THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT1863-1965

Chapter 21p. 700-723

Segregation and Separation

• 1863--14th Amendment– granted full citizenship to the former slaves– called for “due process” and “equal protection

under the law”• 1875 Civil Rights Act

– “all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations…”

– Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional

Segregation and Separation

• 1890--Louisiana law and trains– “equal but separate accommodations…”

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– ruled that “separate but equal” did not violate the

14th Amendment.• “Jim Crow” laws• racial prejudice and segregation in the North

as well.

Challenging segregation

• World War II labor• Minorities in the military

– Truman integrated the military in 1948• formation of organizations to campaign for

voting and challenge Jim Crow– NAACP– Charles Hamilton Houston– Thurgood Marshall

Challenging segregation

• Morgan v. Virginia (1946)

• Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

Reaction to Brown

• initial reaction was mixed– Kansas and Oklahoma– Mississippi and Georgia– Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

• the KKK and White Citizen’s Councils

• Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957– Central High School

Little Rock• “The Little Rock Nine”

– Governor Orville Faubus– hand chosen by NAACP– 1st day of school– Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Melba Patillo– plan fails– 2nd attempt nine days later

• Eisenhower and Arkansas National Guard– 1957 Civil Rights Act– Warriors Don’t Cry

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus

Central High SchoolLittle Rock, Arkansas

The “Little Rock Nine”

• front: Gloria Ray, Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Watts, Minnijean Brown.• back: Jefferson Thomas, Daisy Bates, Thelma Mothershed, Terrance Roberts, Melba

Patillo, Ernest Green

Elizabeth Eckford

Montgomery, Alabama, 1955

• May, 1954– Jo Ann Robinson

• December 1, 1955– Rosa Parks– E.D. Nixon– bus boycott– Montgomery Improvement Association– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rosa Parks prior to arrest

A young Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Bus Boycott• organized quickly

– filed a lawsuit– carpools or walked

• support

• MLK’s home bombed

• lasted 381 days

• 1956--Supreme Court ruling

King in front of fire-bombed home

The Movement Begins

• Boycott and King showed:– power of organization and unity– “nonviolent resistance”– “civil disobedience”– quote, p. 705

The Movement Begins

• Emmett Till murder• SCLC• SNCC

– used students as protesters– sit-ins– February, 1960

• Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina• tv

Emmett Till

Sit-in at Woolworth’sGreensboro, North Carolina

The Movement continues

• 1961--The Freedom Riders– organization– Bus One and Bus Two

• Alabama state line attack• Birmingham, Alabama• Bus Two and Anniston, Alabama

– violence in Birmingham and Montgomery

Freedom Riders map, 1961

Bus Two outside Anniston, Alabama

The Movement continues• Integration of public schools

– K-12 schools• closed• remained segregated• private and parochial schools

– colleges and universities• Auburn

– Harold Franklin• Ole Miss

– James Meredith• Alabama

– Autherine Lucy

Harold Franklin, James Meredith, Autherine Lucy

The Movement comes to Alabama and Mississippi

• April, 1963– April 3--MLK is arrested

• “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”– May 3--protesters are hosed by sheriff Eugene

“Bull” Connor– June 11, 1963--murder of Medgar Evers in

Mississippi– September, 1963--16th Street Baptist Church

bombed

The Movement draws worldwide attention

• August, 1963• March on Washington, D.C.• MKL’s “I Have a Dream Speech”• Civil Rights Act of 1964

– prohibited discrimination based on race, gender, religion, national origin.

– ended segregation in all public facilities

The fight to vote

• Freedom Summer– college students

• Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney– Neshoba County, Mississippi, June 21, 1964

• New political parties– Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party– Fannie Lou Hammer

Neshoba County

The fight to vote

• Selma, Alabama– March 7, 1965– “Bloody Sunday”– March 21, 1965

• Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Movement expands

• Voting and an end to segregation got people thinking—what else can be changed?????– end to poverty– change social structure– new focus on the North/urban violence– new leadership

The Movement expands

• Northern segregation– de facto segregation– de jure segregation– Chicago riots and protests

• Urban violence– New York– Watts in Los Angeles, California

New Leadership, New Ideas

• Malcolm X (1964)

• Stokely Carmichael (1966)– “Black Power”

• Black Panthers (1966)

1968--a violent year

• April 4, 1968– Memphis, Tennessee– The Lorraine Motel– James Earl Ray

• June, 1968– Robert Kennedy– Sirhan Sirhan

• Civil Rights Act of 1968

Civil Rights since 1968

• Fight for equality has continued:– Women’s rights– Hispanics and bi-lingual ballots– Equal pay for equal work– “Victim’s Rights” laws

• “Are we changing attitudes or just changing platitudes?”