Section 3 Urban Problems African Americans became impatient with the slow pace of change; this...
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Transcript of Section 3 Urban Problems African Americans became impatient with the slow pace of change; this...
Section 3
Urban Problems
African Americans became impatient with the slow pace of change; this frustration sometimes boiled over into riots.
Section 3
• Despite the passage of civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s, racism was still common in American society.
• The average income of an African American family was only 55 percent of that of the average white family.
• Almost half of African Americans lived in poverty.
• Their unemployment rate was typically twice that of whites.
Urban Problems (cont.)
Section 3
• Anger and frustration over poverty led to riots in dozens of American cities between 1965 and 1968.
• President Johnson ordered what became known as the Kerner Commission to conduct a detailed study of this problem.
• They blamed racism for most of the problems in the inner cities.
Urban Problems (cont.)
Section 3
• Dr. King felt that he had failed to improve the economic position of African Americans.
• He worked with the SCLC to improve the economic status of African Americans in poor neighborhoods.
• The Chicago Movement, however, made little headway.
• Mayor Richard J. Daley proposed a new program to clean up the slums, but in the end, little changed.
Urban Problems (cont.)
Section 3
Black Power
Impatient with the slower gains of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement, many young African Americans called for “black power.”
Section 3
• Many young African Americans called for black power, an idea that disagreed with King’s nonviolent approach.
• Stokely Carmichael believed that African Americans should control the social, political, and economic direction of their struggle.
• Black power also stressed pride in the African American cultural group and emphasized racial distinctiveness rather than assimilation.
Black Power (cont.)
Section 3
• By the early 1960s, a young man named Malcolm X had become a symbol of the black power movement.
− He joined the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, which believed that African Americans should separate themselves from whites and form their own self-governing communities.
Black Power (cont.)
Section 3
− Discouraged by scandals involving the Nation of Islam’s leader, he broke with the group.
− After criticizing the organization, members shot him in February 1965.
Black Power (cont.)
Section 3
• Influenced by Malcolm X, three men organized the Black Panthers in 1966.
− They believed a revolution was necessary in the United States, and they urged African Americans to arm themselves and prepare to force whites to grant them equal rights.
Black Power (cont.)
Section 3
King is Assassinated
After Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Section 3
• Dr. King went to Memphis to support a strike of African American sanitation workers in March 1968.
• He was also planning another march on Washington to lobby the federal government to commit billions of dollars to end poverty and unemployment in the U.S.
• On April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated King.
King is Assassinated (cont.)