{ CIVIL RIGHTS Big Idea! What Rights are Worth Fighting For?

Taking on Segregation  Challenging Segregation the Courts  “Separate But Equal”  NAACP brought a series of court cases to challenge segregation.  Brown vs. Board of Education  Linda Brown was denied access to an all-white elementary school. Four blocks away.  Nearest all black elementary was 21 blocks away.  Supreme Court struck down segregation.  “In the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place.”

Resistance to School Desegregation  Within a year more than 500 school districts desegregated their classrooms.  Supreme Court  Ordered desegregation with all speed.  Crisis in Little Rock  Arkansas had become the first Southern state to admit African Americans.  Nine African American students volunteered to integrate Little Rock’s Central High.

Montgomery Bus Boycott  December 1, 1955  Rosa Parks  Seamstress  Took a seat in front row of the “Colored” Row.  Bus Driver asked her to move.  She refused.  “I refused to move”  Called the police.  Parks’ was arrested.  This led to a bus boycott

 “There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression… I want it to be known-that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination-to gain justice on buses in this city. And we are not wrong… If we are wrong- the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong-God Almighty is wrong…If we are wrong-justice is a lie.” Martin Luther Kings Speech

Martin Luther King and the SCLC  The Bus Boycott proved the African Americans could unite.  “ We have known humiliation, we have known abusive language, we have been plunged into the abyss of oppression. And we decided to raise up only with the weapon of protest. It is one of the greatest glories of America that we have the right to protest.”  King’s Stressed on Love and Non-violence.

Movement Spreads  Staged Sit-in’s  Would sit at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave.  Students will endure beatings, arrests, suspension from college, and tear gas and fire hoses.

Freedom Riders  The CORE organized the Freedom Rides.  Two Buses left from Washington D.C.  Heading for New Orleans  Stopped in South Carolina  Riders were beaten.  Alabama- bus was set on fire.

Marching to Washington  August 28, 1963  250,000 people including 75,000 whites converged on the nation’s capital.  King- Delivered “I Have A Dream Speech”.  A week after four young Birmingham girls were killed.  Listen to His Speech.

Fighting for Voting Rights  Voting Rights Act of 1965  Got rid of the literacy test.  Marked a major civil rights victory, but some felt it did not go far enough.

New Leaders Voice Discontent  Malcolm X  “ If you think you are here to tell you to love the white man, you have come to the wrong place”.  He studied the teachings of Muhammad- Head of Muslims.  Gave him a lot of press because of his statements.  Was killed at 39 years old in Harlem.

1968- A Turning Point In Civil Rights- King’s Death  April 3, 1968  Addressed his crowd in Memphis.  “I may not get there with you but…we as a people will get to the Promised Land”.  “I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”.

Reaction to King’s Death  Robert F. Kennedy  Advisors told him to cancel his engagements. But went anyways.  Kennedy’s pleaded for them not to riot.  Riots broke out.  Over 100 cities broke out in flames.  Hardest hit cities:  Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC, Kansas City  Robert Kennedy was then assassinated.

Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement  Civil rights movement was successful in changing many discriminatory laws.  Public support for the civil rights movement declined because some whites were frightened by the urban riots and the Black Panthers.  What is life like today?