African American Civil Rights Leaders Examine the roles of civil rights advocates

Lesson Objective Examine the roles of civil rights advocates including the significance of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Philip Randolph. Advocates = supporters

Civil Rights Leaders Thurgood Marshall Philip Randolph Rosa Parks Supreme Court Justice Philip Randolph Defense industry worker Rosa Parks NAACP member Malcolm X Black Muslim leader Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend (pastor) and leader of the civil rights

A. Philip Randolph Organized the first successful AA labor union in 1925 Planned march in Washington D.C. in 1941 Roosevelt (FDR) banned discrimination in hiring defense industries to avoid protest Helped plan march on Washington in 1963 

Thurgood Marshall African American Lawyer Director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Lead lawyer in Brown v. Board of Education Overturned school segregation Appointed as federal judge in 1961 Supreme Court justice in 1967 Strong defender of civil rights as a judge in Supreme Court

Rosa Parks Female Activist Member of the NAACP Montgomery Bus Boycott Refused to move to the back of the bus so a white man could sit down Sparked a 381- day boycott Blacks in Montgomery refused to ride the bus Supreme Court ruled desegregation of buses in the South Examine the impact of Rosa Park’s action in the Civil Rights movement.

Stokely Carmichael Leader of SNCC (“snick”) Tired of being passive Militant approach to civil rights “Black Power” movement (without help from whites) Supported the Black Panthers Militant activist group

Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend (pastor/priest) President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference Civil Rights leader Philosophy of nonviolent resistance Adopted from Gandhi  “Letter from Birmingham Jail”  Explained the urgency of protesting against brutal and unfair punishment Explain MLK’s response to injustices

MLK Led the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 Helped organize March on Washington DC in 1963 200,000 people marched “I Have a Dream” speech Expressed his vision of blacks and whites living together Equality and peace

Malcolm X Grew up in foster homes Converted to Islam Was imprisoned for 8 years Converted to Islam Followed the teachings of Elijah Muhammad Strong leader within the Black Muslims Believed separation from whites was better than integration Later separated from this group Differed with MLK on importance of nonviolence Often called for revolution Published “Autobiography of Malcolm X”

Malcolm X Took a trip to Mecca Returned to the US with a new attitude towards whites Believed in racial equality “I have prayed with fellow Muslims whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blonde, and whose skin was whitest of white.” Created split with the Black Muslims Shot and killed in Harlem while giving a speech.

MLK on the dangers of black supremacy. Somebody must have sense enough to meet hate with love. Somebody must have sense enough to meet physical force with soul force, and yet at the same time win the hearts and souls of those who have kept these conditions alive. We have been trampled over so long. I know the temptation that comes to all of us. We’ve seen the viciousness of lynching mobs with our own eyes. I understand why there are some who have been a little misguided and they ended up feeling that the problem can’t be solved, so they talk about racial separation, rather than racial integration. I must say to them in patient terms, that dark supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy.

X on black supremacy: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the black man is the original man and has the independent ability to produce a brown man, red man, yellow man, or white man, which the very fact that he can produce all of the others and none of them can produce him makes him a man far superior with far more potential than the other men. And Mr. Muhammad says that in the end, the same black man who ruled in the beginning will rule in the end.

X on violence: And I pray that all the fear that has ever been in your heart will be taken out. And when you look at that man and you know he is nothing but a coward, you won’t fear him. If he wasn’t a coward, he wouldn’t gang up on you, he wouldn’t need to sneak around here. This is how they function. They function in mobs. That’s a coward. They put on a sheet so you won’t know who they are. That’s a coward. No, the time will come when that sheet will be ripped off. If the Federal Government doesn’t take it off, we will take it off!

X on violence: Any time you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog… I’m telling you, kill that dog. I’ll say it if they put me in jail tomorrow, kill that dog.

X’s views on violence: There’s been a lot of talk said recently because I was supposed to have said something about Negroes should buy rifles. White people been buying rifles all their lives, no commotion. We are peaceful people. We are loving people. We love everybody who loves us. But we don’t love anybody who doesn’t love us. We’re non-violent with people who are non-violent with us. But we are not non-violent with anyone who is violent with us.

Martin Luther King on violence: God is not interested in merely the freedom of black men, or brown men, or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race and the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers. No we need not hate. We need not use violence. There is another way. A way as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth. As modern as the techniques of Mahatma K. Ghandi. There is another way. A way as old as Jesus saying, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that spitefully use you. As modern as Ghandi saying through Thourea, non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. There is another way as old as Jesus saying turn the other cheek. And when he said that he realized that turning the other check might bring suffering sometimes. He realized that it may get your home bombed sometimes. He realized that it may get you stabbed sometimes. He realized that it might get you scarred up sometimes. What he was saying in substance that it is better to go through life with a scarred up body than a scarred up soul. There is another way, this is what we are about to see.

Martin Luther King on Integration: We through our struggle, our suffering, our sacrifice, will be able to achieve the American dream. This will be the day when all of God’s children; Black men, White men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestant and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, “free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, we are free at last.”

X on Integration: And when Mr X on Integration: And when Mr. Muhammad says separate from the white man you tell the public he is teaching hate. Now when Martin Luther King says love the white man, and integrate with him, and the white man sicks dogs on MLK, so what you find out here is the hypocrisy of the white. If you draw away from him he’ll accuse you of hate, and if you jump up to him he will accuse you of trying to get too close to him too soon, and he puts his dogs on you. If the black man lays on his side he is wrong. If the black man lays on his back he is wrong. If the black man stands up he is wrong. So the only thing in the face of all that the black man can do is get away from the white man.

X on integration: We don’t want anything to do with any race, any race of dogs, two-legged dogs, that will sick four-legged dogs on innocent, harmless, women, children, and babies.

X on the nature of white men: Well, number one, he teaches us that there never was a real serpent. But as you know the bible is written in symbols and parables, and this serpent, or snake, is a symbol that’s used to hide the real identity of the one whom actually was, the white man. He teaches us that the black man by nature is divine. By nature (the white man) is other than divine. By nature he is evil.

X: “By any means necessary:” We declare our right on this Earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of human beings, in this society, on this Earth, on this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. I charge the white man, I charge him with being the greatest murderer on this Earth… kidnapper… robber and slaver… adulterer, swine-eater, drunkard, on Earth.

MLK On America: The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 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 today!

X on America: Being here in America doesn’t make you an American X on America: Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. Why, if birth made you an American, you wouldn’t need any legislation or you wouldn’t need any amendments to the constitution. No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream, I see an American Nightmare. If you go to jail so what? If you were black you were born in jail. In the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South. Long as you’re south of the Canadian border, you’re south.

Compare and contrast Malcolm X and Martin Luther King’s views on the civil rights movement.

Common: I Have a Dream

Lesson Objective Examine the roles of civil rights advocates including the significance of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Philip Randolph. Write one paragraph (4-5 sentences) describing today’s lesson on civil rights leaders.