The Unfinished Revolution Continued…

1. The Unfinished Revolution Continued… A Renewed Struggle for Civil Rights

2. What problems did African-Americans face after the End of Reconstruction? Do Now

3. Strange Fruit Southern trees bear strange fruitBlood on the leavesBlood at the rootBlack bodies swinging in the southern breezeStrange fruit hanging from the poplar treesPastoral scene of the gallant southThe bulging eyes and the twisted mouthThe scent of magnolia sweet and freshThen the sudden smell of burning fleshHere is a fruit for the crows to pluckfor the rain to gatherfor the wind to suckfor the sun to rotfor the tree to dropHere is a strange and bitter crop

5. Objective: How did African-Americans struggle to “overcome” inequality and racial discrimination in order to achieve racial justice?

8. Early Civil Rights Leaders • Many prominent early civil rights leaders, including Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, offered contrasting (different) strategies to improve the lives of African Americans.

9. Booker T. Washington“At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.” • Booker T. Washington, a former slave and founder of the Tuskegee Institute, argued that African Americans should temporarily out aside their desire for political equality and instead focus on building economic security by gaining vocational skills. • This strategy, he believed would increase black self-esteem and earn them the respect of white society.

10. W.E.B. Du Bois“The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?” • Called for the brightest African-Americans to gain an advanced liberal arts education (rather than vocational training) and protest to demand immediate social and political equality. • In 1909, Du Bois helped to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP used lawsuits as a weapon on in the fight against discrimination.

11. Marcus Garvey“Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.” • Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, an African American nationalist and separatist group, in 1914. • The group wanted a separate African American economy and urged African Americans to emigrate to Africa. • Many of Garvey’s ideas would influence the Black Power movement of the 1960s.

12. Ida. B. Wells“Although lynchings have steadily increased in number and barbarity during the last twenty years, there has been no single effort put forth by the many moral and philanthropic forces of the country to put a stop to this wholesale slaughter.” • a journalist who launched a lifelong national crusade against lynching in the 1890s. • She was also a suffragist a founder member of the NAACP.

13. Beginnings of Change • Until well into the 20th century, much of the South was segregated. • Although segregation was less apparent in the North, African Americans were generally restricted to poorer neighborhoods and lower-paying jobs. • Not until 1947, when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play on a major league baseball team, did public attitudes on segregation begin to change.

14. Truman’s Policy on Civil Rights “I am asking for equality of opportunity for all human beings…and if that ends up in my failure to be reelected, that failure ill be in a good cause.” - Harry Truman

15. Truman’s Policy of Civil Rights • In 1946, President Truman appointed a presidential commission on civil rights. • Truman asked congress for several measures including a federal anti-lynchying law, a ban on the poll tax as a voting requirement and the establishment of a fair employment practices commission. • However, Congress failed to act on the idea. • Using his powers as commander in chief, Truman issued an executive order banning segregation in the armed forces and strengthened the Justice Department’s civil rights division, which aided blacks who challenged segregation in the courts.

16. Civil Rights and the Courts • Which court case made “separate but equal” the law of the land? Plessy v Ferguson (1896) – Declared Jim Crow Laws legal

17. Civil Rights and the Courts • In the 1950’s the Supreme Court made several important decisions concerning the civil rights of African Americans. • In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren, former governor of California, as chief justice. • During his time as chief justice, the Court reached a number of decisions that affected many areas of American life, including civil rights for African Americans.

18. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas(1954) • Only one year after he became chief justice, Warren presided over the court as it reached a landmark decision, • Linda Brown, a young African American, was refused admittance to an all-white school, due to the previous Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. • In a unanimous decision, the Court reversed its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson and held that in the field of public education, “the doctrine of separate but equal has no place.”

19. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas(1954)

21. Emmett Till

22. Emmett Till • In the summer of 1955, Emmett had just turned 14. • Emmet had an infectious personality. • "Emmett was a funny guy all the time. He had a suitcase of jokes that he liked to tell…He loved to make people laugh. He was a chubby kid; most of the guys were skinny, but he didn't let that stand in his way.” • In August 1955, Emmett's great uncle Moses Wright came up from Mississippi and paid the family a visit. On his way back, he was taking Emmett's cousin Wheeler Parker with him to spend time with relatives down South. When Emmett heard that, he wanted to go. • The day before Emmett left, his mother had given him a ring to wear, a possession she had from her former husband and Emmett’s father.

23. Emmett Till • On the evening of August 24, 1955, Emmett Till went with his cousins and some friends to Bryant's Grocery for refreshments after picking cotton in the hot sun. • The boys went into the store one or two at a time to buy soda pop or bubble gum. Emmett walked in and bought two cents' worth of bubble gum. • Though exactly what happened next is uncertain, Emmett flirted with, whistled at, or touched the hand or waist of Carolyn, who ran the grocery store with her husband. She stormed out of the store. The kids outside said she was going to get a pistol. Frightened, Emmett and his group left. • A few nights later, a mob forced themselves into Till’s grandfather’s house and took Emmet, never again to be seen alive. • His body was three days later, swollen and disfigured, only identifiable by his ring. • His body was sent to Chicago where his mother insisted on having an open casket at the funeral.

24. Open Casket of Emmett Till Why did Emmett Till’s mother want an open casket? What was the impact? “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.” -Emmett Till’s mother

25. The Murder of Emmett Till • On the day he was buried, two men, the husband of the women and his half brother, were charged with his murder. • The 12 member, all-white male jury, some of whom had participated in the Till’s torture and execution, took only an hour to return a “not guilty” verdict. • Just months after Emmett Till's murder, Look magazine published "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi," in which Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam confessed to the crime. • Why would Bryant and Milam not be afraid to confess to the crime?

26. Moses Wright • When the trial began, Moses defied all odds and testified • he stood up in open court and pointed his weathered finger at Milam and Bryant • With the simple words "Thar he," Moses Wright went down in history • It may have been the first time when a black man stood in open court in the South and accused a white man of a crime -- and lived.

27. Write a paragraph in your notebook supporting or refuting (disagreeing with) the statement below: The use of violence is an acceptable and effective way to push for change in society? DO NOW The use of violence is…

28. Aim: How were Malcolm X’s beliefs different from Martin Luther King Jr.?

29. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X

30. “Independence comes only two ways-by ballots or bullets. Historically you’ll find that everyone who gets freedom gets it by ballots or bullets. Now naturally everyone prefers ballots, and even I prefer ballots, but I don’t discount bullets…”

31. “Violence is not going to solve our problem…urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence…can reap nothing but grief…”

32. “Now, let us say that we are not calling for violence…the only weapon we have in our hands is the weapon of protest…we will be guided by the highest principles of law and order. In spite of our mistreatment, we must not become bitter and end up hating our white brothers…”

33. “I think if there’s going to be a flowing of blood, it should be reciprocal. Black people shouldn’t be willing to bleed unless white people are willing to bleed. And black people shouldn’t be willing to be nonviolent unless white people are going to be nonviolent.”

34. “Our goal is to bring about the complete independence and freedom of people of African descent in the United States.”

35. “An unjust law is no law at all. It is better to go to jail with dignity than to accept segregation in humility…we will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”

36. Little Rock

37. Little Rock • Although the Brown case opened the door for desegregation, integration did not follow immediately. • Many Americans were shocked by the decision. • In the South, Whites began campaigns of “massive resistance” to public school desegregation. • Despite the Supreme Courts order that school integration go forward “with deliberate speed,” many school systems openly defied the ruling. • In 1957, the governor of Arkansas, OrvalFaubus, ordered the state’s national guard to prevent nine African American Students, “Little Rock Nine,” from attending Central High School in Little Rock, Does Faubus have the right to defy the ruling by the U.S Supreme Court?

38. Little Rock

39. Little Rock • President Eisenhower was reluctant to step in, but the governor’s defiance was a direct challenge to the Constitution. • Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division to Central High School. • What presidential role is President Eisenhower enacting by sending federal troops?

40. Little Rock • At the end of the school year, the governor continued his defiance by ordering all city high schools closed for the following year. • The tactic fail, in 1959 he first racially integrated class graduated from Central High School.

41. African American Activism • Public facilities of all kinds were segregated in the South – schools, movie theaters, lunch counters, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses and trains. Rather then wait for court rulings to end segregation, in the 1950’s, African Americans began to organize the Civil Rights Movement. How did African Americans begin to take direct action to end segregation?

42. The Montgomery Bus Boycott • Just a few months after Emmitt Till’s murder, a 43-year-old civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, refuses to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and is arrested. • Parks' arrest inspires black leaders to mount a one-day bus boycott. With the help of Jo Ann Robinson of the Women's Political Council, 40,000 people are organized in just two days. • On the night of December 5, 1955, elated at the day's success in emptying the buses, boycotters assemble at the Holt Street Baptist Church and vote to keep the protest going. A main speaker is a new minister in town, 26-year-old Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

43. The Montgomery Bus Boycott • The boycott lasts until December 1956. • Boycotters walk and rely on volunteer drivers in a carpool system to get where they need to go, and gain strength in nightly mass meetings. • The bus company suffers economically; violence erupts; bombs are thrown at organizers' homes; and the white Citizens Council and the KKK hold rallies. • At last, a Supreme Court decision integrates the buses, and soon thousands of black riders are on the buses again -- sitting where they please.

44. Civil Rights Legislation • Congress also made some moves to ensure civil rights for African Americans. • In August 1957, it passed the first civil rights act since Reconstruction. • The bill created a permanent commission for civil rights and increased federal efforts to ensure blacks the right to vote. • Another bill in 1960 further strengthened voting rights for African Americans. • Although these bills had only limited effectiveness, they did mark the beginning of change.

45. African Americans Organize • African Americans formed a number of different groups that used a variety of approaches in the attempt to achieve justice and equality • Many groups followed the nonviolent method introduced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCL), an organization of clergy who shifted the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement to the South • Many civil rights activists protested using civil disobedience, and as a result were often arrested or beaten

46. Major African American Organizations

47. James Meredith • In September 1962, Air Force veteran James Meredith, armed with a federal court order, attempted to register for classes at the previously all-white University of Mississippi • Blocked by state officials and violent mobs, Meredith was only able to enroll after the Kennedy Administration sent in federal troops and marshals

48. Greensboro • Practicing civil disobedience, demonstrators protested discrimination at segregated lunch counters and buses. • Sit-ins at lunch counters began at Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960 • A group of African Americans sat at a “whites only” lunch counter and refused to leave until served • As such protests became popular, some sympathetic whites often joined sit-ins

49. Birmingham • In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC began a campaign, Project “C” – for confrontation, to bring interrogation to Birmingham, Alabama, which many considered the most segregated city in the South • It gained the nickname "Bombingham" for the many violent acts against black citizens. • Governor George Wallace declares, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," in January 1963

50. Birmingham • When Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested, he writes his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which justifies the movement's work. • In early May, activists begin recruiting children to march. By the end of the first day, 700 have been arrested. • On May 3rd, 1000 more children show up to peacefully protest, and segregationist Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor turns high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on them, creating some of the most indelibly violent images to date. • Horrified Americans see it all on the news. After five days, 2500 protesters fill the jails, 2000 of them children.