Transcript Struggle for Civil Rights I. Background: Doctrine of “states rights” and “home-rule” Constitution- Federal system national government is supreme, states have reserved power.

Struggle for Civil Rights
I. Background: Doctrine of “states rights” and “home-rule”
Constitution-
Federal system national government is supreme,
states have reserved power not given to national.
***Civil War tested FederalismDo states have the right to secede from the Union?
***Gettysburg Address:
Preserve the nation dedicated
to “all men are created equal” and a
government “of the people, by the people,
and for the people”
“one nation” not sovereign states
During Reconstruction, the Radical Republicans in Congress
pushed for “radical reform” in the South.
“Civil War Amendments”13th (Abolish Slavery)
14th (Equal Rights)
15th (Voting Rights)
Military Occupation
Former slaves vote in Richmond, Va.
Compromise of 1877- Ends Reconstruction.
Republicans end military occupation of South in return
for White House.
Allow return of Democratic control of South and “home rule.”
Jim Crow- long period
African Americans denied
full rights as citizens.
What Supreme Court decision ruled that
“separate but equal” did NOT violate the
14th Amendment, upholding Jim Crow.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) Separation did “not imply the inferiority
of one race over the other”
What Supreme Court decision ruled that
“separate but equal” did NOT violate the
14th Amendment, upholding Jim Crow.
II. Challenges to Plessy v. Ferguson, Jim Crow, and “home-rule”
Booker T. Washington
Accept social separation in
short term
W.E.B. Du Bois
Demand immediate equality,
especially political
Equality through vocational (NAACP)- National Association
education and economic
for the Advancement of Colored
success
People
Ida Wells- Led an anti-lynching
crusade and called on the federal
government to take action
WWII increased demands for Civil Rights
Dorie Miller
Tuskegee Airmen
III. Turning Point: Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas
(1954)- Supreme Court ruled that segregated
schools are unequal and must desegregate
Linda Brown
Thurgood MarshallNAACP Legal Defense Team,
proved segregation was psychologically
damaging to African American children
Virginia case led by NAACP attorney, Oliver Hill
"We conclude that in the field of
public education the doctrine of
‘separate but equal’ has no place.
Separate educational facilities
are inherently unequal.
Therefore we hold that the plaintiffs…
[have been] deprived of the
equal protection of the laws
guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."
“to separate them [African-American schoolchildren] from others of similar age
and qualifications 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 unlikely ever to be undone…. Segregation with the
sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and
mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the
benefits which they would receive in a racially integrated school system.”
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Resistance to Brown
Senator, Harry F. Byrd (Va.)Advocated “Massive Resistance”
*Close schools
*Block state funding to integrated schools
*Private academies with tuition for whites
*“White flight” from urban school systems
(1957)Governor Orval Faubus calls
out Arkansas National Guard to block African American
students from attending Central High School, Little Rock
“Little Rock 9”
President Eisenhower calls out National Guard to protect students,
force Arkansas to comply with federal law
IV. Civil Rights in the 1960s
Martin Luther King, Jr. –
Civil Rights leader during 1950s and 1960s
1st well-known for advocating
civil disobedience during the Montgomery, Al.
bus boycott, after Rosa Parks refused to give
up her seat (1955)
Rosa Parks
Civil disobedience swept through the South during
1950s and early 1960s- “sit-ins”
"It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be.
Indeed, they will be mentally healthier if they do not suppress rage,
but vent it constructively and use its energy peacefully but forcefully to
cripple the operations of an oppressive society. Civil disobedience can utilize the
militance wasted in riots…..“ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Freedom Riders (1961)White civil rights activist
travel to integrate the south
Resistance in Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama (1963)- police attack protesters with
attack dogs and high pressure fire hoses.
How did T.V. coverage of Birmingham
influence public opinion of Civil Rights?
March on Washington (1963)
“I Have a Dream” speech
Demonstrated power of
non-violent, mass protest
Increased support for civil rights
Civil Rights Act (1964)Prohibit discrimination based on race,
religion, national origin, and gender
Desegregated public places
Who is the U.S. President who played an important role in its passage?
Freedom Summer (1964)college students go South to
register African Americans to vote
3 workers disappear in Mississippi
Selma, Alabama (1965) turns violent as
police attack protesters
Voting Rights Act (1965)Outlawed literacy tests
Federal registrars sent South
Increased African American voters
The scene on April 4, 1968—assassination of MLK
James Earl Ray