Civil rights movement1950/1960

Lauren LeeYoujin Kwon

the question

Q: Compare and contrast the civil rights movement in the 1950s and the 1960s

1950s

Civil Rights Movement is getting started

I am a Man

victory in supreme court

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

unanimous decision by the Supreme Court ,that declared “separate but equal” (Plessy v. Ferguson) was unconstitutional in public schools

meant desegregation in U.S. public schools

The National Association for Advancement of Colored People argued this case led by thurgood Marshall who later became the first black Supreme Court justice

Little ChangeEven after the court case, Jim Crow Laws continued to exist. Desegregation of public schools were slow to change.

only 1% of schools in Deep South desegregated in 10 years

People were still very much against desegregation

The Little Rock Central High school incident forced Eisenhower to send troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce integration

Rosa ParksThe most famous incident of civil rights movement in 1950s was Rosa Parks protest on the public pus

1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white and move her seat to the back of the bus

Leads to a year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Park’s courage influences many other civil rights movements in the 1960s

Emmett Till

He was an African American boy who was murdered at the age of 14 in Mississippi by the white racists.

One of the leading events along with Rosa Parks that motivated the Civil Rights Movement

Emmett’s mother did a open casket funeral to show people how brutal the racists were. Till had been beaten and his eye had been gouged out, before he was shot through the head and thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied to his body with barbed wire.

civil rights org.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)-MLK’s organization where adults peacefully protested with boycotts

SNCC (Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee)- college students performed “sit-ins” in white part of the restaurant

CORE (congress of Racial equality) and Freedom Rides- bus boycotts from city to city

1960s

Actual legislation on civil rights passed by the federal government

and the movement fractures

Black power

Birmingham MLK and peaceful protestors were attacked by the police with dogs and hoses

broadcasted to an international audience

shocked the whole world and negative image of the U.S. (similar effect as Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

Freedom summer

organized by the CORE, SNCC, and the NAACP, encouraged African Americans to register to VOTE

James Meredith- first black to attend University of

Mississippi (all white) had to attend classes with

federal troops 8 million dollars spent to

get him to school

March on washington

Video: March on Washington

“I have a dream”

JFK and LBJ

1960-63 JFK- Birmingham made JFK fully supportive as well as his brother that urged him to support

JFK assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald

Medger Evers (civil rights leader) killed (precursor to MLK and Malcom X’s assassination)

1963- 68 LBJ’s Great Society

LBJ’s accomplishment

24th amendment- ended the poll tax

Selma- MLK and demonstrators also violently attacked here after Birmingham

Civil Rights Act of 1964- prohibited segregation in ALL PUBLIC AREAS

Voting Rights Act of 1965- ensured black suffrage (re-established the 15th amendment)

black powerMovement fractured into 2: MLK’s nonviolent resistance vs. Black power

means black pride, black is beautiful, more militant but still emphasized “self-defense” more than attack

Black Panthers- organization of young black men which addressed police brutality

carried shotguns “pick up the gun”

but also set up medical clinics, afterschool programs

leaders such as Huey Newton even invited to China by Mao

Black Power

Malcom X- “white man is the devil” “separation than integration” “MLK is weak Uncle Tom” “put him in the cemetery if touched first”

Stokely Carmichael- leader of SNCC converted to black power from non-violence

Long Hot Summers- seires of race riots in LA, Ny, etc

“I could vote, but I still don’t have a job”

quiz!

Question: Who set precedent of the civil rights movement in the 1950s?

quiz!

Answer: Rosa Parks or Emmett Till

quiz!

Question: Name two incidents when black protestors were brutally suppressed by the police.

quiz!

Answer: Birmingham and Selma

quiz!

Question: Name any two of the African American civil rights movement leaders

quiz!

Answer: MLK, Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Medger Evers

quiz!

Question: Name this person who was one of the leaders of the NAACP and later the first black Supreme Court Justice. He also led the case of Brown v. Board of Education

quiz!

Answer: Thurgood Marshall