Civil Rights Movement

1950s and 1960s

Brown v Board of Education

• Supreme Court decision that segregated schools are unequal and schools must desegregate

• Supreme Court can reshape American society

• Virginia Case: Dorothy Davis v School Board of Prince Edward

• Separate but equal was actually NOT Equal

FARMVILLE, VA

• Brown v. the Board of Education Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (had said separate but equal was okay)

National & Virginia Response

• Massive Resistance – closing some schools, riots, etc. (in VA it was led by Senator Harry Byrd)

• Many school districts in VA and other states closed schools instead of desegregate

• Establishment of private academies

• “White flight” from urban school systems

KEY PEOPLE

• Thurgood Marshall – NAACP Legal Defense Team (would later become the first African-American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court)

Key People continued…

• Oliver Hill – NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Legal Defense Team in Virginia

NAACP

• African Americans, working through the court system and mass protest, reshaped public opinion and secured the passage of civil rights legislation

• 1963 March on Washington – inspired by the “I have a dream” speech given by Martin Luther King

• Influenced public opinion to support civil rights legislation

• Demonstrated the power of non-violent, mass protest (PASSIVE RESISTANCE)

MLK Jr.

What event does this picture show?

What legislation does this event support?

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• The act prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender

• Desegregated public accommodations

• President Lyndon B. Johnson played an important role in the passage of the act

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Act outlawed literacy tests (previously required for voters)

• Federal registrars were sent to the South to register voters – many faced violence and discrimination

• Act resulted in an increase in African American voters

• Pres. Lyndon Johnson played an important role in the passage of this also

Riots, protests, violence

• Freedom Riders – two buses of Af-Amer on a ride to challenge segregation across South – brutally attacked in Alabama

• Rosa Parks – sparked a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama (381 days)

• Sit ins – lunch counter protests

Riots, protests, violence cont…

• SNCC-student non-violent coordinating committee

• Organized protests & sit ins around country – endured humiliation, beatings, arrests, tear gas, fire hoses

• Birmingham, AL – 1000 Af-Amer children march- faced with helmeted police, fire hoses, attack dogs – broadcast on TV

Rise of Black Power

• Malcolm X – controversial leader that initially encouraged black separation from white society but changed to a “ballots or bullets” mentality (head of Nation of Islam or Black Muslims)-assassinated after split with Black Muslims

• Black Panthers – political party organized to fight police brutality

Malcolm X

MLK Jr. dies

• Shot while standing on hotel balcony on April 4, 1968

• Led to worst urban rioting in US history

• 100 cities exploded in flames

• MLK Jr. “I have a dream” speechhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Civil Rights Montagehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=gBPeCQzHu5wJFK assassination videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=B4F5yfgZGdo