origins of the movement executive order 9981 destabilization of the racial system during wwii ...

The Civil Rights Movement

Mr. GieslerAmerican History


Origins Of The Movement

Executive Order 9981

Destabilization of the racial system during WWII

Mass migration out of the segregated South

The Cold war and rise of independent states in the third world

Mendez v. Westminster

Brown v. Board of Education

Till


The Brown Case

Landmark Case

1954

For many, acknowledged as the Supreme Courts greatest decision.

Overturned Plessy v Ferguson (1890)

Held that racial segregation against children in public schools

violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment

Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement


The Brown Case


The Brown CaseWhat Was Going On

In 1954, large portions of the United States had racially segregated schools, Segregated public facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were equal to each other.

NAACP lawyers brought class action lawsuits on behalf of black schoolchildren and their families in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, seeking court orders to compel school districts to let black students attend white public schools. One of these class actions, Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by representative-plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children denied access to Topeka's white schools.

Claimed that that Topeka's racial segregation violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause because the city's black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be.


The Brown Case The federal district court dismissed his claim, ruling that the segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine.

Brown appealed to the Supreme Court, which consolidated and then reviewed all the school segregation actions together. Thurgood Marshall, who would in 1967 be appointed the first black justice of the Court, was chief counsel for the plaintiffs.

Thanks to the astute leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court spoke in a unanimous decision written by Warren himself.

The decision held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."


The Brown Case

Public education in the 20th century, said the Court, had become an essential component of a citizen's public life, forming the basis of democratic citizenship, normal socialization, and professional training. In this context, any child denied a good education would be unlikely to succeed in life. Widespread racial integration of the South was achieved by the late 1960s and 1970s.

The equal protection ruling in Brown would spill over into other areas of the law and into the political arena as well.

Many scholars now point out that Brown v. Board was not the beginning of the modern civil rights movement, but there is no doubt that it constituted a watershed moment in the struggle for racial equality in America.


Emmett Till“The horrific death of a Chicago teenager helped spark

the civil rights movement”

In August 1955, a fourteen year old boy went to visit relatives near Money, Mississippi.

His Crime

When he showed some local boys a picture of a white girl who was one of his friends back home and bragged that she was his girlfriend, one of them said, "Hey, there's a [white] girl in that store there. I bet you won't go in there and talk to her.” Emmett went in and bought some candy. As he left, he said "Bye baby" to Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the store owner.


Emmett Till

Although they were worried at first about the incident, the boys soon forgot about it. A few days later, two men came to the cabin of Mose Wright, Emmett's uncle, in the middle of the night. Roy Bryant, the owner of the store, and J.W. Milam, his brother-in-law, drove off with Emmett. Three days later, Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One eye was gouged out, and his crushed-in head had a bullet in it. The corpse was nearly unrecognizable; Mose Wright could only positively identify the body as Emmett's because it was wearing an initialed ring.

At first, local whites as well as blacks were horrified by the crime.

Bryant and Milam were arrested for kidnapping even before Emmett's body was found

The Emmett Till case quickly attracted national attention.


Emmett Till

Mamie Bradley, Emmett's mother, asked that the body be shipped back to Chicago.

Then, she insisted on an open-casket funeral, so that "all the world [could] see what they did to my son."

Over four days, thousands of people saw Emmett's body. Many more blacks across the country who might not have otherwise heard of the case were shocked by pictures of the that appeared in Jet magazine.

These pictures moved blacks in a way that nothing else had.

Whites in Mississippi resented the Northern criticism of the "barbarity of segregation" and the NAACP's labeling of the murder as a lynching. Five prominent lawyers stepped forward to defend Milam and Bryant, and officials who had at first denounced the murder began supporting the accused murderers. The two men went on trial in a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi on September 19, 1955.


Emmett Till

Do Now: Prediction Time

Insert Bob Dylan Song The Death of Emmett Till

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzw3vS9vHtQ


Emmett Till: The Verdict

The prosecution had trouble finding witnesses willing to testify against the two men. At that time in Mississippi, it was unheard of for a black to publicly accuse a white of committing a crime. Finally, Emmett's sixty-four year old uncle Mose Wright stepped forward. When asked if he could point out the men who had taken his nephew that dark summer night, he stood, pointed to Milam and Bryant, and said "Dar he" -- "There he is." Wright's bravery encouraged other blacks to testify against the two defendants. All had to be hurried out of the state after their testimony.

In the end, however, even the incredible courage of these blacks did not make a difference. Defense attorney John C. Whitten told the jurors in his closing statement, "Your fathers will turn over in their graves if [Milam and Bryant are found guilty] and I'm sure that every last Anglo-Saxon one of you has the courage to free these men in the face of that [outside] pressure."

The jurors listened to him. They deliberated for just over an hour, then returned a "not guilty" verdict on September 23rd, the 166th anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Rights.


Phase One: The Non-Violent phasePhase Two: The Black Power phase

The Two Phases of the Civil Rights Movement


Phase One: The Non-Violent phase


The Montgomery Boycott

The Montgomery bus boycott marked a turning point in postwar America launched the movement for racial justice as a nonviolent crusade Marked the emergence of 26 year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. Many historians consider December 1, 1955 the date that the Civil Rights

Movement officially began.



Dec. 1, 1955 Rosa Parks

A black tailor’s assistant refused to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white rider, as required by law

Park’s arrest sparked a year-long bus boycott, the beginning of the mass phase of the civil rights movement in the South

Rosa Parks “Seamstress with tired feet”



Women’s Political Council calls for a boycott on Dec. 5 Dec. 5, a mass meeting of all Negroes to be held – MLK emerges Buses empty, Negro Taxis, and walking to work King’s first speech as a Civil Rights Leader

Small group activity refer to your notes packet Working cooperatively, interpret the speech given at Montgomery , Alabama

(December 5, 1955 by Martin Luther King, Jr. What problems has King identified? What course of action does King suggest?



Boycott lasted 381 days Included 42K blacks took part Indictments followed, including King. 1921 Law – Boycotts illegal w/o just cause Intimidation escalates

Bombing, including King’s home

Black Churches targeted After 381 days, not only could all citizens ride the buses as equals, but the boycott would affect other cities.


The Leadership of King“one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”

A master at appealing to the deep sense of injustice among blacks and t the conscience of white America Studies the writings on peaceful civil disobedience of Henry David Thoreau and Gandhi Believed that evil must be met with good, the with Christian love, and violence with peaceful demands for change Formed the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

coalition of black ministers and civil rights activist to press for desegregation


The Sixties: The Rising Tide of Protests

Greensboro Sit-In SNCC

Birmingham March On Washington

Freedom Rides Selma


The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Feb. 1, 1960; 4 students from NC Agricultural and Technical State Univ. Woolworth’s Demonstration spreads Lasted for 5 months Woolworth concedes and begins to serve black customers

TTYN: What does the sit-in reflect?

The sit-in reflected mounting frustration at the slow pace of racial change.

The Greensboro sit-in would spark launched a decade of political activism. Demonstrations demanding integration of parks, pools, restaurants, libraries, etc.By the end of 1960m 70K demonstrations had taken part in sit-ins


The Freedom Rides

Sit-ins sparked for the first time activism by college students as leading force for social change April 1960, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee formed (SNCC)

“We can’t count on adults”

TTYN: Identify at least two other examples where students lead the charge for social change

1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) formed and organized the Freedom Rides

Integrated groups traveled by bus into the Deep South Purpose: test compliance with court orders banning segregation on interstate

buses and trains and in terminal facilities.

The Freedom Rides



The Freedom Rides

Violent mobs assaulted themFirebombsThe Klan attacked riders ICC orders buses and terminals desegregated


Birmingham

1963, SNCC organized demonstration Dramatizing black discontent over inequality in education, employment, and housing MLK arrives King arrested and serves nine days in jail “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Wrote about the abuses faced by black southerners from police brutality, humiliation of having to explain to their children why they couldn’t enter amusements parks or public swimming pools.

“We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.”

“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.”


Birmingham King makes the bold decision to send black schoolchildren into the streets of Birmingham

Prediction Time – TTYN Birmingham Police unleash on the young marchers


Birmingham

TTYN: What affect do you think the pictures and video of the Birmingham marchhad on the American psyche?

Produced a wave of revulsion throughout the world Turned Birmingham campaign into a triumph for the civil rights movement JFK would endorse the movement’s goals Forced White America to think – did it have more in common with theirfellow citizens demanding their basic rights or with violent segregationists


The Leadership of King

The March on Washington

August 28, 1963 Two weeks before the Birmingham church bombing 250K white and black Americans converge on the nation’s capital Considered the high point of the nonviolent civil right movement Largest demonstration at the time Calls for the passage of the Civil Rights bill Demanded a public works program to reduce unemployment

“Jobs and Freedom:

TTYN – Had did the black movement forge an alliance with white liberal groups?

The March on Washington reflected an unprecedented degree of black-white cooperation in supports of racial and economic justice



The March on Washington

SNCC leader – John Lewis “free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery” and march “through the heart of Dixie the way Sherman did…and burn Jim Crow to the ground.”

Rep. John Lewis, GA


Selma

Jan., 1965, SNCC-led demonstration in Dallas County, Alabama Protesting voting rights Faced stiff resistance MLK asked to join Feb. 17, 1965 Demonstration, protester Jimmy Lee Jackson fatally shot by police The response: March 7, Protest march from Selma to Montgomery Violence erupts; teargas, beating nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and hospitalizing over 50 people “Bloody Sunday” America watches 2nd march planned. King turns march around at the seen of the last march Division between SLCC and SNCC


Selma


Kennedy And Civil Rights

First two years, Kennedy was preoccupied with foreign policy Initially shared Hoover’s fear that the movement was inspired by communismWiretap’s on King and other prominent civil rights leaders Campaigned on a pledge to ban discrimination Birmingham forced his handJune, 1963 he called for the passage of a law banning discrimination in all public places

“We preach freedom around the world…but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other , that this is a land of the free except for Negroes?”

Nov. 1063, Kennedy assassinated LBJ takes office LBJ leads the charge for the passage of the civil rights bill Launches a program of domestic liberalism


Kennedy And Civil Rights


LBJ And Civil Rights

TTYN: In your own words, describe what you believe the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act constitute.

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Prohibited racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, libraries, public swimming pools, and theaters. Banned discrimination on the grounds of sex The Civil Rights Act DID NOT address a major concern – Voting



Voting Rights Act of 1965

Allowed federal officials to register voters Black Southerners finally regained the suffrage that had been stripped from them at the turn of the century

Phase Two: The Black Power phase



The Changing Black Movement

Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the movement confronted crisis

Ghetto Uprisings Harlem 1964, angry blacks and predominantly white police (viewed as an occupying army) Watts Uprising 1965, just days after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act 50K attacked police, firemen, looting white-owned business, and burned buildings. 15K police and National Guardsmen 35 dead 900 injured 30M damages


Ghetto Uprisings

Violence and uprisings widespread – 4 corners Johnson appoints commission

Causes: segregation and poverty white racism Black unemployment twice that of whites Income half


Ghetto Uprisings


The Rise of Black Power

Phase one produced a clear set of objectives and far-reaching accomplishments

Malcolm X

Converted in jail to the teachings of the Nation of Islam (NOI), or Black Muslims

preached of white evil and black self-discipline critic of integration and nonviolence

“I don’t see any American dream”, “I see an American nightmare”


The Rise of Black Power X was the intellectual father of “Black Power” SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael

“Black Power” a rallying cry for those bitter over the federal gov’t failure to stop violence against civil rights workers, white attempts to determine movement strategy, and the failure of the civil rights movement to have an impact on the economic problems of black ghettos.

Black Power means Black Freedom freedom from the whites who tried to restrict the movement’s goals Promoted the election of more black officials Promoted the belief that black Americans were a colonized people whose

freedom could only be won through a revolutionary struggle for self-determination

Slogan: Black is beautiful Abandoned the word “Negro” on favor of “Afro-American” Black Panther Party – advocated armed self-defense in response to police

brutality


The Rise of Black Power

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