the civil rights movement
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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. The Slow Progress Toward African American Voting Rights. 15 th AMENDMENT. 1869 Extended the right to vote to all males regardless of race. POLL TAX. a fee paid in order to vote used to discriminate against black voters. LITERACY TESTS. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
15th AMENDMENT
• 1869
• Extended the right to vote to all males regardless of race
POLL TAX• a fee paid in order to vote
• used to discriminate against black voters
LITERACY TESTS• Reading tests required to prove one
could read in order to register to vote
• Often asked absurd questions, such as “How many words are in the Constitution?” “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?”
• Designed to keep blacks from voting after the Civil War
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE
• A law that exempted voters from the literacy test if they had voted before or if their grandfathers had voted
• This ensured that the literacy test did not keep too many illiterate whites from voting.
JIM CROW LAWSLaws in
southern states that required
segregation of the races and
promoted racial
discriminationSegregated Bus Station in Dallas, Texas
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SEGREGATION• A policy of keeping the
races separate in public.
• Different schools, parks, restaurants, etc. for different races
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DISCRIMINATIONto treat others differently (usually we think of being treated unfairly) because of race, religion, gender, etc.
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SEGREGATION
SEGREGATION
SEGREGATION
PLESSY v. FERGUSON1896 - Supreme Court case that ruled that segregation was legal as long as the facilities were “separate but equal.”
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24TH AMENDMENT• 1962
• abolished the poll tax
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Political activism in the 1950s and 1960s to extend equal treatment and equal rights to all citizens
regardless of race
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W.E.B. DUBOIS• Early civil rights
activist
• First African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
• Founded the NAACP in 1910
NAACP• Founded in 1909• National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
• Organization dedicated to achieving equality for people of all races and ending racial violence in the South
BROWN v. TOPEKA BOARD OF EDUCATION
• 1954
• Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
• Made segregation in schools illegal - ordered schools to integrate
• Eventually applied to other public facilities as well
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THURGOOD MARSHALL
First black Supreme Court Justice in 1967
Nominated by President Johnson
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INTEGRATIONThe process of putting the races
together in public places
Integration in Clinton, TN schools: Dec. 1956
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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
• 1957
• Arkansas Governor defied the Supreme Court and President Eisenhower by refusing to integrate Central High.
• The Governor used National Guard troops to block the entry of 9 African-American students.
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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
• Mobs of angry people swarmed the high school to protest integration.
• Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control.
• He then sent more federal troops (101st Airborne) to Little Rock to escort the “Little Rock Nine” to classes.
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101st Airborne escort the Little Rock 9 into Central High School
The Little Rock Nine
Army transport of students to Central High School, 1957
Whites protest integration at the Arkansas State Capitol
Little Rock Nine 50 years later at museum dedication (2007)
SNCC• Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (“Snick”)• Organized in 1960 • Created to give young students a
more active role in the struggle for equality
• Participated in sit-ins, marches, and boycotts and other protests
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE• A term coined by
Henry David Thoreau and adopted by many civil rights leaders
• Non-violent protest • The process of
fighting an injustice or unfair law by disobeying it
BOYCOTT• Refusing to buy goods and services
from companies/businesses until they change their policy
• Very effective tool when large numbers of people participate
• A favorite tool of the colonists during the American Revolution and a favorite tool of civil rights leaders even today
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ROSA PARKS• December 1955 - She refused to
give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.
• She was arrested for breaking segregation laws.
• Instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott
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Rosa Parks
Civil Rights
Pioneer
1955
MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
• Civil Rights leaders, including MLK, organized a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery
• 50,000 blacks refused to use buses• Bus company lost money, but still
refused to integrate • Supreme Court ruled that bus
segregation was unconstitutional• Boycott lasted until Nov. 1956
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SIT-IN• Protest in which people go to a
segregated business and place an order.
• If they are refused service, they just sit there until they are served or forced to leave.
• Forces businesses to choose between integrating or having a racial disruption.
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February 1960 - Sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro North Carolina
Sit-in in Nashville, Tenn. becomes violent
April, 1960Home of Nashville
attorney who defended sit-in
participants was bombed
Rosa Parks at the front of the bus
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
• Baptist preacher in Montgomery, Alabama – 26 years old
• Helped organize the bus boycott• Became a major civil rights leader• Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964• Assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. in
April, 1968
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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
• Followers practiced civil disobedience and passive resistance
• Organized various peaceful marches throughout the nation
• March on Washington - “I have a dream” speech
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
FREEDOM RIDES• Organized by SNCC• May 4, 1961 - 2 buses filled with black
and white activists depart Washington D.C. destined to travel through 7 southern states on the way to New Orleans
• Meant to test whether the South would obey the Supreme Court rulings to desegregate buses and other facilities
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“Freedom Ride” route through the South
FREEDOM RIDES• Riders were beaten by angry white
mobs and arrested along the way• One bus was disabled and
firebombed in Alabama, and escaping riders were attacked
• Other riders took their place and continued
• The “freedom riders” continued throughout the summer of 1961
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Freedom Rider bus burns in Alabama, May 1961
Freedom Riders protected by National Guardsmen
“Project C”• April, 1963 – MLK and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized a series of protests, demonstrations, and sit-ins Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation
• C = Confront
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Peaceful protestors in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM RIOT• Local police used attack dogs
and high-pressure fire hoses to disperse crowds
• Protesters were beaten with clubs
• 900 of them were jailed.
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Police attack dogs used in Birmingham. April 1963
Fire hoses turned on protestors in Birmingham, April, 1963
BIRMINGHAM RIOT
• King was arrested on April 12, 1963
• He spent one week in jail
• “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
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MLK Arrested in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM RIOT• Riots were televised
• Public was shocked by the police violence
• Kennedy said it made him “sick.”
• Led to desegregation and fair hiring practices in the city
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MARCH ON WASHINGTON
• August 1963 - Over 200,000 people marched on the capital city to support the civil rights bill proposed by President Kennedy.
• Protesters adopted the slogan “jobs and freedom.”
• King delivered his “I have a dream” speech
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200,000 gather before the Lincoln Memorial – Washington Monument in background
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
Folk singers Joan Baez and Bob Dylan sing “Blowing in the Wind” at the March on Washington
“Blowing in the Wind”
• How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?• How many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?• How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?
• The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.• The answer is blowing in the wind.
• How many years can a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea?• How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?• How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t
see?
• The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.• The answer is blowing in the wind.
• How many times can a man look up before he can see the sky?• How many ears does one man have before he can hear people cry?• And how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have
died?
March on Washington, August 1963
Martin Luther King – “I have a dream.”
Video: March on Washington, MLK’s “I have a dream” speech
11:00
• Signed by LBJ in 1964
• Gave federal govt. power to enforce desegregation laws and voting rights
• Banned discrimination by employers on the basis of race, religion, or gender
• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate charges of discrimination
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• Prohibited discrimination in public facilities, such as theatres, motels, and restaurants
• Required same registration standards for all voters in all states
• Allowed the federal government to withhold funds from organizations that discriminated
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Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, 1964
SELMA MARCH• 1965 - Blacks in Selma, Alabama were
arrested for trying to register to vote. • MLK organized a 50-mile protest march from
Selma to the capital, Montgomery.• Sunday, March 7 - Started with 545 marchers• Armed state troopers on horseback rode into
the crowd with whips, clubs and tear gas• “Bloody Sunday”
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SELMA MARCH• President Johnson immediately put the
Alabama National Guard under federal control and sent federal troops and marshals to protect the protesters on the rest of their march.
• Marchers began again• By the time they reached Montgomery,
25,000 marchers had gathered
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Marchers start out peacefully from Selma, Alabama
Alabama National Guard moves in on marchers
Marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Bloody Sunday –
Marchers attacked by National Guardsmen
King speaks to the failed marchers
The march begins again from Selma
25,000 finally cross the bridge on their way to the capital
• 1965 – Promised by President Johnson in response to the Selma march
• Allowed federal officials to register voters in places where local officials were blocking the registration of blacks
• Abolished literacy tests• 1966 – 400,000 African American
registered to vote in the South 23
NATION OF ISLAM• Black Muslims who promoted
“black nationalism”
• Believed that Allah would create a “Black Nation” among non-whites
• Led by Elijah Muhammad
• Believed that white society was the enemy
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MALCOLM X• Malcolm Little – b. 1925• Son of a Baptist preacher who had
been a follower of Marcus Garvey’s “back to Africa” movement
• Grew up in ghettos of Detroit, Boston and New York
• Age 20 – arrested for burglary and served 7 years in jail
• In jail, joined the Nation of Islam
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MALCOLM X• 1952 - Changed his name to
Malcolm X• Became a minister of the Nation
of Islam• Rejected passive resistance • Rejected integration• “No sane black man really wants
integration!”
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MALCOLM X
Video: Malcolm X explains “Black Nationalism”
3:44
MALCOLM X• 1964 – traveled on a pilgrimage to
Mecca, the holy city of Islam
• Came home with changed ideas about his hatred of whites
• New hope for blacks and whites working together for civil rights
• Left the Nation of Islam group
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Video: Malcolm X speaks of leaving the Nation of Islam
3:00
MALCOLM X
• February 1965 - Assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam
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Video: Malcolm X “I am a dead man already”
2:00
Malcolm X shot in chest and taken to hospital
Malcolm X, aged 39
BLACK PANTHERS• 1966 – Militant political party• Created by Bobby Seale and Huey
Newton who met at Oakland City College in California
• Promoted racial pride - “Black is beautiful”
• Encouraged blacks in California to carry guns and patrol inner city neighborhoods to protect blacks from police brutality
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Bobby Seale
and Huey Newton
Black Panther
Party founders
Video: Huey P. Newton speaks of police brutality
2:00
Black Panther poster promoting armed resistance to police authority
Raised fist becomes the symbol of “Black Power”
BLACK PANTHERS• 1968 – Huey Newton killed a
policeman in a New York City march and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter
• Sparked protests throughout country
• Conviction was later overturned
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Were African Americans the only group demanding their
full civil rights during this time period
collective name for people whose family
origins are in Spanish-speaking Latin America
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another term for Mexican-Americans, the largest
group of Latinos in the U.S.
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MIGRANT WORKERS• Workers who “migrate” from farm to
farm, and often state to state
• Provide the labor required to grow many of our nation’s crops
• Extremely low pay
• Children often received little or no education
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Migrant workers from Mexico travel by train to Los Angeles, 1942
School for white migrant workers’ children , 1945
Children of Mexican migrant workers
Migrant child picks grapes in California
Migrant melon picker in California, 1980
Migrant workers picking parsley for .90 per crate, 1986
Migrant vineyard workers in California
CESAR CHAVEZ• 1927 - Born in Arizona
• 1937 - Family lost their farm
• Became migrant workers in California
• Attended 30 different schools
• Wanted to improve working conditions for farm workers
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CESAR CHAVEZ• 1960’s Cesar began to organize
Mexican field hands to form a union
• 1965 – United Farm Workers (UFW) had 1,700 members
• Used nonviolent methods, such as protests and boycotts
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Cesar and his sister as children
CESAR CHAVEZ
LAND CLAIMSNative American tribes sued for
protection of tribal lands to preserve hunting, fishing,
homes and sacred sites on these
lands.
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AUTONOMY• Native American tribes wanted
self-government for individual tribes.
• Let tribal leaders make local decisions, rather than the state government.
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Flags of Various Autonomous Indian
Nations
• American Indian Movement• First focused on Native
Americans living in cities by establishing patrols and encouraging racial and cultural pride in young people
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• Later, AIM joined in more militant protests for the return of land to tribes across the nation and for better treatment of those living on reservations.
• Over time, Native Americans regained some land along with mineral and water rights.
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A.I.M. Banner
OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE
• 1973 - AIM leaders descended upon Wounded Knee, South Dakota to protest the poverty and poor living conditions on the reservation.
• The protesters refused to leave until the government took action to better living conditions and review over 300 Indian treaties.
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OCCUPATION OF WOUNDED KNEE
• Federal marshals and FBI agents besieged the city until it surrendered.
• In exchange, the government launched investigations of treaties and living conditions on the reservation.
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AIM protestors block the road at Wounded Knee
Protestors at
Wounded Knee
1973
AIM representatives and government authorities negotiate at Wounded Knee
INDIAN EDUCATION ACT
1972 - gave parents and tribal councils more control over
schools and school programs
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INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION
EDUCATION ACT1975 - Let local leaders
administer federally supported social programs for housing and education of Native Americans
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