happy friday the 13 th !! grab your stuff lots to do… blah, blah, blah…
TRANSCRIPT
Happy Friday the 13th!!
Grab your stuff
Lots to do…
Blah, blah, blah…
11.02: THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Background Refresher Civil Rights Act 1875
(no segregation) declared unconstitutional in 1883
Jim Crow Laws Plessy vs. Ferguson
1896: Separate but equal legal
Coming back from war to fight for own freedom
Finding discrimination in North (job competition)
• Action/movement starts with people, not politicians• Ex: SNCC, SCLS, Freedom Riders, etc.
Grassroots
Martin Luther King Jr. Non –violent leader of the
Civil Rights Movement Followed Gandhi & Henry
David Thoreau: Civil Disobedience – Refusing to obey unjust laws
Passive Resistance: Non-violent protest
We will not hate you, but we cannot obey
your unjust laws
Black Power Stokely Carmichael:
Leader of SNCC, beaten while under arrest Calls for Black Power: Call
for black people to define their goals
Encouraged black pride More militant than King King believed it would
provoke more violence against African Americans
Malcolm X
Malcolm Little Member of Nation of Islam called for blacks to retaliate,
militant Challenged King Believed blacks should be separate from white society (did
not like white people)
Ballots or Bullets After pilgrimage to Mecca,
he changed broke away from Nation of Islam by changing his attitude toward whites
“If you & I don’t use the ballot, we’re going to be forced to use the bullet. So let us try to the ballot” Vote before use of violence
Shot will giving speech in Harlem 2/21/65 b/c he left Nation of Islam?
US Presidents
Eisenhower: Does little – believes segregation is a state issue
JFK: Got MLK out of jail
LBJ: Passed most civil rights laws
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Coalition): King helped create Stage non-violent demonstrations for voter
registration across segregated south Ella Baker: Established 65 branches of SCLC &
helped create SNCC
SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee): Shaw University, Raleigh, NC Student activist movement: College students
involved in movement Hired white volunteers to help
Freedom Riders Black & white volunteers
riding interstate buses to test integration laws
If it promoted violence, Kennedy would have to take action
Fire bomb thrown on 1 bus, others beaten & killed
No protection for Freedom Riders in Montgomery (as promised)
White mob waiting Even those critical of Freedom
Riders were outraged that police did not protect them
Kennedy followed Ike’s precedent & sent Fed. Marshals to protect them
Ordered all interstate travel facilities desegregated
Black Panthers Founded by Huey Newton &
Bobby Seale Organized to fight against
police brutality in ghettos Program for the People:
black communities for blacks Wanted blacks exempt from
military service
• Many gun battles with police & FBI
Major Events of the Civil Rights Era
Brown vs. Board of EducationTopeka, Kansas 1954
9 yr. old Linda Brown denied right to attend white school 4 blocks from house – told to cross RxR yard & take bus to black school 21 blocks away
The Supreme Court ruled that Plessy vs. Ferguson was unconstitutional & ordered integration of schools
Thurgood Marshall attorney for Brown family (we see him again)
Affected 12 mil. children in 21 states
Reaction to Brown Decision Many southern states
defiant GA: Keep segregation in
place Feared losing control of
schools Emmett Till murder (video)
2nd Brown Ruling 1955: Ordered district courts to enforce desegregation.
Ajibawo Bennett, Chicago, ILReaction to the “Murder of Emmett Till”
I remember when Emmett Till died I remember when his mama cried
I remember the two men that killed him I remember when they took Emmett away
I remember when I waited all day, for him to come back
I remember the bruises on his back I wish I never remembered
Bus Boycotts
Segregation on city buses Dec. 1955: Rosa Parks refused to
give her seat to a white man (required by law) Arrested sparking bus boycott by NAACP
Walking for Justice: African Americans refused to ride bus Car pools or walked Lasted 381 days
Led by Martin Luther King Jr. New young preacher in town
1956: Supreme Court declares bus segregation unconstitutional
Little Rock, Arkansas Desegregation crisis
escalating in Little Rock, AR in 1957
Admitted black students to state college w/o Federal mandate
Gov. Orval Faubus in election year, needs votes of segregationist
Gov. Faubus ordered the Nat’l Guard to keep 9 black students from attending Central High School
Fed. Judge ordered them to be admitted the next day
Students faced angry white mob: in danger
Ike Takes Action Secretly Ike thought
this was a state issue Sent in military to
enforce integration Nat’l Guard under Fed.
Control Protected students
Faubus closed all public schools to avoid integration
Video
Feb. 1960: Greensboro, NC Woolworth’s
Black students sat at segregated lunch counter
Refused to leave Whites would dump food
over their heads Non-violent protest Whites get violent, beating
students Caught on video TV brought face of racism
into the home
• Rode interstate busses to test desegregation – attacked & not protected as promised•Led to the desegregation of busses & bus stations
Freedom Riders
James Meredith
Won federal court case allowing him to attend Ole Miss Gov. Ross Barnett refused to let him enroll Kennedy sent troops to ensure Meredith’s enrollment 9/30/62: Riots broke out on campus: his parents house was shot at Similar incident at University of Alabama – Gov. George Wallace refused
Vivian Malone & Jimmy Hood entrance Let to integration of colleges
Birmingham, AlabamaMost Segregated City in America
Known for strictly segregated society & racial violence 18 bombs in 6 yrs. (57-63)
March 1963 – Children’s Crusade police use fire hoses & police dogs on marchers
• Footage shown around the world
• Kennedy forced Gov. George Wallace to integrate the University of Alabama
Video
March on Washington 7/28/63: 200,000+
marching for civil rights (black & white)
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech & broke from its outline & started his famous “I Have A Dream” speech
More Violence
16th St. Baptist Church bombed in Birmingham 4 young girls killed
Addie Mae Collines
Denise McNair
Carol Robertson
Cynthia Wesley
Freedom Summer: 1964 Not all blacks have right to
vote 90% kept away from polls 3 civil rights volunteers
disappeared in Mississippi Michael Schwerner Andrew Goodman James Chaney: beaten
before shot Mississippi Burning KKK with support from local
police responsible Still no voting rights
Schwerner
Goodman
Chaney
Selma, Alabama Only 3% of majority black
population could vote Martin Luther King hoped this
campaign would draw violence to help convince Johnson to support Fed. Voting laws
1 protestor killed: Jimmie Lee Jackson
Reason for 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery• 5/7/65: 600 marchers set out
only to be met by club wielding & gas throwing police
• Shown on TV causing more people to join march
• Johnson publicly addressed Congress using words of the movement “We Shall Overcome”
• 5/21/65: 25,000 marchers set out
Video
Watts Riots Sparked over DWI arrest 8/11/65: California 6 days, 34 dead, $30 million Whites don’t understand why
– blacks were just given voting rights Angry over unequal conditions
Death of Civil Rights Leaders Malcolm X killed in Feb. 1965
while giving a speech
King knew his live was in danger
In Memphis supporting striking garbage workers
4/4/68: King assassinated by James Earl Ray
Lead to urban riots in 125 cities Robert Kennedy killed in
same year (6/4/68) Bashara Sirhan a Jordanian
militant upset over Kennedy’s support of Israel