Chapter 21

The Civil Rights Movement

Why such inequality?

• Long history of slavery and oppression– Placed negative stereotypes in minds of

whites. • Southern planter would say “Africans are ignorant

savages incapable of self-control. They are children who must be looked over and dominated for their own good.”

• These negative images (as well as many others) influenced northerners also. – rich history of inequality and social injustice in most states and territories. (couldn’t vote, own land, gain citizenship, etc..)

Post Civil War

• Reconstruction helped in laying the foundation, but it failed to bring political, economic, or social equality for the freedmen.– 14th Amend. = citizenship to freedmen

– 15th Amend. = right to vote

– Congress est. the Freedmen’s Bureau to ensure basic rights and help them get on their feet.

• For a time, it seemed to be working - some Afr. Amer. politicians, more education, economic freedom to do what/where they wanted, etc...

Failure of Reconstruction

• By 1874, the Radical Republicans lost political power in the south and the Freedmen’s Bureau was allowed to expire. Also, average Americans didn’t care about the problems in the south anymore. They had their own dilemmas to deal with.

• The “old guard” returned to power and “redeemed” the south. – They enacted black codes or “Jim Crow Laws”

to keep Af. Americans down.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

• Supreme Court ruling that made segregation legal. It states that as long as facilities were equal, it was OK to separate them. This was the legal basis whites needed in order to “keep blacks in their place.”– Everything became segregated from schools

to buses to bathrooms. Many “laws” were unwritten and “upheld” through violence and coercion.

Segregation (continued)

• de facto segregation = unwritten/commonly understood black codes that existed by practice or by custom

• de jure segregation = lawful segregation.– Both forms existed in the south. De facto was

harder to combat b/c it was deeply rooted in northern culture – it was harder to change people’s attitudes than it was to change laws.

– Urban “white flight” and avoidance led to economic inequality and injustice.

“End” of Segregation

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

• According to the 14th Amendment and its equal protection clause, – “The doctrine of separate but equal has no

place in the field of public education. It is inherently unequal.”

» Thurgood Marshall

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks leads the way. Leads to

• Montgomery Bus Boycott

– Lasted almost a year. People carpooled, walked, etc. Bus company nearly went bankrupt

• Supreme Court rules seg. bussing illegal

Martin Luther King, jr.

• MLK, jr. spread his message of non-violent resistance thru churches– Served as social and political hubs for blacks.

• King Rises to Prominence– Compared the plight of black people w/ Christian

principles of equality and justice

• Two-fold philosophy– Non-violence– Love for enemy

The Sit-in Movement

• Students become key component to success. They begin sit-ins at segregated cafes (‘lunch counters’)

• SNCC leads the way (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee). They begin trainings in non-violent resistance and organize strategies to raise awareness.

• Lunch counters desegregate. All of the bad publicity moves them to change their policies.

The Freedom Rides

• CORE (Congress on Racial Equality) sends “freedom riders” on a trip from D.C. to New Orleans to test the desegregation of buses and bus stations– Many arrested (white and black) but stayed

positive through beatings and constant threat

Demonstrations in Birmingham

• 1963 – King wanted to publicly show the brutality of segregation. They plan demonstrations. Many arrested.

• Letter from a Birmingham Jail – King urges the Fed. Gov. to enact changes now.

• The Children’s Marches – hundreds jailed, police dogs attacked them, sprayed with monitor guns, many injured. The world sees the ‘inhumanity’ and demand change.– City officials decide to integrate businesses and allow

Af-Amer. higher status in jobs.• Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing – yet

another example of racial intolerance and hatred

The 1963 March on Washington

• Over 250,000 listened to SNCC reps. and others to reinforce legislation proposed in Congress to end segregation in the U.S.

• MLK’s Dream

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voter Registration Drives

• The Fight to Gain the Vote• Freedom Summer

Volunteers recruited to go throughout the south to register black voters, also to educate southern blacks to elevate awareness.

• Selma to Montgomery– 50 mile march to raise awareness to problem of

denying the vote and the violence surrounding black suffrage

• Voting Rights Act of 1965• 24th Amendment – No Poll Taxes!

Dissatisfied with Black Leadership

• Malcolm X and nation of Islam promote Black Nationalism– Self-defense against

whites– Separation from whites

building their own communities

Urban Race Riots

• Northern cities erupted in violence as poor urban blacks were dissatisfied with social, political, and economic gains for equality

The Kerner Commission

• White racism responsible for riots

• U.S. was composed of “two societies, separate and unequal”

• Financial relief was the “answer”

Shift to Radicalism

• After MLK’s death, the “Black Power” movement became popular among frustrated black Americans – especially urban

• The Black Panther Party asks people to “pick up the gun” and defend their rights.

The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement

• By 1974, over 75% of black students in the South were enrolled in integrated schools.

• Student achievement on the rise

• Black studies departments rose up on campuses.

• Encouraged other oppressed groups to stand up for rights