Chapter 21Civil Rights

Reconstruction• Reconstruction- Rebuilding the South after

the Civil War–13th Amendment (1865) Abolished Slavery

–14th Amendment (1868) All persons born in United States are Citizens, provides equal protection and rights under the law–15th Amendment (1870) Gave African Americans

the Right to Vote– Can’t discriminate based on race, color, or if a

previous slave

Voting

• Southern states imposed restrictions on African Americans.

• Poll tax: A tax was to be paid before a person could vote.

• A.A. could not afford to pay the taxes (usually).

Literacy tests

• A.A. were given literacy tests at the poll.• Tests were usually in a foreign language.• If you could not pass the test, then you could

not vote.• This kept a lot of A.A. from voting.

Grandfather Clause

• If a person could not pay the tax or pass the literacy test, then the grandfather clause would apply.

• “If your grandfather voted before January 1, 1867, then you could vote.”

• This kept A.A. from voting because they were not allowed to vote yet in 1867.

Segregation• Separated black and white people in

public places.

• Jim Crow laws: Laws which allowed segregation in public places. (South)

• Term Jim Crow originated from a minstrel show called “Jump Jim Crow” (1830s and 1840s)

• Show was performed by a white performer Thomas “Daddy” Rice

• Rice blackened his face with charcoal and ridiculed black people

Segregation

• De facto segregation: exists by practice & custom (choice)

• De jure segregation: segregation by law. (difficult to fight this!)

Racism

• A.A. were not allowed to walk on the sidewalks.

• A.A. were lynched if they did not follow laws made only for them.

• A.A. moved to the North, but found discrimination there too.

• Segregated neighborhoods and discrimination at work in the North.

Discrimination out West

• Mexican workers were hired as cheap labor for the R.R.

• Debt peonage: Mexican workers were forced into a system that bound them as slaves in order to work off debts to their bosses.

• Chinese were forced into segregated schools and neighborhoods.

Segregation• Jim Crow laws existed in the South since the 1800s.• Black and white people didn’t shake hands• Black people weren’t supposed look directly into the

eyes of white people• Black people had to stare at the ground when speaking

with white people• Black men removed hats in presence of white people.

White men never did this• Black men weren’t supposed to look at or smile at

white women (Lynched if did)• White customers were always served first even if a

black person was there first• Black people has to use titles of respect (Sir, Mister,

Miss) when addressing white people

Segregation• Jim Crow laws

allowed segregation in public and private facilities.

• Hospitals, schools, parks, swimming pools, houses, restaurants, and transportation systems were all segregated

• Plessy v. Ferguson was one of the first cases to reach the Supreme Court about segregation.

• Homer A. Plessy was challenging the laws in his home state of Louisiana.

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court case which made segregated, but equal facilities legal (1896).

• Facilities in the South were not equal, but they were separate.

Court Case

• Homer Plessy was 1/8 African American.

• In Louisiana, he was considered a black man.

• He was denied the right to sit in the white passenger car section on a train.

• He challenged the law that requires races to have separate cars.

• Louisiana argued that the separate facilities were equal.

• The Supreme Court agreed with Louisiana

Case Con’t• The Court said that “separate but equal” facilities were legal.

• Did not violate 14th Amendment. (Equal Protection under the law)

• States were to maintain separate but equal facilities.

• This decision allowed segregation for over 60 years.

• The “separate” part was enforced.• The “equal” part was not.

Ida B. Wells

• Ida B. Wells was forced onto an all African American railroad car.

• She refused and took the company to court.

• She won, but lost when the court was appealed.

• She was going to go to a higher court, but the Plessy case occurred, setting precedence.

Section 1: Taking on Segregation

Early Cases• Jim Crow laws existed in the South since the

1800s.• Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court case which

made segregated, but equal facilities legal (1896).

• Facilities in the South were not equal, but they were separate.

Start of Civil Rights Movement

• 1. WWII helped by letting African Americans work in the factories when there were job shortages.

• 2. 1 million African American men served during WWII.

• 3. Roosevelt passed a law prohibiting racial discrimination for those involved with the war.

Thurgood Marshall• Lawyer who argued

cases before the Supreme Court with the NAACP.

• Was the first African American Supreme Court justice in 1967.

• Lawyer for the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka court case.

• This case stated segregation in schools were unconstitutional.

Reaction to Case• KKK showed up to protest.• Little Rock, Arkansas: Protests

to African American students attending Central High School.

• 9 African American students volunteered to integrate the school.

• Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the National Guard to keep the 9 students out.

Little Rock (con’t)• Federal judge ordered the

governor to let the students in.

• NAACP members called 8 of the 9 students and arranged rides to school.

• One student, Elizabeth Eckford, did not have a phone.

• She had to face an angry mob outside of the school

Rosa Parks• Seamstress and an NAACP officer.

• Sat on the front of the bus and refused to give up her seat for a white man.

• Parks was arrested.• Martin Luther King, Jr. was

asked to lead the bus boycott in Montgomery.

• 1956: Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.

Martin Luther King• Used nonviolent resistance.• He used teachings from Jesus,

writer Thoreau, A. Philip Randolph, and Gandhi.

• In 1957, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

• Group carried out nonviolent crusades against segregation.

• Peaceful marches and protests.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• Ella Baker helped students at universities start SNCC.

• A national protest group who also protested peacefully.

• SNCC used the CORE as an example.

• They staged sit-ins at diners at the white only counters.

• Most would have food poured over them, but would not react- stayed peaceful!!!!!

Emmett Till(August 28, 1955)

• 14-year-old boy visited his uncle.

• Mississippi• Woman accused him of

flirting with her.• 2 white men beat him

& shot him• Mom had open casket

funeral.

Freedom Riders

• Activists who rode buses through the South to challenge segregation.

• Buses were normally attacked by angry white mobs.

• Members of SNCC rode buses, one of their buses were firebombed.

• Kennedy made Federal Marshals protect the Freedom Riders.

Freedom Riders’ Photo

Integrating “Ole Miss”

• JAMES MEREDITH: African American Air Force veteran who won a court case to attend University of Mississippi

• Gov. Ross Barnett refused to let him in

• Kennedy sent federal marshals to escort Meredith into the college.

“Ole Miss” (con’t)• Thousands of white

demonstrators showed up.

• Riots broke out on campus: 2 dead

• Thousands of soldiers were sent to stop the riot.

• Federal officers took Meredith to classes & protected his family.

Birmingham

• MLK, Jr. went to Birmingham to help integrate the city.

• Known as the “most segregated city in U.S.”

• King & others were arrested on Good Friday (1963).

• Police commissioner “Bull” Connor arrested 959 of King’s demonstrators.

Birmingham

• May 3, a children’s crusade began.• Police put high-pressured fire hoses &

attack dogs on them.• Clubbed those who fell to the ground.• TV cameras showed the children

screaming to millions of viewers.• Kennedy wanted to pass a civil rights act.

Photos at Birmingham

Kennedy• Sent troops to force

Gov. Wallace to desegregate the University of Alabama.

• After Kennedy made a speech, that night Medgar Evers was killed by a sniper in his own driveway

March on Washington

• King marched on Washington, D.C. with 250,000 people. Gave his “I HAVE A DREAM” speech.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• 4 girls were killed when a bomb blew up their church.

• Two months after Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

• Could not discriminate b/c of race, religion, national origin, & gender.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Law that made it easier for African Americans to register to vote by eliminating literacy tests & having federal examiners to enroll voters denied at the local level.

Urban Violence

• New York City riots: July 1964.

• Riots in L.A.: August 1965• 34 people died

• 1967: 100 riots took place in U.S.

Malcolm XMay 19, 1925 Malcolm Little is born in

Omaha, NE.1946 Malcolm is sentenced to 8-10

years for armed robbery; serves 6 ½ years at Charlestown, MA State Prison.

1948-49 Converts to the Nation of Islam while in prison.

1953 Changes name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and becomes Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam's Detroit Temple.

1954 Promoted to Minister of Nation of Islam's New York Temple.

"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to

waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment." -- Speech, Dec. 12 1964, New York City

• Islamic minister who thought that blacks should separate.

• NATION OF ISLAM: Black Muslims

• African Americans should arm & defend themselves.

Ballots or Bullets• Malcolm X traveled to

Mecca.• He said that people

should use ballots, not bullets to voice opinions.

• Malcolm thought he was in danger

• Assassinated on February 21, 1965.

• Shot & killed (N.Y.)

Black Power!• Stokely Carmichael: leader of SNCC, became militant.

• Sang “We shall overrun.”• BLACK POWER: slogan for

African Americans to show their pride for their race.

Black Panthers

• Political Party• Fight police brutality

in ghetto• Wanted full

employment & decent housing.

• Black youths should not serve in Vietnam.

Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali• "No, I am not going 10,000 miles

to help murder kill and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slavemasters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end." —Muhammad Ali

• Source: "Muhammad Ali — The Measure of a Man." (Spring 1967). Freedomways, 7(2), 101-102.

King’s Assassination• King sensed that he was

going to die• King was assassinated on

April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN.

• Riots happened in African American communities.

• Robert Kennedy pleaded for people not to riot, would not be what King would want.

Legacy• KERNER COMMISSION: Johnson wanted people to study urban violence. Main cause: white racism

• CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968: ended discrimination in housing.

• Strengthened Anti-lynching laws

Robert Kennedy

• Assassinated on June 5, 1968

• Potential Democratic Candidate for President

• Favored Civil Rights

Affirmative Action

• A policy that seeks to correct the effects of past discrimination by favoring the groups who were previously disadvantaged