Transcript Document

Examples of tactics, organizations, leaders,
and Supreme Court decisions of the civil
rights movement up to 1960
NAACP
SCLC
Boyton v. Virginia
SNCC
CORE
Brown v. Board of Education
Challenging Segregation
nonviolent resistance
Thurgood Marshall
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
legal action
Medger Evers
Steps that African Americans took to
desegregate buses and schools
from 1962 to 1965.
1965
1964
1963
1962
Voting Rights Act passed and 24th Amendment
ratified
Johnson signs Civil Rights Act.
• Protests, boycotts, and media coverage force Birmingham to
end segregation.
• Kennedy orders troops to desegregate the University of Alabama.
• March on Washington takes place.
A federal court case allows James Meredith to enroll in
the University of Mississippi.
African American Anger
• James Baldwin
• A gifted writer in his
book, Notes of a Native
Son and The Fire Next
Time, he wrote about
the damaging effects of
segregation
Impact of Segregation
– De jure segregation – rigid pattern of separation
dictated by law
– De facto segregation – separation that resulted from
the ghetto conditions in many northern cities not by
law
– Baldwin argued that because of segregation:
• African Americans were becoming independent
• African American anger was ready to erupt
Malcolm X
Background
• Born in 1925
– Father was a Marcus Garvey fan
– Grew up during the Great
Depression/turns to crime
• While in prison for attempted
burglary Malcolm studied about
the Nation of Islam
• When he was released in 1952
he converted to Islam & changed
his name to Malcolm X
Elijah Muhammad
& Self-Sufficiency
• The leader of the Nation of
Islam
• Believed in black nationalism.
• Did not believe in seeking
political change.
• Taught that Allah (the Muslim
name for God) would bring
about a “Black Nation,” a union
among all nonwhite peoples.
• Meanwhile, he thought that
blacks should lead righteous
lives and work to become
economically self-sufficient.
Muhammad Ali converted to the Nation of Islam
in 1965, under leader Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm X – Black Nationalism
• Malcolm’s beliefs
– Preached black nationalism, that African
Americans must be a strong, unified, and
separate community.
– White society was perceived as the
enemy.
– Malcolm X disagreed with the goals and
strategies of the early civil rights
movement.
– “all of this non-violent, begging-thewhite-man kind of dying”
– Believed blacks shouldn’t integrate but
form a separate, self-reliant society and
economy.
Malcolm X: Mecca
• As an Islamic pilgrimage, Malcolm X traveled to Mecca,
Saudi Arabia in 1964.
• Seeing millions of interracial Muslims worshiping peacefully
together completely transformed him.
• Changed his hatred toward whites and separatist views.
Malcolm X Assassinated
• When he returned, he
appeared ready to work with
other civil rights leaders and
white Americans.
• His radical transformation
created enemies with his
former friends.
• In 1965, just nine months
after returning, he was shot to
death in NY by members of
the Nation of Islam.
Black Power Rages
SNCC Shifts Gears
• Stokely Carmichael, born in
Trinidad, came to the U.S. and
became involved in the SNCC.
• Grew tired of nonviolence and
arrests
• He believed in the idea of Black
Power
• Blacks need to unite as one
• Blacks need to build a sense
of community
• Blacks need to stand up and
fight for freedom
• Carry guns for self-defense
“The
only way we gonna stop
them white men from whippin’
us is to take over. We been
saying freedom for six yearsand we ain’t got nothin’. What
we gonna start saying now is
‘black power!’”
–Carmichael
Black Panther Party - 1966
• The Black Power movement turned into a
new organization called the Black Panther
Party led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
– Blacks need to lead their own communities
– Blacks need to demand the federal gov’t rebuild
the nation
– They believed in the idea that “Power flows
from the barrel of a gun” Mao Zedong
– They believed in protecting each other and
standing up for their own people even against
the cops
Riots in the Streets
• In 1964 riots ravaged major cities such as New
York and Los Angeles
• The worst riot was the Watts Riot on August 11,
1965
– Police pulled over a black man that was drunk driving
– When he resisted arrest one of the cops started beating
him with his riot stick
– This action set of six days of riots in the Watts ghetto
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•
•
•
They burned cars and businesses
Vandalized businesses and stole merchandise
Shot at fire fighters as they came to put out fires
34 people died / 1,000 were injured
MLK Assassinated April 4, 1968
• In 1968, King was campaigning for his movement to help reduce
poverty in Memphis, Tennessee.
• Gave “Mountain Top” speech
• Next day, shot while standing on hotel balcony by James Earl Ray
Response
• The nations was devastated by King’s
assassination.
• President Johnson order flags to half mast.
• Frustrated, many African Americans
believed King’s death meant the death to
nonviolent change.
• Riots broke out throughout the country.
Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
• Robert F. Kennedy was a major civil rights supporter.
• Served as Attorney General for brother, JFK.
• Robert was running for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1968, and winning, when assassinated.
RFK Assassinated June 5, 1968
• Robert F. Kennedy lying
wounded on the floor
immediately after the
shooting.
• Kneeling beside him is 17year-old Juan Romero,
who was shaking
Kennedy's hand when
Sirhan Sirhan fired the
shots.
Legacy of the Movement
• The death of MLK and Bobby Kennedy caused many to question if
true progress was made during the movement.
• Even today, racial, economic, and social divisions remain both
nationally and globally.
• However, the civil rights movement succeeded in ending the legal
discrimination of African Americans in the U.S., and in raising
awareness of race issues in our world.
• Protest methods are used in other protest (Anti-war, Women’s Lib)