The Civil Rights Movement

History 17BLecture 19

Which Path Towards Civil Rights?

• African Americans virtual second-class citizens.– Segregation and intimidation.

• Two Paths: integration or Black Nationalism

Reconstruction Legislation• Civil Rights Act of 1866

– Abolish Southern “Black Codes”– Guarantee all U.S. citizens, regardless

of race, equal rights and protections under law.

– Enforce through Federal Courts• Key Point

– Federal Government assuming responsibility for assuring individual civil rights.

• 14th Amendment• Civil Rights Act of 1875

– Prohibition of racial discrimination in all public accommodations, places of amusement, transportation, and juries.

Black Exclusion

• Racism perseveres and whites find ways to exclude blacks.

– Federal enforcement of 1877 Civil Rights Act rare.

• Supreme Court rules unconstitutional in 1883.

• Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)– “Separate but equal” is constitutional.

• Serves as basis of Jim Crow legislation.

Early Struggles for Civil Rights

• Washington (accommodation) vs. DuBois (both economic and political rights).

• NAACP and National Urban League work towards Civil Rights – Work through courts and lobbying for political/social reform.

• “Guilt trip” through the lessons of World War II.

Booker T. Washington W.E.B. DuBois NAACP

Civil Rights and the Cold War

• Violence inflicted on returning soldiers.

• Cold War crusade made government more sensitive to international criticism.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• NAACP argued that legal segregation stigmatized an entire race and denied blacks “equal protection of the laws” guaranteed under 14 th Amendment.

• Warren Court agreed and unanimously but “separate but equal” was inherently unequal.

– Sets the stage for integration of schools.

Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas (1957)

• Eisenhower’s lackluster support for Civil Rights. – But feared international criticism of Little Rock’s

refusal to integrate.• Sent in 1,000 Federal troops to protect the 9

students from a white mob.• Civil Rights Act of 1957

– U.S. Commission on Civil Rights created.

Racist Backlash

• White schools close rather than integrate.• Efforts to prevent discussion of black

equality.– White Citizens’ Councils and KKK use

intimidation and violence to keep African Americans in line.

• Emmett Till

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

• Non-violent protest– Bring about change by playing to

moral sympathies of whites.– Black passengers walk to work.

• Supreme Court rules bus segregation unconstitutional in 1956.– City relents and buses are

integrated.

• King founds Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957.

Confrontational Non-violence

• Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) launch “sit-ins” at lunch counters in 1960s.

• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begin “Freedom Rides” to integrate Southern interstate bus terminals.

• Government action only assured when forced.

• Kennedy’s wavering.– Civil Rights not a priority.

Slander Campaign

Birmingham, Alabama (April, 1963)

• Peaceful protest to integrate downtown stores.– Met with incredible force – all

nationally televised.

Birmingham, Alabama (April, 1963)

March on Washington (1963)

• Kennedy proposes legislation to ban discrimination in public accommodation.– King uses March to pressure

Kennedy to stay committed.

More Violence

• Kennedy’s legislation bottled up by Southern Senators.• 4 young girls killed when KKK bombs a Baptist church

in Birmingham, Alabama.

Civil Rights Legislation

• Civil Rights Act of 1964– Prohibits discrimination in public accommodations;– Attorney General authorized to desegregate schools, museums, and other public facilities;– Prohibits discrimination in employment by race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

• Voting Rights Act of 1965– Suspended literacy tests;– Authorized federal officials to supervise elections in many southern districts.

• Black voter registration jumps from 35% to 65% by 1970.

Black Nationalism

• Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam– Promotes “separation”

• Popular in urban areas.

Black Radicalism

• Poverty and economic exploitation sparks calls for Black Power.– Young blacks disillusioned by gradual

tactics of elders.• SNCC expels whites and preaches black

self-reliance and racial pride (1966).– Black Panthers founded in Oakland same

year to protect against police brutality.Stokely Carmichael

King’s Frustration

• King grows more radical as he fights racism in the North and speaks out against economic injustice and inequality.– “Poor People’s Campaign”

Chicago Demonstrators

What if King had lived?

• Difficult to speculate.– No other civil rights leader was as effective at tapping into the conscience of

white America.– But the Civil Rights Movement was more than just Rev. Martin Luther King.

• African American calls for more frustrate whites who say, “Go slow!”– Conflict inevitable.