1954-1965

America’s Struggle for Civil Rights

1954

Brown vs. Board of the Education Ends constitutionality of “separate but equal” in

education

1955: Emmett Till

The brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 galvanized the fledging civil rights movement like no other killing of a black by white racists before it. After an all-white, all-male jury acquitted Till's two killers, the case festered for 49 years until the U.S. Justice Department reopened it in 2004. In late February of 2007, a Lefore County, Miss. grand jury declined to issue any new indictments, effectively bringing the case to an abrupt and ignoble end. 

1955

Rosa Parks arrested for failing to give up her seat to a white man

Bus Boycott 40,o00 black riders

participate 382 days

MLK Jr. made president of the Montgomery Improvement Association

1956 - 1957

Federal Courts and Supreme Court rule that bus segregation, separate but equal intrastate transportation, is unconstitutional

Boycott ends…whites respond with violence______________________Greensborough, NC Woolworth’s: Whites only75000 college kids across the South stage sit-ins in Woolworths and other white-only establishments1961: Restaurant segregation largely ended

1961

1960: Supreme Court rules that segregation of interstate travel is unconstitutional (Boynton v. VA)

Freedom Riders integrate to enforce the ruling

Inspired by Kennedy’s words (1961): “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.  My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. ”

April 1963

King organizes “Project C” marches/boycotts in Birmingham, Alabama 6000 kids join Fire hoses and dogs used against them

May 1963

Birmingham agrees to integrate and hire African Americans

KKK responds with rally; law enforcement joins them

Kennedy sends in federal troops

June 1963

Kennedy proposes Civil Rights Bill Desegregate interstate commerce Denies federal funding to organizations that segregate Makes 6th grade education acceptable for voter

registration Kennedy addresses the nation on television

King and Randolph announce March on Washington

August 28,1963

The March on Washington Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial 250,000 marchers (more than double expected) Speakers, musicians John Lewis speech (revised) Martin Luther King Jr.: “I have a dream” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqS88XWt0hE

Autumn 1963

September 15, 1963: 16th Street Baptist

Church, Birmingham exploded by KKK members; four teen-

aged girls killedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m66xzIG2q9w

November 22, 1963: Kennedy

assassinated Impact on Civil Rights?

Johnson’s Great Society

Johnson: Greatest legislator in American history? Wanted to end segregation, poverty, lack of health care Head Start Job Corps and Vista Appalachian Regional Development Act Elementary and Secondary Education Act Medicare Consumer Protections Environmental Protections Department of Housing and Urban Development

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Believed integration was morally correct and socially necessary Outlawed public racial discrimination Ended Jim Crow laws Banned discrimination in employment and union membership

Voting Registration

Selma, Alabama: 50%+ African American Population 1% African American Registered

VotersMarch in Selma (to demonstrate violence): March 1965

MLK arrested

Johnson sends Voting Rights Bill to Congress Results in violence

Selma-Montgomery March Marchers meet violent resistance from local law enforcement Americans across the country watch in horror MLK Jr. organizes corresponding Ministers’ March LBJ sends National Guard, FBI, and federal troops to protect marchers 25,000 marchers reach Montgomery

Voting Rights Act of 1965: August

Resistance to Civil Rights

George Wallace

Southern Democrat 45th Governor of Alabama,

served 4 terms “stand in the schoolhouse

door” Blocked entry to Univ. of Alabama Blocked entry to elementary

schools Ordered state troops to

Birmingham during the 1963 march

Lost the Presidency 4 times 1965:Primary vs. Kennedy 1969:Ran as independent 1973:Democratic primary

Survived assassination attempt 1977 : Democratic primary

Infamous Quotes:

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” (1963 inauguration)

"The President wants us to surrender this state to Martin Luther King and his group of pro-Communists who have instituted these demonstrations."

Differing Views of How to Achieve Civil Rightshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4PqLKWuwyU

Necessary Violence:

e.g. Robert Williams “The Southern brute

respects only force.” “Non-violence is no

repellent for a sadist.” Petitioning has not led to

results; violence has History shows that

patience does not yield results like violence

Black Power:

e.g. Malcolm X Separate, rather than

integrate Blacks have a right to

retaliate against whites with aggression

Militant civil rights policies

(Malcolm X later changed his views and sought to work with whites; he was assassinated)

Non-Violence

Inspired by:

Jesus “turn the other cheek”

Henry David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience

(1849): People should not allow a government to override their moral consciousness

Mahatma Gandhi defied British tyranny

through non-violent civil disobedience

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baptist preacher Civil Rights Worker

1955: Bus Boycott 1957: Southern Christian

Leadership Conference 1963: March on

Washington (“I have a dream”)

Nobel Peace Prize recipient (1964)

Advocated end to poverty and war in Vietnam

Assassinated April 4, 1968

Martin Luther King, Junior: In Memoriam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w61QB8_KOuc&feature=player_embedded