Chapter 21

A. The Segregation System

1. 1875 Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in

public facilities
1883: declared unconstitutional

2. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

separate but equal
led to Jim Crow laws in the South

 3. World War II
a. led to need for more laborers

FDRs executive order prohibited discrimination in war

industries

b. Congress

of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.)

B. Challenging Segregation in Court

1. Thurgood Marshall & NAACP
Won 29 out of 32 cases argued
2. 1946: Morgan v. Virginia
laws mandating segregated seating on interstate
buses were unconstitutional
3. 1950: Sweatt v. Painter
state professional schools must admit black
applicants, even if separate black schools exist

 4. 1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

segregation in public schools was unconstitutional
5. 1955: Brown II
Sup. Court

ordered school desegregation

implemented with all deliberate speed

C. Major Events
1. Emmett Till (1955)

 2. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King, Jr.

There comes a time when people get

tired of being trampled over by the
iron feet of oppression. . . . I want it to
be knownthat were going to work
with grim and bold determinationto
gain justice on buses in this city. And
we are not wrong. . . . If we are
wrongthe Supreme Court of this
nation is wrong. If we are wrongGod
Almighty is wrong. . . . If we are
wrongjustice is a lie. Martin Luther
King, Jr.

 3. 1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(SCLC)
Purpose: carry on nonviolent crusades

against the evils

of second-class citizenship.
MLK, Jr.: soul force (civil disobedience)

 4. 1957 Little Rock Nine

AR Gov. Orval Faubus ordered Natl Guard to stop integration
of Central HS

 5. 1957: Civil Rights Act set up Civil Rights

Commission

 6. 1960: Student Non-violent Coordinating

Committee (SNCC)
used sit-ins

to protest segregation

Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, NC

A. Freedom Riders (1961)

1. rode through the South testing desegregation

on interstate buses
2. JFK called in federal marshals for protection

B. Standing Firm
1. James Meredith (1962)
Integration of Ole

Miss (University of Mississippi)

Oxford Town, Oxford Town

Evrybodys got their heads bowed
down
The sun dont shine above the
ground
Aint a-goin down to Oxford Town
He went down to Oxford Town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face was brown
Better get away from Oxford Town
Oxford Town around the bend
He come in to the door, he couldnt
get in
All because of the color of his skin
What do you think about that, my
frien?

Me and my gal, my gals son

We got met with a tear gas bomb
I dont even know why we come
Goin back where we come from
Oxford Town in the afternoon
Evrybody singin a sorrowful tune
Two men died neath the
Mississippi moon
Somebody better investigate soon
Oxford Town, Oxford Town
Evrybodys got their heads bowed
down
The sun dont shine above the
ground
Aint a-goin down to Oxford Town

 2. Birmingham (the most segregated city in America)

SCLC attempted desegregation
Attack on childrens crusade shown on TV

3. Integration of Univ. of Alabama

Gov. George Wallace Segregation now! Segregation
tomorrow! Segregation forever!

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:

I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham since you have been influenced
by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I, along with several
members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have
organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets
of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far
beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his
village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the GrecoRoman world, so I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own
home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I
cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in
Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in
an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever
affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the
narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States
can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

 4. 1963: JFK demanded that Congress pass a civil

rights bill

C. March on Washington (Aug.1963)

1. demanded passage of the civil rights bill
2. MLK, Jr. gave I Have a Dream speech
3. Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited

discrimination based on race, religion, national

origin, & gender.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBenuG
oM1HI&feature=related

D. Fighting for Voting Rights

1. 24th Amendment (1964) outlawed poll taxes
2. Freedom Summer (1964)
CORE and SNCC registered Afr-Amers. voters in the
South (esp. MS)
Three civil rights workers disappeared

 3. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)

tried to have a voice in the 1964 Democratic
Convention, represented by Fannie Lou Hamer denied
a seat at the convention
4. Selma march (1965)
A march from Selma, AL to Montgomery to protest
voting discrimination. Violence broke out and it was all
captured by TV cameras.

 5. Voting Rights Act (1965)

The law

eliminated literacy tests and allowed federal

examiners to enroll voters who had been denied
suffrage by local officials.

A. Civil Rights outside the South

1. de facto segregation
segregation that

exists by practice and custom

2. de jure segregation
segregation by law

 3. Urban violence
Watts Riot (Los Angeles, 1965)
Detroit Riots (1967)

B. Other Leaders & Strategies

1. Malcolm X
part of the

Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)

blacks should separate from white society
armed self-defense
1964 broke away from the Nation of Islam and
adopted a new slogan ballots or bullets.
1965 shot and killed during a speech in Harlem.

 2. Stokely Carmichael
SNCC leader who advocated the idea of Black Power;
MLK Jr. disagreed with this
urged SNCC to stop recruiting whites and to focus on
developing African-American pride

 3. Black Panthers
political party founded by Huey Newton and Bobby
Seale in 1966
advocated self-sufficiency for African-American
communities, full employment, and decent housing
they preached self-defense and sold copies of Mao
Zedongs writings

C. 1968
1. April MLK Jr. assassinated by James Earl Ray in

Memphis, TN.
2. June assassination of Robert Kennedy.
3. Kerner Commission studied urban violence and
gave President LBJ recommendations on how to
stop it.
4. Civil Rights Act of 1968 ended discrimination in
housing.

D. Impact of the Civil Rights Movement

1. ended de jure segregation
2. gave African Americans greater pride in their

racial identity.
3. African Americans made substantial political
gains (voters, elected officials).
4. affirmative action making special efforts to
hire/enroll groups that have suffered discrimination