The Civil Rights Era,

Goals of the Movements  Open Challenge Against Segregation and Discrimination  One of the Longest Battles of the 20th Century  Education, citizenship, voting, equal treatment under the law  Group rights and self- determination

Post-War Expectations  Survived Great Depression and World War II  War for liberty and democracy  Veterans made sacrifices  Expected Changes in education, employment, and social equality

Economic Growth  Baby Boom  Consumer culture  Growth in home ownership  G.I. Bill & college  Suburbanization  Highways and transportation

Mexican-American Civil Rights  1945: Orange County parents Gonzalo & Felicitas Mendez won a class action lawsuit against segregated districts  1948: LULAC helped with Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District, which ended de jure segregation in Texas

Mendez Family LULAC

League of United Latin American Citizens  Corpus Christi, TX 1929  Self-defense against white supremacist groups Equal opportunities in business, education  Voting rights & civil rights  Self-help & self- determination  Lawsuits through 1950s and 1960s

American G.I. Forum  1948 Dr. Hector P. Garcia  Veterans benefits  Education, integration, poll tax, etc.  G.I. Bill, Civil Rights  Chamizal, Ambassador  Presidential Medal of Freedom

Black Civil Rights Movement  1946 Ada Sipuel: 1 st black women in Univ. Oklahoma law school  Phoenix refused to integrate schools  1952: Black students refused admission to Phoenix High School  Two judges negated segregation laws

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas  100,000 blacks in Topeka, KS  Schools anchored the racial apartheid  20 children  Rev. Oliver Brown and daughter, Linda  Started 1951, reached U.S. Supreme Court in 1954

Significance of “Brown”  Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, Separate but equal ruling for public institutions  First national spark in Black Civil Rights Movement  Made schools central to civil rights  “All deliberate speed”

Massive Resistance  Southern States Resisted Brown  Failure of Leadership in Congress & Executive branch to enforce  Southern Manifesto –Statement of southern resistance  White Citizens’ Councils  “States Rights”  “Outsiders and agitators”

Emmett Till Murder, 1955  Emmett Till  Mamie Bradley Till  Mississippi  “By Baby”  Whites attacked and murdered him  Sheriff involved

Funeral  Emmett Till’s Funeral, Chicago, Illinois, 1955  “Let the people see what they did to my boy!”  Jet Magazine, open casket photos

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)  Rosa Parks –NAACP secretary, Experienced in Civil Rights, Test case  Grassroots organizing  Poor, working class, and middle class cooperation  Montgomery Improvement Association  Economic pressure to change social segregation  Supreme Court ordered integration

Boycotts

Rise of Martin Luther King  Unknown preacher  Beliefs –Mahatma Gandhi –Nonviolence –Confrontation –Civil Disobedience –Interracial Movement –Whites Not Evil

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957)  MLK  Role of Religion and importance of the Church as an institution  Role of male preachers as leaders  Most Important Organization of Black Civil Rights Movement

Littlerock High School, 1957  No integration  Orval Faubus  3 September 1957  Black students tried to integrate school  Mob violence  Pres. Eisenhower  1965: 10% of Blacks Attended Integrated Schools

101 st Airborne & Littlerock Nine

Boycotts and Sit-Ins  1960 Greensboro, North Carolina  Four college students  Sit-In at Woolworth lunch counters

Freedom Rides, 1961  Congress of Racial Equality  Bi-racial bus rides on interstate busses into the South  Washington D.C. to New Orleans  Integrate public facilities in bus stations  Anniston, Alabama: firebombed bus and brutally beaten  Jailed, but raised awareness

Freedom Rides Map

Segregated Waiting Room

Anniston, Alabama

James Meredith  Tried to enroll at University of Miss.  1961  Riots and murder  President Kennedy involved  U.S. Marshalls

 Newspaper coverage of James Meredith entering Ole Miss

Assessment of the Movement  Struggle to fulfill U.S. Constitution  14 th and 15 th Amendments  Public facilities  Raise national awareness  Conscience of America  Non-violent civil disobedience  Civil Rights movement, states, federal government

White Southerners  Tradition, Old South, Civil War  States Rights  Outsiders and agitators  Massive resistance  Racial violence  Fundamental hatred of blacks at foundation of southern society  Violated U.S. constitution on a regular basis  No respect for constitutional law

The Eisenhower Era,  WWII General  Pres. Columbia University  Highly respected by both parties  Failures in CRM  Economic Growth  Expanded New Deal Programs

Eisenhower and the Cold War  Sputnik, 1957  Arms Race  NASA  National Defense Education Act, 1958  “New Look” –Technology –Air power –Nuclear weapons

U.S. & U.S.S.R.  Kruschev, 1954  Peace Summits  1960: U.S. spy plane crashed  Struggle over “Third World” Countries

Interventions and “anti- communism”  Distrust of neutral countries  Overthrow governments that did not align with U.S.  Liberal & progressive regimes  CIA helped overthrow democratically elected Iranian government  Inserted pro-West dictatorial Shah

Guatemala, 1954  CIA and United Fruit Company  Overthrew Jacobo Arbenz, elected President  Installed pro- U.S. dictator

Cuban Revolution, 1959  Popular revolution  Overthrew Batista  Fidel Castro  Approached U.S.  Rebutted him  Nationalized Industries  12 assassination attempts on Castro

A New Era? John F. Kennedy  Wealthy family  Catholic  WWII veteran  Young, energetic  Lyndon Johnson, V.P.  Robert Kennedy, Attorney General  Conservative

Kennedy’s Cold War  Increased military spending  Expanded Cold War  Bay of Pigs, April 1961  Alliance for Progress  Peace Corps

Cuban Missile Crisis  1962  Soviet Missiles in Cuba  Invade, bomb, naval blockade, negotiate?  U.S. Missiles in Turkey  Pulled out all missiles

End of First Civil Rights Era  March on Washington, 1963  Assassination of JFK  1964 Civil Rights Act –Outlawed segregation in employment and public facilities  1965 Voting Rights Act –Outlawed poll taxes and all discriminatory practices, provided federal protection for voting rights especially on the basis of race

Conclusions  “Triumph” of moderate reform  Media, states v. fed, violence & non-violence  Best of liberal America  Legislative strategies  Appearance of solving problems  Divisions within the movement