Bellringer Question:

• How did you feel when you were being discriminated against? If you had a black card, how would you have felt if you had been in your classmates situation?

• Have you ever been discriminated against in real life? Have you ever discriminated someone else? How has discrimination affected the world?

Civil Rights Movement

1954-1970s

What does it mean to be free?

To be free

To be EQUAL and to be UNRESTRICTED in both

MOVEMENT and OPPORTUNITY

Civil Rights Movement

• What do we mean by rights?– Voting?– Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness?– Equal Opportunities?

• What do you think?

The Reconstruction Amendments

• 13th-Officially abolished slavery

• 14th-Requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons

• 15th-Government may not prevent a citizen from voting based on that person’s color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery)

How the CRM came to be…

• Legally, all men had the right to vote (15th Amendment). However, there were many issues that helped escalade the Civil Rights Movement because the issues eroded the rights granted through the ERA Amendments.– Plessy v. Ferguson– Jim Crow Laws

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Supreme Court ruling in 1896.• A “separate but equal” decision that legally

made it acceptable for practices (particularly in the South) that allowed racial discrimination.

• Ruled that the 14th Amendment was a protection of federal civil rights; not civil rights that “heretofore belonged to the states.”

• Made segregation legal and denied African Americans equal protection under the law.

Segregation

• “the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means”

Merriam-Webster Dictionary• Segregation denied African Americans the

education—and the dignity—they needed in order to achieve true social equality.

Two Types of Segregation

• de facto segregation: segregation that exists through custom and practice rather than by law

• de jure segregation: segregation by law

Jim Crow Laws

• Poll Taxes

• Literacy Test

• “Grandfather Clause”-voting was only to be possible for those men whose grandfather’s had been allowed to vote.

Progress in the 1940s

• During World War II, A. Philip Randolph was able to force a federal ban against discrimination in a defense-related area of work.

• Also, in the 1940s, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was founded. This group was dedicated to the nonviolent protest.

• President Truman’s order to desegregate the armed forces.

• Pop culture had an influence over many, particularly fans of Jackie Robinson.

Seeking Change in the Courts

• Would work through the legal system to gain, maintain, and regain their rights.

• Many wanted to see change happen by attacking racism in the court system (such as combating the grandfather clause).

• Thurgood Marshall, along with Charles Houston began the attack against Plessy.

Brown v. Board of Education

• Marshall focused on elementary and high schools to prove that just being separate from the white school could harm the preparation of African American students.

• Presented research showing the effects of segregation on African American students self-image.

• In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren issued the Court’s decision.

• All nine justices agreed that separate schools violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.

It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to

succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.

Such an opportunity…is a right that must be made available to all

on equal terms.-Chief Justice Earl Warren

Montgomery Bus Boycott-1955

• Laws required African Americans to pay at the front of the bus, get off the bus, and then enter again through the rear doors.

• NAACP member, Rosa Parks boarded a bus after work and sat in the section reserved for African Americans. However, the white section filled and she was ordered to give up her seat and she refused.

• She was arrested.

• NAACP recognized the opportunity for change.

• A young minister, Martin Luther King Jr., became the leader of the citywide bus boycott.

• Boycott hurt the bus system and carpoolers were arrested.

• Court finally ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Little Rock Nine-1957

• Even though segregation was unconstitutional, there was no guidance how desegregation should occur.

• Integration begins in some states. • In Arkansas, the governor violated a federal

court order to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School.

• Governor ordered the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine African American students out.

• On September 4, 1957 the students were turned away from the school.

• Three weeks later, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to end the standoff.

• Incident revealed how strong racism was in some parts of the country.

Birth of the SCLC-1957

• The success of the bus boycott inspired African Americans everywhere to organize their own bus boycotts.

• Representatives of various groups met in Atlanta and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

• Because of Martin Luther King Jr.’s success in Montgomery, he was elected the leader of SCLC.

• SCLC was heavily influenced by the Christian faith and had several members who were a part of the clergy.

• Open to all people no matter what their race or faith.

• Believed in mass, nonviolent action.