The Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race…..

S.W.B.A.T

Explain the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.

Rock ‘n’ Roll The main form of 1950s rebellion for young

people was through rock and roll. To many adults, rock and roll was immoral, was the “devil’s music,” and caused juvenile delinquency; a few even charged that it was sent to America by the communists as part of their plot to conquer the United States.

This music reworked rhythm and blues, a style popular among African American performers. Rock ‘n’ roll took the music one step further and created a raw sound very different from other popular music of the time.

Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed made the term rock ‘n’ roll popular in 1950 when he started a rhythm-and blues show aimed at young white audiences. Soon the sound caught on among teenagers across the country.

Elvis Presley emerged as rock’s leading talent. He covered black songs, and exuded sex during his live and television performances.

Despite its popularity, many adults disliked rock ‘n’ roll. They feared that it promoted antisocial behavior in teenagers.

Alan Freed – Cleveland DJ who coined the term Rock and Roll

Elvis Presley

Rock ‘n’ roll also upset many people because it challenged racial segregation. African American musicians such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino, as well as Hispanic performers like Ritchie Valens, influenced early rock ‘n’ roll.

Little Richard

Chuck Berry

Back to the Future (movie) Johnny B. Goode

Fats Domino

Buddy Holly

Ritchie Valens

Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of FameCleveland, Ohio

White rockers such as Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly shared the airwaves, and sometimes the stage, with noted black artists. This breaking down of racial barriers reflected larger social changes on the horizon.

Civil Rights—The Hispanic Experience Segregation and discrimination

affected others in the 1950s besides African Americans. Nonwhite Americans faced prejudice. The experience of fighting for democratic ideals overseas in World War II, however, motivated more people to stand up and defend those ideals at home.

One particular incident revealed the extent of discrimination endured by Hispanics. Felix Longoria was a Mexican American soldier killed during World War II. In 1948 his body was recovered and returned to his hometown, Three Rivers, Texas.

Private Felix Longoria1920-1945

The town’s only funeral home director refused to allow the use of the chapel for Longoria’s burial because the soldier was Mexican American. When the media publicized this story, many Americans expressed outrage at this treatment of a veteran.

Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (future President) of Texas arranged for Longoria to be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C.

Arlington National Cemetery

Robert E. Lee’s old house

Remember me? I fought in the Civil War for the

Confederacy!

The American GI Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)helped publicize the Longoria incident. This organization used many of the same tactics to fight for Hispanic rights that the NAACP used to champion African American rights. The LULAC focused on ending segregation, particularly in schools. In separate court cases, the LULAC claimed victory when the segregation of all Hispanic children ended in Texas.

Challenging “Separate-But Equal” The 1896 Supreme Court decision Plessy v.

Ferguson established the legality of “separate-but-equal” facilities. In 1952 this case was finally challenged.

The case of Brown v. Board of Education involved a young girl named Linda Brown, an African American student from Topeka, Kansas. Segregation in Topeka’s schools prevented her from attending an all-white elementary school a short walk from her home. Instead, she had to travel a long distance and cross dangerous railroad tracks to attend an African American school.

Linda Brown

NAACP Lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued on Brown’s behalf. He introduced data suggesting that segregation psychologically damaged African American students by lowering their self-worth.

Marshall’s arguments greatly influenced the Court’s unanimous ruling, which was issued on May 17, 1954. Written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the opinion declared racial segregation illegal in public schools.

Thurgood Marshall

Many Americans praised the decision as a long-overdue step toward completely ending segregation. Some African Americans were skeptical that white leaders would really support desegregation. Although some states moved quickly to end school segregation, many white southern leaders reacted to the decision with anger and defiance.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks an

African American seamstress, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and was arrested. Parks was eventually convicted for violation the city’s segregation laws.

In protest, many of Montgomery’s 50,000 African Americans organized a boycott against the bus system. The Montgomery Improvement Association, (MIA), a group of local civil rights leaders, persuaded the community to continue the boycott while the NAACP and Parks appealed her conviction.

Rosa Parks

The Actual Bus

The MIA chose as its spokesperson Martin Luther King Jr. a 26-year-old Baptist minister. An energetic and moving speaker, King could inspire large audiences. His ability to move people helped hold the African American community together as the bus boycott dragged on for months.

King had studied the nonviolent tactics of Indian nationalist Mohandas K. Gandhi, urged the African American community not to respond to violence with more violence.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus

Boycott

The boycott lasted 381 days. The Montgomery public

transit system lost money every day because the city’s

black population was the bulk of the customers.

Finally, the nonviolent protest worked. In November 1956 the Supreme Court declared both the Montgomery and the Alabama segregation laws unconstitutional. By the end of the year, Montgomery had a desegregated bus system, and the civil rights movement had a new leader—Martin Luther king Jr.

S.W.B.A.T

Describe problems with school desegregation and the beginning of the space race.

Showdown in Little Rock Despite the Supreme Court Ruling, school

desegregation in the South moved slowly. By the end of the 1956-57 school year, the vast majority of southern school systems remained segregated.

In Arkansas, however, school desegregation was progressing with relatively little opposition. The Little Rock (Arkansas) school board was the first in the South to announce that it would comply with the Brown decision.

Little Rock’s desegregation plan was to begin in September 1957 with the admission of nine African American students to the all-white Central High School.

Central High SchoolLittle Rock, Arkansas

However, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus spoke out against the plan. The night before school was to start, he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High.

For nearly three weeks, members of the Arkansas National Guard prevented the African American students, now known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering the school.

Orval Faubus

President Eisenhower ordered some 1,000 federal troops to Little Rock. On September 25, 1957, under the protection of the soldiers’ fixed bayonets, the Little Rock Nine finally entered Central High.

The Little Rock Nine endured a difficult year that included frequent harassment.

The Little Rock 9 being Escorted to school by the

101st Airborne

Going to school under armed guard

Little Rock 9

Racial Violence--The Case of Emmett Till Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941 and

raised on Chicago's South Side. In August 1955, he went to Mississippi to visit his cousin's relatives, near the town of Money. Till drove his cousin's grandfather's 1941 Ford to Money, where he stopped at Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market.

Getting into a conversation with some boys outside, Till was dared to go and talk with the white woman inside the market. Apparently, Till walked in, bought some candy, and said as he left, "Bye, baby."

Emmett “Bobo” Till

Emmett Till and his mother Mamie

Little did Till know that the woman was the wife of owner Roy Bryant, and Bryant wanted "nig***’s in their place," as he later told Look magazine.

Three days later, Bryant and his brother-in-law, J. W. Milam, took Till on a ride, tortured him, and when he refused to beg for mercy, shot him in the head. A 75-pound cotton gin fan was tied around his neck, and his skull was crushed. Dumped into the Tallahatchie River, Till's mutilated body was found three days later

Emmett Till’s mother demanded that her son’s body be sent back to Chicago. Defying a court order, she showed her son’s mutilated body in an open casket funeral.

Till's violent death shocked the nation. Put on trial for murder, Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-white jury, which deliberated for about an hour. The verdict helped fuel the civil rights revolution that shook the South and the nation.

Till’s murder’s later admitted to their crime in an interview with Look Magazine. Even though the murderers admitted guilt in interview they could not be charged again because of the 5th Amendment (double jeopardy).

Emmet Till Open Casket Funeral

Nuclear Anxiety Increased conflict between the United States

and Communists abroad plunged the Soviet Union and the United States into a race to develop ever-more-powerful nuclear weapons. This arms race contributed to Americans’ fears of nuclear war.

In 1950, U.S. scientists began work on a hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb. They claimed it would be 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. After a successful test by the Americans, the Soviet Union began to develop their own H-bomb.

The H-bomb dropped by the Americans completely vaporized an island in the Pacific.

Many Americans worried about nuclear war or the radioactive fallout that might accompany it. Schools began practicing “Duck and Cover” drills to simulate what students should do during an attack. Some schools even distributed dog tags and identification necklaces to students to identify them in case of a nuclear blast.

Other Americans began to purchase or build bomb shelters for their yards. A typical shelter contained flashlights, a first-aid kit, battery radio, portable toilet, two-week supply of food-mainly canned meats and vegetable—and water.

Duck and Cover Drills

Luckily, school desks in the 1950s were strong enough to withstand a nuclear bomb. Just Kidding!

Fallout Shelters

The Start of the Space Race The arms race continued to expand after the

Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit in October 1957. Many Americans worried that this launch proved the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union in technological development.

The Soviet Union shocked the world again one month later. In November it launched Sputnik II, which had a dog aboard. The spacecraft weighted more than 1,000 pounds and orbited Earth for almost 200 days. Its primitive life-support system kept the dog alive for a few days.

Sputnik on the launch pad

Sputnik

In January 1958 the U.S. government sent its first satellite, Explorer I, into orbit. The space race had begun.

President Eisenhower urged Congress to promote U.S. space technology by establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In 1958 Congress approved the National Defense Education Act. This act appropriated millions of dollars to improve education in science, mathematics, and foreign languages.