Transcript Leaders Of The Civil Rights Movement

Leaders Of The Civil
Rights Movement
American History
"The Rex
theater for
Negro
People."
Leland,
Mississippi,
November
1939.
Marion Post
Wolcott,
photographer.
"A cafe near the tobacco market." Durham, North Carolina. May 1940.
The Civil Rights Movement prior to 1954
Pre-1900
To 1930
• Opposition to
slavery in
colonial days
• Booker T.
Washington and
W.E.B. Du Bois
• Abolition
movement and
Civil War
• Founding of the
NAACP in 1909
• Legalized racism
after
Reconstruction
To 1940
• A. Philip Randolph
forced a federal ban
against
discrimination in
defense work.
• 1940s founding of
CORE
• African Americans
• President Truman
suffered worse
desegregated the
than others
armed forces.
during the Great
Depression.
• Brooklyn Dodgers
• 1896 Plessy v.
Ferguson allowed • Roosevelt
the segregation
unwilling to push
of African
too hard for
Americans and
greater African
whites.
American rights.
put an African
American—Jackie
Robinson—on its
roster.
Seeking Change in the Courts
The NAACP attacked racism through the courts.
In the 1930s Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood
Marshall began a campaign to attack the concept of “separate
but equal.”
The NAACP began to chip away at the 1896
Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v.
Ferguson—the legal basis for segregation.
Examples:
• 1938 – Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada,
Registrar of the University of Missouri
• 1950 – Sweatt v. Painter
· With help from the NAACP, the case of Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka reached the
Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of
Plessy v. Ferguson.
· In the case, Oliver Brown challenged that his
daughter, Linda, should be allowed to attend an allwhite school near her home instead of the distant allblack school she had been assigned to.
Linda Brown was in
the third grade when
her father began his
class action lawsuit.
Oliver Brown
was a welder for
the Santa Fe
Railroad and a
part-time
assistant pastor
at St. John
African
Methodist
Episcopal
Church.
· Brown’s lawyer,
Thurgood Marshall,
argued that “separate”
could never be
“equal” and that
segregated schools
violated the
Fourteenth
Amendment’s
guarantee to provide
“equal protection” to
all citizens.
Standing outside a
Topeka classroom in
1953 are the students
represented in Oliver
Brown et al. v. Board of
Education of Topeka,
From left: Vicki
Henderson, Donald
Henderson, Linda
Brown (Oliver's
daughter), James
Emanuel, Nancy Todd,
and Katherine Carper.
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court heard arguments over a two-year
period. The Court also considered research about
segregation’s effects on African American children.
In 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren issued the Supreme
Court’s decision.
All nine justices agreed that separate schools for African
Americans and whites violated the Constitution’s
guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Linda Brown and her new class mates after Court decision.
Integrated schools:
· In Little Rock,
Arkansas, Gov. Orval
Faubus opposed
integration.
· In 1957, he called out the National Guard in
order to prevent African Americans from
attending an all-white high school.
· Gov. Faubus was violating federal law.
· Therefore, Pres. Eisenhower sent troops to Little
Rock where, under their protection, the African
American students were able to enter Central High
School.
African American students
arriving at Central High
School, Little Rock,
Arkansas, in U.S. Army
car, 1957.
Members of the 101st US-Airborne Division
escorting the Little Rock Nine to school
The Little Rock Crisis
Integration
The Supreme Court’s ruling
did not offer guidance about
how or when desegregation
should occur.
Some states integrated
quickly. Other states faced
strong opposition.
Virginia passed laws that
closed schools who planned to
integrate.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, the
governor violated a federal
court order to integrate Little
Rock’s Central High School.
The Little Rock Nine
On September 4, 1957, angry
whites harassed nine black
students as they arrived at Little
Rock’s Central High School.
The Arkansas National Guard
turned the Little Rock Nine
away and prevented them from
entering the school for three
weeks.
Finally, Eisenhower sent U.S.
soldiers to escort the Little Rock
Nine into the school.
The events in Little Rock
revealed how strong racism was
in some parts of the country.
Montgomery, Alabama
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
• In 1955 a local NAACP member named Rosa Parks refused
to give her seat to white riders.
• The resulting Montgomery bus boycott led to a Supreme
Court ruling that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• African Americans formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, or SCLC, to protest activities taking place all
across the South.
• Martin Luther King Jr. was the elected leader of this
group—which was committed to mass, nonviolent action
Non-Violent Protests during
the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights workers used several direct, nonviolent
methods to confront discrimination and racism in the
late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Boycotts
• Sit-ins
• Freedom Rides
Many of these non-violent tactics were based on those of
Mohandas Gandhi—a leader in India’s struggle for
independence from Great Britain.
American civil rights leaders such as James Farmer of
CORE, Martin Luther King Jr. of SCLC, and others
shared Gandhi’s views.
James Lawson, an African American minister,
conducted workshops on nonviolent methods in
Nashville and on college campuses.
The Strategy of Nonviolence
The Sit-in Movement
Four college students in
Greensboro, North Carolina,
stayed in their seats at a
Woolworth’s lunch counter after
being refused service because of
their race.
Over the next few days,
protesters filled 63 of the 66
seats at the lunch counter.
The students were dedicated
and well-behaved and ended
each sit-in with a prayer.
Over time, protesters in about
50 southern cities began to use
the sit-in tactic.
The Freedom Rides
In 1960 the Supreme Court
ordered that bus station facilities
for interstate travelers must be
open to all passengers. But this
ruling was not enforced.
CORE sent a group of Freedom
Riders on a bus trip through the
South to draw attention to this
situation.
Mobs angry at the Freedom
Riders attempts to use white-only
facilities firebombed a bus in
Anniston, Alabama and attacked
riders with baseball bats and
metal pipes in Birmingham.
Integration of Higher Education in the South
By 1960 the NAACP began to attack segregation in colleges and
universities.
In 1961 a court order required the University of Georgia to admit
two African American students.
• Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes suffered but both
graduated in 1963.
In 1962 James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of
Mississippi.
• He arrived on campus with 500 federal marshals and was
met by 2,500 violent protesters.
• President Kennedy went on national television to announce
that he was sending in troops.
• The troops ended the protest but hundreds had been injured
and two killed.
• A small force of marshals remained to protect Meredith until
he graduated in 1963.
In 1963 the governor of Alabama physically blocked Vivian
Malone and James Hood from enrolling at the University of
Alabama.
The Birmingham Campaign
The Campaign
Martin Luther King raised money
to fight Birmingham’s segregation
laws.
The Results
Volunteers began with sit-ins and A SCLC leader convinced King to
marches and were quickly
arrested.
King hoped this would motivate
more people to join the protests.
White clergy attacked King’s
actions in a newspaper ad.
King wrote his “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.”
Fewer African Americans
were
willing to join and risk their jobs.
use children for his protests.
More than 900 children between
ages six and eighteen were
arrested.
Police Chief Eugene “Bull”
Connor used police and fire
fighters to break up a group of
about 2,500 student protesters.
The violence of Connor’s
methods was all over the
television news.
Federal negotiators got the city
officials to agree to many of King’s
demands.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Kennedy
•
The events in Alabama convinced President Kennedy to
act on civil rights issues.
•
Kennedy announced that he would ask for legislation to
finally end segregation in public accommodations.
Medgar Evers
•
Medgar Evers, the head of the NAACP in Mississippi,
was shot dead in his front yard.
•
Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith was tried for
the crime but all-white juries failed to convict.
March on Washington
•
On August 28, 1963, the largest civil rights
demonstration ever held in the United States took place
in Washington.
•
More than 200,000 people marched and listened to
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Passing the Civil Rights Act
President Johnson supported passage of a
strong civil rights bill.
Some southerners in Congress fought hard to
kill his bill.
Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
into law on July 2, 1964.
The law banned discrimination in
employment and in public accommodations.
Gaining Voting Rights for African Americans
in the South
Voting rights for African Americans were achieved at
great human cost and sacrifice.
President Kennedy was worried about the violent
reactions to the nonviolent methods of the civil rights
movement.
• Attorney General Robert Kennedy urged SNCC leaders
to focus on voter registration rather than on protests.
• He promised that the federal government would protect
civil rights workers if they focused on voter registration.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawed the practice
of taxing citizens to vote.
Hundreds of people volunteered to spend their
summers registering African Americans to vote.
Gaining Voting Rights
Registering Voters
SNCC, CORE, and other
groups founded the Voter
Education Project (VEP) to
register southern African
Americans to vote.
Opposition to African
American suffrage was great.
Mississippi was particularly
hard—VEP workers lived in
daily fear for their safety.
VEP was a success—by 1964
they had registered more than
a half million more African
American voters.
Twenty-fourth Amendment
Congress passed the Twentyfourth Amendment in August
1962.
The amendment banned
states from taxing citizens to
vote—for example, poll taxes.
It applied only to elections for
president or Congress.
Gaining Voting Rights
Freedom Summer
Hundreds of college students
volunteered to spend the
summer registering African
Americans to vote.
The project was called
Freedom Summer.
Most of the trainers were from
poor, southern African
American families.
Most of the volunteers were
white, northern, and upper
middle class.
Volunteers registered voters or
taught at summer schools.
Crisis in Mississippi
Andrew Goodman, a
Freedom Summer volunteer,
went missing on June 21,
1964.
Goodman and two CORE
workers had gone to inspect a
church that had recently been
bombed.
President Johnson ordered a
massive hunt for the three
men. Their bodies were
discovered near Philadelphia,
Mississippi.
21 suspects were tried in
federal court for violating civil
rights laws.
The Voting Rights Act
Selma Campaign
• King organized
marches in Selma,
Alabama, to gain
voting rights for
African Americans.
• King and many
other marchers
were jailed.
• Police attacked a
march in Marion.
• King announced a
four-day march
from Selma to
Montgomery.
Selma March
• 600 African
Americans began
the 54-mile
march.
• City and state
police blocked
their way out of
Selma.
• TV cameras
captured the
police using
clubs, chains,
and electric
cattle prods on
the marchers.
Voting Rights Act
• President
Johnson asked
for and received
a tough voting
rights law.
• The Voting
Rights Act of
1965 passed in
Congress with
large majorities.
• Proved to be one
of the most
important pieces
of civil rights
legislation ever
passed
Fractures in the Movement
Black Power
• Stokely
Carmichael
became the head
of SNCC.
• SNCC abandoned
the philosophy of
nonviolence.
• Black Power
became the new
rallying cry.
• Wanted African
Americans to
depend on
themselves to
solve problems.
Black Muslims
Black Panthers
• The Black Panther
Party was formed
in Oakland,
California, in 1966.
• Called for violent
revolution as a
means of African
American
liberation.
• Members carried
guns and
monitored African
American
neighborhoods to
guard against
police brutality.
• Nation of Islam
was a large and
influential group
who believed in
Black Power.
• Message of black
nationalism, selfdiscipline, and
self-reliance.
• Malcolm X
offered message
of hope, defiance,
and black pride
The Death of Martin Luther King Jr.
King became aware that economic issues must be part of
the civil rights movement.
King went to Memphis, Tennessee to help striking
sanitation workers. He led a march to city hall.
James Earl Ray shot and killed King as he stood on the
balcony of his motel.
Within hours, rioting erupted in more than 120 cities.
Within three weeks, 46 people were dead, some 2,600
were injured, and more than 21,000 were arrested.
The Movement Moves North
The riots convinced King that the civil rights movement
needed to move north. He focused on Chicago in 1966.
The eight month Chicago campaign was one of King’s
biggest failures.
Chicago’s African Americans did not share his civil rights
focus—their concerns were economic.
King discovered that some northern whites who had
supported him and criticized racism in the South had no
interest in seeing it exposed in the North.
Civil Rights Changes in the 1970s
Civil Rights Act of 1968—banned discrimination in the sale or
rental of housing (also called the Fair Housing Act)
Busing and political change—to speed the integration of city
schools, courts began ordering that some students be bused from
their neighborhood schools to schools in other areas
• Busing met fierce opposition in the North.
• Busing was a major cause of the migration of whites from cities
to suburbs.
• This development increased the political power of African
Americans in the cities.
Affirmative action—programs that gave preference to minorities
and women in hiring and admissions to make up for past
discrimination against these groups
The New Black Power
Black Power took on a new form and meaning in the 1970s.
African Americans became the majority in many counties in the South.
African Americans were elected to public office.
African Americans who played roles in the civil rights movement
provided other services to the nation
• Thurgood Marshal became Supreme Court’s first African American
justice.
• John Lewis represented the people of Alabama in Congress.
• Andrew Young became Georgia’s first African American
member of Congress since Reconstruction, U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, and mayor of Atlanta.
• Jesse Jackson founded a civil rights organization called
Operation PUSH and campaigned for the Democratic presidential
nomination in the 1980s.
Jackie Robinson 42
Born in Cairo, Georgia, in
1919.
Robinson’s family moved to
California after his father
deserted the family.
At the University of
California in Los Angeles,
Robinson starred in football,
track, basketball and
baseball.
In 1944, Robinson played in
the Negro leagues on a team
called the Kansas City
Monarchs.
Playing for the Dodgers
Branch Rickey, president and General Manager
of the Brooklyn Dodgers, noticed Robinson’s
exceptional talent.
In 1946 Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson.
Jackie Robinson, at the age of 27, became the first
Black Baseball player in Major League history.
Jackie’s Courage
Jackie Robinson faced
virulent racism.
Members of his own team
refused to play with him.
Opposing pictures tried to
beam his head, while base
runners tried to spike
him.
He received hate mail and
death threats daily.
Fans shouted Racist
remarks at him in every
ball park.
Hotels and restaurants
refused to serve him
Teammates
One game in Cincinnati the crowd was especially
insulting. They were yelling unimaginable
insults at Jackie Robinson.
Jackie’s teammate Pee Wee Reese recognized
that the crowd was getting to Jackie.
Pee Wee Reese walked across the field and put
his arm around Jackie. The two smiled at each
other. Their compassion silenced the crowd.
Jackie and Civil Rights
Jackie Robinson’s Actions effected the world
far beyond Major League Baseball.
His courage and discipline in standing up
against racism were a preview of the actions
taken by many members of The Civil Rights
Movement.
The success of the Jackie Robinson
experiment was a testament to fact that
integration could exist.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was born on
February 4, 1913. She grew
up in Pine Level, Alabama,
right outside of Montgomery.
In the South, Jim Crowe laws
segregated African
American’s and whites in
almost every aspect of life.
• This included a seating
policy on buses. White’s
sat in the front, Blacks
sat in the back.
• Buses also drove White
students to school. Black
students were forced to
walk everyday.
Events Leading Up To
Rosa’s Protest
Parks was an active member of The Civil
Rights Movement and joined the
Montgomery chapter of NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People) in 1943.
In 1944 Jackie Robinson refused to give up
his bus seat in Texas.
In 1955, Black Activist in Montgomery were
building a case around Claudette Colvin, a
15 year old girl who refused to give up her
seat on a bus. She was arrested and forcibly
removed from the bus.
African Americans made up 75% of the
passengers in the Bus system but still had to
deal with unfair rules.
The Arrest
On December 1, 1955
Rosa Parks refused
to give up her seat to
a White man on a
bus.
Parks was arrested
and charged with the
violation of a
segregation law in
The Montgomery City
Code.
50 African American
leaders in the
community met to
discuss what to do
about Rosa’s arrest.
“People always say that I
didn't give up my seat because
I was tired, but that isn't true.
I was not tired physically, or
no more tired than I usually
was at the end of a working
day. I was not old, although
some people have an image of
me as being old then. I was
forty-two. No, the only tired I
was, was tired of giving in.” Rosa Parks Autobiography
Montgomery Bus
Boycott
On December 5, 1955,
through the rain, the
African Americans in
Montgomery began to
boycott the busses.
40,000 Black
commuters walked to
work, some as far as
twenty miles.
The boycott lasted 382
days.
The bus companies
finances struggled.
Until the law that called
for segregation on
busses was finally lifted.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia.
Graduated Morehouse College with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology.
Later, at Boston University, King
received a Ph.D. in systematic theology.
In 1953, at the age of 26, King
became pastor at the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomery Alabama.
His start as a Civil Rights
leader came during the
Montgomery
Bus Boycott.
Career As A Leader
In 1955 he became involved in The Montgomery
Bus Boycott. The Boycott was the start to his
incredible career as the most famous leader of the
Civil Rights movement.
He went on to deliver numerous powerful speeches
promoting peace and desegregation.
During The March On Washington he delivered one
of the most famous speeches of 20th century titled,
“I Have A Dream”
Before he was assassinated in 1968, he won the
Nobel Peace Prize.
Civil Disobedience
In 1957 King helped found the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC).
 A group that used the authority and



power of Black churches to organize
non-violent protest to support the
Civil Rights Movement.
King believed in the philosophy used
by Gandhi in India known as
nonviolent civil disobedience. He
applied this philosophy to protest
organized by the SCLC.
The civil disobedience led to media
coverage of the daily inequities
suffered by Southern Blacks.
The televised segregation violence led
to mass public sympathy. The Civil
Rights Movement became the most
important political topic during the
early 60’s.
Letter From a Birmingham
Jail
King, wrote the letter after being arrested at a peaceful
protest in Birmingham, Alabama.
 The letter was in response to a letter sent to him by
eight Alabama Clergymen called, “A Call For Unity.”
 The men recognized that injustices were occurring in
Birmingham but believed that the battles for freedom
should be fought in the courtroom in not in the streets.
 In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King
justified civil disobedience by saying that without
forceful action, true civil rights would never be
achieved. Direct action is justified in the face of unjust
laws.
Letters From a Birmingham
Jail (cont.)
In the letter King justifies civil disobedience in the town of
Birmingham.
 “I cannot sit idly in Atlanta and not be concerned about
what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere.”
 “There can be no gain saying the fact that racial
injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is
probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the
United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely
known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust
treatment in the courts.”
 “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.
The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”
 “We know through painful experience that freedom is
never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be
demanded by the oppressed.
 “Wait has almost always meant 'never.‘”
March On Washington
More than 20,000 Black
and White Americans
celebrated in a joyous day
of song, prayer and
speeches.
The march was lead by a
group of important clergy
men, civil rights leaders,
and politicians.
Martin Luther King’s “I
Have A Dream” speech
was the climax of the day.
I Have A Dream Speech
In a powerful speech,
Martin Luther King Jr.
stated eloquently that he
desired a world were
Black’s and whites to
coexist equally.
King’s speech was a
rhetoric example oh the
Black Baptist sermon style.
The speech used The Bible,
The Declaration of
Independence, The United
States Constitution and
The Emancipation
Proclamation as sources.
He also used an incredible
number of symbols in his
poetic address.
I Have A Dream Speech
(cont.)
The powerful words of Martin Luther King Jr.
 “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal.’”
 “I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will
be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”
 “I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.”
 “black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands
and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free
at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free
at last!"
Ruby Bridges
 In 1960, at the age of 6, Ruby Bridges became the first



black elementary school child to attend a white
school.
Due to White opposition of integration, Ruby needed
to be escorted to school by federal marshals.
After Ruby entered the school, many of the teachers
refused to teach and many of the White students went
home.
Ruby went to school everyday.
The Problem We All Live With, By Norman Rockwell
Malcolm X
X Born in Omaha Nebraska, Malcolm Little was
the son of a Baptist preacher who urged Blacks
to stand up for their rights.
X His father was killed by White Supremacist in
Michigan, in 1931.
X After time, Malcolm moved to Harlem where he
became involved in gambling, drug dealing and
robbery.
X Malcolm Was Arrested at the age
of 20 for armed robbery. In jail
he studied the teaching of the
Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm X: The Activist
X Malcolm X made constant
accusations of racism and
demanded violent actions
of self defense.
X He constantly retold the
injustices his people
suffered in the past.
X Malcolm X gathered wide
spread admiration from
African American’s and
wide spread fear from
Whites. However White
college students could not
ignore the harsh realities of
his preaching's.
Malcolm X Speaks, 1965
X “Nobody can give you
freedom. Nobody can
give you equality or
justice or anything. If
you're a man, you take
it.”
X “You can't separate peace
from freedom because no
one can be at peace
unless he has his
freedom.”
Malcolm X Quotes (On King)
X He got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If
I'm following a general, and he's leading me into
a battle, and the enemy tends to give him
rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him.
Especially if he gets a peace award before the
war is over.
X I'll say nothing against him. At one time the
whites in the United States called him a
racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then
the Black Muslims came along and the whites
thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King.
X I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to
Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come
thinking I could make it easier. If the white
people realize what the alternative is, perhaps
they will be more willing to hear Dr. King.
X Dr. King wants the same thing I want -freedom!
Black Power
Black Power is a term that emphasizes racial
pride and the desire for African Americans to
achieve equality.
The term promotes the creation of Black political
and social institutions.
The term was popularized by Stokely Carmichael
during The Civil Rights Movement.
Many SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee) members were becoming critical of
leaders that articulated non-violent responses to
racism.
Stokely
Carmichael
Black Panther Party
U.S. African American Militant group.
Founded in 1966 in Oakland.
Led by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Believed violent revolution was the only
way to receive freedom.
Urged African Americans to arm
themselves.
The Violent Panthers
In the late 60’s party
leaders got involved in
violent confrontations
with the police.
 The results was death on
both sides.
Huey Newton was tried
in 1967 for killing a
police officer.
Black Panther activist
Bobby Seale, was a
member of the Chicago
Eight.
 A group of eight people
who disrupted the 1968
Democratic convention.
Conclusion
During The American Civil Rights Movement
many different and unique leaders and groups
came to power.
Some preached violence, some preached peace,
some preached protest and some preached
resilience.
However, every leader had one thing in
common. They all wanted freedom and they all
wanted equality for their race.
Today we celebrate the leaders struggles
because it was there work that got us to the
point we are at today.
Now, not everything is completely equal. But it
is clear that we have come a long way since
Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Washington
and cried out, “I Have A Dream”
The
End