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The Civil Rights Movement America’s Struggle for Equality in the 20 th Century

The Civil Rights Movement America’s Struggle for Equality in the 20 th Century. African-American Leadership at the Dawn of the 20 th Century.

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The Civil Rights Movement America’s Struggle for Equality in the 20 th Century

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  1. The Civil Rights MovementAmerica’s Struggle for Equality in the 20th Century

  2. African-American Leadership at the Dawn of the 20th Century • Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute and advocated a gradualist approach to civil rights and equality – his own life story (Up from Slavery) made the case for achieving social and economic equality before political equality • W.E.B. Du Bois helped to found the NAACP and encouraged efforts to achieve civil rights and political equality as soon as possible; a product of the so-called “Niagara Movement”

  3. African-American Challenges & Gains in the Early 20th Century • Segregation, racism, and lynching remained serious problems in the first three decades of the 20th century • African-Americans contributed directly to victory in both world wars and became a key element in FDR’s New Deal coalition • Great Migration (c. 1917-1945) brought many African-Americans to northern urban centers in search of jobs; created both friction and economic opportunity • Culturally, the Harlem Renaissance raised the status of African-Americans in the eyes of “white” America (ex: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith)

  4. Civil Rights in World War II & After • A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, launched the “Double-V Campaign” in 1941 to protest discrimination in war industries and in the military – FDR issued an executive order requiring equal pay for equal work in war industries • James Farmer founded CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in 1942 to protest segregation in the North – racial violence erupted in 1943 • Democratic Party adds a civil rights plank in 1948 – “Dixiecrats” split off in protest but Truman wins re-election anyway and desegregates the military in 1948

  5. School Desegregation • The Warren Court overturned “separate but equal” (established by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896) in Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954); Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP represented the plaintiff successfully • Led to conflicts over desegregation of schools, ex: Little Rock Central High School (1957) where the federal government intervened to force integration

  6. The Birth of the Movement • Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat; Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a major leader of the boycott and organized the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in 1957 • CORE and the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) also organized sit-ins at lunch counters and other forms of non-violent resistance from the late 1950s to the 1960s

  7. Intensified Activism, 1961-63 • 1961 – CORE organized the Freedom Riders, who are greeted by angry mobs in Alabama – JFK sends in federal marshals to protects them • 1962 – James Meredith attempts to enter “Ole Miss”; federal marshals intervene • 1963 - SCLC targets Birmingham for desegregation; Police Chief “Bull” Connor leads a violent crackdown that results in MLK’s imprisonment and a national backlash against segregationist tactics • 1963 – over one million march on Washington to hear MLK’s “I Have Dream” speech on the National Mall; motivates Kennedy and Congress to take action

  8. Civil Rights Legislation • “Grass-roots” activism and Kennedy’s death provided the popular support necessary for LBJ and Congress to take action: • Civil Rights Act of 1964 – banned segregation in public facilities and established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) • 24th Amendment (1964) banned poll taxes • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – eliminated literacy tests and enabled federal examiners to register voters • These actions effectively enforced the 14th and 15th Amendments and completed the failed dream of Radical Reconstruction 100 years before • LBJ led the Democratic Party into a new era but it cost the Democrats the “Solid South” by 1968

  9. Radicalization of the Movement • Watts Riot in 1965 ushered in four years of urban violence even as civil rights legislation took effect • MLK openly opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam; boxer Muhammed Ali defied his draft order to protest the war • Malcolm X (Nation of Islam) preached a message of resistance and separation from white society • SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael started the Black Power movement in 1966 • Black Panthers founded in 1966 to openly fight police brutality in cities

  10. The Dream Deferred? • MLK’s assassination in April 1968 struck a blow to the movement • Kerner Commission (1968) reported that the major cause of racial violence and low social-economic conditions for blacks was white racism • De facto segregation replaced de jure segregation, “white flight” resulted from desegregation fights • Problems of poverty, crime, poor health, and lack of educational opportunities continued to plague African-Americans in the 20th century, despite many advances (examples: Thurgood Marshall’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 1967 and federal support for affirmative action)

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