Civil Rights Act of 1875 Outlawed segregation Supreme Court overturned it

in 1883 Plessy v. Ferguson

“separate but equal” did not violate the 14th amendment (equal treatment)

Allowed Southern states to pass Jim Crow laws (separating the races)

Allowed restrictions on inter-race contact

WW2 set the stage for the civil rights movement Opened new job

opportunities One million African

Americans served Came home and fought to

end discrimination During the war, civil rights

organizations fought for voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws

Campaign led by the NAACP Focused on inequality between

separate schools that states provided Thurgood Marshall argued many of these

cases Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Marshall’s most stunning victory Supreme Court struck down

segregation in public schools as a violation of 14th amendment

To be implemented “with all deliberate speed”

Official reaction was mixed Within a year, 500 school districts

had desegregated Some areas resisted

Reappearance of KKK Governor of Georgia – “Georgia will

not comply”!

State had been planning for desegregation

Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine” The 9 African American students who

would integrate Little Rock Central High A Federal judge ordered Faubus to let the

students attend the school Eisenhower placed the National Guard

under federal control to watch the 9 attend school

A year later, Faubus shut down the high school

African Americans were impatient with the slow speed of change Took direct action

1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested

JoAnn Robinson suggested a boycott of the buses

Leaders of the African American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Elected 26 yr old Martin Luther

King to lead

Dr. King made a passionate speech and filled the audience with a sense of mission

African Americans boycotted the buses for 381 days and filed a lawsuit Organized car pools Walked long distances

1956 – Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

MLK called his nonviolent resistance “soul force”

Influences Jesus – love one’s enemies Henry David Thoreau – concept of

civil disobedience (refusal to obey an unjust law)

A. Philip Randolph – massive demonstrations

Gandhi – non violent resistance

SCLC founded in 1957 by MLK and other civil rights leaders

Purpose – carry on nonviolent crusades against discrimination

Used protests and demonstrations Helped organize a student protest

group (SNCC) – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Challenge the system!

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) staged the first sit-in in 1942 African Americans would sit at

segregated lunch counters and refuse to leave until they were served

1960 – students in North Carolina staged a sit-in at a lunch counter Television crews covered the protest African Americans were non-violent, but

white resistance was not Movement spread across nation (sit-

ins in 48 cities)

Freedom riders expose Southern resistance to federal desegregation rulings. They rode buses throughout the

south hoping to provoke white racists and force Kennedy and the administration to act

The Freedom Riders were attacked and the bus line refused to take them any further after one bus was fire bombed

CORE Freedom Riders stopped, but SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) resumed…

When the SNCC riders went to Birmingham the Police Chief “Bull” Connor had them beaten and taken to Tennessee. But they returned and sat in a white only bus

terminal until they could get a ride to Montgomery Attorney General, Robert Kennedy finally

forced the bus company to take them on May 20, 1961 after waiting for 18 hours

In addition, a federal order banning segregation in all interstate travel facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters was handed down

Federal troops are needed to get James Meredith into the all-white University of Mississippi

Meredith won a court case that allowed him to enroll

The governor, Ross Barnett refused to let him register as a student

JFK ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to the registrar’s office

Barnet appealed over the radio to Mississippians to “never surrender”

Riots broke out on September 30, 1962

2 deaths resulted it took 5,000 soldiers, 200 arrests, and 15 hours to stop the rioters

Meredith was escorted to class following the incident and nightriders shooting at his parents house forced federal protection

Television coverage of the brutal treatment of marchers in Birmingham leads President Kennedy to call for passage of a new civil rights bill Birmingham was strict on its total

segregation policy and had 18 bombings between 1957 and 1963

MLK Jr. and SCLC invited to Birmingham to desegregate city by Fred Shuttlesworth, head of Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights MLK Jr. arrested and write a “letter from

Birmingham jail” Economic boycott and negative press

convinced Birmingham officials to end segregation

August 28, 1963 250,000 people (75,000 whites) march on Washington and hear MLK Jr. deliver his improvised “I have a Dream” speech

The violence continued with more bombings of churches. President Johnson

pushes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress

This act prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender.

It also gave citizens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations.

Violence and intimidation prevent millions of African Americans in the South from registering to vote Two groups, the SNCC and CORE began going

through the south to register as many people as possible.

This became known as the “Freedom Summer” The group consisted of primarily

student volunteers, mostly white. In June of 1964, three workers disappeared

in Mississippi. It was later found out that local police and KKK

members had killed them. Through the summer, the beatings

continued, along with the burning of businesses, homes, and churches

African Americans wanted a voice to try and make the political changes occur.

In 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed. They were led by Fannie Lou

Hamer The MFDP were given 2 seats

in the Mississippi Democratic Convention. Hamer’s response “We didn’t

come all this way for no two seats.”

In the beginning of 1965, the SNCC began a major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama.

After demonstrator Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed, a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama was announced. This was lead by Martin Luther King Jr.

600 protestors set out on March 7, 1965. That night, police swung whips, clubs, and

used tear gas to stop the march. On March 21, 1965, 3,000 marchers set out

again for Montgomery with federal protection. Soon the number grew to 25,000

In the summer of 1965, the Voting Rights Act was finally passed. It prohibited any literacy tests that

had previously stopped many voters. In Selma, 10% of African Americans

were registered to vote in 1964. By 1968, 60% of the population was

registered. Some felt the law did not go far

enough

In the mid 1960s differences over tactics create divisions in the civil rights movement.

In the north, de facto segregation traps many African Americans in decaying slums. De facto segregation exists by practice and

customs De jure segregation is created by laws.

Urban riots revealed that many African Americans suffer economic and political inequality. 1964 – Riots broke out in Harlem over the death of

a 15 year old student. 1965 – One of the worst riots in the nation’s

history took place in the Watts area of Los Angeles. The rage baffled whites since they had

accomplished so much in the south.

Malcom X appeals to a growing sense of African American pride. He encouraged African-Americans to take

control of their communities, livelihoods, and culture.

His later efforts to temper African American separatism alienate many Black Muslims, three of whom assassinate him.

Stokley Carmichael and the Black Panthers signal the growing radicalism of some segments of the African American community. The Black Panthers were started by Huey

Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California,

Even though militant, the efforts of the Black Panthers to improve neighborhoods won support from many in the ghettos.

Martin Luther King attempts to organize a Poor People’s Campaign to counter the angry rhetoric of Black Power.

King is assassinated in Memphis, where he was helping African-American trash collectors fight for fair treatment from the city.

King’s death sets off the worst wave of race riots in the nation’s history.

The civil rights movement wipes out de jure segregation from the laws of America.

De facto segregation and unequal economic opportunities remain entrenched.

The lingering affects of racism, as reported by the Kerner Commission, remain one of the greatest challenges facing the nation in the years ahead.