usa41 04 a civil rights web
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How far did black Americans go in achieving equality in civil rights in the
1950s and 1960s?(Part I)
How far did black Americans go in achieving equality in civil rights in the
1950s and 1960s?(Part I)
Focus Task: Voting on Civil Rights• Over the next several days you are going to study the main
events of the civil rights campaign. You will see that campaigners used a range of methods and tackled a wide range of issues. Make your own copy of this chart and complete it as you work through the chapter.
Method of campaigning
Example Score out of 5 & comment
Court case/legal challenge
Non-violent direct action
Empowering ordinary people
Marches & demonstrations
Violent protest
The times they are a changing’• 1920s & 1930s:
– Vicious race riots & prejudice
• World War II:– Significant gains, particularly in military
(desegregated in 1949), but still far to go
• 1950s …
1950s• Racism still every day experience,
particularly in the South– 17 states had ‘Jim Crow’ laws (segregation)– Though voting was legal right violence
often deterred black Americans (Example: Mississippi saw numerous lynchings, & 5% black voter registration)
– White police participated in violence– White juries acquitted whites of killing
blacks – Legal & official discrimination in
employment & education– White teachers paid 30% more than black
teachers– Best universities closed to blacks– 1958: Clemson King, black teacher,
committed to mental asylum for applying to University of Mississippi
‘Jim Crow’ states
Joan Baez & SNCC Freedom Riders singing the hymn We Shall Overcome
The Civil Rights Movement• In a fair country every citizen has equal
rights– US Constitution guaranteed it– Black citizens were clearly being failed
• Many people campaigned for equal rights
• Powerful minority opposed to them– Believed equal rights posed grave danger
to their way of life– They would fight every inch of the way
Struggle for Equal Education• Segregation in schools was legal
– Schools for black children poorly funded
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took action– 1940s: Hired Thurgood Marshall, black
attorney, to argue against segregation in schools, eventually reaching Supreme Court
– 1950: Supreme Court ruled (decision written by Judge Julius Waring) states must provide ‘equal protection’, did not order desegregation
Therlow Snape, a British reggae artist, singing his song, Black or White
Brown v Board of Ed., Topeka, 1954• Many states ignored SC’s 1950 decision
• September 1952:– NAACP sued BoE, Topeka, Kansas– Linda Brown walked miles to school & crossed
dangerous railroad tracks even though all-white school was a few 100 yards from home
– Test case to see if SC would continue segregation
• May 1954:– Chief Justice Earl Warren announced for Brown– Segregated school inherently unequal– Schools ordered desegregated ‘with all
deliberate speed’
• Pattern established– NAACP finds a test case to bring to SC– If SC declares a law unconstitutional then states
had to take action, according to the Constitution
Singing the Blues, 1956 #1 Hit
Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957• Some states complied, others resisted
– 1957: Arkansas still not integrated– Governor Orval Faubus activated state’s
national guard to prevent integration of nine black students at Little Rock HS
– Claimed he did it to protect the nine students
• President Eisenhower intervenes– Ordered 101st Paratroopers to Little Rock– Faubus backed down– Troops remained for six weeks
• Aftermath– > troops withdrew there were no serious
racist incidents @ Little Rock HS– Faubus gained so much popularity for
stance that he was reelected for six termsBob & Marcia, a UK group, with their 1970 hit Young, Gifted & Black
Focus Task
• Imagine that you are a representative in the United Nations and the following question is posed: “How can the US justify its position in the Cold War and its goal of winning the hearts and minds of newly independent people of Africa, when several groups in your own country are not equal both de facto (fact) and de jure (law)
• Find a person around you, construct a response to the question from the perspective of a US delegate in 1950
Fin
PSDs on Civil Rights Movement• Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a
detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of Negro children. – Supreme Court ruling on Brown v BoE, segregation in schools (17th May,
1954)
• At a time when we face grave situations abroad because of the hatred that communism bears towards a system of government based on human rights, it would be difficult to exaggerate the harm that is being done to the prestige and influence and indeed to the safety of our nation and the world. Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our whole nation. We are portrayed as a violator of those standards which the peoples of the world united to proclaim in the Charter of the United Nations. – President Dwight Eisenhower, television broadcast on Little Rock (24th
September, 1957)