CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

FIRST STEPS TO EQUALITY After the Civil War: 1865 Thirteenth Amendment Abolished slavery 1868 Fourteenth Amendment Addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws 1870 Fifteenth Amendment Government cannot deny the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude

?QUESTION? Why do Amendments and laws from the 1800’s matter for the Civil Rights movement?

HOW THESE AMENDMENTS HAVE INFLUENCED THE FUTURE

13 TH AMENDMENT Rarely cited in later case law While the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments apply only to state actors (government), the Thirteenth applies also to private citizens(individuals) The amendment also enables Congress to pass laws against sex trafficking and other modern forms of slavery

14 TH AMENDMENT Not supported by Southern States Why not? Section 1 - Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause Basis for landmark decisions Roe v. Wade (1973)- abortion Bush v. Gore (2000) presidential election Overturned Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Americans descended from African slaves could not be citizens of the United States.

14 TH AMENDMENT The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) the Supreme Court decision that precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation, and for many other decisions rejecting irrational or unnecessary discrimination against people belonging to various groups.

15 TH AMENDMENT Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) “it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth.” Twenty-fourth Amendment forbade poll taxes in federal elections Why is this important? To enforce the amendment, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided federal oversight of elections in discriminatory jurisdictions, banned literacy tests and similar discriminatory devices, and created legal remedies for people affected by voting discrimination.

ACTIVITY Ready the handout about the Civil war Amendments. Answer the Question on the back. Go to the Wikispace and click on the link to Civil Rights bio – read up on 3 different Civil Rights activists and explain how each of them individually contributed to the Movement. Then choose the one you feel has contributed the most and explain why with a valid argument.

SPARK TO THE MOVEMENT

1955 EMMETT TILL IS MURDERED 14 year old boy from Chicago visiting family in Mississippi Crime: Flirting with and whistling at a white woman Store owner and women’s husband took the boy from his Great Uncle’s home The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.

EMMITT TILL

MORE RECENTLY What has happened recently?

VIDEO CLIP Emmitt Till

1955 ROSA PARKS AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man She was arrested and fined Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott Refusal to ride the buses December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, 381 days first large-scale demonstration against segregation U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system

1957 LITTLE ROCK NINE Nine students were to attend Little Rock Central High School Governor of Arkansas did not allow it Intervention from Eisenhower Brown V Board decision allowed integration

1960 GREENSBORO NC SIT-INS 4 students from a local tech college Woolworth lunch Counter Refused service, but allowed to stay integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.

1961 FREEDOM RIDERS activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation

1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON Washington, D.C. (200,000+) political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights

1963 I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH Martin Luther King Jr. calls for an end to racism Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights Lincoln Memorial Took place during the March on Washington

1965 SELMA Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South Protestors met with violent resistance by state and local authorities raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South, and the need for a Voting Rights Act, passed later that year.

1965 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 guaranteed the right to vote (first awarded by the 15th Amendment) to all African Americans Banned literacy tests as a requirement for voting poll taxes for state and local elections (24 th Amendment)

1968 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968 President Johnson signs this Act prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.