The Civil Rights Movement
Signs of Change 1947 MLB desegregated 1948 Armed forces integrated But still segregated in southern facilities (Plessey) and by de facto in northern cities Blacks had become political force in northern dem party
Background Blacks historically denied rights Prosperity of the 1950’s passed them by Between 1947-70 brings dramatic change Cold War ideological battle fuels debate Truman’s initiatives blocked
Brown v Board of Education Preceded by decision affecting higher ed 1954 S.C. decision - segregation in schools is unconstitutional (14th Amendment) Reversed Plessey v Ferguson (1896) Thurgood Marshall – Attorney for NAACP Warren: “separate schools are inherently unequal” & schools must desegregate with “all deliberate speed”
Implementing Desegregation Southern states close schools, “Little Rock Nine” Orville Faubus Arkansas Nat Guard Confrontation (1957) – Ike sends fed soldiers to escort black students into white high school in Arkansas
Federal Troops Enforcing Desegregation
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) Rosa Parks violates Alabama segregation law by sitting in white section of bus & is arrested African Americans boycott buses citywide in protest Baptist minister Martin Luther King becomes spokesman for boycott ’56 – SC rules segregation of transportation unconstitutional
Martin Luther King nonviolent protest civil disobedience Oratory Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) nonviolent protest civil disobedience Oratory
March on Washington ‘63 MLK leads march “I Have a Dream” Turning point in civil rights movement Civil Right Act passed next year
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee SNCC National Organization of Black College Students who Organized Sit-ins @ lunch-counters, pools, libraries, hotels Greensboro, NC Woolworths ‘60
Freedom Rides 1961 Black and White members of CORE organized a integrated bus ride through the south to test the Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on public transportation. Met with violence in Alabama
Malcolm X Petty Criminal Converts to Islam in prison Militant Civil Rights Leader Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad >> Org of Afro-American Unity Black Nationalism Assassinated in ‘65
Kennedy on Civil Rights Call to King’s Wife The New Frontier – Included rebuilding blighted inner-cities (failed in Congress) Consolidates support of African American electorate Civil Rights Bill
Lyndon Johnson on Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 -Outlawed Discrimination Voting Rights Act of 1965 – outlawed literacy tests
James Meredith 1962
Resistance to Change KKK King & X both assassinated Birmingham Church Bombing 4 girls killed
Medgar Evers 1963
Stokely Carmichael
Selma March 1965
Pro-Segregation Platform George Wallace Independence Party Pro-Segregation Platform