Civil Rights 1950s-1970s

Truman and Civil Rights

• Justice department begins to support anti-segregation laws

• Color barrier in baseball is broken when Jackie Robinson plays for the Brooklyn Dodgers

• 1948 – Truman orders "equality of treatment and opportunity to African-Americans in the armed services

Presidents and Civil Rights

• Truman made attempts to advance the cause• Eisenhower was a segregationist. Not rabid, but

certainly doesn’t take steps to integrate• JFK was a tepid supporter of civil rights, but he

finger was always testing the political wind, which drove his decision making

• LBJ does more for Civil Rights than any other President – irony…he’s a Southerner

Emmett Till - 1955• An African-American boy (14 yrs) from Chicago• In Mississippi visiting relatives• He apparently whistled at a white store clerk,

who informed her husband, Roy Bryant • Bryant and JW Milam killed Till, beating him,

gouging out on eye, shooting him and dumping the body in a river.

• His mother insisted on an open casket and allowed photos of her mutilated son that were circulated in papers

• His murderers admitted to the killing, but were acquitted by a jury of 12 southern white men. – They deliberated for just over an hour

• There was moral outrage throughout the US and Europe. This helped to spark the civil rights movement

Public School Integration

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - 1954

• Linda Brown – 3rd Grader – had to travel 1 mile to all-black school, passing a white school along the way

• NAACP works with Browns challenging school segregation

• Supreme Court overturns Plessy v. Ferguson – said that “Separate but equal” denied students rights under Constitution

• The first step in eliminating segregation

Loophole in Brown v. Board Decision

• “with all deliberate speed”– Southern states did not move to quickly to

reform

• Southern Manifesto – Southern Congressmen sign this document asserting that the Supreme Court’s decision violates states rights – Some Southern states threatened to disband

public schools and make all schools private

Integration in Schools

• Ike did not advance the ball with integration– Did not crack down on states that ignored

Brown v. Board

• States further North desegregated peacefully, but in the South, African-Americans met more violence and taunts

• Little Rock Crisis – 1957– Central High School , city admitted 9 blacks– Gov. Orval Faubas used National Guard to

keep blacks out• Faubas withdraws guardsmen under national

pressure

– Eisenhower sends in 101st Airborne to keep the peace

State Universities

• Slow to integrate, particularly in the South• 1956 – University of Alabama admitted Autherine Lucy

under court order, but expelled her before she could attend

• 1962 – James Meredith attended the University of Mississippi (transfer from Jackson St)– Opposed by Governor Ross Barnett sparking riots– Kennedy sent in the army – Meredith graduated the next year - Political Science

• In 1963 – Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was vocal in his opposition to integration of the University of Alabama– Ran for President in 1968

Autherine Lucy & James Meredith

Equal Access to Public Facilities

Jim Crowism (1877-1960s)

• Practiced in most Southern states, 3 of 4 border states, and a few in the west

• Separated the races in many public facilities like buses & bus terminals, movie theaters, drinking fountains and restrooms.

• Hotels and restaurants may deny African-Americans service

Examples of Jim Crow

Montgomery Bus Boycott• Dec, 1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give

up her bus seat to a white passenger – she was arrested

• Montgomery Bus Boycott - Women’s Political Council (college educated African-American women) started a boycott of the bus company in Montgomery– Martin Luther King took a leadership role

in this effort – Lasted several months – received national

media attention– Supreme Court ruled almost a year later

that bus segregation was unconstitutional• Martin Luther King was made famous

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• Civil rights organization founded in 1957• Co-founded by Joseph Lowrey and Ella Baker.

– It was later headed by MLK. • The organization, sparked by the success of the

Montgomery Bus Boycott, focused on nonviolent civil disobedience through protests and marches to gain civil rights for blacks.

• They thrived on media coverage to gain support around the world.

• While NAACP focused on court-based reform, SCLC focused on community-based reform

Ella Baker

• Civil rights activist involved with the NAACP and SCLC.

• She formed SNCC and went to work with them forming the plans for sit-ins and freedom rides.

• Her ideas on group-centered organizing and direct action influenced the philosophy of participatory democracy put forth by SNCC

Ella Baker

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

• 1960 – Four African-American college students sat at the lunch counter of a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC– Waited for a day without being served– Sparked similar demonstrations throughout the South

• Had varying effects– Some lunch counters integrated as a result– Violence by angry whites and arrests happened in

other areas

Woolworth’s Sit-In - Greensboro

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) - 1961

• Founded under the guidance of Ella Baker led by John Lewis

• Focused membership on the younger generation• Involved in sit-ins, freedom rides, March on Washington. • Its purpose was to coordinate the use of nonviolent

direct action to attack segregation as well as other forms of racism.

• Later led by Stokely Carmichael – Began to focus on black power, Vietnam and started to abandon

the idea of passive resistance. – One of the first groups to used a decentralized organizational

structure

John Lewis

• Civil rights activist.

• Involved in sit-ins and the freedom rides during college.

• During the Selma to Montgomery march, police brutally beat him.

• At the march on Washington, Lewis, the Pres of SNCC, was critical of the Kennedy administration

Freedom Rides - 1961

• Began in May, shortly after the Bay of Pigs. • Black and White students from SNCC boarded

busses to travel through the south to test the enforcement of laws prohibiting segregation.

• The riders ran into trouble in Alabama where mobs stopped the buses and beat some of the riders.

• They continued the ride – RFK cut a deal with the Governor of Miss to protect

the riders in exchange for the justice department not enforcing segregation laws.

Freedom Rides

Birmingham - 1963

• SCLC concentrated its efforts on the heavily segregated Birmingham, Alabama

• Hold sit-ins & protest marches• Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor,

turned the fire hoses & dogs on these people • Some were arrested• MLK wrote ”Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

– “We have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and non-violent pressure… Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”

March on Washington (for Jobs and Freedom) – Aug 1963

• Approx 200-500,000 people attended.• King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.• Kennedy felt that this would undermine pending

civil rights legislation and hurt other domestic initiatives.

• JFK concerned this would embarrass the United States in the world community

• Helped to push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voters Rights act of 1965

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• LBJ has taken over Presidency after JFK’s murder

• LBJ is a creative legislator and pushes through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a tribute to the fallen President

• Prohibited segregation in public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, gas stations, theaters & parks)

• Outlawed employment discrimination on federal projects

Equitable Voter Registration

Freedom Summer - 1964

• Civil rights organizations like SNCC launched a campaign to register as many black voters as they could in Mississippi counties that had a noticeably low black voter turnout.

• Violence hindered the campaign when three students were apprehended by the KKK and murdered.

• Their murders sparked an investigation by the FBI and became a symbol of the civil rights movement

Freedom Summer

Selma to Montgomery March

• MLK and SCLC demonstrated in Selma, Alabama for voter rights– Only 2% of eligible blacks were registered in that

county– Protestors were arrested

• John Lewis organized a group to march from Selma to Montgomery

• The protestors were met by state troopers who beat the protestors when they failed to disperse

• TV cameras caught the violence

Voting Rights Act - 1965

• Signed by Johnson

• Outlawed literacy tests

• Federal voting registrars would be sent to states with less than 50% of eligible population registered

Black Power

Attitude in America, urban riots, fueled separatists from the

nonviolence camp

Nation of Islam

• Elijah Muhammad - The leader of the Nation of Islam from the 30s to the 70s. – He was similar to the Pope in that he was the

voice of Allah on Earth. – From an early age he developed a deep hatred

for white people because of the violence he witnessed

• father killed by whites. • He preached that whites were devils and inferior. • He preached complete separation from white

community (black separatism) as well as black nationalism.

– He believed in rehabilitating blacks who were alcoholics, drug users and criminals – which he had success doing.

– Had a profound impact on Malcolm X.

Nation of Islam

• Malcolm X– Becomes the leading Black Muslim– Break free of white dominance by using any

means necessary– Emphasized African cultural heritage & self-

help– Pilgrimage to Mecca softened his stance – Assassinated by members of the Nation of

Islam

Black Panthers - 1966

• Founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton

• This was a militant group of civil rights protesters who believed in black nationalism and believed in armed resistance to stop black oppression.

• They monitored police to look for abuse.

• They are an example of the new wave of civil rights activists, tired of the non-violent approach.