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Vocabulary of Civil Rights
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The Vocabulary of Civil Rights
Little Rock Nine Louis Farrakhan SNCC SCLC NAACP Massive Resistance White Supremacy CORE COCO Social Segregation Citizenship Black Power W.E.B. DuBois Jim Crow Reconstruction Separate / Equal Chicago Defender Malcolm X All deliberate speed Lynching Rosa Parks Jesse Jackson Sit-in A. Philip Randolph James Farmer Marcus Garvey Medgar Evers Freedom Rides James Meredith Stokely Carmichael Massive Resistance White Supremacy W.E.B. DuBois Birmingham Segregation Chaney, Goodman & Schwermer JusticeOrElse Emmet Till
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Civil Rights Chicago More than 350,000 African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops. Several units saw action alongside French soldiers fighting against the Germans, and 171 African Americans were awarded the French Legion of Honor.
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Civil Rights Chicago More than 350,000 African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops. Several units saw action alongside French soldiers fighting against the Germans, and 171 African Americans were awarded the French Legion of Honor.
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Civil Rights Chicago More than 350,000 African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops. Several units saw action alongside French soldiers fighting against the Germans, and 171 African Americans were awarded the French Legion of Honor.
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Civil Rights Chicago Both the French and the American troops enjoyed listening to African American bands who often introduced blues and jazz previously unknown to their listeners. 803rd Infantry band, Brest, France. 803rd Pioneer Infantry band, Brest, France, July 18,
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Civil Rights Chicago The country welcomed them home with 25 major race riots, the most serious in Chicago. White mobs lynched veterans in uniform. The arrival of the 369th black infantry regiment in New York after the first world war. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis.
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Civil Rights Chicago Eugene Williams, on July 27, 1919, accidentally floated into a “whites-only” section of a public beach on Lake Michigan. A group of white men promptly murdered him; six days of horrific race riots followed, and 38 people died. The Chicago race riots were not the first in the North in reaction to the Great Migration, and they would not be the last. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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Civil Rights Chicago
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Civil Rights Chicago “Monday morning found the thoroughfares in the white neighborhoods throated with a sea of humans— everywhere— some armed with guns, bricks, clubs and an oath. The presence of a black face in their vicinity was a signal for a carnival of death, and before any aid could reach the poor, unfortunate one his body reposed in some kindly gutter, his brains spilled over a dirty pavement…”
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Civil Rights Chicago “Some of the victims were chased, caught and dragged into alleys and lots, where they were left for dead. In all parts of the city, white mobs dragged from surface cars, African American passengers wholly ignorant of any trouble, and set upon them. An unidentified man, young woman and a 3 month old baby were found dead on the street at the intersection of 47th street and Wentworth Avenue…”
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Civil Rights Chicago “She had attempted to board a car there when the mob seized her, beat her, slashed her body into ribbons and beat the Baby’s brains out against a telegraph pole. Not satisfied with this, one rioter severed her breasts and a white youngster bore it aloft on pole, triumphantly, while the crowd hooted gleefully. Several policemen were in the crowd, but did not make any attempt to make rescue ...”
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Civil Rights Chicago A commission established to determine the causes of the carnage in Chicago found a series of urban problems that have stubbornly remained in American life in the years since. These problems included rigidly separated African American and white communities, substandard conditions and serious social challenges (including crime, substance abuse, vice, poverty, and broken homes) in the African American neighborhoods, and a legacy of alienation between Black and white sectors in the city. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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There are currently 784 hate groups operating in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2014 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list.
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There are currently 784 hate groups operating in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2014 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. 15
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There are currently 784 hate groups operating in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2014 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. 16
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There are currently 784 hate groups operating in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2014 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. 17
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There are currently 784 hate groups operating in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2014 are included. All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. 18
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Hate Groups in the U.S.
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A Chronology of Racism 1619-2000
A year before the Mayflower, the first 20 African slaves are sold to settlers in Virginia as "indentured servants." The first African American child, William Tucker is born in the colony. Abolitionist Thomas Paine's African Slavery in America published in the Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser. Constitution adopted; slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for means of representation. Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia. Some 18,000 Cherokees forcibly removed from their land and forced to resettle west of the Mississippi in a trek that becomes known as the "Trail of Tears." First Women's Rights Convention meeting in Seneca Falls, N.Y., hears Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposes a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo cedes Arizona, Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado and parts of Utah and Nevada to the United States for $15 million. Article IX guarantees people of Mexican origin "the enjoyment of all the rights of the citizens of the United States according to the principles of the constitution." In early instance of gerrymandering, Democratic party bosses in Los Angeles call special convention to consider splitting country in two to increase Anglo political influence. In the Dred Scott decision, Scott, a slave who had lived in a free territory, sues for his freedom on the grounds his residence on free soil liberates him. The Supreme Court, citing historical and conventional view of African Americans, rules against him, saying African American people are regarded as "so far inferior...that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." The court also declares that slaves were not citizens and had no rights to sue, and that slave owners could take their slaves anywhere on the territory and retain title to them. The Civil War begins (read more)
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The Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of American society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC “works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.” Civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. founded the SPLC in 1971 to ensure that the promise of the civil rights movement became a reality for all. Since then, they’ve won numerous landmark legal victories on behalf of the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten. Their lawsuits have uncovered institutional racism and stamped out remnants of Jim Crow segregation; destroyed some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist groups; and protected the civil rights of children, women, the disabled, immigrants and migrant workers, the LGBT community, prisoners, and many others who faced discrimination, abuse or exploitation.
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The Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of American society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC “works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.” Civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. founded the SPLC in 1971 to ensure that the promise of the civil rights movement became a reality for all. Since then, they’ve won numerous landmark legal victories on behalf of the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten. Their lawsuits have uncovered institutional racism and stamped out remnants of Jim Crow segregation; destroyed some of the nation’s most violent white supremacist groups; and protected the civil rights of children, women, the disabled, immigrants and migrant workers, the LGBT community, prisoners, and many others who faced discrimination, abuse or exploitation.
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Civil Rights Timeline 1948-2013
Infoplease: Milestones in the modern civil rights movement by Borgna Brunner and Elissa Haney 1948 July 26 President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." 1954 May 17 The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of eka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice. 1955 Aug. Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. Dec. 1 (Montgomery, Ala.) NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott. 1957 Jan.–Feb. Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline," he urges. Sept. (Little Rock, Ark.) Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." 1960 Feb. 1 (Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities. April (Raleigh, N.C.) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael (1966–1967). 1961 May 4 Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white. 1962 Oct. 1 James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. 1963 April 16 Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. May During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world. June 12 (Jackson, Miss.) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, is murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later he is convicted for murdering Evers. Aug. 28 (Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Sept. 15 (Birmingham, Ala.) Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths. 1964 Jan. 23 The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. Summer The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a network of civil rights groups that includes CORE and SNCC, launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. It also sends delegates to the Democratic National Convention to protest—and attempt to unseat—the official all-white Mississippi contingent. July 2 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. Aug. 4 (Neshoba Country, Miss.) The bodies of three civil-rights workers—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson. James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them. 1965 Feb. 21 (Harlem, N.Y.) Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam. March 7 (Selma, Ala.) Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are sped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. Aug. 10 Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal. Aug. 11–17, 1965 (Watts, Calif.) Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles. Sept. 24, 1965 Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. 1966 Oct. (Oakland, Calif.) The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. 1967 April 19 Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." The term's radicalism alarms many who believe the civil rights movement's effectiveness and moral authority crucially depend on nonviolent civil disobedience. In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws. July Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12–16) and Detroit (July 23–30). 1968 April 4 (Memphis, Tenn.) Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime. April 11 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. 1971 April 20 The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s. 1988 March 22 Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. 1991 Nov. 22 After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination. 1992 April 29 (Los Angeles, Calif.) The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King. 2003 June 23 In the most important affirmative action decision since the 1978 Bakke case, the Supreme Court (5–4) upholds the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." (See also: Affirmative Action Timeline.) 2005 June 21 The ringleader of the Mississippi civil rights murders (see Aug. 4, 1964), Edgar Ray Killen, is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes. October 24 Rosa Parks dies at age 92. 2006 January 30 Coretta Scott King dies of a stroke at age 78. 2007 February Emmett Till's 1955 murder case, reopened by the Department of Justice in 2004, is officially closed. The two confessed murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were dead of cancer by 1994, and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue further convictions. May 10 James Bonard Fowler, a former state trooper, is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson 40 years after Jackson's death. The 1965 killing lead to a series of historic civil rights protests in Selma, Ala. 2008 January Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduces the Civil Rights Act of Some of the proposed provisions include ensuring that federal funds are not used to subsidize discrimination, holding employers accountable for age discrimination, and improving accountability for other violations of civil rights and workers' rights. 2009 January In the Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano, a lawsuit brought against the city of New Haven, 18 plaintiffs—17 white people and one Hispanic—argued that results of the 2003 lieutenant and captain exams were thrown out when it was determined that few minority firefighters qualified for advancement. The city claimed they threw out the results because they feared liability under a disparate-impact statute for issuing tests that discriminated against minority firefighters. The plaintiffs claimed that they were victims of reverse discrimination under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of The Supreme Court ruled (5–4) in favor of the firefighters, saying New Haven's "action in discarding the tests was a violation of Title VII." 2013 June In Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which established a formula for Congress to use when determining if a state or voting jurisdiction requires prior approval before changing its voting laws. Currently under Section 5 of the act nine—mostly Southern—states with a history of discrimination must get clearance from Congress before changing voting rules to make sure racial minorities are not negatively affected. While the 5–4 decision did not invalidate Section 5, it made it toothless. Chief Justice John Roberts said the formula Congress now uses, which was written in 1965, has become outdated. "While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions," he said in the majority opinion. In a strongly worded dissent, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "Hubris is a fit word for today’s demolition of the V.R.A." (Voting Rights Act).
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To Secure These Rights Historically, we’re in the third crisis of Civil Rights: Beginning 1776 – Independence, Constitution, revolutionary form of (self)government Beginning 1860 – Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow Beginning 1945 – compelling reasons for reform: moral, economic and international. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
Historically, we’re still in the third crisis of Civil Rights: Beginning 1776 – Independence, Constitution, revolutionary form of (self)government Beginning 1860 – Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow Beginning 1945 – compelling reasons for reform: moral, economic and international. The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable, that we can ignore what the world thinks of us. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
The Moral Reason There is a gap between our principles and our actual practice, “creating a kind of dry rot which eats away at the emotional and rational basis of democratic beliefs.” Wartime segregation in the armed forces is another instance of how a social pattern may wreak moral havoc. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
The Moral Reason For example, “fair play.” There is an annual marble tournament in Washington, but the local competitions are segregated. Elimination rounds result in two winners, one black, one white. “The white boy is automatically designated as the local champion and sent to the national tournament, while the Negro lad is relegated to the position of runner-up.” What child (Black or white) can have respect for this “fair play”. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
The Economic Reason. A vicious circle is produced. Discrimination reduces the income of minorities. So their purchasing power is weak and markets suffer. That results in lower production, which in turn means lower wages and still fewer job opportunities. In hard times, rising fear, prejudice, and insecurity aggravate the original problem of weak economic growth and the vicious circle gets another spin. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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To Secure These Rights Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (1947)
The International Reason. Our position in the postwar world is vital. Our foreign policy is so important, our politics stop at the water’s edge. But “the existence of discrimination against minority groups has an adverse effect, producing an atmosphere of suspicion and resentment.” It’s not just an internal problem – “The dignity of a country, a continent or even a people may be outraged by it. We cannot escape the fact that our civil rights record has been an issue in world politics.”
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Civil Rights Chicago Along with national officials [Justice Department, Supreme Court], the fate of the civil rights movement depended on the presence of national organizations… such as the NAACP, to press the case for equal rights. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) focused on spotlighting white southern racism before a national audience to mobilize support. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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Civil Rights Chicago They could do what Black residents of local communities could not do alone: turn the civil rights struggle into a national cause and prod the federal government into throwing its considerable power to overturn the entrenched system of white domination that had prevailed for centuries Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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Civil Rights Chicago It does not belittle African American creativity and determination to conclude that given existing power relationships, southern Blacks could not possibly eliminate racial equality without outside assistance. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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Massive Resistance Massive resistance was a strategy to unite white politicians and leaders in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation. Launched by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia, it was overturned by the courts, though some aspects of the campaign against schools integration continued for many more years. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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Massive Resistance “We commend the motives of those states which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means. In 1896 the Supreme Court expressly declared that no person was denied any of his rights if the state provided separate but equal public facilities. This interpretation became a part of the life of the people and confirmed their habits, customs, traditions and way of life.” Debating the Civil Rights Movement, , Lawson and Payne
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Massive Resistance “It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been friend-ship and understanding.”
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Civil Rights Chicago One of the methods to keep Blacks from voting was the “grandfather clause,” which held that a man could vote only if his grandfather had voted. Poll taxes, literacy tests, voting fraud, and intimidation also worked to keep Black voters from the ballot box.
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Civil Rights Chicago The NAACP successfully fought against grandfather clauses in court. In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Guinn v. United States that the grandfather clauses in the Maryland and Oklahoma constitutions were null and void, because they violated the 15th Amendment to the Constitution.
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Civil Rights Chicago In order to keep people of color out of their neighborhoods, cities called for racial restrictive covenants that segregated housing. The NAACP attacked this practice in the courts in the case of Charles Buchanan v. William Warley.
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Civil Rights Chicago In the 1916 decision, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an ordinance mandating that African Americans live in certain sections of Louisville, Kentucky. As a result of this case, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which each resident agreed to sell or rent only to whites, and segregation continued.
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Civil Rights Chicago Remember, 1915 was the beginning of the Great Migration, which continued into the ’70s, during which six million Blacks left the Southland for good
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The Great Migration Why was Chicago such an important part of the Great Migration? Chicago already had a vibrant (and comparatively well-off) African American community. It was also the site of publication of the nation’s most widely read African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, which lobbied tirelessly for migration from the South. These and other factors combined to make it an important destination for African Americans moving north. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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The Great Migration Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Defender on May 6, He openly denounced “segregation, discrimination, [and] disenfranchisement” in the pages of his newspaper. The Defender also called for African Americans to leave the South for Chicago, and frequently provided contact information for churches and other groups readers could contact for help. Thousands of African American southerners made contact with northern churches as a result of Abbott’s work. With the onset of World War I, the Defender became more visible and influential than ever. A memorable 1917 headline read: “Millions to Leave South.” Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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The Great Migration The Chicago Defender was the most influential African American weekly in the nation in the early part of the twentieth century. Launched in 1905 by Robert S. Abbot in a crude format with an initial investment of 25 cents, the Defender eventually reached an estimated audience of 500,000; roughly two thirds of its audience lived outside Chicago. Abbott’s paper was suppressed in parts of the South, but was smuggled in nevertheless by an underground network of African American readers. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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The Great Migration It would be a mistake, however, to see the growth of the African American population in major northern cities as a spur to social unanimity among African Americans. There were sharp economic and educational divisions. Chicago’s South Side “black belt,” for instance, contained several neighborhoods demarcated by economic status. The poorest African Americans were to be found in the district’s older, northern section; more prominent, established families resided in the southern section. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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The Great Migration The founding of the NAACP was, of course, a milestone in African American history, and in U.S. race relations. The group’s founding approach — African Americans and whites uniting in opposition to discriminatory laws and social practices — proved popular, and the NAACP expanded rapidly. Its first meeting had been attended by just 53 people; within two years there were chapters in Chicago, Boston, and New York; a magazine, The Crisis, founded in 1910 and edited by W.E.B. DuBois, became a national platform for civil rights issues. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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The Great Migration In 1942, James Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality, better known as CORE. The group was devoted to nonviolent campaigns of “direct action” against racially discriminatory practices in public places, housing, and other settings. Although the group would win national attention in the early 1960s for its courageous Freedom Rides through the segregated south, its early campaigns were in the north. A 1942 sit-in took place at the segregated Stoner’s Restaurant in Chicago. action” against racially discriminatory practices in public places, housing, and other settings. Although the group would win national attention in the early 1960s for its courageous Freedom Rides through the segregated south, its early campaigns were in the north. A 1942 sit-in took place at the segregated Stoner’s Restaurant in Chicago. Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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Civil Rights Chicago In 1936, delegates from over 500 different African American groups gathered in Chicago and formed the National Negro Congress, that would yield considerable political clout in the years to come. The group selected Asa Phillip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as its first president.
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Civil Rights Chicago Having successfully made the transition from “Black labor leader” to “Black leader,” Randolph was not shy about making life difficult for white politicians. He was, in particular, a thorn in the side of FDR, whose level of political commitment to the civil rights movement at that time could be described as “all talk unless absolutely forced to take action.” Duncan, Melba ( ). African American History (Kindle Locations ). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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Civil Rights Chicago SCLC goes back to the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, that began in December 1955, one of history’s most dramatic and massive nonviolent protests. It was carried out by the newly established “Montgomery Improvement Association”, with MLK as its leader and Ralph David Abernathy as program director. 'The Big 3' founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, and Ralph David Abernathy.
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Interactive map: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/
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The Vocabulary of Civil Rights
Little Rock Nine Louis Farrakhan SNCC SCLC NAACP Massive Resistance White Supremacy CORE COCO Social Segregation Citizenship Black Power W.E.B. DuBois Jim Crow Reconstruction Separate / Equal Chicago Defender Malcolm X All deliberate speed Lynching Rosa Parks Jesse Jackson Sit-in A. Philip Randolph James Farmer Marcus Garvey Medgar Evers Freedom Rides James Meredith Stokely Carmichael Massive Resistance White Supremacy W.E.B. DuBois Birmingham Segregation Chaney, Goodman & Schwermer JusticeOrElse Emmet Till
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Civil Rights Vocabulary
People, places, concepts in the struggle for Civil Rights, keyed by color to each research team
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