CIVIL RIGHTSScotts Hill High School

Coach StroupUS History

o The Civil Rights Movement

August 28, 1963

Asa Phillip Randolph stood before a crowd of 200,000 civil rights activist in Washington D.C.

“Fellow Americans” he said, “we are gathered here in the largest demonstration in the history of this nation…We are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive revolution for jobs and freedoms.”

August 28, 1963

Martin Luther King Jr. told the same audience the life of a Negro was still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

He explained that they could never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

He spoke of the voting practices of Negros in Mississippi and New York, lodging in America for African Americans.

The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement in the U.S. began in the 1940’s

Known a phenomenon of the 1950’s & 60’s.

During later years, legality changed the civil rights movement in the U.S.

The movements goal was to end segregation in the South by staging various nonviolent protest.

However its history is littered with incidents of injustice and violence.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson

Homer Plessy challenged the 1890 Louisiana Separate Court Act.

For travel within the state there was “separate but equal” railroad cars for blacks and whites.

Case went all the way to the Supreme Court, Plessy lost, established the principle of “separate but equal”.

Years of Jim Crow laws followed, the Plessy v. Ferguson case was overturned in 1954 by the Supreme Court that stated segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment.

Civil Rights Movement

Two of the more well-known desegregations were held in Clinton, Tennessee & Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1956, the “Clinton 12” enrolled in a previously all-white school after a federal court ordered desegregation.

“John Kasper” , a white supremacist, organized protest outside of the school.

Violence culminated in the later beating of a Clinton 12 escort and school bombing.

However, desegregation continued as the school was rebuilt.

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education is the known as the decision to overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Leaders emerged from all over the nation to ensure civil rights, and desegregate schools and public places, by engaging in sit-ins, marches, and protest.

Diane Nash is one well-known leader who was integral in the desegregation of Nashville lunch counters.

Civil Rights Movement

Black students in Little Rock, Arkansas had a difficult time integrating as well.

National Guard was called to prevent them from entering Central High School.

President Dwight Eisenhower eventually summoned the Arkansas governor in an effort to diffuse the situation.

Once the “Little 9” gained entrance to school, there were harassed.

Yet segregation slowly took root despite resistatnce. In 1962, James Meredith became the first African

American to attend the University of Mississippi.

Civil Rights Movement

Rosa Parks, a seamstress, challenged the morality of Plessy v. Ferguson ruling.

Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, in a time when African Americans were obligated to do so.

That sparked a year-long boycott, from December 1955 until November 1956 by African Americans in Montgomery, AL.

75% of riders were African American, boycott struck deeply into city bus revenues.

Boycott didn’t end until Supreme Court declared that Montgomery’s bus segregation law was unconstitutional.

This event led to the desegregation of other bus systems in other cities.

Also launched Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a young preacher, to prominence it the civil rights movement.

Civil Rights Movements

In 1961, black and white Freedom Riders tested their legal right to ride on integrated interstate buses.

1963, Dr. King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) staged a campaign in Birmingham, Al.

They chose their places to protest strategically in order to call attention to areas that were especially segregated.

For two months, people participated in sit-ins at libraries, kneel-ins at churches, and boycotts of downtown business.

Many people were arrested during this time as well and jails filled.

Civil Rights Movements

Many children would eventually take part in protest, which at first upset some Americans.

However, when police and other officials such as Bull Conner used high-powered hoes and dogs on children who were peacefully protesting, Americans began to changed their minds and began paying more attention.

After a few months of struggle, Birmingham became segregated, people, including presidents, acknowledged King’s tactics.

Civil Rights Movements

1963, Dr. King led a March on Washington where he gave his well-known “I have a dream” speech.

After much violent resistance to desegregation in the South, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

These laws were tuff to pass as some leaders, such as Storm Thurmand, switched political parties because of their opposition to civil right legislation.

Some did not give up, and fought and overrode state laws, like Jim Crow laws, that had empowered injustice in the past.

Voter registration of African Americans in the South increased tremendously.

Brown v. Board of Education

Landmark case establishing civil liberties were the hallmark of the Warren Court, which was named after Chief Justice Earl Warren .

Two other landmark cases, among several, set the tone of the Warren Court.

Additional Landmark Civil Rights Cases

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) Clearance Earl Gideon was arrested for burglarizing a

poolroom, a felony in the state of Florida He asked the court to appoint him an attorney, since he

could not afford one himself. Court denied the request, forcing him to serve as his own

defense. Gideon was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in jail. Gideon petitioned for a retrial, on the grounds that he was

denied due process granted to him by the 6th and 14th Amendments.

He was granted it by the Supreme Court, the state of Florida had to provide a new trial, with court-appointed attorney.

Court found him not guilty.

Additional Landmark Civil Rights Cases

Miranda v. Arizona (1966) Ernesto Miranda arrested & identified as the assailant in a

violent crime. Police questioned Miranda for two hours without informing

him of his constitutional right to refuse to answer any questions, & that he had a right to an attorney.

Miranda was convicted on the bases of his confession. Miranda appealed, claiming he had not be informed he

had a right to counsel, the police violated his 5th Amendment.

In a 5 – 4 vote, court struck down Miranda’s conviction. Today, police have to read the “Miranda Warning” to

anyone accused of a crime. (You have the right to remain”)

Great Society

November 22, 1963, assassin’s bullet killed President John F. Kennedy while he was riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Tx.

Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of the assassination, but never tried.

Oswald was shot two days later by Jack Ruby.

Civil Rights legislation would fall on the shoulders of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who would assume office after Kennedy’s assassination.

Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced a series of social programs called the “Great Society”.

With a focus on helping those who lived below he poverty line.

Many programs that were created then still remain active today, including: Head Start – provides free preschool education to

children living in poverty Medicaid – provides medical care for individuals living

in poverty. Medicare – provides free hospitalization and some

inexpensive insurance for medical care, for the elderly.

Continued Upheaval

Urban riots in Watts (Los Angeles) 1965, foreshadowed violence that broke out in forty northern cities during 1966.

Civil unrest struck Newark, New Jersey & Detriot, Michigan in 1967.

April 4, 1968, an assassin’s bullet took the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

James Earl Ray shot King while on the balcony of his Memphis motel.

Thousands would attended King’s funeral in Atlanta, Ga while millions viewed it on television.

Continued Upheaval

Three candidates emerge as 1968 Deomocratic presidental nomination for president of the United States. VP – Herbert H. Humphrey Senator Eugene McCarthy Senator Robert Kennedy (Brother of J.F.K.)As attorney general during Kennedy’s admin. Robert Kennedy championed civil liberties for all Americans.On June 6, 1968 Robert Kennedy, to the horror of the country, died as a result of gun shot wound.Sirhan Sirhan was implicated in Robert Kennedy’s assassination which occurred at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968.

The Democratic National Convention

August 1968, convention held in Chicago, IL.

Inside delegates were nominating Hubert Humphrey to run for president.

Outside, thousands demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

Chicago police unleashed tear gas and wielded nightsticks against demonstrators

The violence was brought into the homes of Americans by television cameras.

The Women’s Movement

Civil Rights movement sparked the women’s movement.

Women wanted to fight for their own rights, and the rights of others.

Considered to be the “second wave” of feminism (which is the belief in the social, political, & economic equality of women.

The “first wave” of feminism is considered to be nearly 100 – year process of achieving suffrage.

The “second wave” dealt with many other aspects of women’s such as family and work.

The Women’s Movement

Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique”

Attempted to define the “problem that has no name”.

Friedan and other formed the National Organization of Women (NOW), struggled to end the institutional discrimination of women in the workplace and education.

Also raise awareness of and put an end to traditional stereotypes of women that hindered equality.

The Woman’s Movement

Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine, challenged popular perceptions of women and brought awareness to the issues women were facing.

During the 1970’s women resumed the fight for equal rights amendment (ERA), which was first proposed in the 1920’s.

ERA was to prohibit legal discrimination based on gender. It passed but was not ratified by enough state legislatures.

Tennessee passed a law but then rescinded it two years later. To this day, there is no federal ERA

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