Transcript The Movement Gains Ground - Somerville Public Schools

QOD 3/12
• As the turning point of the Civil Rights
Movement, how did the success of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott influence other
events during the Civil Rights Movement?
The Movement Gains Ground
Focus Question:
How did the civil rights movement
gain ground in the 1960s?
Impact of Bus Boycott
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott influenced
African Americans in other Southern
states and cities to fight for desegregation
• Methods used:
– Boycott
– Sit-ins
-Courts
-Protests
-Marches
• ALL RELY ON NON-VIOLENCE
• Many protests lead by youth- WHY?
The Sit-In Movement
What do you see here?
Describe the people
.
Why aren’t they eating?
What are they doing?
How do you think other
Southerners would react to this?
Is this an effective protest
Against segregation?
Sit-Ins Challenge Segregation
February 1, 1960: Greensboro, NC
• Four African-Americans ordered doughnuts at
Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina
• Were not served-”White Only” lunch counter
• Stayed until closing time
• Word of sit-in spread
• Happened across the country
• Also, read-ins, wrote letters, protested
Youth Participation
Significance:
Marked the beginning of a new militancy,
vigorously active and aggressive,
especially in support of a cause
175 students met at Shaw University to build
on momentum
SNCC- Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
Led to founding of new civil
Rights organization—
SNCC
Led to Ella Baker
Goal: to create a grassroots
Movement involving all
classes
of African-Americans
The Freedom Rides
What do you see here?
What do you think happened?
Who were the bus’ passengers?
Who might bomb a bus of riders
nonviolently protesting
segregation?
How might the protestors have
felt
after their bus was bombed?
Freedom Rides--1961
• Next Battleground– Interstate
Transportation
• Why transportation?
– Federal Power
Transportation
Boynton v. Virginia-1960
• Supreme Court Case
• Segregation on interstate buses and
waiting rooms, illegal
• Infringement of Interstate Commerce
• Activists wanted to test willingness to
enforce the law– provoke the federal
government to enforce the law
Freedom Rides
1961: CORE, Congress of
Racial Equality, stages
“freedom ride”through
deep south
En route: defied
segregation codes
In Alabama: Violent turn
Pro-segregationists fire
Bombed bus, riders
attacked by mob
President John F. Kennedy
Elected in 1960
Worked with Martin Luther King
Mississippi state police
would protect freedom riders
Federal Transportation Commission issued an
order desegregating interstate transportation
Kennedy Administration agreed NOT to
intervene if protestors were arrested
QOD 3/17
• What was the purpose of the
Freedom Ride Protests?
Ole’ Miss
• 1962- James Meredith
– Air Force vet.
– Wants to attend Ole’ Miss
– All white school
– Miss. Governor says NO
– Federal Marshalls escort Meredith
– Riots break out
Demonstrations in Birmingham
What do you see here?
What is the African-American
man doing? The police officer?
Why is the police officer allowing
the dog to attack the man?
What do you think he has done?
How do you think the police
Officer feels about this?
Demonstrations in Birmingham
Martin Luther King and other leaders
targeted Birmingham in spring of 1963.
• Most segregated city in the south
• Began with sit-ins, led to demonstrations on city
hall
• 150 demonstrators arrested
• King was arrested and brought to jail on Good
Friday- Why symbolic?
King Arrested
Defended protestors actions
Criticized harsh tactics and broken promises
“When you suddenly find your
tongue twisted…to seek to explain
to your 6 yr. old daughter why she
can’t go to the amusement park…
(because) Funtown is closed to
colored children...”
Released from prison
Other Marches—
The Children’s March
3/18
• QOD: (Recap) Why did Civil
Rights leaders and activists
hold protests in Birmingham,
Alabama?
Kennedy Backs Civil Rights
June 11, 1963:
• National address
• Civil rights was a moral issue
• America had to fulfill its promise of “giving all
Americans equal right and equal opportunities
• Sent Congress proposal for sweeping civil rights
legislation
• Attorney General Robert Kennedy for passage of
the bill
March on Washington
• Purpose: Pressure Congress to pass a
new civil rights bill
“ I have a dream…”
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Bombing in Birmingham
• Violence still continues
• KKK bombed SCLC church, killing four
girls
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Banned segregation
• Gave federal gov’t ability to desegregate schools
• Allowed Attorney General to prosecute those who
violated people’s civil rights
• Outlawed discrimination in employment
• Established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC)
» President Kennedy assassinated before this bill was
passed
Not the First Time…
• President Eisenhower also created a Civil Rights Act in
1957
• However, this Civil Rights Act had many flaws
– Focused mainly on voting
– Never really enforced
– Even if it were to be enforced it would have been
brought before an all white jury in the South
• Still significant because it was the first Civil Rights bill
passed since Reconstruction & it set the tone for the
Civil Rights Act of 1964