The right to full legal, social, and economic equality.

Institutional/Systemic Racism: any kind of system of inequality based on race. It can occur in institutions such as public government bodies, private business corporations (such as media outlets), and universities (public and private).

Jim Crowe Laws : Laws in the U.S. that supported segregation that was supposed to be “separate but equal”, but really ensured that Blacks received the poorest services and worst facilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URxwe6LPvkM

In May 1954, following the Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case, the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. 15 years later, in 1969, the Supreme Court had to intervene again when many schools had still to desegregate.

August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy, Emmett Till, was mutilated and murdered by white racists in Mississippi. – Called the spark that lit the civil rights movement.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 42-year-old Rosa Parks, seated in a segregated bus, refused to give up her seat to a white man.

The bus boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr. lasted a full year before the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transport illegal.

Little Rock Nine - September 1957 (denied access to desegregated school – later escorted to class by federal troops)

1960 - King arrested during a protest – sentenced to hard labour (overturned by John F. Kennedy – not yet president)

Many sit ins and protests were held by Blacks and Whites throughout the American South

(The Times They Are A Changin’)

Although King, as the “leader” of the civil rights movement took a non-confrontational approach (“The objective,” said King, “was not to coerce but to correct; not to break bodies or wills but to move hearts.”) – the civil rights movement was dangerous. Many people where threatened, hurt, and killed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPeCQzHu5w

Freedom Rides: May 1961 interstate buses are still segregated. Protestors embarked on the Freedom Rides. White mobs attacked the buses. The governor of Alabama refused to send the State Guard to protect the passengers and Robert Kennedy had to order in federal troops to break-up the increasingly violent scenes. But finally, effective from November 1, 1961, inter-state bus services were desegregated.

May 1963 – King arrested for the 13th time. In his jail cell he writes the Letter from Birmingham jail which includes the line “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy spoke on national television about the need for civil rights: “Legislation cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the home of every American.” Within a few days Kennedy had presented Congress a sweeping raft of civil rights legislation.

On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people took part in the ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’. The marchers, black and white, young and old, rich and poor, a complete cross section of society, listened as King proclaimed, “I have a dream”: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. Despite his death, the Civil Rights bill, was passed on July 2, 1964. Segregation in public facilities was now illegal as was to discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion or country of origin.

April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Malcolm X, the activist and outspoken public voice of the Black Muslim faith, challenged the mainstream civil rights movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration championed by Martin Luther King Jr. He urged followers to defend themselves against white aggression "by any means necessary."

He was assassinated in 1965.

President Obama speaks about the importance of music to the civil rights movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhWttIll_8

(This Little Light of Mine)

Martin Luther King, Jr. & Malcolm Xhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Tr4JD0QUonc&feature=pyv&ad=4181410190&kw=african%20american (watch until 2:37)

According to these two civil rights activists, how were Black people taught to feel about themselves?

What do they suggest Black communities do in order to improve the economic conditions?

THINK ABOUT IT – Why do both men talk about power? How do civil rights give people power?

(Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud)

Vocabulary

Power Disenfranchise Segregation Marginalize

Racism Prejudice Discrimination

Civil Rights

Viola Desmond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI00i9BtsQ8