1. The Struggle for Equality
Civil Rights
in the 50’s and 60’s
Since passage of 13th amendment, …
Reconstruction
federal troops until 1877
South on its own … abuses and injustices
Industrial Revolution
Wars
20’s
30’s NRA regulations allowed for lower pay for blacks
Postwar America …why not fix OUR nation?

2. What was life like before the Civil Rights movement?
Use the pictures in the following slides to make some statements describing life in the U.S. before the Civil Rights movement.

10. Plessy v Ferguson Is Separate Equal ?
Facts:
1896 Homer Plessy took a seat in the “Whites Only” car of a train and refused to move. He was arrested, tried, and convicted in the District Court of New Orleans for breaking Louisiana’s segregation law.
Question:
Was the Louisiana law separating blacks and whites on railroad cars legal?
Decision:
Split decision that “separate but equal” law did not violate the 14th amendment

11. Two kinds of segregation
de jure segregation
Segregation by law
Common in the South
Laws forbid African-Americans from attending the same church, using the same swimming pool, eating in restaurants, or marrying White people.
de facto segregation
Segregation without laws
Common in the North
Housing discrimination made segregation in the North. White community groups did not allow non-Whites to live in White neighborhoods. Every ethnic group had its own part of town.

12. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka KS Is Separate Equal ?
Facts:
In 1954 Linda Brown’s parents wanted her to attend the school close to her home. Kansas law stated she had to attend a segregated school. NAACP and attorney Thurgood Marshall tested the law.
Question:
Can Linda Brown attend an “all white” school?
Decision:
“separate educational facilities inherently unequal”
desegregation required across the nation

13. Reason #1 – World War II and the Korean War
During World War II and the Korean War, racial minorities such as African-Americans, Hispanics, or Native Americans had made many gains.
1947 – President Truman desegregates the mililtary

14. Reason #2 – The Cold War
During the Cold War, America was trying to convince the world that it was better than the Soviet Union, racism made America look bad to the rest of the world.
Communists could use America’s racism as an example showing that the U.S. was evil.

15. Reason #3 - television
With the arrival of television, Americans could watch the news every day.
The non-violent civil disobedience used by King made the civil rights protesters look like good people and made their opponents look hateful, violent, and ugly. People could also hear Dr. King’s inspiring speeches.
Violence against African Americans was televised nation-wide

16. NAACP and leaders
Thurgood Marshall, lawyer, cases involving school segregation
Rosa Parks—refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man and as a result the Montgomery Bus Boycott occurs.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—he gains national prominence as a leader during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Arrested in Birmingham
Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

17. How did they do it?
Civil rights leaders used non-violent protests, civil disobedience, and legal action to change the U.S.

18. Non-violent protest Boycotts Hunger strikes Petitions
Refusing to buy goods or services from a business in order to force it to change its policies
Hunger strikes
Refusing to eat anything in order to get attention for your cause
Petitions
Writing a letter to ask the government or a company to change its policy, and then getting as many people to sign it as possible.
Marches and demonstrations
Getting as many people as possible to gather in one place to get attention to your cause
Strikes
Refusing to work in order to force your managers or government to change their policies

19. Civil disobedience
Breaking the law or causing a disturbance in order to get attention for your cause.
Sit ins
The protesters come into a place, sit down, and refuse to move.

20. Legal action
Lawyers can challenge a law or policy in court. If they convince the judge that the law or policy is unconstitutional, then the judge will order them to change.
People can speak at government hearings or meetings and try to convince legislators to make new laws or repeal unfair ones.

21. As you watch the next part of the presentation, try to classify each action taken by the people in the civil rights movement.

22. Linda Brown
In 1951, a girl named Linda Brown wanted to go to school. The white school was very close by, but the African-American school was far away. Her parents sued the Board of Education to try to force them to allow Linda to attend the white school.

23. Linda Brown
In 1954, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decided to hear Linda’s case. Chief Justice Earl Warren said that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. He ordered all the schools to end segregation.

24. Rosa Parks
In Alabama, the bus company had a rule that said all African-Americans had to sit in the back of the bus.
In 1955, Rosa Parks, an African-American women, challenged this law. She boarded a Montgomery public bus. The seats in the back were full, but the front seats were empty. She sat down in the front. When the bus driver ordered her to move, she refused. He called the police and they arrested her.

25. Rosa Parks
The minister of Rosa’s church, Martin Luther King, decided to get involved. He told the African-Americans to stop riding the bus.
For months, African-Americans walked or gave each other rides. The bus company was losing a lot of money because most of their passengers were African-Americans. Eventually, they were forced to change their rule.
Then, in 1956, the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.

26. 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School
Orval Faubus – Governor of Arkansas
101st Airborne
sent in by President Eisenhower to enforce the court order

27. College students in Greensboro
In 1960, many restaurants would not serve African-Americans.
To protest this, some African-American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina decided to go to a lunch counter at a Woolworth’s Department store and order food. The servers refused to serve them, but the students refused to leave.

28. College students in Greensboro
These lunch counter protests spread throughout the U.S. Many white students came along to support the African-Americans.

29. College students in Greensboro
The students always stayed peaceful, even when attacked or arrested. This made them look good and made the racists look hateful and evil. This strategy was very successful for convincing White people to support civil rights for minorities.

30. Greensboro, No Carolina Lunch Counter Sit Ins

31. Freedom Riders Apr-Dec 1961 Who: CORE and SNCC
(congress of racial equality and student nonviolent coordinating committee)
Plan of Action: to test the SC decision banning segregation on interstate bus routes
Obstacles: violence
Results: Desegregated busses due to loss of profit

32. University of Mississippi
September 1962
Who: James Meredith and JFK
Plan of Action: integrate UM
Obstacles: Governor Ross Barnett, riots, and death
Results: JFK ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith.
James Meredith

33. 1962 “Ole Miss” James Meredith-1st black student

34. University of Alabama June 1963 Who: Gov. George Wallace
Plan of Action: integrate the University of Alabama
Obstacles: Governor George Wallace
Results: JFK used federal troops to enforce the desegregation

35. March on Washington August 28, 1963

36. ”I Have a Dream”

37. 9

38. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Because of the Civil Rights movement, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of This law ended all racial discrimination in public facilities such as restrooms, restaurants, buses, movie theaters, and swimming pools.

39. Freedom Summer Summer of ’64 Who: SNCC and volunteers
Where: Mississippi
Plan of Action: register voters
Obstacles: Obstacles: Local officers killed volunteers
Results: Congress did not pass a Voters Rights act.

40. Voting Rights Act 1965 Prohibited discrimination at voting polls
Established bilingual ballots in areas with large amount of non-English speaking minorities
Outlawed literacy tests for voters
Gave Federal Government power to oversee all elections

41. March to Selma

42. The Selma Campaign Early 1965 Who: SCLC and SNCC
Plan of Action: Voter registration drive and march to Montgomery
Obstacles: violent, local law officers
Reaction: LBJ responded by asking Congress for the swift passage of a new voting rights act. It passed in 1965.

43. April 4, 1968
MLK Assassination
Memphis, TN

45. Nation of Islam – Black Muslim Movement
Black Power
Race Riots
SNCC
Stokely Carmichael
Nonviolence
Black Panthers (1966)
Huey Newton & Bobby Seale
Militant
Revolutionary socialist movement advocating self-rule
Established daycares, free breakfast programs, free medical clinics, assistance to the homeless, etc.
Major US cities
1965-Watts
Nation of Islam – Black Muslim Movement
Elijah Muhammad (Malcolm X)
preached black nationalism, separation, and self-improvement
Advocated self-defense
Assassinated in 1965

46. Civil Rights act of 1968 Written as a follow-up to the CRA of 1964
Created to enforce equal housing opportunities for all races
Basically you cannot refuse to rent or sell a house to anyone, anywhere, based upon their race

47. Unfinished Work 1970s 1980s Housing/job discrimination
Educational inequality
Poverty
Human rights focus in foreign policy
1980s
Affirmative action