The Civil Rights Movement

The Black Struggle for Equality: The black civil rights movement influenced other groups movements Achieved their ends through peaceful protest and political pressure Change was slow, esp. in the South In the North, blacks continued to migrate in, and ghettoes continued to grow

Mid-Twentieth Century Roots

Pre-war and during WWII, blacks had made some gains, esp. driven by black veterans, and were influenced by African struggles for independence, ex. the Kenyan Mau Mau revolt against the British 1947 Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first black major-league baseball player, despite opposition, and led the way for future black athletes During the Cold War, discrimination against blacks was a hindrance to making allies in Africa and Asia 1946 Truman, moderate and somewhat reluctant, appointed a Committee on Civil Rights that October 1947 reported that blacks were second-class citizens, and February 1948 issued a ten-point civil rights program that included prohibition of discrimination in the government and in the military Military desegregation was spurred by a need for manpower for the Korean War The Justice Department filed briefs challenging the constitutionality of discrimination in housing, education, and interstate transportation; built pressure on the Supreme Court 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities were constitutional But 1951 Oliver Brown sued for the right for his daughter Linda Brown to attend a nearby white school; made it up to the Supreme Court, which May 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education that separate facilities were inherently inequal and should not be implemented in public education 1955 the Supreme Court declared that local school boards should work towards desegregation, ex. Eisenhowers desegregation of D.C. schools But the South was reluctant; 1957 in Little Rock, AK under governor Orval Faubus, Central High School attempted to desegregate, but National Guardsmen sent to keep the peace instead prevented the black students from entering, and once the Guardsmen were court-ordered to leave, the locals belligerently opposed desegregation, so Eisenhower send in federal troops to protect the black students Earlier civil rights campaigns included the 1930s Dont Buy Where You Cant Work campaign under Sufi Abdul Hamid and the WWII effort to integrate restaurants (We Die Together. Lets Eat Together.) The crucial event was 1955 when seamstress and NAACP secretary Rosa Parks refused to leave the white section of a Montgomery, AL public bus so was arrested for violating segregation laws So under Alabama NAACP president E. D. Nixon and rising star Martin Luther King, Jr., a massive boycott of the Montgomery bus system was organized, cutting its revenue by 65%; ended with the Supreme Court decision that bus segregation was unconstitutional To guarantee black voting rights, which were lacking in the South despite the 15th Amendment, Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the successful Civil Rights Act of 1957 that created the Civil Rights Commission and empowered the Justice Department when blacks were denied suffrage, and the unsuccessful Civil Rights Act of

Integrating the Schools

Black Gains on Other Fronts

1960 that increased penalties for those who denied blacks suffrage, but did not authorize federal registrars to register blacks to vote Confrontation Continues Black civil rights organizations included the 1910 NAACP, 1942 the interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that promoted change through peaceful confrontation, 1957 the Luther-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) of southern black clergy, and 1960 the militant Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Starting January 1960, black college students sat down at segregated Woolworths lunch counters in protest, despite violent reactions Starting 1961, the CORE organized freedom rides in which peaceful white and black participants rode busses through the South; also faced violent reactions Anne Moody was an example of the awakening of black consciousness; was the first in her family to go to college, joined several civil rights organizations, and began to think something would be done about whites killing, beating, and misusing Negroes White Swarthmore student Mimi Feingold picketed Woolworths, unionized the black dining hall workers, and participated in freedom rides Black veteran James Meredith applied to all-white school the University of Mississippi but was rejected because of his race, but the Supreme Court took his side, but Mississippi state governor Ross Barnett opposed, so riots and violence, but Meredith would be admitted and would graduate April 1963 under King in heavily segregated Birmingham, Alabama, civil rights activists held nonviolent demonstrations, but were arrested for parading without a license and were set upon by fire hoses and police dogs at the command of police commissioner Eugene Connor; had wide media coverage and stimulated mass sympathy for the movement

Kennedy's Response Kennedy said he opposed the brutality used on the Birmingham demonstrators and that the civil rights issue was a moral issue, but was reluctant to act because of his narrow margin of victory November 1962 he ordered segregation to be ended in federally financed housing Kennedy sent federal troops to intervene on the behalf of James Meredith and the Birmingham protesters 1963 Kennedy introduced a stronger civil rights bill that would prohibit segregation in public places, ban discrimination in federally funded places, and advance integration of schools; to rally support for the bill, civil rights activists had a massive march on Washington, where King gave his I Have a Dream speech, but the bill would not pass because of souther resistance Legislative Success Johnson revived Kennedy's civil rights bill and had it passed with cloture (a 2/3rds vote); the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination in public places, gave the in the Johnson Years Justice Department greater powers in school and voting matters, and prohibited discriminatory hiring on the bases of race, gender, religion, or nationality Summer of 1964 various civil rights groups sponsored Freedom Summer in which black and white students were sent to Mississippi to register black voters, but was met with violence Early 1965 in Alabama, police attacked demonstrators, so Johnson sent in the National Guard

 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 authorized the U.S. attorney general to appoint federal examiners to register voters wherever local officials were obstructive Black Power The black civil rights movement started out peaceful and united, but fractured because of Challenges Liberal interracial tensions within the movement and because of young black leaders' impatience Reform (or, the Civil with King's slow, nonviolent approach that depended on white liberal support and Rights Movement government action Splits Up) 1964 at the Democratic National Convention, the SNCC founded the Freedom Democratic party in protest against the all-white delegation that was to represent Mississippi, with ex. activist Fannie Lou Hamer testifying, but Johnson ruled that the white delegation would still go, though the SNCC could have seats at large; the SNCC began to become an organization that mobilized poor blacks for militant action Black author James Baldwin argued that change must come soon, or else consequences will be worse Black Islamic leader Malcolm X, influenced by Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, preached that the white man was keeping the black man down, for black separatism and nationalism, an international perspective of African peoples in diaspora, and to fight racism by any means necessary; 1965 was assassinated by blacks Black leader Stokely Carmichael was influenced by Malcolm X, urged field-workers to carry weapons for self-defense, and June 1966 challenged King and began calling for Black Power Black Power was a partially successful call for a broad campaign to build independence in the African-American community, caused a powerful sense of black pride, and set a precedent of grass-roots cultural mobilization The militant, radical Black Panthers called for the eradication of racial discrimination and capitalism Later 1960s race riots broke out all across America, ex. in NYC, NY, and L.A., esp. after King's April 1968 assassination Southern Strategy Richard Nixon was elected 1968 and was less supportive of the civil rights movement because did not believe it possible to gain much black support for the Republican party and Showdown on The Nixon administration scaled down federal involvement in civil rights, ex. in Civil Rights housing, voting rights, and school desegregation The busing controversy: In the South, busing had been used to maintain segregation, but now was going to be used to integrate In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system in NC, voluntary desegregation was in effect to little effect, so 1971 the Supreme Court ordered it to desegregate, by busing if necessary, because it was in violation of the Civil Rights Acts Nixon strongly opposed busing Led by Mississippi senator John Stennis, many called for northern city schools, which were heavily de facto segregated due to residential patterns, to be held to the same desegregation standards as southern schools, so the courts ordered many of these to desegregate Busing was rockiest in Boston, esp. for high school students, ex. whites boycotted

South Boston High, black students were threatened with violence, and and white working-class parents felt that they were carrying the burden of middle-class liberals; many white parents moved or sent their children to private schools The busing movement died down with the election of lukewarm supporter Gerald Ford Late 1950s to late 1960s federally instated affirmative action increased black enrollment in colleges 1978 white Allan Bakke sued UC Davis for reverse discrimination because they rejected him while reserving spots for minority applicants; the Supreme Court ruled that quotas were unconstitutional, but that considering race in admissions was constitutional Jimmy Carter was supported civil rights more actively, ex. brought blacks into his administration, ex. UN ambassador Andrew Young, but showed little support for increased social programs for the poor Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement: The Chicano Movement Though the black civil rights movement lagged in its later days, it inspired numerous other groups to seek their own rights Since the 1930s, Mexican-Americans had been working for civil rights, but were hindered by poverty, an uncertain legal status, and language barriers But then the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) mobilized support for Kennedy, so Kennedy appointed several Mexican-Americans to posts, who led the way for more Mexican-Americans politicians But younger Mexican-Americans grew impatient with their elders' approach, so ex. formed the militant Brown Berets, coined the term Chicano instead of MexicanAmerican, organized political party La Raza Unida to promote their interests, and staged demonstrations and boycotts to push for bilingual eduction, more Chicano teachers, and Chicano studies programs Labor leader Cesar Chavez successfully organized the United Farm Workers (UFW), 1965 gained national attention with a grape-pickers' strike and a grape boycott, and 1970 grape growers officially recognized the UFW Native Americans were divided by language, tribal history, region, and degree of integration into the mainstream Had the worst unemployment rates, poverty rates, housing quality, disease rates, and access to education of all groups in the U.S. Starting WWII, the National Council of American Indians lobbied for improvement of their condition 1960s Indians coined the term Native American to replace Indian 1968 some Chippewas organized the militant American Indian Movement (AIM) that had support from Indians living in red ghettoes in the West November 1969 to summer of 1971 the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz Island, originally their land bought from them by the Dutch for a scandalously low price 1972 Indian protesters occupied the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in D.C., a symbol of inconsistent federal policy on tribal warfare February 1973 Sioux protesters occupied Wounded Knee, SD and took hostages to protest the light sentences given to the white murderers of a Sioux man

The Native American Movement

 The new Indian activism alienated many white observers, but resulted in government action Identity Politics The black civil rights movement influenced other groups to develop political activism based on group identity Americans of Polish, Italian, Greek, and Slavic descent embraced their ethnic identities The elderly organized the Grey Panthers to demand better health, Social Security, and other benefits Starting 1969 with the Stonewall riot in NYC between gay bar patrons and police harassers, LGBTetc people used gay instead of homosexual, organized, and supported those who came out The feminist movement had been in a lull since the 1920s By 1970, 42.6% of women were working, 40% of working women were married, and 30% of working women had preschool children, all were increases Though women lost ground in college education to the GI Bill and dropping out during the Baby Boom, by 1970 female college enrollment was up to 41% Gender roles were changing; women had fewer children because of the 1960 introduction of the birth control pill and the intrauterine device (IUD), and had longer life expectancies, so devoted less of their lives to childrearing, and divorce rates were increasing as states liberalized divorce laws Older, professional, politically active women sought change through the political system 1963 the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women documented discrimination against women in employment and education 1963 Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was a hugely popular, esp. to white, collegeeducated, middle-class women, indictment of suburban domesticity and promoted women's self-realization through employment, education, and activities outside the home Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, among others, and was a powerful tool against sex discrimination Because they were dissatisfied with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) failure to implement Title VII, Friedman and others founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) to gain gender equality Early on, NOW was a quarter male

The Revival of Feminism: Changing Social Conditions

The National Organization for Women

Women's Liberation The women's liberationists were another group of new feminists Were heavily inspired by women in the black civil rights movement 1960s tried to promote their interests through antiwar groups, but found them heavily male-dominated despite the groups' claims of egalitarianism So the women's libs formed their own movement that, unlike NOW, was loosely structured and shiftingly membered 1968 held a demonstration at the Miss America pageant in which they encouraged women to throw away symbols of female oppression, ex. bras, false eyelashes, hair curlers Held consciousness raising in which women shared their experiences of being women,

so participants realized that their individual problems were part of a wider issue By 1970, the women's rights and women's liberation movements began to merge