1. Civil Rights Movement – post WW2 through 1960s  Civil Rights Act of 1875 -- Outlawed segregation  Supreme Court overturned it in 1883  Plessy v. Ferguson  “separate but equal” did not violate the 14 th amendment (equal treatment)  Allowed Southern states to pass Jim Crow laws (separating the races)  Allowed restrictions on inter-race contact  WW2 set the stage for the civil rights movement  Opened new job opportunities  One million African Americans served  Came home and fought to end discrimination  During the war, civil rights organizations fought for voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws  Truman ends segregation in civil service, armed forces

2. Civil Rights Movement  Campaign led by the NAACP  Focused on inequality between separate schools that states provided  Thurgood Marshall argued many of these cases  1950 – Sweatt v. Painter  Separate professional schools are not equal  1954 - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka  Marshall’s most stunning victory  Supreme Court struck down segregation in public schools as a violation of 14 th amendment  2 nd case - To be implemented “with all deliberate speed”  1955 – Emmitt Till murder in Mississippi

3. Civil Rights Movement  1955 – Montgomery Bus Boycott  African Americans were impatient with the slow speed of change  Took direct action  1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested  JoAnn Robinson suggested a boycott of the buses  Leaders of the African American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)  Elected 26 yr old Martin Luther King to lead  Dr. King made a passionate speech and filled the audience with a sense of mission  African Americans boycotted the buses for 381 days and filed a lawsuit  Organized car pools  Walked long distances  1956 – Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation

4. Civil Rights Movement  1957 – Little Rock 9 - State had been planning for desegregation  Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine”  the 9 African American students who would integrate Little Rock Central High  A Federal judge ordered Faubus to let the students attend the school  Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control to watch the 9 attend school  A year later, Faubus shut down the high school

5. Civil Rights Movement  Civil Rights Act – 1957  Establishes Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations  1957 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference established (SCLS)  Mobilize black churches for civil rights  1960 – Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed  1960 – Sit-in movement – focus on segregated lunch counters  1 st – Greensboro, NC

6. Civil Rights Movement  Freedom Riders  Civil Rights activists would ride busses to test the Supreme Court decision that banned segregation on buses and in bus terminals  Provoking a violent reaction to force the JFK administration to enforce the law  Riders were tormented and beaten  Newspaper coverage and the violence provoked JFK to send federal marshals to protect the riders  Segregation in all interstate travel facilities was banned

7. Civil Rights Movement  1962 – Integrating Ole Miss  Air Force Veteran James Meredith won a federal court case that allowed him to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)  Governor Ross Barnett refused to let him register  Kennedy ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith  Riots broke out and resulted in 2 deaths  Federal officials accompanied Meredith to class to protect him

8. Civil Rights Movement  Birmingham  Strictly enforced its segregation  Reputation for racial violence  Reverend Shuttlesworth, MLK, and the SCLC tested their non-violence  MLK and others were arrested during a nonviolent demonstration  MLK wrote Letters from a Birmingham Jail  With MLK out of jail, the SCLC planned a children’s march in Birmingham  Police Commissioner “Bull” Connor arrested them  Later, the police met the marchers with high pressure fire hoses and attack dogs  TV cameras captured the scene  Birmingham officials finally ended segregation  Convinced JFK to write a civil rights act

9. Civil Rights Movement  1963 - March on Washington  To show support for JFK’s civil rights bill, a march on Washington was formed  Aug. 28, 1963, 250,000 people assembled in Washington  MLK gave his “I have a Dream” speech  Appeals for peace and harmony  Two weeks later, 4 girls were killed in a Birmingham church  Two months later, JFK is assassinated  LBJ pledges to carry out JFK’s work  Passes Civil Rights Act of 1964  Prohibited discrimination  Gave equal access to public accommodations

10. Civil Rights Movement  1964 – 24 th Amendment – abolished poll tax  1964 – Freedom Summer - CORE and SNCC worked to register as many African-American voters as possible – push for voting rights bill  1964 - SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to give African Americans a political voice  Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1964  Support poured in for the MFDP  Civil Rights leaders compromised with the Democratic Party (MFDP got two seats in Congress)

11. Civil Rights Movement  1965 - SNCC led a voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama  After a demonstrator was shot, MLK organized a 50 mile march to Montgomery  Mayhem broke out and TV crews caught police beating and gassing marchers  Johnson presented a voting rights act and gave marchers federal protection  Voting Rights Act of 1965 – eliminates literacy tests, allows federal officials to oversee registration, voting  * end of nonviolence *

12. Civil Rights Movement  Malcolm X  Began as militant black nationalist  Black separatism  Went on Hajj, moved away from separatism  Assassinated in 1965  Black Power  Black Panther party  Stokely Carmichael – leader of SNCC began to preach black power – 1966  Exercise political and economic rights to speed integration  Emphasized their distinctiveness  1968 – MLK assassinated