Civil Rights Movement


Struggle for African Americans to get equal rights

Led to later efforts by women, other ethnic minorities, the disabled, the young, and the old to obtain equal rights


History of Civil Rights 19th century

Abolitionists, Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, resistance to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan

20th century W.E.B. DuBois economic

efforts, birth of NAACP, desegregation of Armed Forces

Important amendments 13th amendment (1865) – no

slavery in US 14th amendment (1868) – all

people born in the US (except Native Americans) are US citizens and are entitled equal rights. Rights are protected by due process of the law

15th amendment (1870) – Passed during Reconstruction; gave black men the right to vote

17th amendment (1920) – gave women the right to vote


Political Reform organizations: African American

NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)

Chicano League of United Latin

American Citizens (LULAC), United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), La Raza Unida (Mexican-Amercans United)

American Indian American Indian

Movement (AIM) Women’s civil rights

movements National

Organization for Women (NOW)


Origins After Civil War,

promise of equality to all but promise cut by Reconstruction

1947 – Jackie Robinson first African-American baseball player to join the major leagues


Origins – Truman Years Truman administration

issued To Secure These Rights calling for civil rights laws

Laws proposed by Truman not pass Congress

Re-election demanded inauguration be integrated

1948 – executive orders to desegregate armed forces

End discriminatory hiring practices in federal government


Brown v. Board of Education 1954 After Reconstruction,

Southern States passed laws requiring segregation

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – separate but equal NAACP started

challenging in the 1930s


Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

Sweatt allowed to attend Law School at UT at Austin

1953 – NAACP lawyers appealed Kansas court ruling to Supreme Court

Segregated public schools denied equal protection to African American students


Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Thurgood Marshall argued

case or NAACP May 1954 Earl Warren

wrote unanimous decision for Supreme Court

“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”

Brown overturned Plessy and marked end of legal separation in schools


Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Court said

desegregation should happen with “all deliberate speed”

Enforcement left up to lower courts

Vague terming allowed years before fully implemented


Supreme Court stopped segregation in schools, but Jim Crow laws allowed it to continue in other public areas


Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956 Dec 1955, Rosa Parks

(seamstress and local NAACP member) refused to surrender bus sea to white passenger Parks was arrested

Local African American leaders started boycott of public buses


Montgomery Bus Boycott Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a

pastor in Montgomery, was leader of the boycott

Lasted 13 months and brought cause attention of the world

King rallied boycotters at his church

Carpooled to take each other to work

King arrested and home bombed

Boycotted lasted and brought to federal court

Court ruled segregation on buses violated 14th amendment


Civil Rights Act of1957 Eisenhower passed to

increase African American voting in the South

Created Civil Rights Commission and established Civil Rights Division in US Justice Department

Gave federal courts the power to register African American voters

Registration procedures so complex the act prove ineffective but set pattern for later legislation


Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 Governor Orval Faubus of

Arkansas favored segregation Ordered Arkansas National

Guard to surround all-white Little Rock High School to prevent nine African American students from entering

Faubus refused to protect Little Rock Nine who were being threatened by angry mobs

Eisenhower ordered federal troops so they could attend school


Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 Faubus closed

school down and asked for postponement of integration plan

Supreme Court forced reopening of school


Faubus one of many resisting desegregation

1964 – restaurant owner Lester Maddox wielded axe handle at African American trying to enter “whites only” restaurant

Maddox sold restaurant instead of allowing African Americans

Maddox ran for governor of Georgia and won


1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace stood at the door at the University of Alabama to prevent two African-American students from enrolling Claimed constitutional

rights of states to operate schools

Forced to step down


Congressional Bloc of Southern Democrats Southern Democrats

banded in Congress to stop civil rights legislation

Many held important committee chairs Power to prevent

legislation coming to floor for a vote


Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides in the South – 1960-1961 1960: African American

students held sit-in at “whites only” lunch counter in N. Carolina

Soon copied throughout the South

1961 – Freedom Rides Interracial groups rode busses. Downtown stores agreed to

desegregate lunch counters Created confrontations federal

government had to intervene Riders faced risk of death and

violence


King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963 King believed in non-violence Used civil disobedience against

unjust laws Led march in Birmingham,

Alabama and arrested Wrote letter explaining why

African Americans could no longer patiently wait for constitutional rights

Critics felt fight for rights in courts, not the streets

King argued civil disobedience was justified because “everyone has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”


March on Washington, 1963 Dr. King and other Civil Rights

leaders marched on Washington to encourage Congress to pass new civil rights bill

Largest demonstration for human rights in US history

King gave “I Have A Dream” speech

Dr. King and others met with President Kennedy at the Whitehouse

Kennedy assassinated few months later and Congress more willing to pass legislation proposed before his death afterward


Civil Rights Act of 1964 Prohibited discrimination

based on race, color, religion, or ethnic origins in hotels, restaurants, and all places of employment doing business with the federal government or in interstate commerce.

Cut off aid to segregated schools

Gave federal government power to register voters

Established Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to enforce all of it


Voting Rights 24th amendment

No more poll taxes in federal elections

Selma Marches 1965 – Dr. King in Selma,

Alabama to organize march demanding vote

Demonstrators attacked, President Jonson introducing voting rights bill


Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of

1965 Ended poll taxes,

suspended literacy tests used to prevent African Americans from voting, and led to large increase in African American voting


Affirmative Action 1965 Executive Order requiring

employers with federal contracts to take steps to raise the number of minority employees to correct past imbalances

Women later added Companies and

institutions must actively recruit minority candidates


Affirmative Action 1965 Increased minority

representation in colleges, professions, and many businesses

Critics challenged it was a reverse form of discrimination

Regents of University of California v. Bakke SC says affirmative action OK,

racial quotas are not Many affirmative action

programs phased out over time


Billy Graham – Christian preacher and major civil rights supporter Spiritual advisor to many

presidents Anti-Communist Paid to bail out Dr. King

from jail Advised Eisenhower to send

troops for Little Rock Nine One of first preachers to

address large crowds behind the Iron Curtain and call for world peace

Civil Rights Under

Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson

became president when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas November 22, 1963

Johnson proposed a far-ranging social program similar to the New Deal called the Great Society Improve quality and

opportunity for all Americans

The Great Society

Civil Rights Civil Rights Act (1964) Voting Rights Act (1965) Affirmative Action

War on Poverty Economic Opportunity Act

(1964) Created new government

office to administer programs

Job Corps – train underprivileged youths and domestic “Peace Corps” to help in depressed areas

Medicare Act of 1965 Social Security expanded to

provide medical care, hospital insurance, and post-hospital nursing for people over 65

Aid to cities New cabinet post added to

help cities Money provided for urban

planning, slum clearance, rental assistance for the poor, reconstruction of buildings

Civil Rights Under

Johnson Changes to immigration

McCarren-Walter Act (1952) – kept immigration quotas at 1920s levels

Immigration Act of 1965 was less biased Each country given

identical quota Preference given to those

with family already here or with valuable skills

Restricted Latin American immigration for first time

Civil Rights Under

Johnson Johnson beat Barry

Goldwater in 1964 election in a landslide

Goldwater wanted to revive conservatism

Many feared he was too extreme

Despite Great Society, many Americans stayed in poverty

Vietnam War caused Johnson to withdraw funding

Johnson did not seek another term in 1968

Women’s Liberation

Movement 1960s – Women’s

Liberation (or feminist) Movement

Women were expected to stay at home and be wives and mothers

Women’s Liberation focused on greater economic and social equality

Women’s Liberation Movement Reasons

Dissatisfaction Many women dissatisfied as

housewives and sought freedom to express themselves in careers

Influence of Civil Rights Many women leaders in movement Adopt same techniques for

women’s liberation – lobbying, sit-ins, demonstrations, boycotts, and strikes

Dynamic Leadership Highly educated and talented

women in leadership Betty Friedman, Gloria Steinem

Steinem created Ms. Magazine for women’s concerns and viewpoints

“Sexual Revolution” Sex education began to be

taught in school Birth control pills protected

women from pregnancy Women are not “sex

objects”; they are human beings

Impact of Social Science Margaret Mead and other

social scientists began to see women’s low status in Western society as creation of men not biological

Women’s Liberation

Movement 1963 – Betty Friedan wrote

The Feminine Mystique Galvanized middle class

women Challenged belief that

education suburban housewives were happy being at home

Women were as capable as men and should be permitted to compete for same jobs

1966 – Friedan helped form National Organization of Women (NOW)

Achievements of

Women’s Liberation Education

Affirmative action – universities no longer able to discriminate based on sex for admissions

Women professors hired Greater equality in

admissions to military academies, law schools, and medical schools

Employment End discrimination in hiring 1963 – Equal Pay Act

Companies had to pay women the same wages as men for same work

New attitude Replace Miss and Mrs with Ms Opposed sexist language No women as sex objects in

advertising Opposed sexual discrimination

in textbooks Lobbied for more funds to

research women’s diseases like breast cancer

Achievements in

Women’s Liberation Roe v. Wade (1973)

Many states prohibited abortion

Feminists felt women had a right to choose

Pro-choice Supreme Court held that a

women has a constitutional right to privacy

A woman had a right to end her pregnancy in the first 3 months if she wanted

Overturned all state laws prohibiting abortion in first three months

Title IX Part of Educational Amendments Act

(1972) Banned sex discrimination in

educational institutions Guaranteed girls had same

opportunities as boys Enforcement of act linked to federal

funding Major impact on American society

1in 27 girls played varsity sports in high school before Title IX

2001 – 1 in 2.5 Helped women pursue higher

degrees, compete in sports, enter jobs and educational fields dominated by men

Before – less women in college. Today, more women than men in college


Increasing African American Militancy Demand for change

strong among young African Americans

Civil rights had not ended private bias or provide equal opportunities

Many African Americans felt Dr. King’s methods of non-violence were not powerful enough


Militants believed in Black Power – African Americans should use their votes to win concessions from government and they should control their own communities and patronize their own businesses to free themselves from whites


Non-Violent Militant Those who participated in sit-ins, by provoking segregationists into angry responses, succeeded in winning sympathy from others.

Willingness to use violence

Best known for sit-ins and marches Known for being openly armed inuniforms of black berets and leatherjackets

Men, women, and children participated in peaceful protests.

Predominately males

Groups – SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, and CORE

Group(s) – Black Panthers

Leader – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black Power Movement

Search for New Identity Late 1960s – African

Americans began to search for cultural identity

Rejected imitating whites o being absorbed in American culture

Proud of themselves and “Black is Beautiful”

Developed distinctive styles like Afro haircuts

New Groups Emerge New groups to challenge non-

violent NAACP Militant Student Non-Violent

Coordinating Committee (SNCC) barred white participation

Black Muslims believed Islam should be religion of African Americans and create own black state

Black Panthers demanded reparations be given to the black community for centuries of oppression

Black Power Movement

Malcolm X Leading black Muslim Questioned King’s non-

violent resistance Believed African Americans

should meet violence with violence and should not depend on white people

Urged African Americans to obtain control of businesses and communities

Assassinated by rival Black Muslims in 1965


Black Panthers African-American activists in

Oakland, California Had own newspaper and

claimed right to carry weapons to protect black neighborhoods from police

Ran free breakfast for African American children

10 point program demanded greater opportunities and benefits for African Americans Full employment, decent

housing, education, and freedom to determine destiny


Ghettos Erupt – 1968 In North, African Americans

faced segregation based on living patterns

Many African Americans confined to ghettos

April 1968 Dr. King was assassinated

Death sparked race riots across the nation that cost dozens of lives and destroyed property

Commission found lack of job opportunities, urban poverty, and white racism was what was behind the riots

Chicano Movement

Mexican Americans, known as Chicanos, often faced discrimination, exploitation, and racism in US

Chicano Movement focused on farm workers’ voting and political rights

Chicano Movement

Early leader was Hector Perez Garcia, a surgeon and WWII veteran Noticed Mexican Americans

barred from entering restaurants, etc

1949 – Garcia learned local Texas funeral home refused to allow Mexican-American soldier’s family to its chapel

Garcia arranged for burial in Arlington National Cemetery

Became first Mexican American to serve on US Commission on Civil Rights

Chicano Movement

Cesar Chavez Organizer of farm workers in

California Chavez started group to

support farm worker’s rights, demand increased wages, and better working conditions

Chavez focused on non-violent means

Organized nation-wide boycotts and took part in hunger strikes

State legislators passed laws to improve lives of farm workers

Chicano Movement

Dolores Huerta Mexican-American labor

leader closely associated with Cesar Chavez

1960s – helped Chavez to form National Farm Workers Association which became Unite Farm Workers

Spent life working for legislation to extend air to families of farm workers

1980s- expanded to include women’s rights, environmental protection, and immigration policy

Chicano Movement

Chicano Mural Movement Mexican Americans

expressed greater appreciation of own culture

Began painting murals in barrios (ethnic neighborhoods) through Southwest in 1960s

Wall murals gave public presence in public life

In El Paso, more than 100 Chicano wall murals

American Indian Movement (AIM)

Americans Indians also got restless during the 1960s.

1953 – government transferred responsibility of Native Americans living on reservations to the state governments

Many state didn’t have the funds to give the same level of services

1963 – federal government reversed its policy and began encouraging tribal life on reservations

American Indian Movement (AIM)

Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against Native Americans

1970 – President Nixon announced federal govt would honor treaty obligations

Many Native Americans felt they were being mistreated.

Slogan – “Red Power”; formed American Indian Movement to get public opinion in their favor

Sought greater respect for heritage Introduced term “Native

American” and protested media with anti-Indian bias

Civil Rights Movements – Court

Cases Legislation (passage of new

laws) and litigation (disputes settled in courts) greatly expanded people’s rights

Go to a federal district court, listens and applies to the facts of the law

Don’t like the decision? Appeal it at US Court of Appeals

Supreme Court only hears about 100 cases a year from the 10,000 cases appealed

Mendez v. Westminster School District (1947)

Some places in California sent Mexican-American children to separate public schools

District court ruled this practice violated the 14th amendment

Westminster appealed Ruled it was not a constitutional issue

California law required segregation of Chinese and Japanese children.

Court upheld separation within a race was not permitted if not by a specific state law.

Later that year, California repealed its school segregation laws

Civil Rights Court Cases

Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1948)

Based on Mendez v. Westminster, Texas Attorney General decided that segregation of Mexican-American children was illegal

Delgado and others sued Bastrop ISD claiming the separation of Mexican-American children without a state law was a violation

US District Court agreed


Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

Hernandez convicted of murder in a Texas court with an all white jury No Mexican Americans had served on a jury in that country for

more than 25 years Hernandez appealed to US Supreme Court claiming 14th

amendment and equal protection of the law had been violated Texas argued that Mexican Americans were not entitled to

special protections Supreme Court ruled Mexican Americans formed a separate

class that was entitled to protection “The right to be tried by jurors from which members of his class

are not excluded


Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) The U.S. Supreme Court decided Amish

children could not be placed in compulsory schools past 8th grade because it violated the parents’ rights to freedom of religion (Free Exercise Clause) Example of Effects (Prohibited all states from claiming absolute right to compulsive education and intrude in how families raise their children


White v. Regester (1973)

State legislators periodically change district boundaries for changes in population

1970 – Texas changed district boundaries; Bexar and Dallas counties became districts with several members

Way it was drawn out, Mexican Americans and African Americans in these two districts would have no chance of getting elected

US Supreme Court upheld lower court ruling that Texas had to make these into smaller one-member districts, giving Mexican American barrios the chance to elect their own candidates

Texas could not discriminate by setting up multi-member districts


Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1984)

1971 – US Supreme Court ruled children do not have a fundamental right under the Constitution to an education

Civil rights activists filed lawsuits in various state courts based on provisions of state constitutions

Mexican American legal group MALDEF) filed a suit against Kirby, the Texas Education Commissioner, on behalf of Edgewood ISED

District claimed the state method for funding education resulted in differences in rich and poor districts

Violated Texas Constitution which promised a “fair and efficient” public school system

Texas Supreme Court agreed and ordered a more equal system of public school finance.


Civil Rights Today

Election of first African American President – Barack Obama

First Hispanic women appointed to Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor

Civil Rights Movement

Documents

Transcript of Civil Rights Movement