1. Civil Rights Era
Unit 8

2. Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849
“But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.”

3. Civil Rights Movement Time line https://www. youtube. com/watch
Tuskegee Institute founded, 1882
Atlanta Compromise Speech, 1895
NAACP founded, 1909
Great Migration, 1910 – 1920
Scottsboro Case, 1931 – 1952
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded,
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955
Lasted 381 days
Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded by MLK, Jr., 1957
Little Rock Nine, 1957
Greensboro Sit-in, 1960
Freedom Rides, 1961
Attempt to desegregate interstate bus travel in the South
March on Washington, 1963
“Bloody Sunday” March from Selma to Montgomery, AL, 1965

4. Equal protection 1870s – 1970s Plessey v. Ferguson, 1896
Separate but equal is constitutional
Brown v. BOE, 1954
Separate is inherently unequal
Integration of public schools begins
Washington, DC & Northern cities integration came quickly
Shuttlesworth V. Birmingham BOE, 1958
Scholastic ability & social behavior could not be used to maintain segregation

5. Civil Rights Act of 1957
Estab. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate unconstitutional treatment (esp. voting rights)
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Equal access to public facilities & employment
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Attorney General could register voters where literacy test & poll taxes had been used to deny voting rights
For federal elections only
24th Amendment, 1965
Prohibits poll taxes or other taxes in order to deny voting rights
ensures right to vote in federal elections

6. ‘Massive Resistance’
Eisenhower administration did not want to commit themselves to desegregation
Lack of actions, led southern whites to believe that judicial decisions would not be enforced by the executive branch
Mobs of white protesters blocked integration of schools in Arkansas, Virginia, Louisiana and North Carolina
Eisenhower had to send in the 101st Airborne to restore to end mob rule

7. Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over– like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

8. Rise of Black Nationalism
Began w/ Marcus Garvey (UNIA) in the 1920s
Nation of Islam –self-improvement and self-discipline & rejection of Christianity
Popular in Chicago and NYC
Malcolm X –preached militant separatism until 1964; then class & racial unity
Assassinated by Nation of Islam members in 1965

9. Black Panther Party
Founded by Huey Newton & Bobby Seale,
-Advocated armed defense against law enforcement
-Opposed Vietnam
-Community Organizing in Oakland, CA & Philadelphia, PA
Black Power
Advocated by Stokely Carmichael and other SNCC & CORE
-Secular movement
-Questioned the merits of relying on white power structure to ensure racial equality
-Focused on poverty & social injustice in the work force & business

10. MLK vs. Malcolm X Debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jphm4cFDREw
EQ: Was the Civil Rights movement the efforts of black leaders to secure equality in American society, or was it an attempt by white leaders to pacify militancy amongst black youth?

11. Civil Rights after Brown
Affirmative Action –procedures in hiring & enrollment designed to make up for past discrimination
Issues
What constitutes a ‘disadvantaged group’?
Does a quota system create discrimination against whites and males?
Bakke v. University of CA, 1978
Court rejected quotas, but would not rule against affirmative action in principle
Race needed to considered w/other factors
Busing – 15yrs after Brown, only 1/3 of black children attended school w/whites
Issues
South– neighborhood schools limited integration ‘de facto’ segregation
Only black students were bused by choice
Swann v. CMS, 1971
Everyone is subject to busing
North- middle class families (majority white) live in suburbs; minorities still live in city.
Although neighboring municipalities, often different counties
Milliken v. Bradley, 1974
Cannot force integration beyond county boundaries, only w/in a municipality

12. Other minority protest
American Indians
1953 Congress’ ‘termination policy’ of ending legal recognition of tribes incites desire for centuries of abuse; overturned Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
American Indian Movement (AIM)
2nd Knee, 1973
Inspired song “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”
Indians of All Tribes (IAT)
Seizure of Alcatraz Island, 1969

13. Chicano –Mexican Americans
Inspired by ‘Operation Wetback’ –1950s gov’t deportation practices
Often labor relations (migrant workers) & education issues in the Southwest
Caesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta – founded United Farm Workers union