1. Module 15: Civil Rights 1953 - 2010 Lesson 1: Taking on Segregation
Lesson 2: The Triumphs of a Crusade
Lesson 3: Challenges and Changes in the Movement
Lesson 4: Hispanic and Native Americans Seek Equality
Lesson 5: Women Fight for Equality
Lesson 6: The Struggle Continues

2. Basic Responses to Injustice
Ignore/Accept
1870s-1917
Black Codes, Jim Crow, Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Rise of KKK
Sharecropping=slavery
Although: 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

3. Basic Responses to Injustice
Move/Migrate (Vote with your feet)
WWI: 1890s-1920s: 2 million Blacks move
Factory jobs, opportunities, patriotism
WWII: : 1.6 million move North
: 5 million rural to urban areas
Marcus Garvey: Back to Africa in 1920s

4. Basic Responses to Injustice
Respond/React:
Booker T. Washington’s approach
W.E.B. DuBois’ approach
Serving the nation—hoping for benefits
Civil War: Casualty rate 40% higher
Spanish-American War: 25% of all soldiers
WWI: % of Black soldiers 2x higher
Harlem Renaissance
Cultural pride
Literature, poetry, music, jazz

5. Taking on Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson Case: Court ruled that separate facilities did not violate the 14th Amendment
Thus, Jim Crow laws continued
World War II gave birth to modern civil rights movement
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas: 1954
Role of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP
Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
Separate but equal is not equal
Public schools must integrate “with all deliberate speed”

6. Thurgood Marshall:
Lawyer for the NAACP during the Brown case
Appointed as first African American Supreme Court Justice in 1968

7. Reaction to the Brown Decision
Much resistance to the decision
White Citizens Councils
KKK
US Government reluctant to enforce the ruling
Leads to a crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas: Gov. Orval Faubus
Little Rock 9: September 1957
Pres. Eisenhower is forced to act to uphold the Brown decision
Yet, things did not progress smoothly
Civil Rights Act of 1957 in the face of tremendous resistance

8. Freedom Now! Montgomery Improvement Association—SCLC (1957)
Nonviolent but very confrontational
Concept of Civil Disobedience
Led by M.L. KingRosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)
Young Black students—sit-ins
Formed basis of SNCC: Stokely Carmichael

9. Rosa Parks Montgomery, AL bus boycotts
Montgomery Improvement Association & MLK
Boycott in place for almost a year

10. Little Rock Nine: 1957
Nine African American high school students were prevented from attending a white school by Arkansas Governor, Orval Faubus
President Eisenhower intervened, providing the students with a military escort

11. Congress of Racial Equality: 1942
Utilized nonviolent techniques to protest segregation
Organized like a trade union
Initiated the infamous “Freedom Rides” in the South and the March on Washington
Violence in South—Bull O’Connor (Birmingham)
JFK sends Marshals to protect “riders

12. James Meredith: 1962
Admitted to the University of Mississippi, but was barred from entering by segregationist Governor Ross Barnett
U.S. Marshals sent by John F. Kennedy escorted him in on Oct. 1, 1962
First black student at the University of Mississippi

13. Medgar Evers: 1963
President of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership which organized boycotts of businesses that were segregated
Assassinated by a Ku Klux Klan member in his own driveway

14. Civil Rights Acts Civil Rights Act of 1957:
Made it a federal crime to prevent qualified people from voting
Set up Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places and employment
Discredited Jim Crow laws
Voting Rights Act of 1965:
Outlawed discriminatory voting practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests

15. Civil Rights Act: 1964
Outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places and employment
Discredited Jim Crow laws
Result of:
“I Have a Dream Speech”, Aug
Birmingham Church Bombing, Sept. 1963
Assassination of JFK, Nov. 1963

16. Voting Rights Voting rights follows the end of segregation
Focus on Mississippi: Blacks 40% of population but only 5% registered to vote
Literacy tests, fear and intimidation, Poll Taxes

17. SNCC and SCLC Coordinate voter registration drives
Robert Moses—focus on McComb, MS
12, 000/250, 000
Intimidation, violence, KKK
Little support from the US gov
Blacks themselves were reluctant

18. Change in Strategy Volunteers from North
Get whites involved (an American issue)
24th Amendment (Jan. 1964) outlawed poll taxes for federal elections
Freedom Summer
June 21: Yet, the murder of Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner in Philadelphia, MS

19. Not Much Success at First
FBI has to be called in to investigate
Only 1600 newly registered voters
Focus on Selma, AL in 1965: 15,000/383,000
King organizes march to Montgomery
Huge success/1000s arrive to support

20. Voting Rights Act: 1965
Outlawed discriminatory voting practices which disenfranchised minority voters
Poll taxes
Literacy tests
By 1968, # of eligible
African American voters
Increased

21. Challenges
Many Blacks begin to question the non-violent approach of Dr. King: Nation of Islam (Wallace Ford 1930)
Agenda of Elijah Muhammad and Black Muslims
Black supremacy and nationalism
Separate Black republic in US
Strict discipline in movement
Focus on self-reliance
Recruited Blacks in prisons

22. Malcolm X Black separatism and “by any means necessary”
Yet, by 1964 embraced the idea of “the unity of all peoples”
Murdered by other Black Muslims 1965

23. Movement Fractures Many turning away from non-violence
Blacks resent whites in civil rights organizations
Role of Stokely Carmichael
a. March for James Meredith
b. Convinces NAACP and Urban League not to participate
c. More focus on protesting Vietnam War: kicked out of SNCC
4) More of a focus on “Black Power”
5) Black Panther Party: B. Seale, H. Newton

24. Movement Fractures, cont’d…
6) Major backlash by whites against movement
7) : Urban violence (Watts Riots in L.A.)
8) Kerner Commission: “Two societies”
9)King shifts focus to Black economic inequality
Poor People’s Campaign—Washington, D.C, Memphis

25. Challenges Specific questions to answer:
Why do some in the Civil Rights Movement begin to question the non-violent approach of M.L. King?
Describe, in detail the agenda of Black Muslims (Nation of Islam)
What changes did Malcolm X go through in his ideas on civil rights? How did these changes reflect other, earlier trends in the Civil Rights movement?
What was King’s response towards “Black Power?” Did this cause any dilemmas for King? How did all of this represent splits in the Civil Rights movement?

26. Challenges How did whites respond to Black Power?
Did King begin to shift his focus regarding civil rights? How? Why?
Memphis: Sanitations Workers’ Strike
Washington, D.C: Poor Peoples’ Campaign
Chicago: Housing issues

27. Major Changes Peaceful Movement: comes to an end: late 1960s
Assassination of King 1968
SCLC Poor Peoples’ Campaign fizzles out
SCLC basically done (Ralph Abernathy)
Decline in Black Power Movement also
FBI pressure and infiltration
Internal divisions: Carmichael and SNCC
Attempted merger: Panthers and SNCC
SNCC disbands, Panthers in trouble
Split in Black Muslims 1978
Wallace Muhammad
Louis Farrakan and the Nation of Islam

28. Backlash from Whites Busing key issue
Original Supreme Court decision 1971
Bussing to achieve racial balance is good
Milliken v. Bradley 1974
Detroit: Reverses busing/school integration

29. Affirmative Action Programs in trouble Quota system, yet…
University of California v. Bakke 1978 (reverse discrimination)
Race can be a factor in admissions yet quota system is struck down
BUT: Carl Stokes = 1st Black mayor
BUT: 31% of all Blacks below poverty line

30. Others Join In… Other minority groups begin to express their anger:
Hispanics
Asians
Native Americans
Women
Developmentally Challenged

31. Women’s Rights Part of the upheaval of the 1960s: Rebellion
1963: Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique
Women were dissatisfied: trapped in domesticity
Work issuesmore and more women working
25% working in 194035% in 1960
By 1963, 25 million women = 1/3 of the US work force
YET: On average, earning 40% less
Kennedy: Equal Pay Act
Commission on the Status of Women

32. Title VII (1964) Became part of Civil Rights Bill of 1964
Outlawed sexual discrimination in employment
Created Equal Opportunity Commission

33. More Activism More radical Gloria Steinem and NOW
1971 National Women’s Political Caucus
Encourages women to get more politically involved
Editor of Ms. Magazine
Equal pay and opportunities in the workplace

34. Progress in the 1970s Educational Amendments Act 1972
Equal Rights Amendment 1972 (never ratified)
Roe v. Wade 1973

35. Split in Women’s Movement
Similar to civil rights
Movement only about rich, white women
At times, offended more traditional women
ERA and Roe threatened traditional family values
Phyllis Schlafly
Conservative response to movement
Big debate: What is proper role of women?
How can women express rights and freedoms?

36. More Groups Mobilize “Red Power” Movement from 1960s
Self-determination to run their own affairs
Payments for lands taken by whites in US history
American Indian Movement (AIM) 1968: Russell Means
Much more aggressive and militant approach
Renewal of Indian rights/culture—occupations
Alcatraz Island 1969
Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. 1972
Trading post and land—Wounded Knee, SD 1973

37. More Groups Mobilize, cont’d…
Rights for Disabled Americans: Ed Roberts
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Education for All Handicapped Children Act 1975

38. More Groups Mobilize, cont’d…
Rights for Elderly Americans
American Association of Retired People (AARP) 1958
National Council of Senior Citizens—low income
“Gray Panthers” Maggie Kuhn
Old Americans Act 1965: Income/ Medical care

39. More Groups Mobilize, cont’d…
Rights for Children
“Won’t someone please think of the children?”
Court case “In Re Gault” minors accused of crimes have same rights as adults
Children’s Bill of Rights 1970
Children’s Defense League 1975—Marian Wright Edelman

40. Video Links The Murders of 1964: Freedom Summer Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders
I Have Dream Speech
Integration of Central High School

41. More Video Links Malcolm X: Plymouth Rock Speech
H. Rap Brown: Just As Important Today
Watts: 1965 “Time”
Remembering Freedom Summer
From Selma to Montgomery