Redefining Equality: From Black Power to Affirmative Action Chapter 46

1 Conditions in northern cities led to the spread of the Civil rights movement. By the 1960s, almost 70 percent of African Americans lived in large cities, often concentrated in ethnic ghettos where they faced poverty, prejudice, discrimination, and police brutality. Even those who could afford to live outside the ghettos were often kept out of white neighborhoods.

2 The Kerner Commission concluded that the country was moving toward two societies-black and white, separate and unequal. African Americans faced racism and social and economic disadvantage, including poverty, unemployment, overcrowded and substandard housing , and poor education. The commission called for action to address inequality, to make good on promises of American democracy, and to fulfill expectations raised by the civil rights movement.

3 In the late 1960s, the goal of the civil rights movement shifted from integration to black power. Some blacks did not want to be integrated into a white society they saw as racist and corrupt. The strategies changed from non-violence to aggressive direct action.

4 Malcolm X helped lead the change in the movement from integration to black nationalism, calling for complete separation of blacks from white society. The nation of Islam worked to establish black businesses, schools and communities. Malcolm X also broke with the strategy of non violence, saying that as long as whites were violent, blacks would defend themselves. Shortly before his assassination, he modified his message to be a broader call for human rights.

5 Stokley Carmichael led SNCC, introduced black power to the civil rights movement, and changed SNCC from an integrated to an all black organization. Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party , advocated self-determination for blacks, and called on the United Nations to get involved. Their party demanded jobs, decent housing, education, that taught black history and an end to police brutality; it also provided services to black communities, African Americans who sought change through elective office included Edward Brooke, Shirley Chisholm, the Congressional Back Caucus, Carl Stokes, and Tom Bradley. Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court.

6 King had shifted his focus from integration to economic equality, and the act , passed days after his death, included a fair housing component. It improved access to housing by banning racial discrimination in sales and rentals and by giving the federal government the authority to prosecute violators.

7 The Federal Government passed Civil Rights Act of 1968, aiming to end discrimination in housing; government threatened to cut off funds to school that did not comply with integration, and the proportion of integrated school increased; Supreme Court heard cases on school integration and took and aggressive stance , although busing became a problematic; presidents used executive orders to push affirmative action, although the Supreme Court placed limitations on certain practices.