THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

• The first African slaves were brought to the American colonies in 1619.

• By the 1670s slave codes enacted by individual colonies made slavery a legal, racially-based institution.

• The slaves were not freed until 1865, following the civil war.

• Amendment XIII—1865

• Emancipated slaves--

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

• Amendment XIV—1868 • Gave newly freed slaves the rights of

citizens.“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

• Amendment XV—1870

• Gave black men the right to vote

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

JIM CROW• After 1877, and the election of Republican

Rutherford B. Hayes, the South quickly replaced Reconstruction laws with new laws that restricted the rights of blacks.

• Racial segregation, called "Jim Crow," excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, jobs, juries, and neighborhoods. Blacks had separate hospitals, prisons, orphanages, parks and pools.

• Jim Crow laws segregated the south (separated blacks and whites).

• Blacks were denied the right to vote using the Grandfather Clause, literacy tests and poll taxes.

PLESSY V. FERGUSON

PLESSY V. FERGUSON

• Homer Plessy was an octoroon (1/8th Black).

• On June 7, 1892, the 30-year-old shoemaker was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad.

• He appealed and the United States Supreme Court held in 1896 that separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites were legal.

• Plessy v. Ferguson(1896)Justice Harlan's Dissent

"Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. . . . "The destinies of the two races, in this country, are indissolubly linked together, and the interests of both require that the

common government of all shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law. What

can more certainly arouse race hate, what more certainly create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races, than state enactments which, in fact, proceed on

the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens? That, as all will admit, is the real meaning of such legislation as was

enacted in Louisiana."

THE EARLY MOVMENT• In the late 1800s, some

leaders emerged in the struggle for equality.

• Booker T. Washington - wanted to focus on skill training and thought equality would take time

• W.E.B Du Bois - wanted to focus on higher education and use aggressive methods to secure equality. He also helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

THE EARLY MOVMENT• In 1914, Marcus

Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and began to encourage his “back to Africa” movement.

• After both World Wars no one could deny the importance of Black soldiers.

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

• Linda Brown had to walk 21 blocks to attend the all-black elementary and was denied admittance to the white elementary four blocks from her home.

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

• The NAACP helped the Brown’s take this case to court.

• Thurgood Marshall argued on behalf of the Browns.

• The Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment (1954).

• Overturned the Plessy case (separate but equal).

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)Chief Justice Warren – majority opinion.

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. . . . Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right

which must be made available to all on equal terms. . . "To separate [children in grade and high schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the

community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. . . .

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate

education facilities are inherently unequal."

THE LITTLE ROCK NINE

THE LITTLE ROCK NINE• In Arkansas, Governor

Orval Faubus showed support for segregation.

• In 1957, he ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine”—nine African American students who had volunteered to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School.

THE LITTLE ROCK NINE

• The students faced an abusive crowd when they arrived at school.

• President Eisenhower stepped in and nationalized the National Guard, using it instead to help the students enter the school.

The 9th, Elizabeth Eckford could not be reached and showed up alone.

Eight students were driven to school by the NAACP.

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

ROSA PARKS• On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa

Parks, a seamstress and NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the “colored” section of a Montgomery bus.

• She was asked to give up her seat to a white man, she refused and was arrested.

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

• The leaders of the African-American community, including many ministers, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to organize a boycott.

• They elected a 26-year-old pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead the group.

• Black churches organized car pools and local black taxi companies agreed to charge fares equal to bus fare. The bus system lost a lot of money.

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

• Blacks riding in carpools were harassed by the police. Bombs were set off at the house of Reverend King. At one point, King was arrested on a petty speeding offense. (Later, conspiracy charges, based on state anti-boycott law, were brought against King as well as the other leaders of the M.I.A.)

• Finally in 1956, the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.

LEADERSHIP GROUPS

THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

• In 1957 after the bus boycott, King joined other ministers and civil rights leaders to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

• Purpose was “to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of second-class citizenship”.

THE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATIONG

COMMITTEE• The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a student group organized as a protest group to work with the SCLC.

• Unlike the SCLC however, many SNCC members called for more confrontational strategies.

• SNCC also borrowed strategies from the Congress of Racial Equality.

THE CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY

• CORE was founded in 1942 and was known for using sit-ins—in which African American protesters sat down at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave until they were served.

RIDING FOR FREEDOM

FREEDOM RIDERS• In 1961, CORE members began a historic bus

trip across the South to test the Supreme Court decisions banning segregation on bus routes and in bus terminals.

• At the Alabama state line, white racists got on Bus One carrying chains, brass knuckles and pistols. They brutally beat African American riders and white activists who tried to intervene.

FREEDOM RIDERS• In Anniston, Alabama,

about 200 angry whites attacked Bus Two. When one of the tires blew, they smashed in a window and tossed in a fire bomb.

• Freedom riders spilled out just before the bomb exploded.

• The bus companies refused to carry them any farther.

FREEDOM RIDERS• When they rode into Birmingham, they were

pulled out by policemen and beaten.• When they arrived in Montgomery an angry mob

of whites beat them with bats and lead pipes.• Despite these attacks, the Freedom Riders were

successful in their goals. The images of these brutal attacks made the papers—people became sympathetic with their plight and the government stepped in.

BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM• Birmingham, Alabama became a city of focus

because it was a KKK stronghold and King described it as America’s worst city for racism.

• Any civil rights campaign in the city would almost certainly provoke trouble and gain the movement national outcry and support.

• Birmingham police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor was known for his racism and notorious temper.

• The SCLC carried out a series of marches.

BIRMINGHAM• King and a small group of others were arrested on

Good Friday and put in jail.• From jail, King wrote an open letter to white

religious leaders who felt he was pushing too fast…”I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait’. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters;…when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in the air-tight cage of poverty;…when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking...’Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait”.

--Letter from a Birmingham Jail

BIRMINGHAM• On May 2, more than a thousand African

American children marched in Birmingham. Bull arrested 959 of them.

• A second march took place May 3. Police swept protestors off their feet with fire hoses, set attack dogs on them, and clubbed those who fell.

• TV cameras captured all of it, and millions of viewers heard the children screaming.

BIRMINGHAM

MARCH ON WASHINGTON

MARCH ON WASHINGTON• On August 28,1963, more

than 250,000 people—including about 75,000 whites—converged on the nation’s capital.

• King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech.

BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING

BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING

• Two weeks after the Washington March, a rider in a car hurled a bomb through a church window in Birmingham.

• Four young girls were killed and two others died in the unrest that followed.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

• Kennedy was assassinated before he could see much of his work in the area of civil rights enacted. Johnson however promised to continued Kennedy’s work.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender in public accommodations.

FREEDOM SUMMER

FREEDOM SUMMER• In 1964, CORE and SNCC workers in the

South began registering African Americans to vote.

• The project, known as Freedom Summer, was focused in Mississippi.

• 37 black churches and 30 black homes and businesses were firebombed or burned during that summer, and the cases often went unsolved.

FREEDOM SUMMER• But the summer's most infamous act of violence was

the murder of three young civil rights workers, a black volunteer, James Chaney, and his white coworkers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. On June 21, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner set out to investigate a church bombing near Philadelphia, Mississippi, but were arrested that afternoon and held for several hours on alleged traffic violations. Their release from jail was the last time they were seen alive before their badly decomposed bodies were discovered under a nearby dam six weeks later. Goodman and Schwerner had died from single gunshot wounds to the chest, and Chaney from a savage beating.

Chaney Goodman Schwerner

FREEDOM SUMMER• Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old part-time

preacher, was convicted on three counts of manslaughter, 41 years to the day (June 21, 2005) a Klan mob ambushed and killed the civil rights workers -- James Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 20; and Michael Schwerner, 24.

• Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY

MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY

• African Americans needed a voice in the political arena if sweeping change was to occur.

• SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).

• Fannie Lou Hamer would be their voice at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY

• Hamer delivered a speech describing how she was jailed for registering to vote in 1962 and beaten in jail.

• Calls poured in supporting MFDP delegates.

• Johnson feared losing the Southern white vote if the Democrats sided with MFDP, so he came up with a compromise giving them only 2 seats which upset SNCC and MFDP.

SELMA

SELMA• King decided to plan a 50-mile protest march

from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to gain support for the Voting Rights Act.

• On March 7,1965 about 600 protestors set out for Montgomery.

• Americans watched on television as police swung whips and clubs, and clouds of tear gas swirled around fallen marchers.

SELMA

VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

• After Selma, Johnson presented Congress with a new voting rights act.

• Voting Rights Act of 1965—eliminated the literacy tests that had disqualified many voters. It also stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage due to race.

NORTHERN SEGREGATION

• By 1965, the leading civil rights groups began to drift apart.

• Northern African Americans faced de facto segregation—segregation that exists by practice and custom. E.g. white flight.

• Those in the south faced de jure segregation—segregation by law. E.g. Jim Crow laws.

NORTHERN SEGREGATION

• In 1966, King spearheaded a campaign in Chicago to end de facto segregation. He led about 30,000 African Americans in a march to City Hall.

• King was unable to accomplish his goal and instead his protestors met angry whites.

• In the 1960s, clashes between white authority and black civilians spread like wildfire.

WATTS RIOTWith the arrest of a 21 year old African American, Los Angeles's South Central neighborhood of Watts erupted into violence. On August 11, 1965, a Los Angeles police officer flagged down motorist Marquette Frye, whom he suspected of being intoxicated. When a crowd of onlookers began to taunt the policeman, a second officer was called in. According to eyewitness accounts, the second officer struck crowd members with his baton, and news of the act of police brutality soon spread throughout the neighborhood.

WATTS RIOTIn the rioting, which lasted five days, more than 34 people died, at least 1000 were wounded, and an estimated $200 million in property was destroyed. An estimated 35,000 African Americans took part in the riot, which required 16,000 National Guardsmen, county deputies, and city police to put down.

NEW LEADERS EMERGE

MALCOLM X• Malcolm X was a member of the Nation of

Islam—Black Muslims.• He preached that blacks should separate

from white society and advocated armed self-defense.

• After making a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X changed his views.

MALCOLM X• His new slogan

became “ballots or bullets”, in other words not using the vote would lead to violence—the vote was the better option.

• On Feb. 21, 1965, while giving a speech in Harlem, the 39-year-old was shot and killed.

People gathered around his body.

BLACK PANTHERS• Stokely Carmichael, a member of SNCC would

deliver a speech after a police beating calling for “Black Power”—a call for black people to begin to define their own goals…[and] to lead their own organizations”.

• In 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded a political party known as the Black Panthers to fight police brutality in the ghetto.

BLACK PANTHERS• The party advocated

self-sufficiency for African American communities, as well as full employment and decent housing.

• Dressed in black leather jackets, black berets and sunglasses, the panthers preached self-defense.

KING’S FINAL SPEECH

KING’S DEATH

• King was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 at Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

• Riots occurred in more than 60 cities.

• Ray was captured two months later in London Heathrow Airport and would be sentenced to a 99-year prison term.

MORE POLICY• Civil Rights Act of 1968--ended

discrimination in housing.

• Affirmative Action—Positive actions taken by the government to end the effects of past discrimination. Is controversial.

THE END