1. Walking into Freedom Land: The Civil Rights Movement, 1941–1973
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 27
Walking into Freedom Land:
The Civil Rights Movement, 1941–1973
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
A. Life Under Jim Crow 1. South – Some southern states (SC and MS) had populations of 30 to 50 percent African Americans; numbering 15 million in 1950, African Americans were about 10 percent of the U.S. population southern states were deeply divided by race through legalized segregation African Americans generally had no chance of working for state or city governments in the South; most employment was cleaning, cooking, working in warehouses, loading, or sharecropping fewer than 20 percent could vote (due to poll taxes, literacy tests, and other discriminatory means) 2. North – African Americans found greater freedom in North and West, but not total freedom northern whites kept communities segregated through housing ordinances, mortgage discrimination, police harassment, and mob violence.

3. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
B. Origins of the Civil Rights Movement 1. World War II & early in Cold War, Truman said: “More and more we are learning how closely our democracy is under observation” concerns grew that Communist nations would use race problem in propaganda against the West. 2. Urban middle class – The black middle class experienced robust growth after World War II the new medium of television played a crucial role, showing the public the violence of racism/discrimination 3

4. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
C. World War II: The Beginnings 1. Executive Order 8802 – A. Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters called for a march on Washington for equal opportunity in war-time industries FDR issued Executive Order 8802 to prohibit discrimination in defense industries Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) was created, which had few enforcement powers but set an important precedent for federal action on race issues.
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
C. World War II: The Beginnings

5. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
2. The Double V Campaign – “the double VV for a double victory”—victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home black leaders encouraged men and women to support the war effort overseas, while calling for peaceful change at home Founding of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1943
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
C. World War II: The Beginnings

6. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
D. Cold War Civil Rights 1. Civil Rights and the New Deal Coalition – Truman supported civil rights on moral grounds but sometimes used racist language Presidential Committee on Civil Rights (1946), which released the 1947 report, “To Secure These Rights” 1948, Truman desegregated the armed forces and employment in federal agencies led to white southern Democrats forming the States’ Rights Democratic Party, popularly known as the Dixiecrats – led by Strom Thurmond, governor of South Carolina).
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
D. Cold War Civil Rights 6

7. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
2. Race and Anticommunism – Truman feared racism in the U.S. would discredit the American image in the world McCarthyism and the hunt for subversives at home held the civil rights movement back opponents of civil rights charged that racial integration was “communistic,” and the NAACP was banned in many southern states as an “anti- American” organization.
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
D. Cold War Civil Rights 7

8. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
E. Mexican and Japanese Americans 1. Mexican Americans – decades of discriminatory practices in agriculture and manufacturing barrios: neighborhoods of Mexican Americans separated from whites with substandard living conditions five Mexican American fathers sued a school district in California for separating their children into “Mexican” schools (Mendez v. Westminster School District) 2. Japanese Americans – In the late 1940s, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) filed lawsuits to regain property lost during the war
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
E. Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans

9. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
F. Fighting for Equality Before the Law 1. Thurgood Marshall – Marshall attended the all-black Howard University 1950, he successfully argued to the Supreme Court that universities could not segregate black students from others on college campuses.
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
F. Fighting for Equality Before the Law

10. I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
2. Brown v. Board of Education – Linda Brown (student in Topeka, KS) was forced to attend a segregated school further from her home instead of the all-white elementary school nearby Marshall successfully argued that Brown was denied “equal protection of the laws”; on May 17, 1954, Court ruled that separate educational facilities were “inherently unequal” President Eisenhower accepted the law but did not want to enforce it September 1957, when nine black students attempted to enroll at the all-white Little Rock Central High School, Eisenhower was forced to act 1,000 federal troops to Little Rock and nationalized the Arkansas National Guard, ordering them to protect the black students.
I. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941–1957
F. Fighting for Equality Before the Law

11. II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
A. Nonviolent Direct Action 1. Montgomery Bus Boycott – On December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks (member of NAACP) refused to give up seat on bus Martin Luther King Jr. was new pastor at Dexter Street Baptist Church; King led community in a boycott following Parks’s arrest, which lasted 381 days November 1956, Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional; in 1957, King co-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Rev. Ralph Abernathy to provide moral leadership for civil rights activists. 2. Greensboro Sit-Ins – On February 1, 1960, four black college students began a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s, determined to “sit in” until they were served sit-in lasted three weeks with students taking turns despite being arrested and harassed
II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
A. Nonviolent Direct Action

12. II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
A. Nonviolent Direct Action (cont.) 3. Ella Baker and SNCC – Baker worked for the SCLC and helped organize students into the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); group led sit-ins throughout Upper South with more than 50,000 participants northern students supported SNCC through fund-raising efforts at their colleges. 4. Freedom Rides – CORE organized 1961 effort to desegregate interstate travel through the South; buses were attacked in Alabama and students were beaten by members of the KKK one bus was firebombed near Anniston, Alabama; President Kennedy proceeded cautiously Freedom Rides - the beatings shown on the nightly news forced Attorney General Robert Kennedy to dispatch federal marshals.
II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
A. Nonviolent Direct Action (cont.)

13. II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
B. Legislating Civil Rights, 1963– King called for demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, “the most segregated city in the United States” May 1963, thousands of black marchers tried to picket the city’s department stores; police troops were ordered to meet the people with violent force - violence was televised King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” June 11, 1963, President Kennedy announced plans for a new civil rights bill; Medgar Evers (president of MS NAACP chapter) murdered in his driveway. 2. March on Washington – Massive demonstration to support planned bill; on August 28, 1963, King addressed 250,000+ people from the Lincoln Memorial in his “I Have a Dream” speech assassination in November of 1963 led to President Johnson making the bill a priority Title VII outlawed employment discrimination; bill provided opportunity for the federal government to intervene in civil rights cases.
II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
B. Legislating Civil Rights, 1963–1965

14. II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
B. Legislating Civil Rights, 1963–1965 (cont.) 3. Freedom Summer – Effort by civil rights organizations to register voters in the South; thousands of volunteers came from across the country, including nearly a thousand white college students from the North four civil rights workers were murdered and thirty-seven churches were bombed or burned 4. Selma and the Voting Rights Act – SCLC called for a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery to protest the murder of a voting-rights activist six hundred marchers were attacked by state troopers with tear gas and clubs, “Bloody Sunday Johnson went to Congress with the Voting Rights Act (passed August 6, 1965): outlawed literacy tests and other devices that kept blacks from voting
II. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955–1965
B. Legislating Civil Rights, 1963–1965 (cont.)

15. III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
A. Black Nationalism 1. Malcolm X – The most charismatic Black Muslim was Malcolm X; preached militant separatism and violence for self-defense 1964, he broke with Nation of Islam → anti-white views became more moderate assassinated during a speech in Harlem by three Black Muslims - Feb 21, Black Power – CORE and SNCC activists, led by Stokely Carmichael, called for black self-reliance under the banner of Black Power advocated black-owned and operated institutions and businesses called for increased political and economic power in communities; activists focused on poverty and social justice issues in urban areas 3. Black Panther Party – Founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California; militant, self-defense organization dedicated to protecting blacks from police violence opposed the Vietnam War; spread from California to other urban areas; community projects were overshadowed by their support of armed self-defense; FBI used counterintelligence to disrupt party activities.
III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
A. Black Nationalism

16. III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
A. Black Nationalism (cont.) 4. Young Lords – Puerto Ricans in NYC formed the Young Lords Organization (YLO); sought self- determination for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. and in the Caribbean improve neighborhood conditions; advocated improved access to health care. 5. The New Urban Politics – Many blacks were inspired by black power to work within the political system 1972 National Black Political Convention met in Gary to discuss the formation of a third political party rather than continued support for the Democratic Party instead, the convention created the National Black Political Agenda, which advocated national health insurance, community control of schools in black neighborhoods
III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
A. Black Nationalism (cont.)

17. III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
B. Poverty and Urban Violence 1. Urban violence – Politics of black liberation was mixed with violence in mid-1960s; in July 1964, rioting and looting followed the shooting of a black suspect in Harlem August 1965 arrest of a black motorist led to rioting in Watts (Los Angeles); in the summer 1967, numerous riots engulfed twenty-two cities, including Detroit. 2. Kerner Commission Report – Presidential commission led by Illinois governor Otto Kerner; released in 1968, the report was a searing look at race in America and concluded: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” King began to confront deep-seated problems of poverty and racism in America as a whole April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while supporting a strike by sanitation workers
III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
B. Poverty and Urban Violence .

18. III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
C. Rise of the Chicano Movement 1. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta – Both activists worked for the Community Service Organization (CSO) in California on civil rights for Mexican Americans; together, they organized the United Farm Workers (UFW) for migrant workers in 1962 Chavez staged a 1968 hunger strike; in 1970, victory came when California grape growers signed contracts recognizing the UFW. 2. Chicano – Concern arose over the use of Spanish language in schools and immigration policy; Brown Berets (modeled after Black Panthers) politically active students proclaimed a new term, Chicano, to replace Mexican American formed a political party, La Raza Unida (The United Race);
III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
C. Rise of the Chicano Movement

19. III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
D. The American Indian Movement
1. National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) – Native people numbered approximately 800,000 in the 1960s and were exceedingly diverse
unemployment among Native Americans was ten times the national average
2. Indians of All Tribes (IAT) and the American Indian Movement (AIM) – Embraced the concept of Red Power
IAT occupied Alcatraz, demanding to purchase the abandoned prison for $24 in glass beads and red cloth, citing a precedent set centuries
AIM managed to focus national media attention on Native American issues with a siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in February 1973; for more than two months, AIM activists occupied a small collection of buildings
III. Beyond Civil Rights, 1966–1973
D. The American Indian Movement