L9: The Civil Rights Movement 1948-1975 (Part One)

L9: The Civil Rights Movement 1948-1975 (Part One) Equality and Hierarchy: The African American Experience • Agenda • Objective: • To understand the background the leading up to the Civil Rights Movement of 1948 to 1975. • To understand the Civil Rights approach of Martin Luther King • Schedule: • Mini-Lecture • Reading & Discussion Homework: Consult Unit Schedule. Remember: Final Paper Due ... (Tan = Thurs 11/1; Red & Blue = Fri 11/2);

The Civil Rights Movement 1948-1975 • We will spend the next several days learning about the emergence and success (?) of the Civil Rights movement from 1948-1975. • In particular, we will want to look at the dual approaches to gaining Civil Rights put forth by the movement’s leaders: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. • We will see where their ideas converged and departed, and how their visions helped to produce the ultimate outcome of the Civil Rights movement.

Plan of Study • Need to push our unit back two days, because we will spend 6, not 4, days on Civil Rights!!! • Day One: Background to the Civil Rights Movement & Intro to Martin Luther King Jr. • Day Two: MLK’s approach & actions • Day Three: Intro to Malcolm X • Day Four: Malcolm X’s approach & actions • Day Five: Discussion of the various approaches • Day Six:The Resolution and Success (?) of the Civil Rights Movement. • Paper dates will stay the same!!

Mini-Lecture: Key Events Leading up to the Civil Rights Movement

What is the Civil Rights Movement? • 1948-1975 • The civil rights movement was a political, legal, and social struggle to gain equality, full citizenship, and identity for African Americans. • Marked by competing visions of: • Meaning of equality • Meaning of full citizenship • Nature of Black identity • Methods to use when pursuing rights

Key Events Building Up to the Civil Rights Movement

Plessy Vs. Ferguson (1896) • As a challenge to the Jim Crow laws, in the late 1800s, African Americans sued to stop separate seating in railroad cars, states’disfranchisement of voters, and denial of access to schools and restaurants. • One of the cases against segregated rail travel was Plessy v. Ferguson • The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that “separate but equal” accommodations were constitutional

Brown Vs. Board of Education (1954) • Challenge to a Kansas law mandating separate schools for black and white students • Put forth by the NAACP • Ruling stated racially segregated education was unconstitutional • Overturned the Plessy decision

Little Rock Nine (1957) • Virtually no schools in the South segregated their schools in the first years following the Brown decision. • In 1957, the Arkansas defied a federal court required the admission of nine African American students to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. • President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce desegregation. • The event was covered by the national media, and the fate of the nine students attempting to integrate the school gripped the nation.

Increased Racial Terror and the Emmett Till (1955) • Till was an African American boy who was brutally murdered in Mississippi by two white men after saying “bye baby” to the wife of one of the men. • Till’s body was beaten so badly that it was unrecognizable • Till was 14 when he was murdered • He was visiting relatives in Mississippi at the time; he was from Chicago • Till’s mother insisted on an open casket at the funeral so that all could view the brutality inflicted on her son. • Newspapers published images of Till’s body, as a result intense scrutiny was placed on the treatment of blacks in the south. • Till’s murderers were acquitted, but later admitted to the crime.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 • In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a member of the Montgomery, Alabama, branch of the NAACP, was told to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. • When Parks refused to move, she was arrested. • Montgomery’s African American community had long been angry about their mistreatment on city buses where white drivers were rude and abusive. • Overnight a boycott was organized • The bus boycott was an immediate success, with almost unanimous support from the African Americans in Montgomery. • The boycott lasted for more than a year, expressing to the nation the determination of African Americans in the South to end segregation. • In November 1956, a federal court ordered Montgomery’s buses desegregated and the boycott ended in victory.

The Civil Rights Movement Gains Momentum: Martin Luther King Junior

Martin Luther King Junior • 1929-1968 • Born in Atlanta Georgia • Baptist minister • President of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that directed the boycott • The most prominent leader of the Black Civil Rights Movement • Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 • Assassinated as a result of his beliefs

Martin Luther King Junior’s Approach to Gaining Civil Rights • You will look at Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963) • Consider • What does equality mean to King? • What does full citizenship mean to King? • What does black identity mean to King? • What methods does King advocate in pursuit of these goals? • Discussion

L9: The Civil Rights Movement 1948-1975 (Part One)