The Civil Rights Movement

1945-1966

Jim Crow in the South • Post-Reconstruction era a disaster for former slaves and their descendants in the South • Southern states passed Jim Crow laws designed to ensure that black southerners remain without property. Rural laborers were with few legal or political rights • Jim Crow included the enactment of literacy tests and poll taxes to circumvent the 15th Amendment and effectively prevent black citizens from voting • Jim Crow also meant a series of strict, and often irrational, laws to segregate the races

Segregation • Perhaps the most damaging inequity came from the segregation of schools in the South • In the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of the races is constitutional as long as the separate accommodations are equal; in the South, however, accommodations were always separate, but never equal • Segregation was the rule in the South for almost a century after the Civil War

Separate but Unequal

Civil Rights After World War II • Wartime production spurred migration of one million black southerners to northern cities • Growth of African American communities in northern cities; blacks gained influence in local political machines in cities like New York • Once in the North, black Americans found they could vote, but they often faced the same residential and educational segregation they had experienced in the South.

• Black membership increased in industrial unions like the UAW and workers welcomed the power of biracial unity in fighting for better wages and working conditions.

“Segregation” in the South • What was the black preacher referring to when he noted that: “In the South, they [whites] don’t care how close you [blacks] get as long as you don’t get too big; in the North, they don’t care how big you get as long as you don’t get to close?”

To Secure These Rights (1947) • President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights issued a report setting forth a plan to end racial inequality • Ambitious agenda: (1) permanent civil rights division in Justice Department (2) voting rights protection (3) anti-lynching legislation (4) legal challenges to segregated housing

To Secure These Rights (1947) • What were the immediate results of President Truman’s of President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights report? • President Truman introduced no new legislation to accomplish the ambitious agenda set forth by the committee • Truman did desegregate the military

Post-War Gains • NAACP membership mushroomed from 50,000 to 500,000 during the war • Thurgood Marshall mounted legal challenges to segregation laws • Morgan v. Virginia – U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation on interstate buses unconstitutional • Court also struck down all-white election primaries and exclusion of blacks from law and graduate schools

Symbolic “firsts” • What symbolic “firsts” and other high profile accomplishments encouraged African Americans in the in the years immediately following World War II?

Symbolic “Firsts” Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball

• Won rookie-of-the-year honors in 1947; NL MVP in 1949

UN diplomat Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize

• Arranged 1948 Arab-Israeli Truce

“Bebop” Jazz Black musicians revolutionized jazz music • Charlie Parker & Miles Davis

Thelonius Monk & Dizzy Gillespie

The so-called “Columbia Race Riot” 1946 • James and Gladys Stephenson • Arrested after an altercation initiated by a white store clerk at Columbia CastnerKnott • White mob assembled on the town square

“No more social lynchings” Julius Blair –

• a prominent black businessman, posted bond for the Stephensons: We are not going to have any more social lynchings in Maury County. James Stephenson was slipped out of Columbia, taken to Nashville, and put on bus to Chicago

Lynching

Confrontation on “Mink Slide” • By evening a white mob had gathered around the County Court House • Black citizens, many of them World War II vets, had congregated on East 8th Street and placed sentries on the rooftops • Columbia police attempted to enter the black business district, were shot at, and 4 officers injured

Violence, Vandalism, and Arrests in Mink Slide • In the early morning hours the State Highway Patrol commanded by Lynn Bomar arrived and invaded Mink Slide shooting up buildings, vandalizing property, searching homes without warrants, confiscating weapons, and arresting over 100 black men • The patrolmen even vandalized the black-owned Morton Funeral Home

Photo of a child’s casket defaced by white mob – became the symbol of what had transpired in Columbia

Trial in Lawrenceburg • 25 black men were indicted and tried on charges that included attempted murder • NAACP dispatched

Thurgood Marshall to coordinate the defense team that included Z. Alexander Looby of Nashville

Acquittal and a bizarre incident • 23 of 25 defendants were acquitted; 2 were convicted of lesser charges, released on appeal, and never retried due to lack of evidence • On the evening the trial ended Marshall and the defense team were pulled over by law enforcement officials on their way out of Columbia; Marshall taken into custody on charge of drunk driving (though he hadn’t had a drink and wasn’t even driving) and for a wild ride through the back streets of town near the Duck River

A Catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement • Looby and several reporters pursued the police car carrying Marshall • Marshall was eventually taken to a Columbia magistrate who ordered him released and he was safely spirited out of town • Marshall would say in an interview years later that the only time in his career that he ever feared for his life was one night in Columbia, TN when he believed he was about to be lynched • Many consider the Columbia Race Riot to be a catalyst for Civil Rights Movement

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • What is significant about the U.S Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education? • What unique approach did NAACP legal counsel Thurgood Marshall take to convince the Supreme Court justices that separate facilities, by definition, denied black citizens their full and equal rights?

Brown v. Board of Education • Thurgood Marshall (center)

• U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Marshall, declaring school segregation to be unconstitutional

Southern Resistance and Federal Response • Little Rock Central High School

• How did the events at Little Rock, Arkansas become a test case for state versus federal authority?

Crisis in Little Rock (1957) • Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t going to integrate

• Arkansas Gov. Faubus and an angry white mob blocked the entry of 9 black students to Little Rock Central High School; Ike reluctantly became the first President since Radical Reconstruction to use troops in support of black rights.

Mohondas Gandhi • Who was Gandhi and what impact did his life and career have on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States?

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC • Mohondas Gandhi

• Dr. Martin Luther King

Philosophy of Non-violence ...to understand that nonviolence is not a symbol of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus demonstrated, nonviolent resistance transforms weakness into strength and breeds courage in the face of danger. MLK, 1957

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) • Rosa Parks

• Arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white man launched a community movement, brought Dr. King to a position of leadership,

• and inspired black Americans to engage in direct-action protests such as boycotts, sit-ins, and mass civil disobedience based on the principles of nonviolence, Christian love, and unity

Sit-In Movement • What was the target of the Sit-Ins? • Who is the gentleman on the right and what role did he play in the Sit-Ins? • To what extent were the Sit-Ins successful?

The Sit-Ins and a Student Movement Rev. Lawson (left, with Dr. King)

• Trained students in Nashville, Tenn.

Greensboro Woolworth’s • The training led to a sit-in in Greensboro, NC at the local Woolworth’s

Sit-Ins in Nashville and Beyond • A week after the sit-in began in Greensboro, more than 150 Nashville students were arrested during disciplined sit-ins in downtown stores • Arrests in Nashville and Greensboro prompted black boycotts of downtown businesses and the sit-ins spread to Atlanta and cities across the South • Business leaders in Greensboro, Nashville, and beyond relented; meanwhile young Julian Bond led the most ambitious student sit-in campaign in Atlanta supported by picketing and boycotts from the African American community and desegregation came to Atlanta in September 1961

Sit-In in Jackson, MS

John Lewis and the Sit-In Rules of Conduct • John Lewis wrote the rules for the Nashville sit-ins that were emulated elsewhere

DO show yourself friendly at the counter at all times DO sit straight and always face the counter DO refer all information to your leader in a polite manner DO remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King DON’T strike back, or curse back, if attacked DON’T laugh out DON’T hold conversations with floor walkers DON’T leave your seat until your leader has given you permission DON’T block entrances to the stores and the aisles Remember love and non-violence, may God bless each of you

What impact did the Sit-Ins have on the make-up and leadership of the Civil Rights Movement? • Creation of SNCC: Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

Freedom Rides (1961) • Who is this man and what was his intention when he planned the Freedom Rides? • Did his get what he wanted?

Violent Reaction in Alabama • Farmer and the Freedom Riders encountered harassment as the 2 buses headed South. • There was violence in Alabama from Anniston, where the tires of one bus were slashed and the bus subsequently firebombed, to Birmingham where the riders of a second bus were brutally beaten while the police did nothing to protect them • The CORE-sponsored Freedom Ride disbanded but the SNCC leaders in Atlanta and Nashville assembled a fresh group of volunteers to continue the Ride

Scenes from the Freedom Rides • Outside Anniston

• Birmingham

Montgomery, Alabama • The new group of Freedom Riders were beaten upon their arrival in Montgomery • John Lewis & James Zwerg

• The mob violence and the indifference of local and state officials exposed the ugly face of southern racism to the world • President Kennedy ordered the Justice Department and the Interstate Commerce Commission to intervene to end segregation of interstate travel facilities

The Albany Movement: The Limits of Protest (1962) • Meanwhile, activists from SNCC, the NAACP, and other local groups launched a campaign to integrate public facilities and win voting rights in Albany, Georgia • While the police chief jailed the marchers, he kept violence to a minimum and the Kennedy Administration steered clear of the march • The movement was unsuccessful in pursuing its goals.

Why did the Albany Movement end in failure and what lesson was learned by the civil rights activists?

Birmingham (1963) • Dr. King and the SCLC, needing a victory after the failure in Albany, turned to Birmingham, “the most segregated city in America,” for a new campaign to end racist hiring practices and desegregate public accommodations • Unlike the Albany police chief, Birmingham Public Safety Commission Bull Connor played right into the hands of the movement attacking the demonstrators with police dogs and high pressure water hoses

Scenes from Birmingham

Impact of Birmingham • While a horrified nation watched footage on the evening news, Kennedy was again forced to intervene on behalf of the movement • The civil rights cause gained new support from millions of Americans, black and white • Black unemployed and working poor brought a new perspective from that of the students, ministers, and professionals who had heretofore dominated the movement; they cared less about the philosophy of nonviolence and more about immediate gains in employment and housing

JFK and the March on Washington • Violence at home and the realities of Cold War politics finally pushed Kennedy to deliver a landmark address in support of civil rights and to ask Congress for comprehensive legislation to protect equal rights • Tragically, as if to underscore the need for action, just hours after the televised speech, Medgar Evers, the leader of the Mississippi NAACP, was gunned down outside his home in Jackson

June 11, 1963 • President John F. Kennedy

• Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only….Are we to say to the rest of the world, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is a land of the free except for Negroes?

March on Washington • In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, had threatened a massive march on DC to force President Roosevelt to issue executive orders to end discriminatory hiring practices in wartime industry • 20 years later, Randolph revived the concept and convinced the major civil rights groups to support it in order to pressure Congress into acting on behalf of JFK’s call for civil rights legislation

August 28, 1963 • More than a quarter of a million people, including 50,000 whites – Americans from all walks of life – gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to rally for “jobs and freedom” • Dr. King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech to the largest political assembly in the nation’s history • The extraordinary demonstration of interracial unity was the high-water mark of the struggle for equality

I Have a Dream • Dr. King addressing the crowd

• …that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.“ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood….I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

March on Washington • What made the march unique among previous political assemblies and how did it mark the high-water mark in the struggle for civil rights?

LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964) • What was the goal of • Why did organizers the Mississippi Freedom recruit white Summer campaign? volunteers? • What were the results of the effort?

During the Mississippi Freedom Summer Campaign: • Project workers faced arrests, beatings, home, church, and school bombings, and at least 6 died violently, including Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney • Black and white female volunteers, led by Ruby Doris Robinson, Mary King, and Casey Hayden, began to raise the issue of women’s equality as a companion goal to racial equality • More than 40 freedom schools were organized that brought classes in reading, math, politics, and African American history to black children

Nation of Islam (NOI) • How did the philosophy of Elijah Muhammad and the NOI differ from that of Dr. King and the mainstream civil rights movement of CORE, the SCLC, and the SNCC? • What Muhammad successor and Dr. King contemporary sought common ground with the mainstream movement?

• Elijah Muhammad

Malcolm X and Black Consciousness • Nation of Islam (NOI) was founded in Depressionera Detroit by Elijah Muhammad • Unlike the post World War II civil rights movement, the NOI aspired to create a selfreliant, proud, and separate nation for blacks • Born Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X converted to the NOI while in prison and became a dynamic force in the movement, ridiculing the integrationist goals of Dr. King and the SCLC

Malcolm X undergoes a radical alteration in my whole outlook about “white” men • Following a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he met Islamic peoples of all colors, Malcolm abandoned his black separatist views and sought common ground with the civil rights movement; but he was assassinated in 1965

• Malcolm X

Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Following his election in his own right in 1964, President Johnson and his staff began work on a comprehensive voting rights bill • To garner support for the legislation, Dr. King and his followers once again plotted to create a crisis that would arouse national indignation and pressure Congress into cooperating • Selma, Alabama had a notorious reputation for preventing black voting and a sheriff – Jim Clark – who activists believed would respond to a march there much like Bull Connor had in Birmingham

“Bloody Sunday” in Selma • Why did Dr. King choose Selma, Alabama as the site for a voting rights march and did it work as he envisioned?

“Bloody Sunday” • March 7 600 activists, attempting to march out of Selma on the way to Montgomery in support of voting rights, were stopped by Clark and the local police at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge • The lawmen attacked the crowd with billy clubs and tear gas, driving the marchers back in a bloody rout

Bloody Sunday in Selma • Edmund Pettus Bridge in Background

Voting Rights Act of 1965 • News coverage of “Bloody Sunday” prompted national uproar • March 15 President Johnson delivered a televised address to joint session of Congress • March 21 Dr. King led a group of more than 3,000 black and white marchers out of Selma on the road to Montgomery • August 1965 President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act into law

Impact of Voting Rights Act in the South

Peak of Civil Rights Movement • The Voting Rights Act authorized the federal government to supervise voter registration in the states and outlawed poll taxes and literacy tests • 10 years after Rosa Parks’ arrest in Montgomery, African Americans were no longer confined to segregated facilities and could enjoy full participation in American politics

Dr. King’s Assassination • Dr. King’s campaign of non-violence and the sacrifices of countless participants succeeded in desegregating public facilities and ending voting rights discrimination, but economic inequality persisted and new leaders emerged to fragment the movement by advocating violent means • Dr. King strove to maintain control of the movement but his struggle ended with his assassination in Memphis in 1968 • Dr. King’s death prompted an outbreak of urban riots, but when the initial heartbreak subsided, most African Americans committed themselves to continuing his legacy of non-violence

Lorraine Hotel in Memphis • The balcony on which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died

Today a

Inside…the legacy continues