The Civil Rights Movement 1954‐1965 Background: Segrega@on and Jim Crow Laws 1863: Emancipa@on Proclama@on 1865: FiJeenth Amendment passed ‐ right to vote not to be abridged by race 1865: Lincoln assassinated, Andrew Johnson President 1865‐1877: Radical Reconstruc@on ‐ former Confederate states occupied by federal troops, policies of Reconstruc@on implemented. Vo@ng rights for freedmen. 1865: Ku Klux Klan formed ‐ violent opposi@on to vo@ng on part of freedmen Segrega@on, Jim Crow, con@nued 1877: Compromise reached between Republican and Democra@c par@es, federal troops withdrawn, Southern Democrats return to power 1890‐1910: Southern states pass laws that disenfranchise blacks ‐ poll tax, literacy test 1898: Williams v. Mississippi ‐ Supreme Court approves measures Mississippi plan to disenfranchise blacks 1898: Plessy v. Furguson ‐ Supreme Court approves “separate but equal” The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement: Sources Economic moderniza@on in the South drives rural blacks to the North and to the southern ci@es This leads to poli@cal moderniza@on: demand for equality, in par@cular the vote Republicans and Democrats vie for the black vote Racism in the South glaringly contradicts the US portrayal of itself as bas@on of democracy, leader of the “free world” The Civil Rights Movement: Precursors 1941: Philip A. Randolph, March on Washington Movement: FEPC established 1940s: Supreme Court decisions weakening segrega@on (interstate travel) 1954: Brown v Board of Educa@on (Topeka, Kansas): “separate but equal” uncons@tu@onal. Won by NAACP Driving force: pressure on part of influen@al figures, black and white White Ci@zens’ Councils acack NAACP: outlawed in
Alabama The Montgomery Bus Boycoc 1955‐6: Montgomery Bus Boycoc ‐ Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, Women’s Poli@cal Caucus, Dr. Mar@n Luther King. Montgomery Improvement Associa@on. Bus Boycoc Con@nued 1956: Victory ‐ Supreme Court declares Alabama’s bus segrega@on laws uncons@tu@onal 1957: King forms Southern Chris@an Leadership Conference (SCLC) Leadership: local black teachers, ministers Base: the black churches, the black community Sit‐Ins 1957: Licle Rock, Arkansas: 9 black students enroll in Central High in the face of violent white mobs; Eisenhower federalizes Arkansas Na@onal Guard 1960, Feb. 1: Four black students, in Greensboro, North Carolina, sit at a lunch counter and ask to be served. Sit‐ins spread through black colleges in the South Sit‐Ins Con@nued 1960: Student ac@vists form Student Nonviolent Coordina@ng Commicee (SNCC) with support from SCLC 1960‐61: Direct Ac@on organiza@ons (SNCC, SCLC, CORE) con@nue sit‐ins: 500,000 people par@cipate, 3,600 go to jail Base: southern black college students Leadership: nonviolent direct ac@on organiza@ons (SCLC, CORE, SNCC) Mass Mobiliza@on/Voter Registra@on 1960: Democrats now in office: JFK Federal Government urges Civil Rights organiza@ons to focus on campaign for vo@ng rights 1961‐2: SNCC creates two projects: voter registra@on and direct ac@on. Voter Educa@on Project: COFO (SNCC, CORE, SCLC) September 1962: Gov. Ross Barnet refuses to allow James Meredith to enroll at University of Mississippi; Meredith wins 1962‐3: Albany, Georgia: acempts to desegregate bus terminals lead to arrests and to mass movement against segrega@on Con@nua@on of strategy of mass mobiliza@on: focus debated Spreading Protest, Violent Resistance 1963: Birmingham: mass campaign against segrega@on: SCLC, SNCC, local federa@on led by Rev. Fred Shuclesworth. Thousands march, 1963: Kennedy calls for civil thousands jailed. Many facili@es desegregated rights bill 1963: Rising violence: Medgar Evars, secretary of Mississippi NAACP, shot and killed 1963, August: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 250,000 people Civil Rights Becomes Na@onal Issue 1963 (September): four licle girls killed in bombing of Birmingham church 1963 (November): JFK assassinated, Lyndon Johnson becomes President 1964: Mississippi Summer: Northern whites join black ac@vists in registering blacks. Three killed: James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner 1964 (August): Mississippi Freedom Democra@c Party acempts to unseat all‐white Mississippi delega@on Federal Government Forced to Act Civil Rights Act of 1964: guaranteed blacks the right to vote. Ques@on: Federal enforcement 1965 (January): SCLC mobilizes mass demonstra@ons in Selma, Alabama. March 9: King leads march from Selma toward Montgomery, march met with Alabama Troopers, march turns back March 21: march of 8.000 takes place again, under protec@on of federal government, reaches Montgomery August 6: Civil Rights Act of 1965 (introduced March 17) passes Congress. Authorizes Acorney General toplace federal vo@ng registrars in coun@es where blacks denied the vote Stages of Civil Rights Movement First half of twen@eth century: NAACP Persuasion/legal ac@on Philosophy: par@cipa@on in the exis@ng legal/
poli@cal process Cons@tuency: highly educated, influen@al leaders, black and white 1956: NAACP under acack, made illegal in Alabama: facilitated shiJ to another model Stages of the Civil Rights Movement 2 SCLC, SNCC, CORE: mobilizing mass ac@on philosophy: nonviolent direct ac@on cons@tuency: black churches, black colleges, black communi@es approach: direct ac@on: mass mobiliza@ons to disrupt, and bring public acen@on to, func@oning of segrega@on; involvement of white allies Stages of Civil Rights Movement 3 ShiJ to revolu@onary rhetoric and separa@st prac@ce Causes: rising racist violence frustra@on with reluctance of Federal Government to back civil rights or defend civil rights ac@vists experience of MFDP (Mississippi Freedom Democra@c Party) at 1964 Democra@c Conven@on: even the liberals seen as betraying the movement Cons@tuency: civil rights ac@vists, blacks in northern ghecos Movement Tac@cs and Strategies Mobiliza@on of already‐exis@ng, @ghtly knit communi@es: the black church, the black colleges, en@re urban popula@ons Reliance on already exis@ng local black leadership: ministers, teachers Values rooted in black church: non‐violence, solidarity (the “beloved community,”) search for allies, faith in jus@ce Tac@cs: nonviolent direct ac@on: a) Mass nonviolent obstruc@on of segregated ins@tu@ons b) Tableaux drama@cally portraying both the problem and its solu@on (i.e. persecu@on of blacks acemp@ng to vote; solu@on, ensure the right to vote) Overall strategy: massive pressure, prac@cal and moral, on the Federal Government