Events of the Civil Rights Movement

Unit Objectives Learning and understanding the important figures, events, and cultural symbols of the era Learning how segregation impacted teenagers in Alabama Understanding the impact of the Civil Rights Movement

Impact of Southern courts Upheld Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws Defended their right to do so by claiming the 10th Amendment (protects states’ rights) determined these types of laws were state laws the federal government had no jurisdiction over Southern courts would stack trials of whites accused of committing crimes against African Americans with all-white juries

Emmett Till, age 14, was killed by a white mob in Money, Mississippi for whistling at a white woman (1955); Two men (husband of white woman and his half-brother) were acquitted of the murder but later admitted they had done it

Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) This is an ID

Little Rock, continued The Governor (Faubus) called out the National Guard to keep them out President Eisenhower called out federal troops to escort and protect them but eventually pulled them out of the school After the federal troops were pulled out the students were continually harassed, but most finished the school year The next year Faubus closed all public schools in Little Rock to prevent integration but the year after that they reopened as integrated schools

September 4, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford – one of nine black students attempting to attend Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas – is met with jeers and turned back by National Guard troops.

Freedom Riders

Members of the "Washington Freedom Riders Committee," en route to Washington from New York, hang signs from bus windows to protest segregation. In the early 1960s, members of the Congress of Racial Equality, an integrated group promoting nonviolent methods to achieve racial equality, rode on public buses and trains as a group to protest segregation of transportation networks.

James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi and was denied admittance despite a court order—JFK had to call in federal troops to escort and protect Meredith (1962)

James Meredith, accompanied by federal officials, enrolls on October, 1, 1962, at the University of Mississippi. In September 1962, a federal court ordered the university to accept Meredith, a 28-year-old, black Air Force veteran. Governor Ross Barnett had said he would never allow the school to be integrated.

Medgar Evers, leader of the Mississippi NAACP, was shot by a sniper in his own driveway (1963)

Violence in Birmingham (1963) This is an ID MLK organized protests there knowing there would be a violent response based on past practice, but he felt it was the only way to get JFK’s attention Bull Connor (Public Safety Commissioner):

Impact:

Martin Luther King Jr. looks through the bars of a Birmingham, Alabama, cell in April 1963. In spring 1963, civil rights leaders campaigned for desegregation in Birmingham. They hoped to focus attention on the harsh treatment of peaceful protesters by city officials. While in Birmingham, King was jailed for holding marches without a permit. While imprisoned, King responded to a published letter from moderate white preachers criticizing the campaign with the famous Letter From a Birmingham Jail.

March on Washington (August 1963)

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Made segregation and workplace discrimination illegal, gave the Attorney General power to bring lawsuits to force school desegregation What it failed to do: Protect voting rights It was JFK’s initiative but was passed after his death by Lyndon Johnson

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes hands with Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting him with one of the pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson “hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves,” historian Branch told USINFO. The president steered Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress, something King did not think the late President Kennedy would have done.

Selma March (March, 1965) This is an ID Protest for voting rights 2,000 protestors were arrested and beaten leading MLK to organize another march that would have gone from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama Marchers were stopped by police outside of Selma and beaten

Impact:

John Lewis, the leader of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is beaten by a state trooper March 7, 1965, as he attempts to march with 600 others from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in a right-to-vote demonstration. Protestors crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma walked into a force of state troopers and civilians who attacked them. Many marchers suffered broken bones and temporary blindness by tear gas.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Banned discriminatory devices like poll taxes and literacy tests and authorized the Attorney General to send federal examiners to register voters in places local officials refused to register African-Americans By the end of 1965 250,000 African-Americans had registered to vote and the number of elected African-American officials rose from about 100 in 1965 to over 5,000 in 1990 Turning point in the Movement: Two main goals had been accomplished—ending segregation and protecting voting rights; The focus of the Movement became achieving social and economic equality

Watts Riots (1965) Six days of race riots in the Watts Neighborhood of Los Angeles that led to smaller riots in other U.S. cities Impact:

Watts Riots