Civil Rights Movement

Events Leading to the Civil Rights Movement Civil War 1861 – 1865 – + 13 th Amendment Reconstruction 1865 – 1877 – + 14 th – 15 th Amendments – - Resurgence of KKK, Jim Crow laws based on Plessy V. Ferguson, and voting restrictions WW – + African Americans in military (non-combat) – - Woodrow Wilson re-segregated government Great Migration to the North – + more jobs – - face de facto segregation and discrimination

Events leading to Civil Rights WW II – + Migration north for jobs – + Provides opportunity for African Americans to serve in the military; most were kept from combat and served in segregated units. – +1941: FDR said businesses had to “provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries” = no hiring or pay discrimination in war industries – +1948: President Truman said the military had to provide for the "equality of treatment and opportunity” = desegregated

Truman Ends Military Segregation

The NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Color People Founded by W.E.B. Du Boise in 1909 Purpose: “to achieve, through peaceful and lawful means, equal citizenship rights for all American citizens” Goals: eliminate segregation and discrimination in housing, employment, voting, schools etc. and equal rights

The NAACP 1950s: Focuses on obvious inequalities of segregated public education – Jim Crow laws said “separate but equal” and obviously it was not equal. 10x the money for white kids His team of law students led by Thurgood Marshall (future Supreme Court Judge in 1967) won 29 out of 32 Supreme Court cases 1946 Morgan v. Virginia – Segregation on interstate buses illegal 1950 Sweatt v. Painter – State law schools must allow blacks to enter

Sweatt v. Painter (1950) In 1946, an African American man applied to the University of Texas’ white law school. Instead, the state hastily set up an "black" law school. Sweat sued arguing that the education that he was receiving in the "black" law school was not of the same academic caliber as the education that he would be receiving if he attended the "white" law school. U.S. Supreme Court in 1950, unanimously agreed, the "black" law school was "separate," but not "equal."

Teacher Salary Cases Begins with extensive research into the actual inequalities in schools in the South – specifically in the pay of teachers

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Decision In Topeka, Kansas, Linda Brown’s parents sued the school board for not allowing their daughter to attend a better all-white school miles closer to their home 17 May 1954 Warren Court 9-0 decision – stated, in no uncertain terms, that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This ruling eliminate the doctrine of "separate but equal”

Brown v. Board of Education cont….

Reaction to Brown v. Board of Education Decision Southern Manifesto—a document signed by a group of 101 southern members of Congress that called the Court’s ruling “a clear abuse of judicial power” and vowed the use of “all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision.” Some districts, state officials, and pro-white groups actively resist The Supreme Court issues Brown II, orders desegregation at “all deliberate speed” but Eisenhower refuses to enforce compliance

Civil Rights Organizations

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) 1942 Founded by James Farmer; he becomes a leader of the civil rights movement Purpose: to confront urban segregation in the North – WW2 migration – Wave of racial violence in 1943 like 3 day riot in Detroit Held the first sit-in at a segregated Chicago restaurant in 1942

SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1960 formed with the assistance of the SCLC at Shaw University in NC Goal to fight segregation Use sit in Give young people / blacks more of a role in Civil Rights Movement

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) The Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957 after bus boycott formed by Martin Luther King Jr. and other ministers and civil rights leaders. Its purpose was “to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of second-class citizenship.” Marches and protests in the South

Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 at age nineteen and earned his Ph.D. in Theology from Boston Uinversity in King married Coretta Scott on June 18, They had four children.

Martin Luther King, Jr. cont…. Modeled his strategy on the actions of Gandhi (led a non-violent campaign in India) In 1953, King became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montogermy, Alabama. Selected to lead the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). famous “I have a Dream” speech – Civil Rights March on Washington – August 28, 1963 Assasinated on April 4, 1968 – Memphis, Tennesse – while he stood on his hotel balcony. – James Earl Ray was arrested and convicted of the crime.

What exactly was the Civil Rights Movement? Strategies Organizations like the NAACP, SCLC, CORE, SNCC use: – Court cases testing laws – Large social actions like protests and speeches – Sit-ins – Boycotts Results: New federal laws (Civil Rights Acts) Social changes Unfortunately, also resulted in the southern “backlash” against them