The Civil Rights Movement 1945-1975 18.3= New Successes & Challenges

Push for Voting Rights; Freedom Summer 1964, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Plan to register thousands of African-Americans to vote in Miss. Formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) Alternative to Mississippi’s all-white Democratic Party

March on Selma, Alabama 1965= MLK & the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) march to pressure federal government to enact voting rights legislation

Voting Rights Act 1965= Banned literacy tests & empowered the federal government to oversee voting registration & elections in states that had discriminated against minorities Also, the 24th Amendment was added to the Constitution Banned the poll tax, which kept African-Americans from voting

Race Riots

The Kerner Commission Created by President Johnson to determine causes of race riots Finding: Long-term discrimination was most important cause of race riots Recommended expanding federal programs aimed at overcoming problems of American’s urban ghettos Riots led to white backlash

Malcolm X Radical civil rights leader, a part of the Nation of Islam Religious group, strict rules of behavior Malcolm advocated a separation of the Black & White races After completing a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Malcolm X began to consider limited acceptance of whites; Broke away from Nation of Islam Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam, February 1965

Black Power & the Black Panthers Call for African-Americans to collectively use their economic & political muscle to gain equality

Death of MLK; April 4th, 1968 Began his “Poor People’s Campaign” in Memphis, Tenn. Shot & killed on balcony of his hotel by a white man Nation wide riots ensued

Post-MLK Civil Rights Movement Fair Housing Act Affirmative action Way to shorten economic gap between black & white Americans Controversial: Whites argued reverse discrimination, would hurt goal of creating a “colorblind society”