Mr



Mr. McCormack

American History II

Central Dauphin High School

Chapter 21 Notes

I. The Rise of the Civil Rights Movement

A. Before and during WWII, many Americans did not treat minorities as equals

B. Following WWII, the push for equal rights began to accelerate

C. Many factors influenced this movement

1. African American Migration

a. Blacks searching for employment and better lives migrated from the South following the Civil War, WWI, and WWII so that the black population in Northern Cities expanded greatly

b. Politicians hoping to secure the loyalty of black voters began to address their problems

2. The New Deal

a. Roosevelt and other New Deal Democrats sought minority support of their new programs

b. FDR greatly expanded the number of blacks working for the federal government

3. WWII

a. Possibly the greatest stimulus to the changing racial climate

b. The Holocaust revealed the horrors of racial and ethnic discrimination to many Americans

4. Cold War

a. Communists, advocating radical equality, sharply criticized the inequality of American blacks

b. Americans working for justice abroad became more aware of problems at home

c. Truman’s decision to integrate the military changed many minds about working with blacks

II. Civil Rights Organizations Campaigned for Equality

A. No central organization existed to coordinate the fight for racial justice, so many groups existed

B. NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

1. Formed in 1909 - one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the United States

2. Started as an interracial organization – open to members of all races

3. Appealed mainly to wealthier, more educated African Americans and liberal whites

4. W.E.B. DuBois, a prominent African American, was a founding member

a. DuBois was the first black to receive a degree from Harvard

b. He served as the director of publicity and research and edited the NAACP magazine, Crisis

5. NAACP focused on challenging laws that deprived blacks of their full rights as citizens

6. NAACP advocated anti-lynching laws through the 1920s and 1930s

7. Criticized for being out of touch with the economic concerns of poorer blacks

C. National Urban League

1. Formed in 1911 to focus on economic issues

2. Tried to help blacks moving to major American cities find homes and jobs

3. Tried to find opportunities for workers to learn the skills to get better jobs

D. CORE – Congress of Racial Equality

1. An interracial group founded in 1942 to bring about change through peaceful confrontation

2. Organized demonstrations against segregation during WWII in Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, and elsewhere

3. CORE Director James Farmer worked without pay to help keep the organization alive

4. Organization grew greatly in the 1950s

E. SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference

1. Founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other black clergymen

2. Advocated nonviolent protest (remaining non-violent even if attacked)

a. Inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, the pacifist leader of Indian independence

b. Influenced by Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience

i. You cannot obey evil laws without becoming evil yourself

ii. Not cooperating with evil is as important as cooperating with good

3. Helped shift the focus of the civil rights movement from northern cities to the south

F. SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

1. The student organization started by the SCLC

a. SCLC Executive Director Ella Baker thought young blacks needed their own movement

b. Founded in 1960 in Raleigh, NC

2. Voted to remain an independent organization after meeting with SCLC and CORE leaders

3. Although originally interracial, it became exclusively black later

4. Robert Moses was one of the SNCC’s most influential leaders

a. Harvard graduate student and math teacher from Harlem

b. Worked for the SNCC in Atlanta and Mississippi

5. Anne Moody was another prominent leader

a. From Centreville, Mississippi

b. Horrified at the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till

i. Emmett visited Mississippi from Chicago, IL

ii. Supposedly killed for whistling at a white woman

c. Worked for the NAACP and CORE as well as the SNCC

d. Persevered despite violence directed against her family

G. LULAC – League of United Latin American Citizens

1. Founded in 1929 to fight for Hispanics

2. Protested treatment of Felix Longoria, WWII Veteran

a. Wouldn’t be buried by a Texas funeral home

b. Ultimately buried in Arlington National Cemetary in Washington, D.C.

3. Helped sue to end the segregation of Mexican-Americans

a. Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez of Orange County, CA won their case in 1947

b. Gus Garcia won a similar lawsuit (Delgado v. Bastrop ISD) in Texas soon after

4. Helped to organize the American G.I. Forum in 1948

a. Led by Dr. Hector P. Garcia

b. Fought discrimination and helped Latino veterans

H. Other advocates

1. Mexican-Americans

a. Community Service Organization

b. Asociacion Nacional Mexico-Americana

c. Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)

2. Native Americans

a. Most natives lived on federal reservations in terrible conditions

b. In 1953, the government adopted the policy of “termination” and decided to eliminate the reservations

c. The government hoped to completely assimilate natives into mainstream life

d. The policy was fiercely resisted and ultimately abandoned

III. Early Victories Against Segregation

A. The NAACP campaigned against the legal segregation – “separate but equal” – that was allowed by the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

B. Financed court challenges to argue that “separate” could never be “equal”

1. NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund was led by Thurgood Marshall

a. Known as “Mr. Civil Rights”

b. The great-grandson of a freed slave

c. Became the first black Supreme Court Justice in 1967

2. NAACP lawyer Oliver Hill won many cases based on discrimination in education and wages

C. Supreme Court Overruled “Separate but Equal” in Brown v. Board of Education

1. In 1951, Oliver Brown sued the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas on behalf of his daughter Linda

a. Linda was forced to walk past a white school every day before catching a bus for her school

b. The Browns were represented by the NAACP

2. The Supreme Court agreed to review the Brown case and several similar cases

3. Thurgood Marshall argued the case before the Supreme Court

4. Instead of relying on more traditional legal arguments, Marshall introduced arguments based on the testimony of psychologists and other experts

5. On May 17, 1954, a unanimous Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional and ordered the states to desegregate with “all deliberate speed”

D. Reaction to the decision in Brown was very mixed

1. African Americans rejoiced and many whites agreed with the justice of the decision

2. Many whites who disagreed with the decision, including President Eisenhower, reluctantly agreed to obey the Court’s authority

3. Many whites, particularly in the South, reacted with fear and resentment

a. Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia vowed not to cooperate with the decision

b. The Ku Klux Klan became more active and tried to intimidate Brown supporters

c. Ninety Congressional representatives from the South signed the Southern Manifesto in March, 1956

i. They argued that the Supreme Court had broken the Constitution and violated states’ rights

ii. They maintained that enforcing the decision would lead to chaos and violence

d. In several areas, including Prince Edward County, Virginia, whites closed the public schools rather than desegregate them

E. Crisis in Arkansas

1. In 1957, Governor Orval Faubus activated the National Guard to keep order and prevent nine black students from enrolling at Central High School in Little Rock

Mobs of angry protestors attempted surrounded the school to support segregation

Those students became known as the “Little Rock Nine”

2. President Eisenhower considered Governor Faubus’ actions a direct challenge to federal authority

3. Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal command and sent troops to Little Rock to protect the nine students

4. Eisenhower defended his actions in a speech to the nation on September 24, 1957

F. Montgomery Bus Boycott

1. Montgomery, Alabama operated a bus system that segregated passengers based on race

a. Whites sat in the front of the bus, blacks sat in the back

b. If there were not enough seats for white passengers in the front, blacks were supposed to surrender their seats

2. Rosa Parks, a secretary for the local office of the NAACP, was recruited to challenge the segregation

3. In December, 1955, Parks refused to give her seat to a white man and was arrested

4. Jo Ann Robinson of the Women’s Political Council suggested a total boycott of the Montgomery bus system until the segregation policy was overturned

5. Martin Luther King, Jr. quickly became the public spokesman for the boycott organizers

a. Born in 1929, King was only 26 years old when the boycott began

b. King served as the pastor at a local Baptist church

c. King was highly educated and an eloquent speaker

i. Graduated early from high school

ii. Attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA

iii. Earned a divinity degree at Crozer Theological Seminary in PA

iv. Earned a doctorate in theology at Boston University in 1955

d. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964

6. More than 50,000 blacks avoided buses for more than a year until, in 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional

IV. Continuing the Fight Against Segregation

A. The Music of the Movement

1. “We Shall Overcome” – Anthem of the Movement

a. Based on a gospel song, “I’ll Overcome Someday,” by Rev. Charles Albert Tindley

b. First used in protest by striking tobacco workers in South Carolina in 1945

c. Re-written by Pete Seeger and Guy Carawan

d. Popularized by the singing group Peter, Paul, and Mary

2. Bob Dylan wrote a powerful protest song, “Blowin’ in the Wind”

B. Sit-ins

1. First sit-in was held by CORE in 1943 to desegregate the Jack Spratt Coffee House in Chicago

2. Protestors would fill a segregated business and refuse to leave until they were served

3. Businessmen were forced to decide between serving the protestors or losing business

4. Sit-ins became more popular in the 1960s

5. The SCLC and Martin Luther King endorsed the sit-ins

a. King called arrest a “badge of honor”

b. By the end of 1960, more than 70,000 people had participated in sit-ins, and 3,600 had served time in jail

C. Freedom Rides

1. The Supreme Court case of Boynton v. Virginia (1960) established that waiting rooms and restaurants that served interstate travelers could not be segregated

2. In 1961, CORE and SNCC organized a series of bus trips to test whether the southern states would obey the decision in Boynton

3. First Freedom Ride – May 4, 1961

a. Thirteen riders departed Washington, DC, on two buses

b. Only minor conflicts occurred until the buses arrived in the deep south

c. In Anniston, Alabama, a mob met the bus at the terminal and set it on fire

i. Local police were present and did nothing to stop the violence

ii. This level of violence was unanticipated and almost led to the cancellation of the program

d. More violence was suffered in Birmingham and Montgomery

e. The original volunteers were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi

i. Replacements arrived and were also arrested

ii. This ended the first Freedom Ride

4. More than 300 other riders continued to test the south through the summer

5. Violence suffered by the riders inspired Attorney General Robert Kennedy to send federal marshals for their protection

6. Robert Kennedy also pressured the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to prohibit segregation on all interstate transportation

7. The Justice Department sued local communities that did not comply with the ICC regulation

D. Showdown in Mississippi

1. In 1961, James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)

a. Meredith, an Air Force veteran, was already enrolled at Jackson State College

b. Meredith was rejected by all-white Ole Miss and sued, claiming his rejection was based on race

2. In the summer of 1962, the Supreme Court ordered Ole Miss to admit Meredith

3. Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett personally blocked Meredith’s entrance to Ole Miss

4. President Kennedy sent federal marshals to accompany Meredith to class

5. Violent protests erupted

a. Angry mobs destroyed the marshals’ vehicles

b. The marshals attempted to disperse the mobs with tear gas

c. Two people were killed and hundreds injured

d. The Army was called in to restore order

E. Non-Violence Tested in Birmingham

1. Martin Luther King, Jr. called Birmingham, Alabama the most segregated city in America

a. The city’s population was 40% black

b. The city was home to the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights

c. Shuttlesworth invited Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC to visit Birmingham in April, 1963

2. King and local officials planned boycotts and attempts to integrate local churches

3. Business leaders unsuccessfully tried to convince Shuttlesworth to cancel his plans

4. City officials declared that King’s protest violated an ordinance requiring parade permits and received a court order blocking the demonstration

5. Eugene “Bull” Connor, commissioner of police, was a determined segregationist

6. King refused to obey the injunction, was arrested by Connor, and spent more than a week in jail before posting bail

7. White clergymen criticized King for leading his campaign to Birmingham

a. King defended his actions in his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

b. King argued that waiting for a “better time” would lead to perpetual delay

8. The conflict between King and Connor grew more violent

a. Police arrested more than 900 protestors

b. Police used high-powered fire hoses and trained dogs to attack marchers

c. Police beat protestors with clubs before taking them to jail

9. The national audience was shocked and appalled at the police brutality

10. Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall negotiated a compromise between the city and protestors

V. The Political Response to the Civil Rights Movement

A. President John F. Kennedy and Civil Rights

1. Kennedy supported civil rights as a senator from Massachusetts but wasn’t very active on the issue

2. Kennedy reached out to the civil rights movement in October, 1960

a. Martin Luther King had been sentenced to four months of hard labor after being arrested in GA

b. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, convinced the judge to let King out on bail

3. Kennedy spoke about civil rights during the 1960 presidential campaign but moved slowly once in office

a. Kennedy was reluctant to anger southern Democrats

b. Kennedy developed a mixed record on his appointments

i. Many blacks were put into important positions

ii. Thurgood Marshall was appointed to a federal circuit court

iii. Many segregationists were also named to federal courts

4. The 1961 Freedom Rides riots embarrassed the president when he met with Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev

5. Kennedy responded to the 1963 Birmingham conflict in a televised speech in June

a. Hours after the speech, NAACP field organizer Medgar Evers was shot and killed

i. Police charged Byron de la Beckwith with the murder

ii. Charges were dropped after two hung juries failed to convict him

iii. Beckwith was finally convicted in 1994 after the case was reopened

b. The Birmingham situation convinced Kennedy to introduce a stronger civil rights bill

B. The March on Washington

1. Civil rights leaders decided to focus attention and support on Kennedy’s civil rights bill by marching in the nation’s capitol

2. Kennedy, fearing racial violence, tried to convince the organizers to cancel it

3. When the organizers refused to cancel, Kennedy decided to support the march

4. The March on Washington took place in August, 1963

a. More than 200,000 people marched to support “jobs and freedom”

b. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph directed the march

c. Many famous participants

i. James Baldwin, author

1. Wrote essays and novels with powerful descriptions of black experiences

2. 1963 best-seller The Fire Next Time described the anger that was building from the generations of suffering and oppression

ii. Sammy Davis, Jr., entertainer

iii. Jackie Robinson, athlete

1. Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball

2. Recruited by Branch Rickey to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947

3. Won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947

4. Voted Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Player in 1949

iv. Joan Baez, musician

v. Bob Dylan, musician

vi. Peter, Paul, and Mary, musicians

d. Martin Luther King delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Monument

C. The Civil Rights Act of 1964

1. Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) assumed the office of president when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963

a. Prior to becoming Vice President, LBJ had been the Senate Majority Leader

b. As Majority Leader, LBJ was known for being able to push legislation

2. Although he had opposed civil rights bills during the Truman administration, LBJ had helped pass a bill in 1957 and decided to push the Kennedy bill

3. The bill passed the House of Representatives, but faced a filibuster in the Senate

4. LBJ enlisted the aid of Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen to gain the votes needed to kill the filibuster

5. The bill passed with bi-partisan support

6. Impact of the Civil Rights Act

a. The law impacted many areas, including voting, schools, and jobs

b. It empowered the Justice Department to work hard for school desegregation and voting rights

c. Major Sections (Titles)

i. Title I – Banned the use of different voter registration standards based on race

ii. Title II – Prohibited discrimination in public accommodations (including motels, restaurants, theaters, and so forth)

iii. Title VI – Authorized the government to withhold federal funds from public or private programs that practiced discrimination

iv. Title VII – Banned discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national origin and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate job discrimination

7. The original language of the Civil Rights Act did not contain a protection against discrimination based on sex

a. Opponents of the bill had pushed for its inclusion in an attempt to weaken support for the overall bill

b. The legislative tactic backfired as the bill still passed

D. Fighting for the Right to Vote

1. Twenty-fourth Amendment

a. Ratified in 1964

b. Outlawed poll taxes, which are fees that states charged voters to vote

c. The tax was very effective at discouraging poor blacks from voting

2. Freedom Summer

a. In 1964, leaders of the major civil rights groups organized a voter registration drive in Mississippi

b. About 1,000 volunteers, most of them college students, joined the effort

c. The Ku Klux Klan held rallies to intimidate the volunteers

d. Three volunteers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) were murdered

e. There were about 80 mob attacks

f. Black churches and homes were burned or firebombed

3. The Democratic Convention

a. Newly registered voters and the SNCC organized an integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) that sent representatives to the national Democratic convention

b. LBJ tried to compromise between the two Democratic delegations

i. He promised to seat two of the MFDPs delegates at the convention

ii. He vowed to change the rules for 1968 so that discrimination wouldn’t be allowed

c. The MFDP rejected LBJ’s offer as inadequate

4. The Selma March

a. Martin Luther King decided to organize a march to draw attention to voting rights abuses in Alabama

b. In Selma, Alabama, police arrested blacks just for standing in the registration line

c. King planned to march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, a distance of 50 miles

d. In March, 1965, the marchers encountered police brutality

e. LBJ called out the Alabama National Guard and sent federal marshals and army helicopters to protect the march route

f. By the time the march reached Montgomery, there were more than 25,000 people from all around the country

5. The Voting Rights Act of 1965

LBJ proposed a new voting rights law in a televised speech following the Selma march

The bill passed in spite of another filibuster

The law allowed federal officials to register voters when local officials refused

The law eliminated literacy tests and other legal barriers

6. Between 1960 and 1970, about 2 million new black voters were registered

7. Between 1970 and 1975, the number of black elected officials increased by 88 percent

a. Black mayors were elected in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Newark, NJ

b. Many blacks began serving in Congress and state legislatures

i. In 1966, Barbara Jordan became the first African American elected to the Texas state senate since Reconstruction

ii. In 1972, she was elected to Congress

iii. The first black woman in Congress, Shirley Chisholm, D-NY, was elected in 1968

VI. The Civil Rights Movement Turns Militant

A. Although most civil rights organizations remained committed to non-violence, some turned to more militant ideas

B. Black Nationalism (Black Racism)

1. Advocated a union among non-whites and rejection of white society

2. Professed a separate identity and superiority of minority populations

3. Intellectual heir of Marcus Garvey’s “back-to-Africa” message

C. The Nation of Islam

1. Founded by Elijah Muhammad

2. Made many converts among poor, urban blacks and blacks in jails

3. Did not seek political change but believed that Allah would create a black nation

4. Taught its followers to lead righteous lives and become economically self sufficient

5. Its most famous follower was Malcolm X

a. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925

b. His father, a Baptist minister and follower of Marcus Garvey, died when Malcolm was a child

c. Malcolm grew up in ghettos in Detroit, Boston, and New York

d. Malcolm lived a life of crime before converting to Islam in jail

e. Malcolm was released from prison in 1952 and changed his name to X in a rejection of his “slave name”

f. Malcolm attracted many younger followers, including Louis Farrakhan

6. Malcolm left the Nation of Islam in 1964 and founded his own group – Muslim Mosque, Inc.

a. Malcolm grew disillusioned with Elijah Muhammad’s hypocrisy and leadership

b. Malcolm’s 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 moderated some of his hatred of whites

c. Malcolm was shot to death by three assassins from the Nation of Islam in February, 1965

D. The New SNCC

1. Stokely Carmichael, an immigrant from Trinidad, joined SNCC while at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

2. Inspired by Malcolm X, Carmichael pushed the SNCC into a more radical direction

3. Carmichael encouraged SNCC workers to carry guns

4. At a protest march in Greenwood, Mississippi, Carmichael’s followers split with Martin Luther King’s

a. King’s followers sang “We Shall Overcome”

b. Carmichael’s sang “We Shall Overrun”

c. Carmichael led a chant demanding black power

E. The Black Panthers

1. Formed in the fall of 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton

2. Pushed the government to rebuild ghettos to make up for years of neglect

3. Openly confronted white authorities, particularly the police

4. Inspired by Mao Zedong when he said “Power flows from the barrel of a gun”

F. The SNCC and Black Panthers often disagreed with more moderate groups like the NAACP

G. Riots in the Streets

1. While the civil rights movement enjoyed great successes, it could not counter every source of segregation

a. De jure segregation – separation caused by the law – could be challenged in court

b. De facto segregation – separation caused by social and cultural influences including poverty and residential patterns – were much harder to change

c. There was disagreement in the movement as to whether or not de facto segregation should even be challenged

d. By the 1970s, many blacks were overcoming segregation and “making it”

i. Black college enrollment increased 500% between 1960 and 1977

ii. Many began moving to the suburbs and getting better jobs

2. Residents of ghetto neighborhoods viewed authorities as oppressors, not as public servants

3. Frustration and anger boiled over into riots and looting

a. Riots in New York and New Jersey occurred in 1964

b. Watts Riot

i. On August 11, 1965, police pulled over a 21-year-old black man for drunk driving in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts

ii. Although the traffic stop started fairly well, when the black man resisted arrest and a policeman swung his baton, the crowd that had gathered sparked off six days of rioting

iii. The National Guard and police eventually regained control

iv. More than a thousand were injured, and 34 were dead

c. Violence spread to other cities in 1966 and 1967

d. “Burn, baby, burn” became a slogan of the streets

4. The federal government created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to investigate the riots

a. Headed by former Illinois Governor Otto Kerner

b. In 1968, the Kerner Commission declared that America was splitting into two societies – one black, one white

VII. A Tortured Decade Ends in Blood

A. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated

1. King, convinced that poverty bred violence, turned his attention to economic issues in 1968

2. King called his new crusade the Poor People’s Campaign

3. King was planning a new Poor People’s March on Washington

a. He traveled the country to build support for his movement

b. He traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in April to support striking garbage workers

4. King was shot as he stood on the balcony of his hotel and died an hour later

5. Reactions to King’s Death

a. King’s death set off rioting and looting in more than 120 cities

i. More than 50 people died in the riots

ii. More than 50,000 troops were used to quell the violence

b. LBJ ordered flags flown at half mast

B. Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated

1. Brother of the late president and former Attorney General, “Bobby” Kennedy sought the 1968 Democratic nomination for president

2. Bobby Kennedy supported civil rights and opposed the Vietnam War

3. When LBJ stunned the nation by dropping out of the race, Kennedy was left to face Senator Eugene McCarthy

4. Kennedy won the California Primary on June 4, 1968

a. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan as he gave his victory speech just after midnight

b. Kennedy died on June 6, 1968

5. Civil rights leaders were devastated by the death of their advocate

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