The Civil Rights Movement

Plessy v Furgeson In 1896,the Supreme Court decided

that separate but equal based on race was not in violation of the 14th

Amendment.

Separate but equal becomes the “Status Quo” for the next half-

century

The National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) developed a

systematic attack against the doctrine

of "separate but equal."

The attack culminated in five separate cases gathered together under the name of one of them--

Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

The cases included: Bolling v Sharp: Washington DC Belton v Gebhart: Wilmington,

DE Davis v Prince Edward Cnty:

Virginia Briggs v Elliott: Clarendon Cnty, SC Brown v Topeka Board of Ed:

Topeka, KS

Gebhart v. Belton; Gebhart v. Bulah (Delaware) In 1950 Louis Redding filed a

lawsuit on behalf of Shirley Bulah to admit her daughter Shirley to a nearby white elementary school, after the Delaware Board of Education refused to allow her to board an all-white school bus that drove pass their home.

In 1951, Redding filed a second suit on behalf of Ethel Belton and nine other plaintiffs, whose children were barred from attending the all-white high school in their community.

Shirley Bulah as a student at Hockessin Colored Elementary School

Louis L. Redding

graduated from Harvard Law School in 1929

Delaware’s first African American attorney.

After the 1954 decision, continued his legal practice in Wilmington and his commitment to defending civil rights cases.

For the rest of his life, he was considered Delaware’s leading civil rights attorney.

Brown vs the Board of Education

May 17, 1954, unanimous (9-0) decision

"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,

this victory paved the way for integration and the Civil Rights Movement.

The Brown Family

As the Brown family and the

NAACP find success,

opposition to desegregation

grows

Milford, Delaware

Segregationist Bryant Bowles addresses a crowd of 1,500 in Milford in 1954

Bowles holds his 3-year-old daughter over his head, vows she will never attend an integrated school "so long as gunpowder will burn."

                               

     

Telegram civil rights lawyer Louis L. Redding wired to Gov. J. Caleb Boggs asking for police

to assure safety of students

                                    

• Meanwhile, in the south…

Emmitt Till• On August 20, 1955, Emmett Till, a 14 year-old,

African-American boy from Chicago, left his home to visit relatives in Money, Mississippi

• Till violates southern “norms” by “talking fresh” to a white woman

Beaten, stabbed and shot, Till’s body is found in the Beaten, stabbed and shot, Till’s body is found in the river, 3 days later with a 70-pound fan tied around his river, 3 days later with a 70-pound fan tied around his

neck with barbed-wireneck with barbed-wire

• Emmitt Till’s mother chooses to have an open casket funeral so the “world can see” what happened

The all white jury returns a verdict of not guilty but months later the killers admit the murder in

a magazine interview.

Till’s murder becomes a Till’s murder becomes a pivotal, pivotal, motivatingmotivating

factor in the civil rights factor in the civil rights movementmovement

'Chicago boy,' I 'Chicago boy,' I said, 'I'm tired of said, 'I'm tired of 'em sending your 'em sending your kind down here to kind down here to

stir up trouble. stir up trouble. Goddam you, I'm Goddam you, I'm going to make an going to make an example of you—example of you—just so everybody just so everybody can know how me can know how me

and my folks and my folks stand.'stand.'

J. W. Milam, Look J. W. Milam, Look magazine, 1956magazine, 1956

Rosa Parks Sat

Here!

Montgomery Bus Boycott December 1,

1955: Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

January, 1956: Parks lost her job at department store because her boss was unhappy with her involvement with the bus boycott.

Montgomery Bus Boycott To lead the

boycott, they turned to a twenty-six year old minister. His name was Martin Luther King, jr

Montgomery Blacks carpooled, walked, and car owners became “taxi drivers” to avoid buses.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

November 13, 1956: The Supreme Court decided to outlaw segregation on buses in the United States.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was officially over

Little Rock, AR: 1957

Little Rock, Arkansas, made plans to desegregate its public schools

Nine black students were selected as the first to integrate Central High School.

September 1957 Crowds gather outside of

Central High School

Anger

Violence

Arkansas National Guard prevents students from entering

President Eisenhower federalizes the Arkansas National Guard; sends in the 101st airborne to protect the students

1958-1959 Little Rock High Closed

13 Years Later – Little Rock fully integrates all of its

schools.

James Meredith Enrolls at Ole Miss

Brown v. Board = universities were also ordered to integrate.

   1961, James Meredith, an African American veteran of the Korean War, applied for

admission to Ole Miss, a traditionally white

university.

The governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, vowed that no black student would attend Ole Miss while he was governor, and on September 20, 1961 refused Meredith to allow Meredith to enroll.

 

President JFK and Attorney General RFK stepped in to secure Meredith’s Riots broke out so JFK sent federal marshals to protect Meredith so he could attend classes.

Meredith graduated from Ole Miss in the summer of 1963.

James Meredith 2007

James Meredith Statue at Ole Miss

Organizations:

NAACP

Challenged segregation through the legal system

Thurgood Marshall leads fight to end school segregation

Southern Christian

Leadership Conference SCLC: Founded by MLK and southern clergy in 1957. Advocated non-violent

protest.

SCLC“The only way to defeat a stronger foe is thru nonviolence”

Birmingham April 1963 – “the Birmingham April 1963 – “the most segregated city in most segregated city in

America…”America…”

A series of marches, sit-ins and boycotts to change segregationist laws

To control the protests the Birmingham Police Department, led by Eugene "Bull" Connor, used high-pressure water jets and police dogs on children and bystanders.

Media coverage Kennedy intervenes

Letter from a Birmingham Jail –

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. … For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, … that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

SNCC: Formed by SCLC in 1960 to involve students

and young African-Am.

Eventually became a separate,

independent organization.

Forms of protestSit-ins: protesters peacefully sat-in at

segregated public places.

Congress of Racial EqualityCORE: Founded in 1942, dedicated to bringing about change through peaceful confrontation.

Sit Ins

Continued non-violence…

Summer 1961Freedom Riders: blacks & whites rode buses thru the South

Were busses and terminals really desegregated?

Marches:March on Washington: Aug 28, 1963

Est. 200,000

to 500,000 attend

I Have A Dream!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3P6N9g-dQg

September 15, 1963

Youth Day at Birmingham's Youth Day at Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist ChurchSixteenth Street Baptist Church

A bomb flung A bomb flung from a from a speeding car speeding car

KKK injures 21 KKK injures 21 children and children and kills four kills four young girls young girls

Civil Rights Act of 1964!Civil Rights Act of 1964!

Outlaws racial segregationOutlaws racial segregation

ends unequal application of voter ends unequal application of voter registration requirements and registration requirements and racial segregation in all schools, racial segregation in all schools, workplaces and public workplaces and public accommodationsaccommodations

24th Amendment –ends poll tax!

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Ended the use of literacy and other tests as a qualification for voting

By the end of By the end of 1965, over a 1965, over a quarter million quarter million new black new black voters had been voters had been registered!registered!

…doesn’t end the turmoil… August 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-

old African American man, pulled over by white policeman on suspicion of drunk driving.

attempted to arrest Frye by using physical force

growing crowds of local residents watching the exchange began yelling and throwing objects at the police officers.

1965 Watts Riot1965 Watts Riot

1965 Watts Riot

Watts RiotWatts Riot

By the time By the time rioting ends 6 rioting ends 6 days later:days later: 34 killed34 killed 1,032 injured1,032 injured 3,952 arrested3,952 arrested

Black Panther Black Panther PartyParty

•militant black political organization originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. •founded in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966.

Black Panthers African American neighborhoods

needed protection from police brutality.

The organization's leaders espoused socialist and communist doctrines

"Land, Bread, Housing, "Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice and Education, Clothing, Justice and

Peace"Peace"

A ten-point platform that demanded:

full employment, exemption of black men from military service,

an end to police brutality

"This country is a nation of thieves. It stole everything it has, beginning with black people. …I do not want to be a part of the American pie. The American pie means … raping every country you’ve been in…”

— Stokely Carmichael

                                                              

Grove Street B.P.P. office before it was shot up by Oakland Police, 1968.

Newark, NJ riots 1967

Detroit, MI riots 1967

Malcolm Little House burned and father (a minister)

killed by White Supremacists Moved to orphanage after Mother

committed following father’s death Dropped out of school when told his

dream of becoming a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger”

1946 arrested and convicted on burglary charges

sentenced to 10 years in prison. Converts to Islam Joins Nation of Islam (NOI).

NOI leader Elijah Muhammad taught Malcolm that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success.

NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people.

Malcolm takes the new surname "X." (He considered "Little" a slave name and chose the "X" to signify his lost tribal name.)

                   

Malcolm X

Becomes national spokesman for Nation of Islam

Increases membership in NOI from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963

Becomes disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and refuses to help them cover up scandalous behaviour

1964 begins new organization called Muslim Brotherhood

Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in 1965

He is credited with raising the self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage

He is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the black community in the U.S.

Many African Americans, especially those who lived in cities in the Northern and Western United States, felt that Malcolm X articulated their complaints concerning inequality better than the mainstream civil rights movement did.

Sanitation Workers StrikeLorraine Motel, Memphis, TN

Assassination of MLKAssassination of MLK

Wilmington Riots and Siege! April 7, 1968 till April 7, 1968 till

January 21, January 21, 1969!1969!

1968 Summer OlympicsAmericans

Tommie Smith and John Carlos

finished 1-3 in the 200-meter, bow their heads and give a “Black Power” salute They were They were

immediately thrown immediately thrown off the team by the off the team by the

USOC.USOC.

Other Groups – Native Americans

N.A. Civil Rights Act

Women National

Organization of Women

Equal Rights Amendment

Affirmative Action Following the passage of the Civil

Rights Bill of 1964, increased efforts have been made by the government to ensure public institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve

Affirmative Action Preferential treatment given to

women and minorities in areas such as job hiring and college admissions

Has increased opportunity….

Is it simply “reverse discrimination”?

Busing….

As a result of Brown v Board, Wilmington schools were required to desegregate but in reality, schools in the city remained predominantly black, while the suburban schools in the county outside the city limits remained predominantly white.

Predominantly black Wilmington districts were required to attend school in the predominantly white suburb districts, while students from the predominantly white districts were required to attend school in the predominantly black districts

In many cases, this required students to be bused a considerable distance (12 to 18 miles in the Christina district) due to the distance between Wilmington and some of the major communities of the suburban area (such as Newark).

The requirements for maintaining racial balance in the schools of each of the districts was ended by the District Court in 1994, but the process of busing students to and from the suburbs for schooling continued largely unchanged until 2001,

In the 1990s, Delaware schools would utilize the Choice program, which would allow children to apply to schools in other school districts based on space.

As of now, Delaware has a high rate of children who attend private schools, magnet schools, and charter schools due to the perceived weakness of Delaware Public Schools