What is a “grass roots” political movement?

What is a “grass roots movement”?

• Individuals can be the agent of change in society

• Civil Rights Era:What change were individualsseeking?

Background to Civil Rights Era

250 years of slavery…

Reconstruction Amendments

• 13th ends slavery– Southern states forced to ratify to re-enter the

Union• 14th- guarantees equal rights of citizenship to

all born in America• 15th- Right to vote cannot be denied based on

race

Civil Rights Act of 1875

• “All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accomodations… of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement”

• SUPREME COURT declares unconstitutional in 1883

Plessy v. Ferguson• Establishes “separate but equal”– Segregation is constitutional

Jim Crowe South

Via intimidation, literacy tests, poll taxes, African Americans effectively disenfranchised in the south

20th Century….• 1909- NAACP formed to fight for equality in

courts• World War I: Great Migration to the north• 1920s: Harlem Renaissance• New Deal– FDR includes African Americans in public works

projects• WW2– Million blacks in Armed Forces– Part of “Arsenal of Democracy”

Things don’t happen in a vacuum:How do the following “set the stage” for the Civil Rights movement?

Civil rights movement

World War 2Baby Boom Generation:

“Youth Culture of 1950s/ 60s

The Cold WarNew Technology:

Television

Executive Order 9981

• Truman desegregates the military

Dodgers sign Jackie Robinson

• Breaks the “color barrier” in professional baseball

NAACP and Thurgood Marshall

• Goes after “separate but equal” in the courts• Focuses on schools• 29 out of 32 cases won• Becomes 1st Black Supreme Court Justice

(1965-1991)

Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas- 1954

• Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson• "separate educational facilities are inherently

unequal."

1957: protests to forced desegregation, Charlotte, NC, 1957

South resists-

• Southern Manifesto– The Warren court overstepped its authority– Southern States can ignore it

• Stage is set for the “Civil RightsMovement” 1955-1965

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks arrested• MLK organizes boycott

• SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council)– African American churches organizes to non-

violently protest segregation

1958: Little Rock Nine

• Eisenhower has army escort black students to high school to force desegration

Things don’t happen in a vacuum:How do the following “set the stage” for the Civil Rights movement?

Civil rights movement

World War 2Baby Boom Generation:

“Youth Culture of 1950s/ 60s

The Cold WarNew Technology:

Television

1961- 1965: Height of “the movement”

• What tactics were used by activists?• Role of YOUNG people….• Would you have joined?

• What were the tangible results by 1965

1960- Sit-ins

• Starts with 4 college freshmen• Spreads quickly

1963- Freedom Riders

• CORE: Congress of Racial Equality• Whites and blacks ride together to southern

bus stations• Attacked

1963- Birmingham Campaign

• MLK and thousands arrested• Attacked by police• On television

• JFK calls for Civil RightsAct

1964- March on Washington

• “I have a Dream”• Demanding a CivilRights Act….

1964- Civil Rights Act is passed

• Bans discrimination in employment & “public accomodations”

1964- Freedom Summer

• SNCC (“Snik”)- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

• Go to Mississippi to get African Americans to register to vote…– (4 dead… 80 beaten… 3 blacks killed…. 1062

arrrested…. 37 churches bombed… 30 black homes bombed…)

1965 Voting Rights Act

• No more literacy tests• Extensive FEDERAL gov’t control over

elections…

Assignment- 10 points

• Create a newspaper front page for your assigned event – “Splashy” Headline– Sub-headline?– Date– Photo– Brief factual summary- PUT YOURSELF THERE,

reporting on it that day!• What happened? Why? Significance?

1961- 1965: Height of “the movement”

• What tactics were used by activists?• Role of YOUNG people….• Risks taken by joining….• What were the tangible results by 1965\

• What now?