Hogan's History- Civil Rights Movement
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The Civil Rights Movement worked to end segregation and racial discrimination against African Americans. Key events and organizations included Plessy v. Ferguson allowing "separate but equal" facilities, the NAACP fighting for equality, Brown v. Board of Education ending school segregation, the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. leading nonviolent protests including the March on Washington where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Despite facing violent opposition, the movement achieved landmark civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
Hogan's History- Civil Rights Movement
- 1. The Civil Rights Movement
- 2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) “Separate But Equal" Supreme Court ruled that segregated facilities for whites and blacks were legal as long as the facilities were of equal quality.
- 3. Segregation and Jim Crow The separation of blacks and whites, mostly in the South, in public facilities, transportation, schools, etc. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid- 1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws.
- 4. An African American man climbs stairs to a theater’s “colored” entrance in Mississippi about 1939. The door on the ground level is marked “white men only.”
- 6. N.A.A.C.P. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Founded in 1909 to promote full legal equality and remove obstacles to voting. N.A.A.C.P.’s magazine is called, “The Crisis.”
- 7. Roy Wilkins President of the NAACP during the 1950s and 1960s. He played a pivotal role in leading the nation into the Civil Rights movement and spearheaded the efforts that led to significant civil rights victories, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
- 8. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Founded in 1942 to address civil rights issues concerning the many African Americans who served their country honorably during World War II, but still faced racial barriers at home. At first, only Blacks were allowed to join. Eventually, CORE broadened its reach in 1961 by allowing racially mixed groups of passengers on Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate buses. In 1964, it concentrated on organizing votes for Black candidates in states like Mississippi and Alabama. Three of its members were murdered in Mississippi during voter registration efforts in 1964's Freedom Summer.
- 9. Charles Hamilton Houston African American lawyer who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws, which earned him the title “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.” He is also well known for having trained future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
- 10. Desegregation of the Armed Forces, 1948 In July, Truman issued an executive order establishing a policy of racial equality in the Armed Forces "be put into effect as rapidly as possible." He also created a committee to ensure its implementation. Segregated Troops Desegregated Troops
- 11. Dixiecrats and Strom Thurmond Southern political party in 1948 that opposed desegregation. South Carolina governor, Strom Thurmond ran as the presidential candidate for the Dixiecrats in 1948.
- 12. 1948 Election Thomas Dewey, the republican candidate for president in 1948 almost defeated Harry Truman during the 1948 presidential election because of Truman’s support of Civil Rights.
- 13. Jackie Robinson Became the first African American during the modern era to play baseball in the Major League. Before Robinson, black players could only participate in the Negro League. Played for the Dodgers from 1947 until 1956. "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being." -Jackie Robinson
- 14. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) An organization founded in 1942 and devoted to social change through non-violent action.
- 15. Whitney M. Young and the National Urban League Young became Executive Director of the National Urban League. As executive director of the League, Young pushed major corporations to hire more blacks.
- 16. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) The acknowledged leader of the civil rights movement during the 1950s-1960s. Led peaceful marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and other non-violent demonstrations to protest racism in the South. Modeled after Mohandas Gandhi’s style in India. Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed many of his “non-violent” or passive resistance strategies from India’s Mohandas K. Gandhi. Both men were killed for peace and equality in which they both strongly believed. Mohandas GandhiMartin Luther King Jr.
- 17. Rosa Parks On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person and was arrested.
- 18. The Montgomery Bus Boycott In December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a White man as required by city ordinance. It started the Civil Rights Movement and lasted over a year until, in November 1956. UH…UH… I’m Not Goin’ Your Way…
- 19. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) The Supreme Court reversed the Plessey v. Ferguson decision and ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
- 20. Little Rock Central High School in 1957 In Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor tried to prevent *nine black students from entering a desegregated public school, prompting President Eisenhower to nationalize the Guard and escort the students to class. President Eisenhower sent in U.S. Federal troops to force the “white only” public school in Little Rock, Arkansas to admit black students. *Known as the “Little Rock Nine.”
- 21. Murder of Emmett Till Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi on August 24, 1955 when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Emmett, beat him, and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. The defendants were acquitted on all counts by an all-white jury. Months later they wrote an article for a magazine about how they did it for $4,000
- 22. George Wallace Governor of Alabama who opposed integration and attempted to prevent black students from gaining admittance to the University of Alabama. In 1972, while running for U.S. President, George Wallace was shot and paralyzed from the waist down. In later years he apologized for his anti-Civil Rights stance and asked for forgiveness from the black community. Segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace did everything in his power to prevent Civil Right legislation. He his famous for his statement, “Segregation today… Segregation tomorrow… Segregation forever!”
- 23. James Meredith An African American who the University of Mississippi attempted to defy the Supreme Court and prevent James Meredith from enrolling at the university. The university finally admitted Meredith after President Kennedy sent federal authorities to deal with the situation. James Meredith I shall do everything in my power to prevent integration in our schools.” Governor Ross Barnett’s Sept 13, 1962
- 24. Robert F. Williams Williams was a key figure in promoting armed black self-defense in the United States. A self-professed Black Nationalist and supporter of liberation he and his wife left the United States in 1961 to avoid prosecution for kidnapping. Williams' book Negroes with Guns (1962), published while he was in exile in Cuba.
- 25. Medgar Evers Director of the NAACP in Mississippi and a lawyer who defended accused Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a sniper who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
- 26. SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) Sought to unite leaders from the black community (particularly black ministers) in the cause of civil rights.
- 27. Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. King wrote the letter in April 1963 from the jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been arrested following a peaceful civil rights protest. His letter was a response to several white ministers who wrote a statement arguing that the battle for civil rights should be waged in the courts rather than by protests.
- 28. Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) These students devoted themselves to the use of non-violent protests to demand civil rights for African Americans.
- 29. Sit-Ins Non-violent protests in which blacks sat in segregated places until they were served or arrested, often braving attacks by angry white mobs. Non-Violent Sit-Ins: Civil Right activists were subjected to all kinds of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of onlookers who did not agree with them. Police often did nothing to prevent such abuses. When the police did act, they often would arrest the Civil Right activists for unlawful assembly. There were many whites that demonstrated with their black counterparts and were subjected to the same abuses themselves. Members of the SNCC went through realistic training before participating in an actual sit-in to prepare them for what they may encounter.
- 30. Freedom Rides Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent U.S. Marshals to protect the “Freedom Riders.” Integrated bus trips in which civil rights advocates (both black and white) traveled south on buses to tests Supreme Court rulings requiring the integration of buses.
- 32. March on Washington, 1963 August 1963 over 200,000 demonstrators converged on the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King's speech and to celebrate Kennedy's support for the civil rights movement. It culminated in Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have A Dream,” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. This speech is considered one of the greatest in American history and ranks closely with Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” A compassionate President John F. Kennedy watched the televised speech from the White House, only a few blocks away.
- 33. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" I Have A Dream…
- 34. Nation of Islam Nation of Islam taught that Allah, the God of Islam, would bring about a “Black Nation” composed of all the non-white peoples of the world. Believed that the white man and white supremacy was the enemy. Elijah Muhammad The Nation of Islam was founded in Detroit in 1930. This variant of traditional Islam that encouraged separatism from White society and taught that God was black and the "White Devil" was the chief source of evil in the world. When the original founder, W. D. Fard mysteriously disappeared in 1934, its leadership passed to Georgia native Elijah Muhammad. During the 1950s, the Nation of Islam began a period of explosive growth and attracted thousands with a doctrine of black pride, separation, and self- sufficiency.
- 35. Malcolm X Joined the Nation of Islam and became a powerful speaker who drew large crowds. He criticized the non-violent strategy used by the NAACP. He called for a separate Black Nation absolved from all whites. Malcolm X broke away from the Nation of Islam in 1964 and in February 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X at first urged Blacks to seize their freedom by any means necessary, but later his changed position and advocated racial harmony. He was assassinated in February, 1965.
- 36. Thurgood Marshall N.A.A.C.P. attorney and founder of the Legal Defense for the N.A.A.C.P. He is famous for his landmark legal victory in the “Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954. His continued fight against discrimination and support of civil liberties eventually led to him to become the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.
- 37. Civil Rights Act of 1964 The act prohibited segregation in public hotels, restaurants, theaters and discrimination in education and employment.
- 38. Freedom Summer A campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools, Freedom Houses, and community centers in small towns throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population. Over the course of the ten-week project: •Four civil rights workers were killed (one in a head-on collision) •At least three Mississippi blacks were murdered because of their support for the civil rights movement •Four people were critically wounded •Eighty Freedom Summer workers were beaten •One-thousand and sixty-two people were arrested (volunteers and locals) •Thirty-seven churches were bombed or burned •Thirty Black homes or businesses were bombed or burned
- 39. Literacy Tests, Grandfather Clause, and Poll Taxes Literacy Tests: Voters had to prove basic literacy to be entitled to vote. Because of poor schools, Blacks were often prevented from voting. Grandfather Clause: Said that a person could vote only if their grandfather had been registered to vote, which disqualified Blacks whose grandparents had been slaves. Poll Taxes: Individuals were required to pay in order to vote. Literacy Tests Poll Taxes
- 40. Voting Rights Act of 1965 Passed by Congress in 1965, it allowed for supervisors to register Blacks to vote in places where they had not been allowed to vote before.
- 41. 24th Amendment This amendment served to protect blacks' voting rights by making the poll tax illegal. This new law led to a huge increase in African-American voter registration, as well as an increase in the number of African-American candidates elected to public office.
- 42. Urban League Helping Blacks to find jobs and homes, it was founded in 1966 and was a social service agency providing facts about discrimination.
- 43. Selma, Alabama (1965) Civil Rights activists decided to bring national attention to the cause of civil rights by marching to Montgomery on Mar 7, 1965. State troopers and sheriff's deputies beat them with clubs and whips, released dogs on them, and showered them with tear gas. *Televised scenes of the violence shocked people nationwide and increased support for the Civil Rights.
- 44. Watts Race Riots (August 11, 1965) Many African Americans living in Los Angeles viewed police officers as oppressors. After police stopped a 21-year-old African American for drunk driving they used nightsticks on the suspect after the suspect resisted arrest. Thousands of African Americans began a riot, in which several hundred stores were looted and buildings burnt down. The riots lasted 6 days before the local police and National Guard was able to stop the rioting. Watts riot resulted in 34 dead, 800 injured, 3500 arrested, and $140,000,000 in damages.
- 46. Stokely Carmichael & Black Power An activist in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who popularized the term, "Black Power,” which called on African Americans to unite and to recognize their heritage with the slogan, “Black is Beautiful.” In 1966, as chair of SNCC, he called to assert Black Power. Supporting the Black Panthers, he was against integration. The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was an act of protest by the African-American athletes during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. In response to their actions, the International Olympic Committee ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village.
- 47. H. Rap Brown A proponent of Black Power, he succeeded Stokely Carmichael as head of SNCC. He was indicted by inciting riot and for arson.
- 48. Black Panthers Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. The Black Panther Party was an African-American left-wing organization whose political goals included better housing, jobs, and education for African Americans. The group believed that violence, or the threat of it, might be needed to bring about social change. The Black Panthers sometimes made news with a show of force, as they did when they entered the California Legislature fully armed in order to protest a gun bill and demand that the federal government rebuild the nation’s ghettos in repayment for years of discrimination. Bobby Seale Huey P. Newton
- 49. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968 by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
- 50. James Earl Ray: Plead guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the assassination. He later said he was innocent. There are many who believe he was framed and that there was a conspiracy, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow and children. James Earl Ray died in prison in 1998. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
- 51. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1970) Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled that public schools could integrate through busing. Question? Were federal courts constitutionally authorized to oversee and produce remedies for state-imposed segregation?
- 52. Affirmative Action In the U.S., the effort to improve the employment and educational opportunities of women and members of minority groups through preferential treatment in: • Job hiring • College admissions • The awarding of government contracts • Allocation of other social benefits.
- 53. Bakke v. Board of Regents, University of California at Davis (1978) Barred colleges from admitting students solely on the basis of race, but allowed them to include race along with other considerations when deciding which students to admit.