Today’s Schedule – 05/06/10• 28.4 Vocab and Timeline Check• 28.4 PPT: Political Response to the Civil Rights

Movement• Continue Movie• HW: 28.5 Vocab and Timeline• Warm-Up: When you turn 18 do you plan on

registering to vote? Do you think voting empowers citizens, why or why not?

JFK and the Civil Rights Movement• As a senator in Massachusetts JFK often voted

pro-civil rights but was not highly active on the issues– He knew he would need Southern Senate and House

members on his side to push through legislation

• As the violence of the Civil Rights Movement escalated JFK became highly embarrassed of the opinion of foreign nationals

• After violence in Birmingham in 1963 JFK was prompted to speak out against segregation and introduced legislation to desegregate all public spaces and any institution that received federal funding– Southern congressional members initially prevented

the legislation from passing

March on Washington

• August of 1963 civil rights leader Philip Randolph organized a march of over 200,000 people to march in D.C. in support of JFK’s desegregation bill

• At the march King delivered his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efs-CP6HJlA&feature=related

Civil Rights Act of 1964• Three months after the March on Washington JFK

was assassinated• President Johnson picked up the cause and

continued to push Congress to pass the bill• The House passed the bill but a Republican

filibuster stalled voting on the bill in the Senate• Republican minority leader, friend of Johnson,

introduced a vote on a cloture which was passed– Forced an end to the debate and subsequent vote

passing the act

• Titles of the Civil Rights Act included– Banned use of varying voter registration standards for

blacks and whites– Prohibited discrimination in public accommodations– Federal funds could be withheld from public or private

organizations that discriminate– Banned employment discrimination based on• Race• Sex• Religion• National origin

– Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to oversee this provision

Continued Violence

• Freedom Summer in 1964– Three young civil rights workers were killed in

Mississippi

• Fannie Lou Hamer– Lost her job when she tried to register to vote– During a voting drive she was imprisoned and

beaten

• Selma March in March of 1965– In Selma, Alabama police arrested African

Americans for standing in line to try and register to vote

– King organized a protest march• State troopers attacked the protestors• President Johnson sent in federal marshalls to protect

the protestors

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Eliminated literacy tests as a requirement to register to vote

• Allowed federal officials to supervise voter registration

• Along with the 24th Amendment which eliminated the poll tax more than 400,000 African Americans registered to vote in 1965