15th AMENDMENT

• 1869

• Extended the right to vote to all males regardless of race

POLL TAX• a fee paid in order to vote

• used to discriminate against black voters

LITERACY TESTS• Reading tests required to prove one

could read in order to register to vote

• Often asked absurd questions, such as “How many words are in the Constitution?” “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?”

• Designed to keep blacks from voting after the Civil War

GRANDFATHER CLAUSE

• A law that exempted voters from the literacy test if they had voted before or if their grandfathers had voted

• This ensured that the literacy test did not keep too many illiterate whites from voting.

JIM CROW LAWSLaws in

southern states that required

segregation of the races and

promoted racial

discriminationSegregated Bus Station in Dallas, Texas

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SEGREGATION• A policy of keeping the

races separate in public.

• Different schools, parks, restaurants, etc. for different races

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DISCRIMINATIONto treat others differently (usually we think of being treated unfairly) because of race, religion, gender, etc.

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SEGREGATION

SEGREGATION

SEGREGATION

PLESSY v. FERGUSON1896 - Supreme Court case that ruled that segregation was legal as long as the facilities were “separate but equal.”

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24TH AMENDMENT• 1962

• abolished the poll tax

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Political activism in the 1950s and 1960s to extend equal treatment and equal rights to all citizens

regardless of race

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W.E.B. DUBOIS• Early civil rights

activist

• First African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University

• Founded the NAACP in 1910

NAACP• Founded in 1909• National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People

• Organization dedicated to achieving equality for people of all races and ending racial violence in the South

BROWN v. TOPEKA BOARD OF EDUCATION

• 1954

• Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson

• Made segregation in schools illegal - ordered schools to integrate

• Eventually applied to other public facilities as well

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THURGOOD MARSHALL

First black Supreme Court Justice in 1967

Nominated by President Johnson

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INTEGRATIONThe process of putting the races

together in public places

Integration in Clinton, TN schools: Dec. 1956

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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

• 1957

• Arkansas Governor defied the Supreme Court and President Eisenhower by refusing to integrate Central High.

• The Governor used National Guard troops to block the entry of 9 African-American students.

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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

• Mobs of angry people swarmed the high school to protest integration.

• Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control.

• He then sent more federal troops (101st Airborne) to Little Rock to escort the “Little Rock Nine” to classes.

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101st Airborne escort the Little Rock 9 into Central High School

The Little Rock Nine

Army transport of students to Central High School, 1957

Whites protest integration at the Arkansas State Capitol

Little Rock Nine 50 years later at museum dedication (2007)

SNCC• Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee (“Snick”)• Organized in 1960 • Created to give young students a

more active role in the struggle for equality

• Participated in sit-ins, marches, and boycotts and other protests

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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE• A term coined by

Henry David Thoreau and adopted by many civil rights leaders

• Non-violent protest • The process of

fighting an injustice or unfair law by disobeying it

BOYCOTT• Refusing to buy goods and services

from companies/businesses until they change their policy

• Very effective tool when large numbers of people participate

• A favorite tool of the colonists during the American Revolution and a favorite tool of civil rights leaders even today

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ROSA PARKS• December 1955 - She refused to

give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

• She was arrested for breaking segregation laws.

• Instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Rosa Parks

Civil Rights

Pioneer

1955

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

• Civil Rights leaders, including MLK, organized a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery

• 50,000 blacks refused to use buses• Bus company lost money, but still

refused to integrate • Supreme Court ruled that bus

segregation was unconstitutional• Boycott lasted until Nov. 1956

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SIT-IN• Protest in which people go to a

segregated business and place an order.

• If they are refused service, they just sit there until they are served or forced to leave.

• Forces businesses to choose between integrating or having a racial disruption.

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February 1960 - Sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro North Carolina

Sit-in in Nashville, Tenn. becomes violent

April, 1960Home of Nashville

attorney who defended sit-in

participants was bombed

Rosa Parks at the front of the bus

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

• Baptist preacher in Montgomery, Alabama – 26 years old

• Helped organize the bus boycott• Became a major civil rights leader• Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964• Assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. in

April, 1968

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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

• Followers practiced civil disobedience and passive resistance

• Organized various peaceful marches throughout the nation

• March on Washington - “I have a dream” speech

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

FREEDOM RIDES• Organized by SNCC• May 4, 1961 - 2 buses filled with black

and white activists depart Washington D.C. destined to travel through 7 southern states on the way to New Orleans

• Meant to test whether the South would obey the Supreme Court rulings to desegregate buses and other facilities

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“Freedom Ride” route through the South

FREEDOM RIDES• Riders were beaten by angry white

mobs and arrested along the way• One bus was disabled and

firebombed in Alabama, and escaping riders were attacked

• Other riders took their place and continued

• The “freedom riders” continued throughout the summer of 1961

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Freedom Rider bus burns in Alabama, May 1961

Freedom Riders protected by National Guardsmen

“Project C”• April, 1963 – MLK and the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized a series of protests, demonstrations, and sit-ins Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation

• C = Confront

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Peaceful protestors in Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM RIOT• Local police used attack dogs

and high-pressure fire hoses to disperse crowds

• Protesters were beaten with clubs

• 900 of them were jailed.

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continued

Police attack dogs used in Birmingham. April 1963

Fire hoses turned on protestors in Birmingham, April, 1963

BIRMINGHAM RIOT

• King was arrested on April 12, 1963

• He spent one week in jail

• “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”

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MLK Arrested in Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM RIOT• Riots were televised

• Public was shocked by the police violence

• Kennedy said it made him “sick.”

• Led to desegregation and fair hiring practices in the city

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MARCH ON WASHINGTON

• August 1963 - Over 200,000 people marched on the capital city to support the civil rights bill proposed by President Kennedy.

• Protesters adopted the slogan “jobs and freedom.”

• King delivered his “I have a dream” speech

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200,000 gather before the Lincoln Memorial – Washington Monument in background

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Folk singers Joan Baez and Bob Dylan sing “Blowing in the Wind” at the March on Washington

“Blowing in the Wind”

• How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?• How many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?• How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?

• The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.• The answer is blowing in the wind.

• How many years can a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea?• How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?• How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t

see?

• The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.• The answer is blowing in the wind.

• How many times can a man look up before he can see the sky?• How many ears does one man have before he can hear people cry?• And how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have

died?

March on Washington, August 1963

Martin Luther King – “I have a dream.”

Video: March on Washington, MLK’s “I have a dream” speech

11:00

• Signed by LBJ in 1964

• Gave federal govt. power to enforce desegregation laws and voting rights

• Banned discrimination by employers on the basis of race, religion, or gender

• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate charges of discrimination

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continued

• Prohibited discrimination in public facilities, such as theatres, motels, and restaurants

• Required same registration standards for all voters in all states

• Allowed the federal government to withhold funds from organizations that discriminated

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Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, 1964

SELMA MARCH• 1965 - Blacks in Selma, Alabama were

arrested for trying to register to vote. • MLK organized a 50-mile protest march from

Selma to the capital, Montgomery.• Sunday, March 7 - Started with 545 marchers• Armed state troopers on horseback rode into

the crowd with whips, clubs and tear gas• “Bloody Sunday”

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SELMA MARCH• President Johnson immediately put the

Alabama National Guard under federal control and sent federal troops and marshals to protect the protesters on the rest of their march.

• Marchers began again• By the time they reached Montgomery,

25,000 marchers had gathered

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Marchers start out peacefully from Selma, Alabama

Alabama National Guard moves in on marchers

Marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Bloody Sunday –

Marchers attacked by National Guardsmen

King speaks to the failed marchers

The march begins again from Selma

25,000 finally cross the bridge on their way to the capital

• 1965 – Promised by President Johnson in response to the Selma march

• Allowed federal officials to register voters in places where local officials were blocking the registration of blacks

• Abolished literacy tests• 1966 – 400,000 African American

registered to vote in the South 23

NATION OF ISLAM• Black Muslims who promoted

“black nationalism”

• Believed that Allah would create a “Black Nation” among non-whites

• Led by Elijah Muhammad

• Believed that white society was the enemy

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MALCOLM X• Malcolm Little – b. 1925• Son of a Baptist preacher who had

been a follower of Marcus Garvey’s “back to Africa” movement

• Grew up in ghettos of Detroit, Boston and New York

• Age 20 – arrested for burglary and served 7 years in jail

• In jail, joined the Nation of Islam

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MALCOLM X• 1952 - Changed his name to

Malcolm X• Became a minister of the Nation

of Islam• Rejected passive resistance • Rejected integration• “No sane black man really wants

integration!”

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MALCOLM X

Video: Malcolm X explains “Black Nationalism”

3:44

MALCOLM X• 1964 – traveled on a pilgrimage to

Mecca, the holy city of Islam

• Came home with changed ideas about his hatred of whites

• New hope for blacks and whites working together for civil rights

• Left the Nation of Islam group

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Video: Malcolm X speaks of leaving the Nation of Islam

3:00

MALCOLM X

• February 1965 - Assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam

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Video: Malcolm X “I am a dead man already”

2:00

Malcolm X shot in chest and taken to hospital

Malcolm X, aged 39

BLACK PANTHERS• 1966 – Militant political party• Created by Bobby Seale and Huey

Newton who met at Oakland City College in California

• Promoted racial pride - “Black is beautiful”

• Encouraged blacks in California to carry guns and patrol inner city neighborhoods to protect blacks from police brutality

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Bobby Seale

and Huey Newton

Black Panther

Party founders

Video: Huey P. Newton speaks of police brutality

2:00

Black Panther poster promoting armed resistance to police authority

Raised fist becomes the symbol of “Black Power”

BLACK PANTHERS• 1968 – Huey Newton killed a

policeman in a New York City march and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter

• Sparked protests throughout country

• Conviction was later overturned

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Were African Americans the only group demanding their

full civil rights during this time period

collective name for people whose family

origins are in Spanish-speaking Latin America

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another term for Mexican-Americans, the largest

group of Latinos in the U.S.

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MIGRANT WORKERS• Workers who “migrate” from farm to

farm, and often state to state

• Provide the labor required to grow many of our nation’s crops

• Extremely low pay

• Children often received little or no education

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Migrant workers from Mexico travel by train to Los Angeles, 1942

School for white migrant workers’ children , 1945

Children of Mexican migrant workers

Migrant child picks grapes in California

Migrant melon picker in California, 1980

Migrant workers picking parsley for .90 per crate, 1986

Migrant vineyard workers in California

CESAR CHAVEZ• 1927 - Born in Arizona

• 1937 - Family lost their farm

• Became migrant workers in California

• Attended 30 different schools

• Wanted to improve working conditions for farm workers

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CESAR CHAVEZ• 1960’s Cesar began to organize

Mexican field hands to form a union

• 1965 – United Farm Workers (UFW) had 1,700 members

• Used nonviolent methods, such as protests and boycotts

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Cesar and his sister as children

CESAR CHAVEZ

LAND CLAIMSNative American tribes sued for

protection of tribal lands to preserve hunting, fishing,

homes and sacred sites on these

lands.

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AUTONOMY• Native American tribes wanted

self-government for individual tribes.

• Let tribal leaders make local decisions, rather than the state government.

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Flags of Various Autonomous Indian

Nations

• American Indian Movement• First focused on Native

Americans living in cities by establishing patrols and encouraging racial and cultural pride in young people

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continued

• Later, AIM joined in more militant protests for the return of land to tribes across the nation and for better treatment of those living on reservations.

• Over time, Native Americans regained some land along with mineral and water rights.

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A.I.M. Banner

OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE

• 1973 - AIM leaders descended upon Wounded Knee, South Dakota to protest the poverty and poor living conditions on the reservation.

• The protesters refused to leave until the government took action to better living conditions and review over 300 Indian treaties.

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continued

OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE

• Federal marshals and FBI agents besieged the city until it surrendered.

• In exchange, the government launched investigations of treaties and living conditions on the reservation.

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AIM protestors block the road at Wounded Knee

Protestors at

Wounded Knee

1973

AIM representatives and government authorities negotiate at Wounded Knee

INDIAN EDUCATION ACT

1972 - gave parents and tribal councils more control over

schools and school programs

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INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION

EDUCATION ACT1975 - Let local leaders

administer federally supported social programs for housing and education of Native Americans

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