Chapter 28:The Civil Rights Movement

AP United States HistoryWest Blocton High School

Mr. Logan Greene

Chapter Objectives• What were the origins of the Civil Rights

Movement?• How did Martin Luther King, the SCLC and the

Freedom Riders define the early movement?• What were the major moments of the movement

during 1963-1965?• What successes came out from the movement?• How did the movement effect non-Africans and

non-Whites?

After World War II• After World War II, a shift of Civil Rights being a key

political issue returned for the first time since Reconstruction

• The Roosevelt and Truman administration’s stances on Civil Rights solidified a turn of African-Americans to voting for democratic candidates as opposed to Republicans

• However, this led to tension in the Democratic party as Southern solid democrats were still staunchly against any advancement of Civil Rights

After World War II• Several federal court cases began to strike down

segregationist policies such as Morgan v. Virginia (1946) that declared interstate bus travel could not be segregated

• Many of these decisions were spearheaded by an increasingly powerful NAACP as well as Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• 1947 saw a huge success for the early movement as Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier becoming the first African-American Major League Baseball player

The Segregated South• Essentially the South had stayed the same since

Plessy v. Ferguson made segregation legal with the separate but equal clause

• “Colored” restrooms, waiting rooms, and schools existed to keep the races separated

• However, blacks and whites lived and worked in remarkably close quarters in the South in stark contrast to the separate ghetto areas in the North

Brown v. Board• By 1951 the NAACP was ready to attack the

doctrine of separate but equal by using schools• Lumping several cases together Brown v. Board of

Education of Topeka, Kansas was heard in December 1952

• On May 17, 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren issued the Court’s unanimous ruling that separate is inherently unequal making segregation illegal in schools

Brown v. Board• The Supreme Court did not direct how the

segregation of schools would take place• Many Southern states and communities refused to

adhere to the new ruling• The issue came to a head in 1957 when President

Eisenhower had to use federal troops to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC• The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 brought

Martin Luther King, Jr. to national prominence• King believed in Social Christianity and admired the

ideals of nonviolence preached by Gandhi• To keep the momentum of the Bus Boycott going

King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with 100 other ministers to preach civil disobedience through nonviolence as a means of change

Sit-Ins• A new idea of a “sit-in” arose in February 1960

when four black Freshmen in North Carolina sat down at a white only lunch counter

• The four men stayed the entire day even though they were refused any service

• By weeks end the store was overrun with supporters

• By July, after arrests and arguments between white and black leaders the first African-American ate at the counter

Sit-Ins• The success of the Greensboro sit-in sent

shockwaves through the South• Over the next year and half tens of thousands of

reformers staged sit-ins in communities all over the South

• Despite arrests sit-Ins proved successful in desegregating Nashville and Atlanta

• The early sit-ins empowered an entire generation of African-American leaders

SNCC• The growing movement frightened many African-

Americans and also created rifts in the community as traditional leaders had their power secured in their relationships with whites

• To help give the new student activists a group the NAACP founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC

• SNCC also included whites and sought to continue the movement independent of the African-American bureacracy

1960 Election• The 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy

ignored most of the Civil Rights issued• The extremely close race showed that Civil Rights

had lost ground in the federal government consciousness

• However, Kennedy surprised many by beginning to take an active role in Civil Rights and strengthen support of the movement in the federal government by appointing his brother Robert as Attorney General

Freedom Rides• In 1961, activists from CORE planned bus rides through the

South to test the ban on interstate segregation and intentionally goad Southern leaders into arresting them to make the Federal government intervene

• However, during the summer the rides were interrupted with violence in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama

• On the second attempt from Montgomery to Birmingham more violence ensued

• The tactic worked as the Kennedy administration began enforcing the law banning bus segregation

Albany Movement• The Albany Movement was an attempt by SNCC and

the NAACP to form a coalition in the city to fight segregation

• However, infighting and other issues kept the movement in Albany from making major gains and the coalition proved to gain very little

• However, in Mississippi the successful but violent integration of the University of Mississippi proved gains were still being made

Birmingham/Bombingham• After 1962, Civil Rights leaders chose Birmingham as

the new focal point for the movement as Birmingham was the most heavily segregated city in the nation

• Fred Shuttlesworth, worked with newly arrived Martin Luther King Jr. to attack the city’s segregationists policies and fight against its Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor

Birmingham/Bombingham• Connor jailed many of the protesters including King himself• As the protests grew, Connor released police dogs and fire

trucks with high pressure water to control protests• This turned most of Americans against the idea of

continuing segregation• By May the situation had cooled and an uneasy true

ensued• However a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church that

killed four black girls showed Birmingham was not peaceful yet

JFK, MLK, and the Washington March• By June of 1963, JFK was ready for sweeping reform• Kennedy asked Congress for a broad law ensuring

voting and eliminating all public segregation• To show support the NAACP, SNCC, SCLC and CORE

put aside issues and came together for a huge march on Washington

• Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Lincoln memorial and delivered his infamous “I Have a Dream Speech” as a watershed moment in the movement

LBJ and the Civil Rights Act• Upon Kennedy’s assassination in late 1963 many

leaders were heavily concerned about Lyndon Johnson’s ascendency (his upbringing in Texas provided particular worry)

• Johnson realized the new situation and did not fight the movement and instead supported it

• On July 2, 1964 he signed the Civil Rights Act into law guaranteeing desegregation and fair hiring practices

Freedom Summer• Freedom Summer turned the focus of Civil Rights

from Birmingham to rural Mississippi as workers from SNCC and CORE attempted to register poor black voters

• Three workers disappeared early in the project and were later found murdered as the project showed rifts in the “Beloved Community” as white and black reformers had issues coexisting

Malcolm X• Some reformers became frustrated with the idea of nonviolence and

simple disobedience• Malcolm Little, later Malcolm X highlighted this new sense of

frustration• He joined a religious sect of radical Muslims known as the Nation of

Islam that preached self-reliance, the unity of the black race, and an anti-white sentiment that preached black power by “any means necessary”

• An early voice for black power, upon return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm changed his views to more closely mirror Martin Luther King Jr. and the mainstream movement

• He was assassinated in February, 1965 by members of the Nation of Islam

Selma and the Voting Rights Act• Upon Johnson’s reelection in 1964 he began drafting sweeping voting

rights reform• King and other leaders chose to again create a controversy to grab

national attention and chose a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

• On “Bloody Sunday” the marchers were attacked by heavily armed police forces in Selma while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge

• King lost some support when he accepted a compromise and turned back after a second march

• In August 1965, spurred, by the events in Selma Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act making poll taxes, literacy tests, and other obstacles to black and poor white voting illegal

Beyond Black and White• Mexican-Americans: Mexican Americans enjoyed success

under the Civil Rights movement and desegregation but saw many aliens deported as a new attack upon illegal immigrants arose

• Japanese: In the post World War II world, Japanese Americans succeeded in gaining full citizenship and quickly recovered from the stigma of the war

• Natives: Termination saw many tribes lose sovereignty and land. This led to the stark poverty and social problems that faced many tribes

Chapter Objectives• What were the origins of the Civil Rights

Movement?• How did Martin Luther King, the SCLC and the

Freedom Riders define the early movement?• What were the major moments of the movement

during 1963-1965?• What successes came out from the movement?• How did the movement effect non-Africans and

non-Whites?