hogan's history- civil rights movement

53
The Civil Rights Movement

Upload: william-hogan

Post on 29-Jul-2015

188 views

Category:

Education


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

The Civil Rights Movement

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

“Separate But Equal"

Supreme Court ruled that segregated facilities for whites and blacks were legal

as long as the facilities were of equal quality.

Segregation and Jim Crow

The separation of blacks and whites, mostly in the South, in public facilities,

transportation, schools, etc.

Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily,

but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-

1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws.

An African American man climbs stairs to a theater’s “colored” entrance in Mississippi

about 1939. The door on the ground level is marked “white men only.”

N.A.A.C.P.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Founded in 1909 to promote full legal equality and remove

obstacles to voting.

N.A.A.C.P.’s magazine is called, “The Crisis.”

Roy Wilkins

President of the NAACP during the 1950s and 1960s. He played a pivotal

role in leading the nation into the Civil Rights movement and spearheaded

the efforts that led to significant civil rights victories, including Brown v.

Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act

of 1965.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Founded in 1942 to address civil rights issues concerning the many African

Americans who served their country honorably during World War II, but still

faced racial barriers at home. At first, only Blacks were allowed to join.

Eventually, CORE broadened its reach in 1961 by allowing racially mixed

groups of passengers on Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate buses.

In 1964, it concentrated on organizing votes for Black candidates in states like

Mississippi and Alabama. Three of its members were murdered in Mississippi

during voter registration efforts in 1964's Freedom Summer.

Charles Hamilton Houston

African American lawyer who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim

Crow laws, which earned him the title “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.”

He is also well known for having trained future Supreme Court Justice

Thurgood Marshall.

Desegregation of the Armed Forces, 1948

In July, Truman issued an executive order establishing a policy of racial

equality in the Armed Forces "be put into effect as rapidly as possible."

He also created a committee to ensure its implementation.

Segregated Troops

Desegregated Troops

Dixiecrats and Strom Thurmond Southern political party in 1948 that opposed desegregation. South Carolina

governor, Strom Thurmond ran as the presidential candidate for the Dixiecrats

in 1948.

1948 Election Thomas Dewey, the republican candidate for president in 1948 almost

defeated Harry Truman during the 1948 presidential election because of

Truman’s support of Civil Rights.

Jackie Robinson

Became the first African American during the modern era to play baseball in

the Major League.

Before Robinson, black players could only participate in the Negro League.

Played for the Dodgers from 1947 until 1956.

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking

me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human

being." -Jackie Robinson

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

An organization founded in 1942 and devoted to social change

through non-violent action.

Whitney M. Young and the National Urban League

Young became Executive Director of the National Urban League. As executive

director of the League, Young pushed major corporations to hire more blacks.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

The acknowledged leader of the civil rights movement during the 1950s-1960s.

Led peaceful marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and other non-violent demonstrations

to protest racism in the South.

Modeled after Mohandas Gandhi’s style in India.

Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed many of his “non-violent” or passive resistance strategies

from India’s Mohandas K. Gandhi. Both men were killed for peace and equality in which they

both strongly believed.

Mohandas Gandhi Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give

up her seat to a white person and was arrested.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

In December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a White man

as required by city ordinance. It started the Civil Rights Movement and lasted

over a year until, in November 1956.

UH…UH… I’m Not Goin’ Your

Way…

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

The Supreme Court reversed the Plessey v. Ferguson decision and ruled

that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

Little Rock Central High School in 1957

In Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor tried to prevent *nine black students

from entering a desegregated public school, prompting President Eisenhower

to nationalize the Guard and escort the students to class.

President Eisenhower sent in U.S. Federal

troops to force the “white only” public

school in Little Rock, Arkansas to admit

black students.

*Known as the

“Little Rock Nine.”

Murder of Emmett Till

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi on

August 24, 1955 when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery

store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Emmett, beat him, and shot

him in the head.

The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them.

The defendants were acquitted on all

counts by an all-white jury. Months

later they wrote an article for a

magazine about how they did it for

$4,000

George Wallace

Governor of Alabama who opposed integration and attempted to prevent black

students from gaining admittance to the University of Alabama.

In 1972, while running for U.S. President, George

Wallace was shot and paralyzed from the waist down.

In later years he apologized for his anti-Civil Rights

stance and asked for forgiveness from the black

community.

Segregationist Governor of Alabama,

George Wallace did everything in his

power to prevent Civil Right legislation.

He his famous for his statement,

“Segregation today… Segregation

tomorrow… Segregation forever!”

James Meredith

An African American who the University of Mississippi attempted to defy the

Supreme Court and prevent James Meredith from enrolling at the university.

The university finally admitted Meredith after President Kennedy sent federal

authorities to deal with the situation.

James Meredith

I shall do everything in my

power to prevent

integration in our

schools.”

Governor Ross Barnett’s

Sept 13, 1962

Robert F. Williams

Williams was a key figure in promoting armed black self-defense in the United

States. A self-professed Black Nationalist and supporter of liberation he and

his wife left the United States in 1961 to avoid prosecution for kidnapping.

Williams' book Negroes with Guns (1962), published while he was in exile in

Cuba.

Medgar Evers

Director of the NAACP in Mississippi and a lawyer who defended accused

Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a sniper who was a member of the

Ku Klux Klan.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Sought to unite leaders from the black community (particularly black ministers)

in the cause of civil rights.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr. King wrote the letter in April 1963 from the jail in

Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been arrested following a peaceful civil

rights protest.

His letter was a response to several white

ministers who wrote a statement arguing

that the battle for civil rights should be

waged in the courts rather than by protests.

Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

These students devoted themselves to the use of non-violent protests to demand

civil rights for African Americans.

Sit-Ins

Non-violent protests in which blacks sat in segregated places until they were

served or arrested, often braving attacks by angry white mobs.

Non-Violent Sit-Ins:

Civil Right activists were subjected

to all kinds of verbal and physical

abuse at the hands of onlookers

who did not agree with them.

Police often did nothing to prevent

such abuses. When the police did

act, they often would arrest the

Civil Right activists for unlawful

assembly. There were many whites

that demonstrated with their black

counterparts and were subjected to

the same abuses themselves.

Members of the SNCC went

through realistic training

before participating in an

actual sit-in to prepare them

for what they may encounter.

Freedom Rides

Attorney General Robert F.

Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals

to protect the “Freedom

Riders.”

Integrated bus trips in which civil rights advocates (both black and white)

traveled south on buses to tests Supreme Court rulings requiring the integration

of buses.

March on Washington, 1963

August 1963 over 200,000 demonstrators converged on the Lincoln Memorial

to hear Dr. King's speech and to celebrate Kennedy's support for the civil

rights movement. It culminated in Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream"

speech.

In August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his

famous “I Have A Dream,” speech on the steps of

the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. This

speech is considered one of the greatest in

American history and ranks closely with

Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”

A compassionate President John F. Kennedy

watched the televised speech from the White

House, only a few blocks away.

When we let freedom ring,

when we let it ring from every

village and every hamlet, from

every state and every city, we

will be able to speed up that

day when all of God's

children, black men and white

men, Jews and Gentiles,

Protestants and Catholics, will

be able to join hands and sing

in the words of the old Negro

spiritual, "Free at last! free at

last! thank God Almighty, we

are free at last!"

I Have A Dream…

Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam taught that Allah, the God of Islam, would bring about a

“Black Nation” composed of all the non-white peoples of the world.

Believed that the white man and white supremacy was the enemy. Elijah Muhammad

The Nation of Islam was founded in Detroit in 1930. This variant of

traditional Islam that encouraged separatism from White society and taught

that God was black and the "White Devil" was the chief source of evil in the

world. When the original founder, W. D. Fard mysteriously disappeared in

1934, its leadership passed to Georgia native Elijah Muhammad.

During the 1950s, the Nation of Islam began a period of explosive growth

and attracted thousands with a doctrine of black pride, separation, and self-

sufficiency.

Malcolm X

Joined the Nation of Islam and became a powerful speaker who drew large

crowds. He criticized the non-violent strategy used by the NAACP. He called

for a separate Black Nation absolved from all whites. Malcolm X broke away

from the Nation of Islam in 1964 and in February 1965, Malcolm X was

assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X at first urged Blacks to seize their freedom by any

means necessary, but later his changed position and advocated

racial harmony. He was assassinated in February, 1965.

Thurgood Marshall

N.A.A.C.P. attorney and founder of the Legal Defense for the N.A.A.C.P.

He is famous for his landmark legal victory in the “Brown v. Topeka Board

of Education in 1954.

His continued fight against discrimination and support of civil liberties

eventually led to him to become the first African American appointed to the

Supreme Court.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The act prohibited segregation in public hotels, restaurants, theaters and

discrimination in education and employment.

Freedom Summer

A campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African

American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded

most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools,

Freedom Houses, and community centers in small towns throughout

Mississippi to aid the local black population.

Over the course of the ten-week project:

•Four civil rights workers were killed (one in a

head-on collision)

•At least three Mississippi blacks were

murdered because of their support for the civil

rights movement

•Four people were critically wounded

•Eighty Freedom Summer workers were beaten

•One-thousand and sixty-two people were

arrested (volunteers and locals)

•Thirty-seven churches were bombed or burned

•Thirty Black homes or businesses were bombed

or burned

Literacy Tests, Grandfather Clause, and Poll Taxes

Literacy Tests: Voters had to prove basic literacy to be entitled to vote.

Because of poor schools, Blacks were often prevented from voting.

Grandfather Clause: Said that a person could vote only if their grandfather

had been registered to vote, which disqualified Blacks whose grandparents

had been slaves.

Poll Taxes: Individuals were required to pay in order to vote.

Literacy Tests Poll Taxes

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Passed by Congress in 1965, it allowed for supervisors to register Blacks to

vote in places where they had not been allowed to vote before.

24th Amendment

This amendment served to protect blacks' voting rights by making the poll

tax illegal.

This new law led to a huge increase in African-American voter registration,

as well as an increase in the number of African-American candidates elected

to public office.

Urban League

Helping Blacks to find jobs and homes, it was founded in 1966 and was a

social service agency providing facts about discrimination.

Selma, Alabama (1965) Civil Rights activists decided to bring national attention to the cause of

civil rights by marching to Montgomery on Mar 7, 1965. State troopers

and sheriff's deputies beat them with clubs and whips, released dogs on

them, and showered them with tear gas. *Televised scenes of the violence

shocked people nationwide and increased support for the Civil Rights.

Watts Race Riots (August 11, 1965)

Many African Americans living in Los Angeles viewed police officers as

oppressors. After police stopped a 21-year-old African American for drunk

driving they used nightsticks on the suspect after the suspect resisted arrest.

Thousands of African Americans began a riot, in which several hundred stores

were looted and buildings burnt down.

The riots lasted 6 days before the local police and National Guard was able to

stop the rioting.

Watts riot resulted in 34

dead, 800 injured, 3500

arrested, and $140,000,000

in damages.

Racial Unrest (1965-1968)

Stokely Carmichael & Black Power

An activist in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who popularized the term,

"Black Power,” which called on African Americans to unite and to recognize

their heritage with the slogan, “Black is Beautiful.”

In 1966, as chair of SNCC, he

called to assert Black Power.

Supporting the Black

Panthers, he was against

integration.

The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was an act of protest

by the African-American athletes during their medal

ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In

response to their actions, the International Olympic

Committee ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the

U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village.

H. Rap Brown

A proponent of Black Power, he succeeded Stokely Carmichael as head of

SNCC. He was indicted by inciting riot and for arson.

Black Panthers

Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966.

The Black Panther Party was an African-American left-wing organization

whose political goals included better housing, jobs, and education for African

Americans. The group believed that violence, or the threat of it, might be

needed to bring about social change.

The Black Panthers sometimes made news with a show of force, as they did when they entered the California

Legislature fully armed in order to protest a gun bill and demand that the federal government rebuild the nation’s

ghettos in repayment for years of discrimination.

Bobby Seale Huey P. Newton

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a hotel balcony in Memphis,

Tennessee on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray was found

guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

James Earl Ray: Plead guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the assassination. He later said he

was innocent. There are many who believe he was framed and that there was a conspiracy, including

Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow and children. James Earl Ray died in prison in 1998.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

(1970) Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled that public schools could

integrate through busing.

Question?

Were federal courts

constitutionally

authorized to oversee

and produce remedies

for state-imposed

segregation?

Affirmative Action

In the U.S., the effort to improve the employment and educational

opportunities of women and members of minority groups through preferential

treatment in:

• Job hiring

• College admissions

• The awarding of government contracts

• Allocation of other social benefits.

Bakke v. Board of Regents, University of California

at Davis (1978)

Barred colleges from admitting students solely on the basis of race, but

allowed them to include race along with other considerations when deciding

which students to admit.