The Civil Rights Movement

Significant Events of the Civil Rights Movt

When John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address in January of 1961, millions of African Americans in the South lived as second class citizens, unable to drink from the same water fountains as whites, eat at the same restaurants, or attend the same schools. Though the 14th Amendment made African Americans full citizens of the United States after the Civil War, Jim Crow laws throughout the South—backed by the "separate- but-equal" Supreme Court ruling of 1896—mandated segregation. Yes, African Americans were citizens, but in the South, they were decidedly second class ones. Though the 15th Amendment had enfranchised black men nearly a hundred years before, racist polling laws and violent intimidation made it extremely difficult and dangerous for African Americans in the South to exercise those voting rights. Yet by Kennedy's death in 1963, the tide was finally turning. Martin Luther King and the other civil rights leaders were using nonviolent direct action to draw the nation's attention to the grave violence and injustices in the South. In the Kennedy Administration, particularly in Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, blacks finally found federal authorities who were willing to act.

Greensboro Sit In

On February 1, 1960, four black college students sat down at the whites-only Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to move until they had been served. Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond returned each day and sat at the counter until closing. Slowly, others joined them, until protesters occupied all the seats at the counter and also at a nearby Kress store, while protesters picketed out front. Soon the sit-ins spread to other parts of the South, at parks, libraries, and other segregated places. Five months after the Greensboro Four started the sit-in, Woolworth agreed to desegregate their lunch counters nationwide.

Brown v. Board of Ed

The Supreme Court ruling that finally struck down Plessy v. Ferguson came in 1954. Cases challenging school segregation in four states—Kansas, Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia—and in the District of Columbia had come before the Court, which considered them together in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Clearly, racial discrimination in the public realm was an issue that had to be addressed. This time, the court decided unanimously in favor of the black plaintiffs. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the landmark opinion. In ruling on Brown, Warren went directly back to Plessy, using recent NAACP wins in cases such as Sweatt, McLaurin, and Gaines. What is striking in the decision is that he concludes that segregated schools by their very nature can't be equal. Even if the facilities, the teachers, and the books were of the same quality, denying blacks the opportunity to learn with whites in itself implies inequality between the races. Warren concludes, "In the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The Brown decision was the beginning of a major social change—integrated public schools all over the nation. Discrimination in education was finally outlawed, but changing the hearts of a segregated society would take time and painstaking effort.

Impact of the Civil Rights Movt

The general success of the civil rights movement in bringing about political and legal changes inspired other minority groups to argue for equality. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, many groups started to organize, following the examples of the civil rights and black power movements. Latinos, Asians, American Indians, and women are a few groups who began to independently organize and demonstrate for equality and more rights. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association that later became the United Farm Workers. These organizations focused on the struggles of migrant farm workers but were also part of a broader movement for Latino rights. The activist Hector Perez Garcia and the political party La Raza Unida also pushed for Latino and Mexican-American rights.

Ending Segregation in Education

Ending Segregation in Education Like other parts of US society, some states carried out racial discrimination and segregation in public schools as well. In the 1950s, civil rights leaders began targeting public schools for equality. The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas has achieved iconic status, and rightfully so. It knocked down the legal wall erected by the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that for more than 50 years separated blacks and whites in our nation's schools. The lawyer who argued and won that case was Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908 and attended Lincoln University, an all black college. He then applied to the University of Maryland Law School but was rejected because he was black. So, he attended law school at Howard University in Washington, DC, the jewel of the black college system. Marshall's first legal triumph must have been especially sweet to him; in 1933, he represented Donald Gaines Murray, a black student who was suing the University of Maryland Law School for admission. Marshall won, and Murray studied law alongside his white colleagues there.

Introduction

Imagine going out to eat at a restaurant with your family or friends on a Friday night. You aren't sure where to go, but you see a restaurant crowded with many smiling customers, so you decide to try the food there. After waiting in line for 20 minutes like everyone else, you ask for a table. The manager scowls and tells you the restaurant won't serve you and that you have to leave. What would your reaction be? African Americans faced this discrimination every day in the United States until the mid-1900s. Although the Civil War had abolished slavery, many states, particularly in the South, began passing laws that persecuted blacks and other minorities. In the South, the Jim Crow system of laws and traditions relegated blacks to second-class status. For a time, after the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision, the government permitted racial segregation as long as states provided public and private establishments of equal quality for whites and blacks. But the quality of white and black establishments was far from equal. This level of discrimination in the United States prompted African Americans and others to push for civil rights and equality, thus beginning the civil rights movement.

Federal Job Discrimination ends

In July 1948, President Truman issues an executive order barring all racial discrimination for all federal employment.

SCLC Established

Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to continue the popular movement to end legal segregation and gain full civil rights.

Civil Rights Leadership

"It was one of the most eloquent, profound, and unequivocal pleas for justice and freedom of all men ever made by any president." Martin Luther King Jr. telegraphed these words to President Kennedy in June of 1963, after Kennedy's civil rights address to the nation, and just months before King himself would deliver a speech that became the hallmark of the American civil rights movement. Kennedy and King each played key roles in bringing about profound changes in racial equality that transformed the nation in the 1960s. As president, Kennedy proposed some of the most important civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Yet it was King and his companions who had pushed Kennedy and Congress to defend civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. King became the fourth generation of Baptist preachers in his family when he was ordained in 1948, in his final year at Morehouse College. He would go on to receive his doctorate from Boston University. King's activist roots were almost as deep as his religious ones; both his father and maternal grandfather, with whom his family lived, were leaders in Atlanta's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as prominent clergymen.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

African Americans in Montgomery rally to end Jim Crow segregation by refusing to ride the city's buses. Martin Luther King Jr. becomes a leading voice in the movement. Meanwhile, discontent over discrimination was brewing in the general populace. In December, 1955, a woman famously sat for what she believed in and changed history. In Montgomery, Alabama, an African American seamstress named Rosa Parks boarded a bus in December 1955 and refused to give up her seat to a white man, and in so doing, disobeyed the law. She was arrested, and her action set off the nationwide civil rights movement. The black community rallied around her. That evening, a group met at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor. They decided to boycott the buses to protest segregation. Hundreds of thousands of black residents and others who were sympathetic to the cause joined in. The Montgomery bus boycott was a massive, collective public action taken by blacks to protest discrimination. The struggle was no longer behind the closed doors of the courts but out in the streets. As a result, more people joined in, and boycotts sprung up in other cities as well. The community remained strong, refusing to use the buses for a whole year until the courts ruled segregated public transportation illegal. This successful protest, begun by the courageous action of Mrs. Parks, launched the civil rights movement.

Intro 2

After World War II, African Americans began to speak out against their treatment as second-class Americans. Their new impetus came from returning World War II veterans, the movement of blacks from the South to the North and into the cities, and a rising black middle class. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was the main political organization pushing for change early on. In a series of court cases from 1946 to 1950, Thurgood Marshall won rulings to desegregate public schools and universities. In 1954, with Brown v. Board of Education, segregation in education was outlawed. The years 1954 through 1957 saw a flurry of activity to advance equal rights for African Americans: the Montgomery bus boycott, the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Convention (SCLC), and the integration of Little Rock Central High School. These gains were well-fought and hard-won. African Americans advanced their civil rights immensely, in legal terms, during these years. But social change did not follow quickly, and many schools remained segregated for decades.

Little Rock Confrontation

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defies the US Supreme Court and prevents the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students, from starting high school.`

Robert Kennedy

As attorney general in John F. Kennedy's administration, Robert Kennedy pressed for federal enforcement of civil rights laws. The president's brother as well as a member of his cabinet, Kennedy also fought for new laws to ensure civil rights. Kennedy was instrumental in providing federal protection for civil rights activists in the South. He sent troops to protect the freedom riders, as well as black students who wanted to attend schools and universities.

Impact part 2

Asian Americans were one group that fought for change. Students demonstrated in favor of creating Asian American studies courses in colleges. They also called for restitution payments for Japanese citizens who were interned in US camps during World War II. Like African Americans and other minority groups, American Indians fought for equality. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the American Indian Movement (AIM) called for "red power" as it occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, reasserted ignored treaty rights, and developed cultural heritage programs. The Gay Liberation Front formed in New York City in 1969 in reaction to the Stonewall riots, a series of clashes between the gay community and police at the Stonewall Inn. The Gay Liberation Front pushed for equality and gay rights. Women also began to organize and push for equality. With the founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW), women pursued equal rights and economic opportunity in the workplace.

An American Dilemma

Gunnar Myrdal's report on social, economic, and political conditions of black US citizens is published. The study, An American Dilemma, brought attention to the stark contrast between American ideals and the unequal treatment of blacks.

A Rising Leader

In 1955, King was selected to head the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which protested Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. King's first major protest exhibited many of the qualities that would characterize the civil rights movement under his leadership. King effectively mobilized Montgomery's black population while also garnering support from whites and outside organizations. Most important, King was determined to follow Gandhi's example of nonviolent protest. King's role in the civil rights movement soon grew, and he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a major player in coordinating civil rights protests throughout the South. It was the nonviolence of these protests, in the face of shocking brutality from Southern leaders and law enforcement, that won support from people across the nation. In April 1963, when King was arrested at a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, he wrote a letter explaining this philosophy of nonviolent protest. Read more about King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Southern Leadership Conference

In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr., along with some colleagues, formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to coordinate protests, raise funds, and train black leaders in nonviolent direct action. The SCLC worked closely with other civil rights groups, including the NAACP, which helped to bring civil rights cases to court.

Birmingham Campaign

In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC helped local organizations in Birmingham, Alabama, launch a massive campaign against segregation. Throughout the series of nonviolent protests, Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, a staunch segregationist, met the protesters with cattle prods, fire hoses, tear gas, and attack dogs. The image of the peaceful protesters, some of them children, not striking back against these police attacks outraged the nation. President Kennedy stated, "The civil rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He has helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln."

Battles in Court

In the 1930s, the NAACP launched a series of legal attacks to take down Plessy v. Ferguson. The group set its sights on integrating education, with Thurgood Marshall arguing the cases as the NAACP's chief counsel. Three key victories advanced the cause: Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 1938 Marshall racked up a first win in this Supreme Court case. The court ruled that if Missouri denied blacks entrance to its law school, then it had to create a fully equal institution for blacks to provide access to education. McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 1950 African American law student George McLaurin had been admitted to the University of Oklahoma (Oklahoma didn't want a repeat of the Gaines ruling and have to build a new university), but he was not allowed to eat or study with the white students. The NAACP's challenge was successful: the Supreme Court ruled this practice unconstitutional. Sweatt v. Painter, 1950 The NAACP had brought a similar case involving a student at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. The administrators there had relegated Herman Sweatt to a basement room, denying him access to the campus itself because he was black. The Supreme Court also ruled this treatment unconstitutional.

Freedom riders

In the summer of 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sent a mixed group of black and white nonviolent "freedom riders" to travel by bus through the South, testing federal bans on segregated transportation. All went well until the group reached Alabama. There, segregationists bombed a bus carrying freedom riders, and the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham attacked riders as they left the bus. In Montgomery, riders were attacked again, prompting US Attorney General Robert Kennedy to call in federal troops to protect them. In Mississippi, over the course of the summer, more than 300 riders were arrested and jailed. The riders triumphed when the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in interstate trave

Brown v. Board of Education

In this momentous case, the US Supreme Court strikes down Plessy v. Ferguson and its "separate but equal doctrine" in all public education, from kindergarten through university. School segregation is outlawed.

Marshall

Later, Marshall's career took him to New York, where he became chief counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Here, he became a key architect of early civil rights advances from 1938 to 1957, arguing all the significant cases in the struggle for equality. His outstanding track record defending the rights of minorities drew both national and international attention. The United Nations asked him to help draw up the constitutions of two newly independent countries in Africa, Ghana and Tanzania. In the 1960s, President Kennedy appointed Marshall to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and in 1965 he became the US Solicitor General, the most powerful lawyer in the federal government. A gifted and eloquent debater, Marshall argued and won more cases before the Supreme Court than any other lawyer in history. In 1967, he reached the pinnacle of his profession, gaining a seat on the US Supreme Court. Marshall resigned from the court in 1991. He died in 1993.

SCLC and Little Rock 9

Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott concluded with a US Supreme Court ruling that declared the bus segregation laws in Alabama unconstitutional and illegal. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference In 1957, after the success in Montgomery, King and other black leaders formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to continue to push for full civil rights. Key platform planks of the SCLC were that true democracy is incompatible without civil rights for all, and that mass nonviolent action was the most potent strategy to achieve this. The SCLC worked with local organizations nationwide to advance their progressive agenda, and it remains active today. The Little Rock Nine In 1957, school desegregation was still moving very slowly. Resistance ran through all levels of white society. When nine black students, who had enrolled in a white school as ordered by the court, tried to enter Little Rock Central High School, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus brought out the National Guard to stop them. But even after a court ordered the removal of the National Guard, the students weren't able to attend classes. A crowd of angry whites harassed and threatened them to the extent that local police had to remove the students for their safety. In the end, President Eisenhower had to send in 1,000 US paratroopers to keep the peace. It was the first time a president had sent federal troops into a state since Reconstruction. For a full year, those nine black students went to school under the protection of federal soldiers.

March on Washington

On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 people of all races, more than double the expected number, marched in Washington, DC, in support of Kennedy's civil rights bill. In one of the most enduring speeches of the day, Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream for racial equality with the crowd. March organizer A. Philip Randolph characterized the gathered crowd: "We are not a pressure group, we are not an organization or a group of organizations, we are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom."

President John F. Kennedy

On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a televised speech advocating for civil rights reform. Martin Luther King Jr. called Kennedy's speech "one of the most eloquent, profound, and unequivocal pleas for justice and freedom of all men ever made by any president." Soon after his speech, Kennedy proposed a civil rights bill to Congress that would ban segregation in public places and withhold federal funds from discriminating programs. The bill remained stuck in Congress until after Kennedy's death, but in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through an even stronger version of the bill.

Rosa Parks arrested

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man when the bus driver asks her to. Her stand triggers the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama.

March on Washington

Singing "We Shall Overcome," more than 200,000 people of all races marched to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. The marchers had gathered to show their support for civil rights and to urge Congress to pass President Kennedy's Civil Rights Bill. The March on Washington was the biggest and most important demonstration of the early 1960s, and the largest civil rights demonstration in US history. The most enduring speech of the day was Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King's words that day are considered one of the greatest US speeches ever given. Experience the march and speech through movie footage and a second time via audio recording. First, watch some footage of the demonstration. Then, listen to the audio alone. Take notes, and use what you see and hear to complete the Lesson Activity.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The 1956 Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregating schools energized black students. In 1960, students formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to organize nonviolent direct action protests, such as sit-ins, freedom rides, and voter registration drives. The SNCC worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which had formed in 1957. The SNCC developed the "jail, no bail" strategy to highlight its cause and put the burden of the costs on their oppressors.

Missouri v. Canada

The NAACP wins the first of three important desegregation cases. Missouri now had to provide an equal education in law for African Americans, even if that meant creating a whole new institution.

Impact part 3

The civil rights movement of the 1960s inspired further changes, particularly through legislation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 stopped states from turning away voters based on their race. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968 secured more rights for minorities by preventing discrimination. Also, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution prevented states from requiring voters to pay a poll tax when voting. Southern states had used this method to discourage black and minority voters. The legal and political achievements of the civil rights movement led to more political activism in the decades that followed. For example, since 1968 African Americans have become increasingly more likely to vote in US presidential elections. The US presidential elections of 2008 and 2012 showed the importance of minority voting. Latinos and African Americans voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama, helping him secure victory in both elections. In the 2012 US presidential election, 59 percent of white voters chose Mitt Romney while 93 percent of black voters, 71 percent of Hispanic voters, and 73 percent of Asian-American voters chose Barack Obama.

Little Rock 9

This video discusses the integration of Little Rock Central High School and the national crisis that ensued. After sending in troops, President Eisenhower gave a televised speech. He explained that the United States is a nation of laws and that states must obey the Supreme Court. But he did not urge the citizens of Arkansas, or the nation, to recognize the injustice of desegregation, embrace unity, and denounce racism. After the first year of forced integration, the federal troops left. But Little Rock did not become integrated. Rather than follow the court ruling, the governor closed the school. It wasn't until 1959 that Little Rock Central High School was desegregated. The school is now a national historic landmark that symbolizes the difficult struggle for equality. From 1938 to 1958, blacks made significant political and social advances toward equality. It took a concerted effort, with mass popular involvement and a savvy legal strategy.

McLaurin v. Oklahoma

This year, on the same day, the NAACP won two more victories on the road to school desegregation. The US Supreme Court ruled that the Oklahoma Law School could not force a black student to eat and work separately from whites. The court also stated that the University of Texas Law School could not bar a black student from its main campus.

James Meredith

When James Meredith applied to the University of Mississippi in 1961, he was denied admission. With the help of the NAACP, Meredith sued, and the court ruled in his favor. In September 1962, the Supreme Court ordered the university to let Meredith attend. Two weeks later, when Meredith went to enroll, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett refused to let him. Robert Kennedy sent 500 US marshals, supported by the military, to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling. On October 1, amidst riots that left two dead, James Meredith became the first African American student at Ole Miss.

Malcom X and the Black Panthers

While Martin Luther King Jr. focused on a nonviolent, peaceful civil rights movement, Malcolm X believed African Americans needed a militancy to achieve equality. Malcolm X stated that blacks should use all means necessary to defend their communities. In his speech "The Ballot or the Bullet," Malcolm X compared African Americans in the United States to American colonists fighting British rule before the Revolutionary War. He argued that without equality African Americans should use violence to fight modern oppression. Also, unlike King, who favored racial integration for equality, Malcolm X pushed for racial separation and black nationalism, where African Americans would separate themselves and form their own self-governing communities. Malcolm X became a Muslim temple leader in various cities in the Northeast, including New York City. He spoke passionately about racial discrimination and felt King's nonviolence movement was misguided. With his intelligent, powerful speeches, Malcolm X became a civil rights leader. After visiting Mecca for a holy Muslim pilgrimage, Malcolm X began to change his views about aggression and racial separation. Sadly, three Muslim men who disagreed with Malcolm X's changing political and social views assassinated him while he made a speech in New York City in 1965. Nevertheless, Malcolm X left a lasting, important legacy. Inspired by Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, formed in Oakland, California, in 1966, openly voiced a position of aggression and violent self-defense. This organization's membership was primarily agitated African American males who favored black nationalism. Although the Black Panthers did not drive the civil rights movement, they did represent one important view that favored aggression and self-defense.

George Wallace

n his January 1963 inauguration speech, Alabama Governor George Wallace declared, "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" That summer, Wallace tried to uphold his promise by physically blocking the door to keep the University of Alabama from being integrated. Kennedy forced the governor to back down. Wallace's racist attitude made such an impression that Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned him in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.