2. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941 - 1957
World War II: The Beginnings
Executive Order 8802:
A. Philip Randolph proposed a March on Washington in 1941
FDR barred discrimination in defense industries
The Double V Campaign:
Victory over fascism and victory over racism at home
James Farmer - founding member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Many African American veterans benefitted from the GI Bill

3. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941 - 1957
Civil Rights and the New Deal Coalition:
“To Secure These Rights” government report under Truman’s administration that advocated government involvement to ensure equality for blacks
Executive Order # desegregated US military
Korean War was the first war fought with desegregated units
States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixie-crats)
Southern Democrats led by Strom Thurmond, who ran for president in 1948
Race and Anticommunism:
Racism in the US aided the Soviet Union in the Cold War – The Soviets used it to show that America was not a country of freedom and equality after all

4. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941 - 1957
Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans
Mexican Americans faced the same discrimination that troubled African Americans - poll taxes and poor, rundown neighborhoods
Cesar Chavez - United Farm Workers (UFW) fought for improved rights for agricultural workers – grape boycott in the late 1960s
Mendez v. Westminster (1947):
Segregated Mexican schools were not allowed – similar to Brown v. Board of Education
California’s Alien Land Law which forbade Japanese immigrants from owning land was overturned

5. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941 - 1957
Fighting For Equality Before the Law
Thurgood Marshall - NAACP lawyer, future justice of the Supreme Court
Smith v. Allwright (1944) - white primaries were unconstitutional
Lead attorney in Brown v. Board
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) - Overturned “separate but equal”
Led to resistance by Southerners:
Massive Resistance - schools would shut down, rather than desegregate
The Southern Manifesto - Southern Congressmen argued the Supreme Court overstepped its power and that states did not have to adhere to the ruling in the Brown case
Little Rock Nine: (1957)
Eisenhower used troops to protect 9 black students at Little Rock High School

6. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle, 1941 - 1957
– Montgomery Bus Boycott (Rosa Parks)
Economic boycotts work
MLK emerged as the leader of the movement
The movement demonstrated the power of non-violence
1956 – Murder of Emmitt Till in Mississippi
Two white suspects were acquitted of the murder
Became an important milestone for younger African Americans
1960 – Sit-ins in Greensboro and Nashville.
1. Led to the creation of SNCC
2. Involved college student in the civil rights movement
1961 – Freedom Rides
1. . Rode buses from D.C. to New Orleans to prove that southern states were not following a law which called for the desegregation of interstate buses

7. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955 - 1965
Legislating Civil Rights,
The Battle for Birmingham:
Eugene “Bull” Connor - ordered the police to use force against protestors
Used police dogs and fire hoses
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
MLK justified his approach - inspired by Gandhi and Jesus
George Wallace tried to prevent black students from the University of Alabama
The March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act:
August, King, one of many speakers, delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech
250,000 in attendance
Civil Rights Act of Outlawed discrimination based on race, sex, origin, and religion

8. Forging a Protest Movement, 1955 - 1965
Legislating Civil Rights,
Freedom Summer
SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and SCLC helped register voters in 1964
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party - sought to attend the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City – Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech from the floor of the convention
The convention did not recognize the party and they were left out
Selma and the Voting Rights Act
“Bloody Sunday” - attack of marchers from Selma to Montgomery by state troopers
Voting Rights Act of 1965:
Barred literacy tests
Federal government could register voters
24th Amendment - barred poll taxes
Many Southern whites switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party