THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT There were two phases to the Civil Rights movement: one phase between and the other after 1965.

I. Why Did the Civil Rights Movement Take Off After 1945?  Black equality became a significant political issue for the Democratic Party  WWII had been fought against racism abroad—hard to keep harboring it at home  Black veterans came home dedicated to change  Increasing number of White Americans condemned segregation  Discrimination in the United States hurt our propaganda battle against the Communists

II. The Truman Years  Truman’s 1948 election year agenda  No significant Civil Rights congressional legislation  Truman moves on his own to do what he can for Civil Rights --Desegregation of the military (1948)  Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough (1947)

II. The Truman Years (cont.)  Split at the 1948 Democratic convention  Energized Truman hits the campaign trail hard  Republican Dewey runs a boring, conservative campaign  Truman’s stunning election  Truman’s “Fair Deal” (1949)

III. The Battle in the Courts  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) -- “separate but equal” facilities = legal  Smith v. Allwright (1944)  First attack = “separate is not equal”  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) -- Chief Justice Earl Warren

III. Battle in the Courts (cont.)  Eisenhower disapproves of Brown decision  Desegregation “with all deliberate speed”  Other Warren Court Civil Rights decisions  Popular opposition to the Brown decision  No real progress on desegregation at first

IV. The Eisenhower Years  Eisenhower’s philosophy related to Civil Rights laws  First Civil Rights Acts passed since the Civil War (1957 and 1960)  Opposition to the integration of Little Rock Central High School (1957) --Governor Orville Faubus

V. Out of the Schools and Into the Buses  The arrest of Rosa Parks (December, 1955)  The Montgomery, Ala. Bus Boycott  The leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr.  The “Montgomery” model for Civil Rights activism: boycott, publicity, courts  SCLC formed (1957)

VI. A Mass Movement Takes Shape  Lunch counter “sit-ins” begin: Greensboro, NC (February, 1960)  SNCC created (April, 1960)  CORE “Freedom Ride” (May, 1961)

VI. A Mass Movement Takes Shape (cont.)  Demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama (April, 1963) --Eugene “Bull” Connor  “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”  Governor George Wallace tries to block integration of the University of Alabama (Fall, 1963)

VI. A Mass Movement Takes Shape (cont.)  JFK finally begins to campaign for Civil Rights legislation  Continued violence even in the face of some progress  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington (August, 1963) -- “I Have a Dream”

VI. A Mass Movement Takes Shape (cont.)  Mississippi Freedom Summer Project (1964)  MFDP Protests at the 1964 Democratic convention  Voter registration in Selma, Alabama (1965) --Sheriff Jim Clark  By the mid-1960’s, substantial success in the South had been achieved

VII. The Kennedy and Johnson Years  JFK’s initial reluctance to push for Civil Rights laws  The integration of Ole’ Miss (1962) --James Meredith  JFK finally decides to push past better enforcement to new congressional Civil Rights legislation

VII. The Johnson Years (cont.)  The role of Kennedy’s assassination in the Civil Rights movement  Civil Rights Act of 1964  Anti-poll tax Amendment (24 th —1964)  Voting Rights Act (1965)  Impact of the Voting Rights Act

VII. The Johnson Years (cont.)  The tone of public political discourse changed after 1965  Johnson appoints first Black cabinet secretary: Robert Weaver of HUD (1966)  Much more needed to be done for Civil Rights outside of the South, so 2 nd phase began

VIII. The Era of Disillusionment: 1965 On  Early to mid-1960’s were a hopeful time for Civil Rights advocates  Goal of Assimilation  A “Spoiled Utopia” after 1965—things would not be that simple

A. New Problems  Residential Discrimination -- “Red Lining”  The Challenges of School integration in the North  The historical, traditional segregation of northern cities  The resurrection of the KKK once again  More effective White opponents in the North

B. Race Riots  Watts Riots in Los Angeles (Summer, 1965)  Riots each summer from Chicago and Cleveland (1966) --Newark and Detroit (1967) --Washington, D.C. (1968)

B. Race Riots (cont.)  Riots as an expression of grievance against the White American consumer society  Riots shocked the White American public  Frustration and self- destruction expressed in these riots  Unlike earlier race riots, these riots were not started by White mobs

C. “Black Power”  Growing tension between SNCC and Martin Luther King, Jr. --Stokely Carmichael  “Black Power”  Carmichael succeeded by H. Rap Brown as head of SNCC (1967)

C. “Black Power” (cont.)  The formation of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA (1966) --Huey Newton --Eldridge Cleaver  Resurrection of the philosophy of Marcus Garvey

C. “Black Power” (cont.)  The leadership of Malcolm X --Black Muslims --Assassinated in 1965  Cultural expressions of “Black Power”: --Afro Hairstyles --Black-studies programs -- “Negro” no longer used Olympics

D. Decline of the Civil Rights Movement  Economic contraction works against Civil Rights concessions  Northern phase not as successful  Resistance from White Unions  Vietnam replaces Civil Rights as the liberal crusade  Martin Luther King, Jr. loses influence with LBJ