1960’s Civil Rights

MLK• When we talk about Civil Rights, what springs to mind?

Brown v. Board

• Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson– Separate but equal

The Little Rock Nine

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Strategies

• Civil Disobedience

• Sit-ins– Became prominent in 1960 at segregated lunch

counters

• Freedom Riders– Most famously in 1961

Picking Fights

• Civil Rights activists in the line of MLK learned to choose their fights carefully:– Picked places where injustice was obvious– Picked places where white leaders were

caricatures whose actions were reliably brutal– Used a mixture of economic and media pressure

to force federal then local government to change

James Meredith

• Forced Ole Miss to integrate in 1962

The Albany Campaign

• Albany, Georgia 1962– Non-violent campaign to end

segregation in the city• Police Chief Pritchett– Met non-violence with non-

violence• Seen as a defeat at the time,

however, the city removed all segregation statues in 1963.

Birmingham, 1963• Bull Conner– Ordered attack dogs and fire

hoses to break up marches– MLK’s jailing during this time

led to his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Forbade segregation in hotels, restaurants, theaters and other public places

• Outlawed discrimination by employers and labor unions– Took the tragedies in Birmingham to pass it

through Congress

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Mandated that federal authorities take over voting registration in areas where discrimination happened.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

• Fair housing bill that tried to ban discrimination in the sale and rental of housing– Took the death of MLK to get enough support to

pass it through Congress

It wasn’t all Non-Violent

• Nation of Islam

• Black Panthers

• Race Riots