1. Civil Rights Movement

2. Civil Rights Movement
Struggle for African Americans to get equal rights
Led to later efforts by women, other ethnic minorities, the disabled, the young, and the old to obtain equal rights

3. Civil Rights Movement History of Civil Rights 19th century
Abolitionists, Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, resistance to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan
20th century
W.E.B. DuBois economic efforts, birth of NAACP, desegregation of Armed Forces
Important amendments
13th amendment (1865) – no slavery in US
14th amendment (1868) – all people born in the US (except Native Americans) are US citizens and are entitled equal rights. Rights are protected by due process of the law
15th amendment (1870) – Passed during Reconstruction; gave black men the right to vote
17th amendment (1920) – gave women the right to vote

4. Civil Rights Movement American Indian Women’s civil rights movements
Political Reform organizations:
African American
NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)
Chicano
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), La Raza Unida (Mexican-Amercans United)
American Indian
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Women’s civil rights movements
National Organization for Women (NOW)

5. Civil Rights Movement Origins
After Civil War, promise of equality to all but promise cut by Reconstruction
1947 – Jackie Robinson first African-American baseball player to join the major leagues

6. Civil Rights Movement Origins – Truman Years
Truman administration issued To Secure These Rights calling for civil rights laws
Laws proposed by Truman not pass Congress
Re-election demanded inauguration be integrated
1948 – executive orders to desegregate armed forces
End discriminatory hiring practices in federal government

7. Civil Rights Movement Brown v. Board of Education 1954
After Reconstruction, Southern States passed laws requiring segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – separate but equal
NAACP started challenging in the 1930s

8. Civil Rights Movement Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
Sweatt allowed to attend Law School at UT at Austin
1953 – NAACP lawyers appealed Kansas court ruling to Supreme Court
Segregated public schools denied equal protection to African American students

9. Civil Rights Movement Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Thurgood Marshall argued case or NAACP
May 1954 Earl Warren wrote unanimous decision for Supreme Court
“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”
Brown overturned Plessy and marked end of legal separation in schools

10. Civil Rights Movement Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Court said desegregation should happen with “all deliberate speed”
Enforcement left up to lower courts
Vague terming allowed years before fully implemented

11. Civil Rights Movement
Supreme Court stopped segregation in schools, but Jim Crow laws allowed it to continue in other public areas

12. Civil Rights Movement Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956
Dec 1955, Rosa Parks (seamstress and local NAACP member) refused to surrender bus sea to white passenger
Parks was arrested
Local African American leaders started boycott of public buses

13. Civil Rights Movement Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a pastor in Montgomery, was leader of the boycott
Lasted 13 months and brought cause attention of the world
King rallied boycotters at his church
Carpooled to take each other to work
King arrested and home bombed
Boycotted lasted and brought to federal court
Court ruled segregation on buses violated 14th amendment

14. Civil Rights Movement Civil Rights Act of1957
Eisenhower passed to increase African American voting in the South
Created Civil Rights Commission and established Civil Rights Division in US Justice Department
Gave federal courts the power to register African American voters
Registration procedures so complex the act prove ineffective but set pattern for later legislation

15. Civil Rights Movement Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957
Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas favored segregation
Ordered Arkansas National Guard to surround all-white Little Rock High School to prevent nine African American students from entering
Faubus refused to protect Little Rock Nine who were being threatened by angry mobs
Eisenhower ordered federal troops so they could attend school

16. Civil Rights Movement Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957
Faubus closed school down and asked for postponement of integration plan
Supreme Court forced reopening of school

17. Civil Rights Movement Faubus one of many resisting desegregation
1964 – restaurant owner Lester Maddox wielded axe handle at African American trying to enter “whites only” restaurant
Maddox sold restaurant instead of allowing African Americans
Maddox ran for governor of Georgia and won

18. Civil Rights Movement
1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace stood at the door at the University of Alabama to prevent two African-American students from enrolling
Claimed constitutional rights of states to operate schools
Forced to step down

19. Civil Rights Movement Congressional Bloc of Southern Democrats
Southern Democrats banded in Congress to stop civil rights legislation
Many held important committee chairs
Power to prevent legislation coming to floor for a vote

20. Civil Rights Movement
Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides in the South –
1960: African American students held sit-in at “whites only” lunch counter in N. Carolina
Soon copied throughout the South
1961 – Freedom Rides
Interracial groups rode busses.
Downtown stores agreed to desegregate lunch counters
Created confrontations federal government had to intervene
Riders faced risk of death and violence

21. Civil Rights Movement King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963
King believed in non-violence
Used civil disobedience against unjust laws
Led march in Birmingham, Alabama and arrested
Wrote letter explaining why African Americans could no longer patiently wait for constitutional rights
Critics felt fight for rights in courts, not the streets
King argued civil disobedience was justified because “everyone has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”

22. Civil Rights Movement March on Washington, 1963
Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders marched on Washington to encourage Congress to pass new civil rights bill
Largest demonstration for human rights in US history
King gave “I Have A Dream” speech
Dr. King and others met with President Kennedy at the Whitehouse
Kennedy assassinated few months later and Congress more willing to pass legislation proposed before his death afterward

23. Civil Rights Movement Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, or ethnic origins in hotels, restaurants, and all places of employment doing business with the federal government or in interstate commerce.
Cut off aid to segregated schools
Gave federal government power to register voters
Established Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to enforce all of it

24. Civil Rights Movement Voting Rights 24th amendment Selma Marches
No more poll taxes in federal elections
Selma Marches
1965 – Dr. King in Selma, Alabama to organize march demanding vote
Demonstrators attacked, President Jonson introducing voting rights bill

25. Civil Rights Movement Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965
Ended poll taxes, suspended literacy tests used to prevent African Americans from voting, and led to large increase in African American voting

26. Civil Rights Movement Affirmative Action 1965
Executive Order requiring employers with federal contracts to take steps to raise the number of minority employees to correct past imbalances
Women later added
Companies and institutions must actively recruit minority candidates

27. Civil Rights Movement Affirmative Action 1965
Increased minority representation in colleges, professions, and many businesses
Critics challenged it was a reverse form of discrimination
Regents of University of California v. Bakke
SC says affirmative action OK, racial quotas are not
Many affirmative action programs phased out over time

28. Civil Rights Movement
Billy Graham – Christian preacher and major civil rights supporter
Spiritual advisor to many presidents
Anti-Communist
Paid to bail out Dr. King from jail
Advised Eisenhower to send troops for Little Rock Nine
One of first preachers to address large crowds behind the Iron Curtain and call for world peace

29. Civil Rights Under Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson became president when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas November 22, 1963
Johnson proposed a far-ranging social program similar to the New Deal called the Great Society
Improve quality and opportunity for all Americans

30. The Great Society Civil Rights War on Poverty Medicare Act of 1965
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Affirmative Action
War on Poverty
Economic Opportunity Act (1964)
Created new government office to administer programs
Job Corps – train underprivileged youths and domestic “Peace Corps” to help in depressed areas
Medicare Act of 1965
Social Security expanded to provide medical care, hospital insurance, and post-hospital nursing for people over 65
Aid to cities
New cabinet post added to help cities
Money provided for urban planning, slum clearance, rental assistance for the poor, reconstruction of buildings

31. Civil Rights Under Johnson
Changes to immigration
McCarren-Walter Act (1952) – kept immigration quotas at 1920s levels
Immigration Act of 1965 was less biased
Each country given identical quota
Preference given to those with family already here or with valuable skills
Restricted Latin American immigration for first time

32. Civil Rights Under Johnson
Johnson beat Barry Goldwater in 1964 election in a landslide
Goldwater wanted to revive conservatism
Many feared he was too extreme
Despite Great Society, many Americans stayed in poverty
Vietnam War caused Johnson to withdraw funding
Johnson did not seek another term in 1968

33. Women’s Liberation Movement
1960s – Women’s Liberation (or feminist) Movement
Women were expected to stay at home and be wives and mothers
Women’s Liberation focused on greater economic and social equality

34. Women’s Liberation Movement Reasons
Dissatisfaction
Many women dissatisfied as housewives and sought freedom to express themselves in careers
Influence of Civil Rights
Many women leaders in movement
Adopt same techniques for women’s liberation – lobbying, sit-ins, demonstrations, boycotts, and strikes
Dynamic Leadership
Highly educated and talented women in leadership
Betty Friedman, Gloria Steinem
Steinem created Ms. Magazine for women’s concerns and viewpoints
“Sexual Revolution”
Sex education began to be taught in school
Birth control pills protected women from pregnancy
Women are not “sex objects”; they are human beings
Impact of Social Science
Margaret Mead and other social scientists began to see women’s low status in Western society as creation of men not biological

35. Women’s Liberation Movement
1963 – Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique
Galvanized middle class women
Challenged belief that education suburban housewives were happy being at home
Women were as capable as men and should be permitted to compete for same jobs
1966 – Friedan helped form National Organization of Women (NOW)

36. Achievements of Women’s Liberation
Education
Affirmative action – universities no longer able to discriminate based on sex for admissions
Women professors hired
Greater equality in admissions to military academies, law schools, and medical schools
Employment
End discrimination in hiring
1963 – Equal Pay Act
Companies had to pay women the same wages as men for same work
New attitude
Replace Miss and Mrs with Ms
Opposed sexist language
No women as sex objects in advertising
Opposed sexual discrimination in textbooks
Lobbied for more funds to research women’s diseases like breast cancer

37. Achievements in Women’s Liberation
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Many states prohibited abortion
Feminists felt women had a right to choose
Pro-choice
Supreme Court held that a women has a constitutional right to privacy
A woman had a right to end her pregnancy in the first 3 months if she wanted
Overturned all state laws prohibiting abortion in first three months
Title IX
Part of Educational Amendments Act (1972)
Banned sex discrimination in educational institutions
Guaranteed girls had same opportunities as boys
Enforcement of act linked to federal funding
Major impact on American society
1in 27 girls played varsity sports in high school before Title IX
2001 – 1 in 2.5
Helped women pursue higher degrees, compete in sports, enter jobs and educational fields dominated by men
Before – less women in college. Today, more women than men in college

38. Civil Rights Movement Increasing African American Militancy
Demand for change strong among young African Americans
Civil rights had not ended private bias or provide equal opportunities
Many African Americans felt Dr. King’s methods of non-violence were not powerful enough

39. Civil Rights Movement
Militants believed in Black Power – African Americans should use their votes to win concessions from government and they should control their own communities and patronize their own businesses to free themselves from whites

40. Civil Rights Movement Non-Violent Militant
Those who participated in sit-ins, by provoking segregationists into angry responses, succeeded in winning sympathy from others.
Willingness to use violence
Best known for sit-ins and marches
Known for being openly armed in
uniforms of black berets and leather
jackets
Men, women, and children participated in peaceful protests.
Predominately males
Groups – SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, and CORE
Group(s) – Black Panthers
Leader – Martin Luther King, Jr.

41. Black Power Movement Search for New Identity New Groups Emerge
Late 1960s – African Americans began to search for cultural identity
Rejected imitating whites o being absorbed in American culture
Proud of themselves and “Black is Beautiful”
Developed distinctive styles like Afro haircuts
New Groups Emerge
New groups to challenge non-violent NAACP
Militant Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) barred white participation
Black Muslims believed Islam should be religion of African Americans and create own black state
Black Panthers demanded reparations be given to the black community for centuries of oppression

42. Black Power Movement Malcolm X Leading black Muslim
Questioned King’s non-violent resistance
Believed African Americans should meet violence with violence and should not depend on white people
Urged African Americans to obtain control of businesses and communities
Assassinated by rival Black Muslims in 1965

43. Civil Rights Movement Black Panthers
African-American activists in Oakland, California
Had own newspaper and claimed right to carry weapons to protect black neighborhoods from police
Ran free breakfast for African American children
10 point program demanded greater opportunities and benefits for African Americans
Full employment, decent housing, education, and freedom to determine destiny

44. Civil Rights Movement Ghettos Erupt – 1968
In North, African Americans faced segregation based on living patterns
Many African Americans confined to ghettos
April 1968 Dr. King was assassinated
Death sparked race riots across the nation that cost dozens of lives and destroyed property
Commission found lack of job opportunities, urban poverty, and white racism was what was behind the riots

45. Chicano Movement
Mexican Americans, known as Chicanos, often faced discrimination, exploitation, and racism in US
Chicano Movement focused on farm workers’ voting and political rights

46. Chicano Movement
Early leader was Hector Perez Garcia, a surgeon and WWII veteran
Noticed Mexican Americans barred from entering restaurants, etc
1949 – Garcia learned local Texas funeral home refused to allow Mexican-American soldier’s family to its chapel
Garcia arranged for burial in Arlington National Cemetery
Became first Mexican American to serve on US Commission on Civil Rights

47. Chicano Movement Cesar Chavez Organizer of farm workers in California
Chavez started group to support farm worker’s rights, demand increased wages, and better working conditions
Chavez focused on non-violent means
Organized nation-wide boycotts and took part in hunger strikes
State legislators passed laws to improve lives of farm workers

48. Chicano Movement Dolores Huerta
Mexican-American labor leader closely associated with Cesar Chavez
1960s – helped Chavez to form National Farm Workers Association which became Unite Farm Workers
Spent life working for legislation to extend air to families of farm workers
1980s- expanded to include women’s rights, environmental protection, and immigration policy

49. Chicano Movement Chicano Mural Movement
Mexican Americans expressed greater appreciation of own culture
Began painting murals in barrios (ethnic neighborhoods) through Southwest in 1960s
Wall murals gave public presence in public life
In El Paso, more than 100 Chicano wall murals

50. American Indian Movement (AIM)
Americans Indians also got restless during the 1960s.
1953 – government transferred responsibility of Native Americans living on reservations to the state governments
Many state didn’t have the funds to give the same level of services
1963 – federal government reversed its policy and began encouraging tribal life on reservations

51. American Indian Movement (AIM)
Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against Native Americans
1970 – President Nixon announced federal govt would honor treaty obligations
Many Native Americans felt they were being mistreated.
Slogan – “Red Power”; formed American Indian Movement to get public opinion in their favor
Sought greater respect for heritage
Introduced term “Native American” and protested media with anti-Indian bias

52. Civil Rights Movements – Court Cases
Legislation (passage of new laws) and litigation (disputes settled in courts) greatly expanded people’s rights
Go to a federal district court, listens and applies to the facts of the law
Don’t like the decision? Appeal it at US Court of Appeals
Supreme Court only hears about 100 cases a year from the 10,000 cases appealed

53. Civil Rights Court Cases
Mendez v. Westminster School District (1947)
Some places in California sent Mexican-American children to separate public schools
District court ruled this practice violated the 14th amendment
Westminster appealed
Ruled it was not a constitutional issue
California law required segregation of Chinese and Japanese children.
Court upheld separation within a race was not permitted if not by a specific state law.
Later that year, California repealed its school segregation laws

54. Civil Rights Court Cases
Delgado v. Bastrop ISD (1948)
Based on Mendez v. Westminster, Texas Attorney General decided that segregation of Mexican-American children was illegal
Delgado and others sued Bastrop ISD claiming the separation of Mexican-American children without a state law was a violation
US District Court agreed

55. Civil Rights Court Cases
Hernandez v. Texas (1954)
Hernandez convicted of murder in a Texas court with an all white jury
No Mexican Americans had served on a jury in that country for more than 25 years
Hernandez appealed to US Supreme Court claiming 14th amendment and equal protection of the law had been violated
Texas argued that Mexican Americans were not entitled to special protections
Supreme Court ruled Mexican Americans formed a separate class that was entitled to protection
“The right to be tried by jurors from which members of his class are not excluded

56. Civil Rights Court Cases
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
The U.S. Supreme Court decided Amish children could not be placed in compulsory schools past 8th grade because it violated the parents’ rights to freedom of religion (Free Exercise Clause) Example of Effects (Prohibited all states from claiming absolute right to compulsive education and intrude in how families raise their children

57. Civil Rights Court Cases
White v. Regester (1973)
State legislators periodically change district boundaries for changes in population
1970 – Texas changed district boundaries; Bexar and Dallas counties became districts with several members
Way it was drawn out, Mexican Americans and African Americans in these two districts would have no chance of getting elected
US Supreme Court upheld lower court ruling that Texas had to make these into smaller one-member districts, giving Mexican American barrios the chance to elect their own candidates
Texas could not discriminate by setting up multi-member districts

58. Civil Rights Court Cases
Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1984)
1971 – US Supreme Court ruled children do not have a fundamental right under the Constitution to an education
Civil rights activists filed lawsuits in various state courts based on provisions of state constitutions
Mexican American legal group MALDEF) filed a suit against Kirby, the Texas Education Commissioner, on behalf of Edgewood ISED
District claimed the state method for funding education resulted in differences in rich and poor districts
Violated Texas Constitution which promised a “fair and efficient” public school system
Texas Supreme Court agreed and ordered a more equal system of public school finance.

59. Civil Rights Today
Election of first African American President – Barack Obama
First Hispanic women appointed to Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor