The Civil Rights Movement

SEGREGATION Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): declared that segregation was constitutional; creating the idea “separate but equal” “Jim Crow” laws segregated buses, trains, water fountains, bathrooms etc. de facto segregation: occurred where there were no laws requiring segregation but yet it still existed due to custom and tradition

Sit-ins

Martin Luther King Jr. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Rosa Parks Refused to give her seat up to a white passenger Montgomery police arrested her Her arrest triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. Dec. 1956: the courts declared the Alabama bus segregation law to be unconstitutional

Montgomery Bus Boycott MLK believed the only way to end segregation was through nonviolent passive resistance African Americans in Montgomery boycotted the bus system for over a year They organized car pools and walked to work.

Freedom Riders White & Black bus riders Traveled to the South to point out the refusal to desegregate the bus terminals Were attacked by white mobs  Beaten with baseball bats, chains, lead pipes  Bus tires were slit, rocks thrown at windows, and a firebomb was thrown into a bus

Birmingham MLK planned protest in Birmingham knowing it would lead to violence King was arrested and put in solitary confinement Wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in defense of nonviolent protest His letter also argued that injustice had to be exposed before it could be cured

Birmingham continued… Public Safety Commissioner ordered police to use:  Clubs  Police dogs  High-pressure fire hoses (even on women, children) American public watched it all on television Kennedy in response prepared a new civil rights bill

The March from Birmingham to Washington D.C.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 After the events in Birmingham, Kennedy announced the need for a new civil rights bill.  “One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free… And this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free… Now the time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.”

Marching to Washington MLK knew the bill would need help to get through Congress A. Philip Randolph suggested a march on Washington More than 200,000 demonstrators of all races came to the capital; gathered near the Lincoln Memorial

“I have a dream” I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… that all men are created equal… I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood…

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

“I have a dream… when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing… ‘Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, we are free at last”

The bill is signed into law… Bill passed the House of Representatives, but the Senate filibustered for 87 days The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law:  Made segregation illegal in most places of public accommodations  Gave all races equal access to facilities (i.e. restaurants, parks, libraries, theaters)  Attorney General got more power to prosecute schools that did not desegregate  Private employers had to end discrimination in the workplace  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission created Monitors ban on job discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and national origin

Quiz Explain what happened in Little Rock. What solution did Brown II give for desegregating schools? What did Brown I decide? Why was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized? Who composed this group? What was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? What were they involved in doing?