1. Demands for Civil Rights
Angela Brown
Chapter 27 Section 4

2. The Struggle for Equality
Truman privately held racial prejudice from growing up in South but realized as President must push for equality opportunity.

3. Truman’s Actions
1946 Truman met with group of African American leaders.
They ask for: support for a federal anti-lynching law, abolish the poll tax, establish a board to prevent discriminatory practices in Congress.
Congress refused to address

4. Dec 1946 – Truman appointed a biracial committee on Civil Rights – group produced a report demanding actions on above concerns
Recommended permanent Civil Rights commission be established
Congress again failed to act.

5. 1948 Truman banned discriminatory hiring of fed
1948 Truman banned discriminatory hiring of fed. Employees – ended segregation and discrimination in armed forces
Only with onset of Korean War in 1950 did armed forces make significant progress at ending segregation.

6. Jackie Robinson
Major league baseball had refused to allow African Americans to participate – played in Negro leagues.
Mid 1940s Branch Rickey, gen. manager of Brooklyn Dodgers selected Jackie Robinson to be first African American to break the color line.

7. Robinson
Robinson earned college letters in football, basketball, baseball, and track at UCLA.
Robinson was the only player in UCLA history to letter in four sports.

8. Had a record for standing up against racial injustice – undergone court martial in Army during WWII for refusing to set in back of non-segregated post bus – was cleared
Rickey role played with Robinson what he might endure – “I want a player with guts to fight back.”

9. 1947 joined Dodgers as first African American player in major leagues.
Despite instances of prejudice he behaved with dignity and was named Rookie of the Year.
1949 voted league most valuable player.

10. Racism on Gridiron
1946 Penn State vs. University of Miami – canceled due to two African American players on Penn State team.
President of Miami U stated hoped to avoid any “unfortunate incidents”.
Penn State Dean stated they were part of the team and no conditions would be put on them.
Other schools made arrangements such as… African Americans would play them at home but not away.

11. Brown vs Board of Education
NAACP tried to overturn 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision “Separate but Equal”.
1951 Oliver Brown sued the Topeka Kansas Board of Education to allow daughter attend white school – she walked to on way to bus.
Lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued on behalf of Brown against segregation.

12. Thurgood Marshall

13. May 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka declared unanimously that “separate facilities are inherently unequal”.
Separate but equal no longer permissible in public schools – Eisenhower disagreed.
1967 President Johnson appointed Marshall Supreme Court’s first African American associate Justice.
Liberal presence on court until retirement in 1991.

14. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955 Rosa Parks refused bus drivers order to give up seat in mixed, middle section of the bus to a white man.
Sec of Montgomery NAACP for 12 years – arrested and ordered to stand trial for violating segregation laws.
Civil rights leaders met and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

15. Rosa Parks

16. Boycott http://home.att.net/~reniqua/bus12.jpg
USAmontgomeryB.jpg

17. African Americans refused to use the bus system until the company agreed to change segregation policy.
Martin Luther King Jr. became spokesperson for protest movement (26 year old minister where protest meeting took place).
50,000 African Americans in Montgomery walked, biked, car pooled for a year – bus company lost money but would not change its policies.

18. Supreme Court finally ruled bus segregation unconstitutional.
Produced new generation of African American leaders – and nonviolent protest as a means of achieving equality for minority groups.

19. Resistance in Little Rock
1957 Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Governor Orval Faubus declared he could not keep order if forced to integrate – bring races together.

20. Central High School

21. Posted Arkansas National Guard troops at school – nine African American students had tried to enroll.
Eisenhower placed National Guard under federal command – paratroopers and soldiers on guard to protect the nine students.

23. Other Voices of Protest
Mexican American worked for rights.
Texas funeral home refused to bury Felix Longoria, Mexican American War Hero – protest led to soldiers burial in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

24. Native Americans – 1953 governor sought to eliminate reservations = “termination”
Goal to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream.
Resistance = government discarded termination policy
Poverty, discrimination, and little political representation remained a problem.