 How was American law changed due to the Civil Rights Movement?

 JFK takes more active role in promoting Civil Rights  Civil rights is a “moral issue”  Nation must fulfill obligation of promise of equal rights and opportunities  Sends Congress a proposal for new legislation…

JOHN F. KENNEDY LYNDON B. JOHNSON  Spoke out in favor of desegregation  Reluctant for legislation  Civil rights crisis=moral, constitutional, and legal  Proposed Civil Rights Act  Southern  “I’m not against blacks rights, but for states’ rights”  Legislation would force change and lead to violence  Equal treatment in district  Jekyll and Hyde-type opinions  Civil Rights Act of 1964  Voting Rights Act of 1965

 November 22, 1963  John F. Kennedy assassinated  Dallas caravan  Lyndon B. Johnson assumes presidency

 Demonstration on Washington, D.C.  Put pressure on Congress  Unite Civil Rights groups (SNCC, NAACP, SCLC)  Planned by A. Philip Randolph

 Main rally planned for the Mall (in front of the Lincoln Memorial)  Large number of speakers  Interracial cooperation

 August 28, 1963  200,000+ demonstrators  More than ¼ white  Peaceful and orderly  Final speech  Martin Luther King, Jr.- “I Have a Dream” speech

 Why does it matter?  One of the largest political demonstrations  Widely covered by the media  Increased awareness of the movement  Serves as model for peaceful protest

 Sunday, September 15, 1963: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham  SCLC headquarters  Meeting place for civil rights leaders  Four African American girls killed  Continued violence and inequality  Third bombing in 11 days  Four KKK members were tried for the incident (1965, )

 LBJ uses political power to get passage  Passed in House of Representatives  Senate- difficulty  Southern senators block with 80 day filibuster  Enough supporting votes to allow passage

 July 1964  Banned segregation in public accommodations  Federal government- ability to compel local gov’ts and school boards to integrate  Prosecution of those who violate civil rights based on race, color, sex, or national origin

 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  Responsible for enforcing act  Investigate job discrimination

 MLK and the SCLC- pressure federal government to enact voting rights legislation  Increase voter registrations (2% in Selma)  March from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery  Violent resistance by state and local authorities

 Edmund Pettis Bridge  March 7, 1965: “Bloody Sunday”  MLK and protestors met by Alabama state troopers  Whips, nightsticks, tear gas  Beat back to Selma  Caught on television  March 9 th - new attempt  State troopers still blocking  Protestors supported by LBJ

 2,000 supporters set out from Selma- March 21  Protected by U.S. Army and Alabama National Guard  Marched toward Montgomery- March 25  Met by 50,000 supporters  Causes LBJ to push for new voting rights legislation  Protect African Americans from barriers to voting

 Guarantees right to vote to all African Americans  15 th Amendment  Banned literacy tests  Federal oversight  U.S. attorney general- challenge use of poll tax  Reduced disparity between white and black voters

 Banned poll tax  Limited racial “gerrymandering”  Drawing election districts to dilute African American voters  “One man, One vote”  African American political participation skyrockets

 Summer 1967: 159 race riots  Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Tampa, Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit  Watts neighborhood- Los Angeles  Violence, looting, arson  Several days- National Guard  Detroit  43 die, $50 million in property damage

 Why were there so many race riots? What caused them?  National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders  Racial discrimination = most important cause of violence  Recommendations: establish and expand federal programs aimed at “America’s urban ghettos”  LBJ ignores report and rejects recommendations ($$$$)

 Malcolm X  Nation of Islam: Strict rules of behavior  Left on Hajj to Mecca  Returned advocating limited acceptance of whites  February 1965: Malcolm X assassinated  Nation of Islam members found guilty

 Movement away from nonviolence  Stokely Carmichael  “black power” 1966  Collectively use their economic and political muscle  Rest of America? Black power = Black violence  Takes over SNCC  SNCC: more militant protest

 Huey Newton and Bobby Seale  Young, militant African Americans  Organized armed patrols of urban neighborhoods  Panthers’ militancy led to violent confrontations with police

 Plans for a “Poor People’s Campaign”  April Travel to Memphis  Helping striking sanitation works  April 4, 1968: MLK, Jr. shot on hotel balcony  James Earl Ray convicted with murder

 1950s and 60s Civil Rights Movement ends legal (de jure) segregation  Increased voting and political participation  Poverty rates fell  African American graduation rate  Thurgood Marshall- first black Supreme Court Justice- 1967

 Nixon orders busing to prevent housing discrimination  Attain racial balance  Nixon establishes Affirmative Action  Close gap between whites and blacks