Section 3

Urban Problems

African Americans became impatient with the slow pace of change; this frustration sometimes boiled over into riots.

Section 3

• Despite the passage of civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s, racism was still common in American society.

• The average income of an African American family was only 55 percent of that of the average white family.

• Almost half of African Americans lived in poverty.

• Their unemployment rate was typically twice that of whites.

Urban Problems (cont.)

Section 3

• Anger and frustration over poverty led to riots in dozens of American cities between 1965 and 1968.

• President Johnson ordered what became known as the Kerner Commission to conduct a detailed study of this problem.

• They blamed racism for most of the problems in the inner cities.

Urban Problems (cont.)

Section 3

• Dr. King felt that he had failed to improve the economic position of African Americans.

• He worked with the SCLC to improve the economic status of African Americans in poor neighborhoods.

• The Chicago Movement, however, made little headway.

• Mayor Richard J. Daley proposed a new program to clean up the slums, but in the end, little changed.

Urban Problems (cont.)

Section 3

Black Power

Impatient with the slower gains of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement, many young African Americans called for “black power.”

Section 3

• Many young African Americans called for black power, an idea that disagreed with King’s nonviolent approach.

• Stokely Carmichael believed that African Americans should control the social, political, and economic direction of their struggle.

• Black power also stressed pride in the African American cultural group and emphasized racial distinctiveness rather than assimilation.

Black Power (cont.)

Section 3

• By the early 1960s, a young man named Malcolm X had become a symbol of the black power movement.

− He joined the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, which believed that African Americans should separate themselves from whites and form their own self-governing communities.

Black Power (cont.)

Section 3

− Discouraged by scandals involving the Nation of Islam’s leader, he broke with the group.

− After criticizing the organization, members shot him in February 1965.

Black Power (cont.)

Section 3

• Influenced by Malcolm X, three men organized the Black Panthers in 1966.

− They believed a revolution was necessary in the United States, and they urged African Americans to arm themselves and prepare to force whites to grant them equal rights.

Black Power (cont.)

Section 3

King is Assassinated

After Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Section 3

• Dr. King went to Memphis to support a strike of African American sanitation workers in March 1968.

• He was also planning another march on Washington to lobby the federal government to commit billions of dollars to end poverty and unemployment in the U.S.

• On April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated King.

King is Assassinated (cont.)

Section 3

• In the wake of his death, Congress did pass the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

• Although the civil rights movement continued, it lacked the unity of purpose and vision that Dr. King had given it.

King is Assassinated (cont.)

The Civil Rights Movement’s Legacy