1. Chapter 18: The Civil Rights Era Changes and Challenges

2. The Voting Rights Act  “The Right to Vote was the issue, replacing public accommodation as the mass concern of a people hungry for a place in the sun.”  MLK Jr.

3. The Selma Campaign  Organized marches of 1000s to places of registration  Selma, Alabama  Marchers arrested by the 1000s placed in jails, including children  Received public attention  Tension broke out, marcher shot and killed by state trooper  King announced 4 day march from Selma to Montgomery  “It will not be tolerated” Governor Wallace

4. The Selma March  Began March 7, 54 mile march, 600 people  Police stopped  Tear gas, clubs, electric prods  King not present, led march on March 9, stopped at bridge  Received federal protection march 25, able to reach Montgomery

5. The Voting Rights Act of 1965  “It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote, outside of this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation.” President Johnson  Passed August 6 th  King, James Farmer, Rosa Parks  Effect immediately  27,000 African Americans registered to vote  Began to hold political office

6. Expanding the Movement  De jure (segregation by law)  De facto (segregation that exists through custom and practice rather than by law

7. Conditions outside the South  Most African-Americans outside the South lived in cities  Faced similar discrimination  Real estate  Bank Loans

8. Urban Unrest  1964-1967: racial unrest erupted in most of the large cities, especially in the poor, African American neighborhoods  Los Angeles, Detroit  Kerner Commission

9. The Movement Heads North  The riots in the Northern cities made MLK Jr realize that the gains in movement in the South bypassed millions of African Americans in the North  SCLC’s 9 month campaign was one of MLK Jr’s biggest failure because many Northerners did not share his civil rights focus

10. Fractures in the Movement  Many white Americans viewed the civil rights movement as unified but actually a large amount of groups  SNCC and CORE experienced increased harassment and began to reject the idea of non-violence  NAACP, CORE and SCLC favored the compromise offered by Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (accused of betrayal)

11. Black Power  May 1966: new, more radical, leadership took over the SNCC  Gave up the policy of nonviolence  Support of aggressive action  March Against Fear  “What do you want?” “Black Power!”  African Americans’ dependence on themselves to solve problems

12. The Black Panthers  Formed in October 1966  Rejected nonviolence and called for a violent revolution as a means of African American Revolution  Carried guns and helped monitored African American neighborhoods against police brutality

13. Black Muslims  The Nation of Islam was one of the most influential groups expressing the ideas of Black Power  By 1960s, 65,000 followers  Malcolm X  X symbolized the lost original surname  Critical of MLK Jr and nonviolence  After pilgrimage to Holy Lands, Malcolm X changed to more harmonious views  Eventually Assassinated by Black Panthers who considered him a traitor to the cause

14. The Assassination of King  March 1968: Memphis, TN to aid African American sanitation workers who were on strike against discrimination in the city’s work and pay policies  April 3: Asked to speak at a Rally  James Earl Ray, a white sniper, shot and killed MLK Jr on the balcony of his hotel  African Americans across the country rioted against his death

15. Starter #12: Wed 2/23  Read the Inside Story on page 586  Why do you think the protesters choose Washington DC for their event?  Do you think the sight of poor people of different races marching together would have had a strong impact on government leaders?

16. Chapter 18 Section 5 The Movement Continues  A Change in Goals  Poor Peoples Campaign: MLK alerted nation to the economic plight not only of AA but of all poor people  Ralph Albernathy: head of SCLC took over for MLK  Excerpt pg. 587  Campaign was disaster  Bad weather, bad media relations, some members part of gang, police had to break up with tear gas.  Without MLK eloquence and leadership movement failed  Caused SCLC role in movement to decline

17. Decline of Black Power  Occurred during Cold War, fear of Communism high  Some felt there was a connection  FBI created division to spy on groups  Posed as members to find out plans  Felt King was main culprit, yet also focused on declining other groups  Spread rumors, forged harmful posters to hurt groups  Black Panthers main target  Since armed, violence usually occurred, many leaders killed  1967 H. Rap Brown took over leadership of the SNCC  He was encouraged by FBI members posing as SNCC to become very radical and take shocking positions  Caused SNCC member to decline; disbanded 1970s

18. New Changes and Gains  In spite of challenges, did achieve change  Civil Rights Act of 1968  Signed one week after MLK shot  Fair Housing Act  Banned discrimination in the sale and rental of housing  Busing and Political Change  Brown decision 1954, 1960s schools still segregated  Due to de facto segregation, because of discrimination in housing in prior decades  Fair Housing Act helped  Take years to achieve fully integrated neighborhoods

19. Continued…  To speed up school integration, courts ruled that schools must bus students from neighborhood schools to other parts of the city  Met with violence  Caused many whites to move out of cities to suburbs  Gave African Americans political power in cities  Many small cities elected AA mayors

20. Continued…  Affirmative Action  Civil Rights Act of 1964: Banned discrimination in employment  Affirmative Action: gave preferences to minorites and women in hiring and admissions  End past discrimination  Backlash over these programs gave Republicans advantages  Lured 2 sets of voters their way; white southerners and urban working-class workers

21. The New Black Power  Black power did not die, took new form  Voting rights and political office  Well represented in governmental positions  Thurgood Marshall (argued Brown) became first African American Supreme Court Judge  John Lewis: active civil rights  Congressman from Atlanta, Georgia  Jesse Jackson: Operation PUSH, international figured for his work on behalf of poor  Ran for President in 1980s