Changing Racial Attitudes from 1947 to 1978 Civil Rights Movement Changing Racial Attitudes from 1947 to 1978

Civil Rights Movement: Late 1940s Truman desegregated US military by executive order in 1946 Jackie Robinson, 1947

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) NAACP Legal Defense fund sought out anti-segregation cases and brought them to federal court Oliver Brown sued the Topeka, KS school board when his young daughter was forced to travel across town to attend a black school. USSC declared school segregation unconstitutional

US Supreme Court and Desegregation The federal courts, led by the USSC, were largely responsible for ending segregation in America. The courts, and the justices who led the way were harshly criticized and even threatened.

Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) 9 black students were to be admitted to Little Rock Central HS Gov. Orval Faubus called out National Guard to prevent their entry Ike was forced to act. Nationalized AR National Guard Sent in federal troops to enforce desegregation

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL city bus in Dec. 1954. She was arrested. A boycott of Montgomery’s buses was organized by local civil rights leaders including. . .

Martin Luther King, Jr. Just 27 at the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King quickly became the face of the black civil rights movement. His charisma, eloquence, and political savvy made him popular and effective with both blacks and whites.

Early 1960s: Sit-ins College students initiated the first anti-segregation sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960.

Early 1960s: Freedom Rides During the summer of 1961, both black and white college students rode buses together through the South to protest segregated transportation facilities. Attacks against the buses were common. Organized by new pro-civil rights groups SNCC and CORE

Birmingham Violence, 1962 MLK’s SCLC targeted the fiercely-segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama for a series of peaceful demonstrations. Birmingham’s police chief Eugene “Bull” Connor unleashed his forces on the protesters. The brutality of the police shocked the nation. JFK began to more actively support civil rights legislation.

Birmingham, 1962

March on Washington, 1963

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Banned discrimination/segregation in “all public accomodations” Forbade job/hiring discrimination

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Allowed federal government to register voters Black voting increased dramatically

Black Nationalism Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad Malcolm X Black Power Movement Radicalization of SNCC (Stokely Carmichael) Black Panthers

Assassination of MLK April 4, 1968 King was shot to death by a sniper on his motel balcony in Memphis, TN. He was in Memphis promoting his anti-poverty campaign.

Riots 100+ killed in days of rioting in 1965 Watts Riot in LA Massive rioting across the country in wake of MLK assassination, April 1968 Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) “two societies: one black, one white, separate and unequal”

Civil Rights in the 1970s School Busing Affirmative Action de facto v. de jure segregation Charlotte, NC Boston (1974) Affirmative Action Bakke v. UC (1978) USSC outlawed racial quotas An Anti-busing rally at Boston’s City Hall Plaza turns violent on April 5, 1976

Civil Rights in the 1980s The Reagan Administration continued the Nixon Administration’s policy of less “federal infringement upon states’ rights” This meant more relaxed enforcement of civil rights laws. Reagan, for example, directed the IRS to cease a ban on tax exemptions for private schools that discriminated against blacks. Part of Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy”?

Civil Rights in the 1990s The videotaped beating of Rodney King by the Los Angeles police once again brought race relations to the forefront in America. Police officers involved were acquitted by a white jury at trial. Riots broke out in South Central Los Angeles in the wake of the 1992 verdict. 51 dead, 2000 injured, $1 billion+ property damage

The Murder of Medgar Evers June 1963 Byron De La Beckwith Medgar Evers

Freedom Summer Mississippi, 1964 Three young civil rights workers, in MS to register black voters, were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The local police were accomplices to the crime.