inner tensions
{
SNCC (student non-violent
coordinating committee)
 Want whites to leave the
organization
 “Black Power”
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{
Stokely Carmichael
Grew to 100,000 by 1970
 Black separatism
 Led by Elijah Muhammad
 Spokesman was Malcolm Xcriticized nonviolence.
 “It is criminal to teach a man
not to defend himself when
he is the constant victim of
brutal attacks.”
 Later he would renounce
violence and urged blacks
not to hate whites.
 Malcolm was assassinated in
Feb. 1965.
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{
Nation
of Islam
Some blacks not affected by
the successes of the Civil
Rights Movement
 In poverty, bad schools, no
jobs…
 Frustrated
 Riots develop ‘64-’67
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Cities erupt
{
MLK is planning for the
Poor People’s March- 1968
 While in Memphis, TN he
was shot and killed by
James Earl Ray (4-4-1968)
 US public turns against the
militant factions of the
movement
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{
New focus is urban blacks
Inequalities in housing
 Education
 Job opportunities
 Health care
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{
Today’s challenges
Blacks more likely to…
 live in poverty
 Die in infancy
 Drop out of school
 Earn less money
 work at lower skilled jobs
Statistics
Unfortunately
attitudes towards
blacks still exist.
{
But as we have learned ordinary
people can change their world.
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U2- Pride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mjwycKu
XA
Civil Rights opened the windows. When you open the
windows, it does not mean that everybody will get
through. We must create our own opportunities.
Mary Frances Berry
Essential Questions
1. What are civil rights?
{
Right or rights belonging to a person by reason of
citizenship including especially the fundamental
freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th
and 14th amendments and subsequent acts of
Congress including the right to legal , social and
economic equality.
2. What were the key events that brought
the Civil Rights Movement national
attention?
A. Brown v. Board of Education
B. Little Rock 9
C. Freedom Rides
D. Freedom Summer
E. Civil Rights Act of ‘64
F. Voting Rights Act of ’65
G. Montgomery Bus Boycott
H. Sit-ins
3. What were the goals of the Civil Rights
Movement?
The goals of the civil rights movement were meaningful civil
rights laws, a massive federal works program, full and fair
employment, decent housing, the right to vote, and adequate
integrated education.
The right to vote was passed and placed in the bill of rights (15th
amendment) in 1870 part of the reconstruction era. So during
1960's during the civil rights movement the right to vote was not
one of their goals because it was already in effect for African
Americans to vote.
•
4. What were the strategies used
in the Civil Rights Movement?
{
Nonviolence
boycotts, sit-ins
getting national attention
grassroots
5. In what ways did the
movement succeed and
fail?
SucceedFail-
Reflection
Given the chance to
participate in any of the
events of the Civil Rights
Movement, which events
would you participate in,
and why?
You are asked to speak at a
dedication of the memorial
to the victims who lost their
lives in the Civil Rights
Movement. What would
you say?