The Civil Rights Movement—Key Events (Part I) NOTES

Essential/Guiding Question: How can society be changed?

The Modern Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) II. The Modern Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) A. Because of the failure of Reconstruction, the whites in power in the south were able to keep African-Americans down politically, socially and economically. In the one-hundred years after the Civil War, nothing had really changed and political and cultural institutions were stacked against African-Americans, preventing any attempts to change.

B. But things started to change during the world wars. 1. During World War I and World War II, job opportunities in Northern cities caused a mass-migration of African-Americans to northern cities called the Great Migration.

a. These opportunities were created by the increased production need for the war efforts and they were opened for African-Americans because so many white men had to leave their jobs to fight the wars.

b. For those who were able to move north, the move promised economic advancement and better treatment. While things were better in the north, African-Americans still faced fierce discrimination and were not offered the same opportunities as whites. Competition for jobs fueled racism.

2. World War II (1939-1945) helped spark demand for change. One-million African-Americans served in the armed forces—mostly in non-combat capacities (the service was segregated)—as the U.S. fought against fascist regimes in Italy and Germany. When the servicemen returned home, they were determined to fight for freedom and equality.

C. During this one-hundred year span, segregation was the law of the land. 1. Jim Crow laws separated blacks and whites in every aspect of life. When segregation was challenged in the Supreme Court in the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896, the Court ruled that segregation was legal if facilities were “separate but equal.”

2. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), formed in 1909 to challenge segregation in the court system.

3. Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) a. Linda Brown, an eight year old, was denied admission to an all-white elementary school four blocks from her house. She was told she had to attend the nearest all-black school, twenty-one blocks away. Her parents sued and the case reached the Supreme Court.

b. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court unanimously stuck down segregation because it was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Segregation was now unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal.

c. Making segregation illegal was one thing, enforcing it was another. While some communities desegregated schools without any major problems, there were many places where people fought it.

d. Resistance to desegregation caused the Supreme Court to make a second ruling on the Brown case in 1955, referred to as Brown II. It ordered the integration of public school to be implemented “with all deliberate speed.”

e. In 1957, nine African-American students (called the “Little Rock Nine”) were kept from attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas by Governor Orval Faubus, who ordered the National Guard to keep the students out.

1) A federal judge ordered the school to admit the students. The NAACP arranged to escort the students to school, but could not reach one of them, Elizabeth Eckford, who set off to school alone. Images of the abusive crowds Eckford faced helped put a human face on the issue.

“ [The Arkansas national guardsmen] glared at me with a mean look and I was very frightened and didn’t know what to do. I turned around and the crowd came toward me. They moved closer and closer. Somebody started yelling ‘Lynch her! Lynch her!’ I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the mob – someone who maybe would help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat at me.” - Elizabeth Eckford

2) President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who tried to stay out of the issue, was compelled to act. The National Guard was put under federal control and ordered troops to escort the students to class.

3) Despite daily escorts to class, the Little Rock Nine, like others fighting segregation, faced harassment. Organizations like the KKK regained strength, fueled by the issue.

4) Congress passed the first civil rights act since Reconstruction as a result of all the tension. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave the U.S. attorney general greater power over school segregation and federal courts jurisdiction over violations of voting rights cases.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott 4. The Montgomery Bus Boycott a. In December of 1955, the NAACP took on segregation in the public transit system in Montgomery, Alabama. In the South, African-Americans were required by law to sit in the “colored” section of the bus. Blacks were also expected to give up their seats to white people if the bus got full.

b. The African-American communities were beginning to organize well-thought out ways to challenge the injustices black people faced. Many of the leaders were ministers, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As the elected leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, King sought to bring attention to segregation through peaceful protests and civil disobedience.

1) King was greatly influenced by Mohandas K. Gandhi’s approach to gaining independence for India from the British.

2) Protests were designed to get news coverage to bring the issue to the attention to the whole country.

3) Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey an unjust law. When practicing this protest method, a protester gets arrested in order to bring attention to the problem.

c. Rosa Parks—an NAACP secretary and seamstress—and three other African-Americans were told by the bus driver to surrender their seats to whites. Parks refused and was arrested. Now the law could be challenged in the court system.

d. In response to Park’s arrest, African-American leaders—many of whom were ministers like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—organized a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. To make the boycott work, it took a considerable amount of organization, including arranging carpools to get people to and from work.

“ During the rush hours the sidewalks were crowded with laborers and domestic workers, many of them well past middle age, trudging patiently to their jobs and home again, sometimes as much as twelve miles. They knew why they walked, and the knowledge was evident in the way they carried themselves. And as I watched them I knew that there is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

e. The boycott lasted 381 days. In 1956, due to the attention the boycott brought to the issue, the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.

f. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was remarkable because it showed how well leaders had organized the African-American community. The protests remained peaceful, even after King’s house was bombed.