The Civil Rights Movement

Signs of Change1947 MLB desegregated 1948 Armed forces integratedBut still segregated in southern facilities (Plessey)

and by de facto in northern citiesBlacks had become political force in northern dem party

BackgroundBlacks historically denied rights

Prosperity of the 1950’s passed them by

Between 1947-70 brings dramatic change

Cold War ideological battle fuels debate

Truman’s initiatives blocked

Brown v Board of Education

Preceded by decision affecting higher ed

1954 S.C. decision - segregation in schools is unconstitutional (14th Amendment)

Reversed Plessey v Ferguson (1896)

Thurgood Marshall – Attorney for NAACP

Warren: “separate schools are inherently unequal” & schools must desegregate with “all deliberate speed”

Implementing Desegregation

Southern states close schools,

“Little Rock Nine”

Orville Faubus

Arkansas Nat Guard

Confrontation (1957) – Ike sends fed soldiers to escort black students into white high school in Arkansas

Federal Troops Enforcing Desegregation

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

Rosa Parks violates Alabama segregation law by sitting in white section of bus & is arrestedAfrican Americans boycott buses citywide in protestBaptist minister Martin Luther King becomes spokesman for boycott’56 – SC rules segregation of transportation unconstitutional

Martin Luther KingSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

nonviolent protest

civil disobedience

Oratory

March on Washington ‘63MLK leads march

“I Have a Dream”

Turning point in civil rights movement

Civil Right Act passed next year

Student Non-Violent Coordinating CommitteeSNCC

National Organization of Black College Students who Organized Sit-ins @ lunch-counters, pools, libraries, hotels

Greensboro, NC Woolworths ‘60

Freedom Rides1961Black and White members of CORE organized a integrated bus ride through the south to test the Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on public transportation. Met with violence in Alabama

Malcolm XPetty Criminal

Converts to Islam in prison

Militant Civil Rights Leader

Nation of Islam

Elijah Muhammad

>> Org of Afro-American Unity

Black Nationalism

Assassinated in ‘65

Kennedy on Civil RightsCall to King’s Wife

The New Frontier – Included rebuilding blighted inner-cities (failed in Congress)

Consolidates support of African American electorate

Civil Rights Bill

Lyndon Johnson on Civil Rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964 -Outlawed Discrimination

Voting Rights Act of 1965 – outlawed literacy tests

James Meredith 1962

Resistance to ChangeKKKKing & X both assassinatedBirmingham Church Bombing4 girls killed

Medgar Evers 1963

Stokely Carmichael

Selma March 1965

George Wallace

Independence Party

Pro-Segregation Platform