What does “civil rights” mean? “Rights that belong to a person by virtue of his or her status as a citizen or as a member of civil society.”

The Impact Today Changes brought about by the civil rights movement are still with us Provides protection against discrimination for all citizens Economic programs for inner-city residents by government and social service agencies continue

Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln January 1, 1863 Third year of bloody civil war The Proclamation declared: "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

13th, 14th, & 15th Amendment 13th – Abolished slavery (1865) 14th – Gave all citizens of the United States equal rights (1868) 15th – Gave every male the right to vote (1868) Limitations???

Origins of the Movement Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – Upheld the state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal.”

The Origins of the Movement Jim Crow Laws – After Plessy decision, these laws separated African Americans and whites in: Buses Schools Trains Restaurants Swimming pools Other public facilities

Jim Crow & Racial Violence in the South Slavery had been illegal for 30 years by the 1890s, but African Americans experienced de facto slavery By fact, not by law 1950s: lynching was accepted as a method of imposing law and order in the South and maintaining a social caste system

Jim Crow & Racial Violence Jim Crow system of de jure segregation in the South: Second-class citizens with restricted voting, education, and housing rights Denied government protection from the racial violence KKK, white police officers, etc. Violence employed to maintain this caste system Local officials were not interested in prosecuting white-on-black violence

Jim Crow Laws “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” “Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with child by a negro or mulatto … shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than eighteen months.” “No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women and girls.” “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”

“Strange Fruit”

“Strange Fruit” Poem written by Abel Meeropol Jewish high-school teacher from the Bronx He published under the pen name Lewis Allan About the lynching of two black men Lawrence Beitler’s photograph of the 1930 lynching in Indiana

Events that Jump Started the Civil Rights Movement

The Origins of the Movement Murder of Emmett Till (1955) 14, from Chicago, visiting cousins in Mississippi Dared to whistle at a white woman Husband & half-brother took Till, kidnapped him & transported him to a barn

Murder of Emmett Till (1955) They beat him Gouged out one of his eyes Shot him in the head Disposed of his body in the Tallahatchie River 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later

The Untold Story of Emmett Till

Newly Acquired Political Power NAACP (1909) – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Supported court cases intended to overturn segregation 1946: Ruled against segregation on interstate buses 1950: State law school had to admit qualified African American applicants

Origins of the Movement Brown v. Board of Education (1954) – A landmark decision that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional – Violated 14th Amendment (equal protection clause) – Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson “In the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” – Earl Warren

School Desegregation By 1955, white opposition in the South persuaded people to resist compliance with the desegregation orders Tactics included: Firing school employees who showed willingness to seek integration Closing public schools rather than desegregating Boycotting all public education that was integrated

“With all deliberate speed”??? 1956: Autherine Lucy, a black woman seeking admission to U. of Alabama was pelted with rotten eggs 1957: Bloody riots erupted when the Little Rock nine attempted to integrate 1960: Angry whites threw tomatoes and eggs at Ruby Bridges (6) in New Orleans 1964: Prince Edward County, VA, not a single African American child had been admitted to a white school County defiantly closed their schools