1. What is a “grass roots” political movement?

2. What is a “grass roots movement”?
Individuals can be the agent of change in society
Civil Rights Era:
What change
were individuals
seeking?

3. Background to Civil Rights Era

4. 250 years of slavery…

5. Reconstruction Amendments
13th ends slavery
Southern states forced to ratify to re-enter the Union
14th- guarantees equal rights of citizenship to all born in America
15th- Right to vote cannot be denied based on race

6. Civil Rights Act of 1875
“All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accomodations… of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement”
SUPREME COURT declares unconstitutional in 1883

7. Plessy v. Ferguson Establishes “separate but equal”
Segregation is constitutional

8. Jim Crowe South

9. Via intimidation, literacy tests, poll taxes, African Americans effectively disenfranchised in the south

10. 20th Century…. 1909- NAACP formed to fight for equality in courts
World War I: Great Migration to the north
1920s: Harlem Renaissance
New Deal
FDR includes African Americans in public works projects
WW2
Million blacks in Armed Forces
Part of “Arsenal of Democracy”

11. Things don’t happen in a vacuum: How do the following “set the stage” for the Civil Rights movement?
World War 2
Baby Boom Generation:
“Youth Culture of 1950s/ 60s
The Cold War
New Technology:
Television

12. Executive Order 9981
Truman desegregates the military

13. Dodgers sign Jackie Robinson
Breaks the “color barrier” in professional baseball

14. NAACP and Thurgood Marshall
Goes after “separate but equal” in the courts
Focuses on schools
29 out of 32 cases won
Becomes 1st Black Supreme Court Justice ( )

15. Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas- 1954
Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
1957: protests to forced desegregation, Charlotte, NC, 1957

16. South resists- Southern Manifesto Stage is set for the “Civil Rights
The Warren court overstepped its authority
Southern States can ignore it
Stage is set for the “Civil Rights
Movement”

17. Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks arrested
MLK organizes boycott
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council)
African American churches organizes to non-violently protest segregation

18. 1958: Little Rock Nine
Eisenhower has army escort black students to high school to force desegration

19. Things don’t happen in a vacuum: How do the following “set the stage” for the Civil Rights movement?
World War 2
Baby Boom Generation:
“Youth Culture of 1950s/ 60s
The Cold War
New Technology:
Television

20. 1961- 1965: Height of “the movement”
What tactics were used by activists?
Role of YOUNG people….
Would you have joined?
What were the tangible results by 1965

21. 1960- Sit-ins
Starts with 4 college freshmen
Spreads quickly

22. 1963- Freedom Riders CORE: Congress of Racial Equality
Whites and blacks ride together to southern bus stations
Attacked

23. 1963- Birmingham Campaign MLK and thousands arrested
Attacked by police
On television
JFK calls for Civil Rights
Act

24. 1964- March on Washington “I have a Dream” Demanding a Civil
Rights Act….

25. 1964- Civil Rights Act is passed
Bans discrimination in employment & “public accomodations”

26. 1964- Freedom Summer
SNCC (“Snik”)- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Go to Mississippi to get African Americans to register to vote…
(4 dead… 80 beaten… 3 blacks killed… arrrested…. 37 churches bombed… 30 black homes bombed…)

27. 1965 Voting Rights Act No more literacy tests
Extensive FEDERAL gov’t control over elections…

28. Assignment- 10 points
Create a newspaper front page for your assigned event
“Splashy” Headline
Sub-headline?
Date
Photo
Brief factual summary- PUT YOURSELF THERE, reporting on it that day!
What happened? Why? Significance?

29. 1961- 1965: Height of “the movement”
What tactics were used by activists?
Role of YOUNG people….
Risks taken by joining….
What were the tangible results by 1965\
What now?