Transcript Document

Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Building Background
After World War II, black soldiers who had risked their
lives to serve their country came home to face racial
discrimination. Such treatment angered many black
veterans. “I paid my dues over there,” said James
Hicks, “and I’m not going to take this anymore over
here.” Many black veterans joined with other African
Americans to push harder for equality. Their efforts
helped launch a civil rights movement that soon swept
the nation.
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
White Resistance
Continued Segregation
• Time of economic prosperity for
many white Americans; few black
Americans shared new wealth
• Strong white resistance to black
equality remained; particularly
evident in the South
• White citizens used unfair laws,
fear, and violence to try to keep
black citizens from voting or from
standing up for their rights
• Segregation major barrier to
equality for blacks
• Custom and laws separated black
and white Americans in schools,
housing, and jobs
• Segregation most rigid in the
South
• Jim Crow laws forced blacks to
use “colored only” facilities
• 1896 Supreme Court case
Plessy v. Ferguson established
the “separate but equal” doctrine
legalizing segregation
• Separate facilities rarely equal
• One glaring example of
inequality—the nation’s black
schools
• New generation of black leaders
began to fight segregation in
education
Holt African American History
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Challenging “Separate but Equal”
• NAACP lawyers won a series of court cases
• One victory was against the University of Missouri
– Lloyd Gaines refused admittance to law school because of his
race; instead the university offered to help pay for Gaines to go
to an out-of-state law school
– 1938 Gaines v. Canada; states had to provide equal educational
facilities within their borders
– Each state had to provide separate black schools—including law
schools—or admit black students to its white schools
• Victory a major step toward ending segregation in higher education;
but the University of Missouri created a black law school in St. Louis
• Gaines never attended; after disappearing in Chicago he was
presumed murdered
• Gaines’s disappearance is an unsolved case
Holt African American History
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Heman Sweatt
• 1946 another black student denied access to a law school
• Lower court ruled state of Texas to either establish a “separate but
equal” law school or the University of Texas to admit Sweatt
• A makeshift law school was created, but did not even come close to
being equal to the university’s prestigious all-white law school
Sweatt v. Painter
• NAACP appealed; in 1950 Marshall argued the case before the U.S.
Supreme Court
• In Sweatt v. Painter the Supreme Court ruled University of Texas
black law school was inferior to its white law school; Court ruled that
separate law schools hurt the education of black law students
• Victory forced nation’s graduate and professional schools to integrate
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Brown v. Board of Education
Key Court Cases
• 1954 Thurgood Marshall went
before the U.S. Supreme Court with
a case that forever changed
education in the United States
• Combination of court cases
challenging the constitutionality of
segregated public schools
Neighborhood Schools
• Went by name of Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas
• NAACP members tried to enroll
children in white neighborhood
schools; schools refused to admit
the black students, who had to
attend black schools farther away
Arguments
• Heard over two-year period
• Thurgood Marshall provided
research suggesting segregation
harmful to students’ self-image
• His research helped influence the
Court’s final decision
Unanimous Ruling in 1954
• Brown v. Board of Education, the
Court ruled the “separate but equal”
doctrine in the nation’s public
schools unconstitutional and
therefore racial segregation in
public schools was illegal
Holt African American History
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Crisis in Little Rock
School Integration Begins
• 21 states had laws segregating
public schools; mixed reaction to
the Brown decision in these states
• A few white leaders agreed to start
integrating public schools; other
white leaders strongly opposed
school integration
• In Virginia several white officials
pledged to join forces to block
school integration at all levels
• The Virginia legislature passed
laws forcing the closure of any
school that integrated
• Helped white students attend allwhite private schools
“All Deliberate Speed”
• By the end of 1954 only three
southern school districts had
desegregated
• In 1955 the U.S. Supreme Court
ordered public schools to
desegregate “with all deliberate
speed”
• Demonstrations against integration
took place in many parts of the
South
• In the end, President Eisenhower
and the federal government took
action after a crisis in Little Rock,
Arkansas
Holt African American History
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Little Rock Nine
• Little Rock planned to desegregate its public schools one at a time
– Fall 1957 the board allowed nine black students to attend the city’s white
Central High School; students became known as the Little Rock Nine
– The governor called out the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine
students from entering the white high school, claiming the action was
necessary to protect the school from white extremists who had threatened
violence
• On September 4, 1957, the first day of school, some local ministers brought
eight of the nine black students to Central High School
• While an angry white crowd confronted the students, the National Guard
barred the way and refused to let the students enter
• The ninth black student, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford arrived at the school
alone and was surrounded by a hostile white crowd
• When the National Guard turned her away from the school, someone in the
crowd began yelling, “Lynch her! Lynch her!”
Holt African American History
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Murder of Emmett Till
• Blacks remained second-class citizens to many, particularly in the South
• Nationwide attention focused with the 1955 murder of Emmett Till
– Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, had gone to Mississippi to visit his
great uncle; not knowing the South’s strict racial etiquette
– Soon after arriving in Mississippi, Till and other black teenagers went to a
small grocery owned by a young couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant
– Till made a comment to Carolyn Bryant and she took offense
• Historians do not know for certain what Till said but her husband found out
about the incident
• Four days later, Roy Bryant and his half brother kidnapped Till in the middle
of the night and murdered him
• Emmett Till’s mother insisted on an open casket so people could see what
had been done to her son
• Till’s senseless murder—and his killers’ acquittal by an all-white jury—
awakened more Americans to the racism that southern blacks faced
Holt African American History
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Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Building Background
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, civil rights
activists successfully ended segregation in the military,
public schools, and some professional sports. These
victories were just the beginning, however. As the drive
for equality gained momentum, civil rights activists
fought segregation in other areas of society, and a civil
rights movement developed.
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Protesting Segregated Transportation
The Supreme Court’s Brown decision striking down the “separate but equal”
doctrine in public schools had a major impact on American society. However,
segregation continued to be enforced in many other public places and facilities in
the South. One major area that remained segregated was public transportation.
Baton Rouge Bus Boycott
• Early 1950s civil rights leaders decided to organize boycotts of city buses
• Bus system in Baton Rouge reserved the first 10 seats for white passengers
and the rest of the seats for black passengers; black passengers had to stand
even if a “white” seat was available
• If a white passenger could not find a seat, a black passenger had to stand to
let the white passenger sit
• T. J. Jemison, a black minister, decided to oppose the bus system’s practice
of reserved seating; speaking out against the practice
• Baton Rouge council offered compromise—black passengers could sit in any
empty seat as long as no white passengers were standing
Holt African American History
Drivers on Strike
• Baton Rouge bus drivers refused
to enforce the new law
• Drivers went on strike when the
bus company pressured them
• Louisiana attorney general struck
down the Baton Rouge law,
stating that it violated state laws
enforcing segregation
• Bus drivers went back to work;
blacks in Baton Rouge outraged
• In protest, Jemison and Raymond
Scott, a black tailor, organized
boycott of the bus system
• The next day, African Americans
had stopped riding buses
Chapter 10
Boycott
• Boycott participants organized
carpools or walked, pooling their
money to pay for gasoline
• Boycott leaders reached a new
compromise with city officials
• The first two seats on city buses
would be reserved for white
passengers, and the back row
would be reserved for black
passengers
• People of any race could sit in
between
• Most agreed to the compromise;
the Baton Rouge bus boycott had
succeeded after only five days
Holt African American History
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
Similar Boycott
• 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama
• Montgomery bus system required
black passengers to sit in a “colored
section” in the back; not allowed to
share rows with white passengers
• Row of black passengers to stand
so one white passenger could sit
NAACP Involved
• Rosa Parks boarded a city bus and
sat in the first row of the “colored
section”; Parks refused give her
seat to white passengers
• She was arrested and taken to jail
• The NAACP had found its test case
One-Day Boycott
• NAACP called for a one-day
Montgomery bus boycott; 90
percent of riders participated
• Black leaders extended the boycott
and formed the Montgomery
Improvement Association (MIA)
King on Board
• Martin Luther King Jr., a 26-yearold black Baptist minister was
chosen to lead the MIA
• An experienced activist, King had
gained a reputation as a powerful
speaker
Holt African American History
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Holt African American History
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No Quick Victory
• The organizers hoped for a quick victory, but city officials
refused to negotiate
• Boycott participants did not give up; boycott leaders
organized a carpool system
• For more than a year, boycotters carpooled, took taxis,
rode bicycles, or simply walked
• King later recalled, “We came to see that, in the long run,
it is more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in
humiliation.”
• Local police harassed and arrested carpool drivers, and
local insurance agents canceled some boycotters’ auto
insurance policies
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
National Attention
• A few white opponents even resorted to violence
• King received hate mail and threatening phone calls; his
house and the houses of others were bombed
• Such events helped the boycott gain national attention;
other African Americans began staging similar boycotts
• Meanwhile, the NAACP filed a lawsuit in federal court
challenging segregation on city buses
– The case eventually went before the U.S. Supreme Court, which
ruled in 1956 that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional
– The ruling overturned Montgomery’s bus segregation laws
• A month after the ruling, King and other boycott leaders
rode Montgomery’s first integrated city bus
Holt African American History
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Martin Luther King Jr.
The Road to Montgomery
• Born into a middle-class family in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929
• His father was a college-educated Baptist preacher, and young King
received a solid education; went to Morehouse College, a historically
black college in Atlanta
• After graduating in 1948, King attended Crozer Theological Seminary
in Pennsylvania, earning a degree in theology in 1951 and then
obtained a doctorate from Boston University in 1955
• While in Boston, King met a young woman named Coretta Scott
• They married in 1953; had two sons and two daughters
• In 1954 King became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery
• Joined the NAACP; became active in working for civil rights
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Nonviolent Protest
The Strategy of Nonviolence
• Mohandas Gandhi helped lead India’s struggle for
independence from Great Britain; model for nonviolent protest
• Inspired by nonviolent Hindu traditions as well as by writer Henry
David Thoreau; rejected all violence
• Led protesters in peacefully disobeying the law; by exposing
themselves to harm, the protesters hoped to expose injustice
• Gandhi believed approach best way to achieve change in a
society in which other people held most of the power
• King and several other civil rights leaders agreed
• “Violence ends by defeating itself”—Martin Luther King Jr.,
Strides toward Freedom, 1958
Holt African American History
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Implementation
Practitioners
The Sit-in Movement
• James Lawson, a black minister,
key civil rights leader
• Lawson visited India to study
Gandhi’s teachings; began
conducting SCLC workshops on
nonviolent protest methods
• Held workshops in Nashville and on
black colleges campuses across
the South
• Workshops trained activists how to
protect themselves; remain
peaceful in the face of violence
• Activists trained included future
leaders in the civil rights movement
• One popular method of nonviolent
protest was the sit-in, a
demonstration in which protesters
sit down in a location and refuse to
leave
• Since the 1940s civil rights activists
used sit-ins to challenge
segregation in both public places
and private businesses
• Like public facilities, many private
businesses in the South were
segregated
• Some did not serve black
customers at all
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Building Background
Nonviolent boycotts and sit-ins gained the civil rights
movement national attention. Although not all of the
protests were successful, many Americans were
impressed with the courage and dignity of the black and
white activists who took part in them. As public support
for the movement grew, civil rights activists turned to
new challenges in the struggle to gain full equality for
African Americans.
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Fighting Discrimination on the Road
Among the many areas of society that remained segregated was interstate bus
and train travel. Although they could ride buses and trains, blacks endured
discrimination on cross-country journeys.
Riding for Freedom
• Segregation in interstate bus travel prohibited since 1946; unofficial
segregation continued in the South
• Black passengers expected to sit in reserved areas and give up their seats;
had to use separate facilities at interstate bus stations
• Civil rights activists from Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a northern
group founded in 1942 by James Farmer and others, decided to protest
• In 1947 CORE sponsored the Journey of Reconciliation, a protest of black and
white men who rode a bus through the Upper South
• The activists arrested and jailed several times; in North Carolina, black riders
sentenced to 30 days on a chain gang; white riders, whom the judge said had
“upset the customs of the South,” given harsher 90 day sentence
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Integration of Bus Stations
National Attention
• 1960 U.S. Supreme Court
ordered integration of interstate
bus stations and facilities
• Many white southerners refused
to follow the order; CORE staged
another protest to draw attention
to situation
• 1961 CORE sent a group on
Freedom Rides—bus trips
through the South during which
black and white activists tried to
use segregated facilities
• On May 4, a group left D.C. on
two buses bound for Louisiana
• Violence met the Freedom Riders
as soon as they entered Alabama
• White mob firebombed one of
the buses and beat the riders
• The incident on front pages of
newspapers nationwide
• Freedom Riders on the other
bus in Birmingham attacked by
group with bats and metal pipes
• Severely injured one rider
• CORE riders unable to continue,
second group from SNCC
completed the Freedom Rides
• Knowing they risked death,
some riders made out their wills
or wrote farewell letters
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
The Drive for Voting Rights
Limited Political Power
• True equality required power in the
voting booth
• Although blacks had right to vote,
unjust laws and threats often kept
southern blacks from exercising this
right or registering to vote
Some Progress
• Civil Rights Act of 1957; created
Justice Department division to
investigate, enforce voting rights
• Federal district judges authorized to
appoint officials to register voters in
areas where voting rights were
being denied
Requirements
• Voting records kept for 22 months;
federal investigators could
determine if law had been violated
• Federal government had authority
to prosecute anyone caught
interfering with voting rights
Violations
• Despite this new law, voting rights
violations continued in the South
• In Mississippi almost half of the
state’s population was black; only 5
percent of the eligible black adults
in the state were registered to vote
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Targeting Mississippi
• 1961 members of SNCC decided to try and improve situation with
a voter registration drive; Robert Moses, a black SNCC leader,
went to McComb in July to start
• After a month, Moses had convinced only six blacks to register to
vote; modest success angered white residents
• Moses was beaten and jailed; violence increased when Henry Lee,
a farmer who had been helping, was killed
• Jury ruled killing in self-defense; SNCC workers and local high
school students held a march in protest
• More mob violence erupted and police arrested marchers
• Moses finally left McComb after registering fewer than 24 new
voters
• Greater progress in black voting rights would have to wait several
more years
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
Integrating Higher Education
• The NAACP continued its legal campaign to integrate schools; in the 1960s
NAACP lawyers focused on higher education
• In the 1960s NAACP lawyers began to focus on enforcing integration in
higher education.
• Two confrontations at universities in Mississippi and Alabama soon helped
break down more school barriers
• In September 1962 the University of Mississippi refused to admit a black
man named James Meredith because of his race; NAACP obtained a federal
court order requiring the university to enroll Meredith
• On September 30 the young black man arrived at the campus accompanied
by federal marshals for protection; riot broke out on the campus
• President John F. Kennedy decided to send in army troops to restore order;
riot quickly ended when troops arrived, two dead and hundreds more injured
• Meanwhile, Meredith enrolled and, with the protection of marshals, began
attending university classes; graduated in 1963
Holt African American History
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University of Alabama
• Another confrontation on the campus of the University of Alabama
• A federal judge had ordered the university to admit two black
students, Vivian Malone and James Hood
• On June 11, 1963, Alabama governor George C. Wallace defiantly
stood in front of the enrollment building to block entry
– National Guard troops walked alongside the two students as they
approached Governor Wallace
– Aware of the resistance they might meet, the soldiers had practiced how
to physically lift and remove the governor if necessary
– The action was not needed
• After making a short speech about states’ rights, Wallace let the black
students pass
• Civil rights leaders considered the events at the two universities to be
major progress
Holt African American History
Chapter 10
The March on Washington
• In response to the events in Birmingham, President Kennedy
addressed the nation on July 11, 1963. “The fires of frustration and
discord are burning, . . . North and South”; Kennedy announced
that he would ask for sweeping civil rights legislation
• Just hours later, a black NAACP officer named Medgar Evers was
murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi; the slaying
horrified many Americans
• KKK member Byron De La Beckwith tried; set free
• King and other civil rights leaders decided to hold a massive,
peaceful rally in Washington, D.C.; hoped to put pressure on
Congress to pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed
• March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on the
National Mall on August 28, 1963
• Included 200,000 people of all races, backgrounds, and ages