the civil rights movement the birmingham campaign

The Civil Rights Movement

The Birmingham Campaign

Defining the Civil Rights Movement:

• What are civil rights?

• How are civil rights different from civil liberties?

• Are all Americans entitled to the same civil rights?

What are civil liberties?

• Civil liberties refers to the freedoms one has from arbitrary governmental interference and are guaranteed in the United States by the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.

• Civil liberties include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc.

What are civil rights?

• Civil rights are the rights to personal liberty guaranteed to all U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th Amendments and by acts of Congress.

• Civil rights ensure equal opportunity to citizens regardless of race, religion or sex.

13th and 14th Amendments

• 13th Amendment - 1865 - Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

• 14th Amendment - 1868 - All persons born or naturalized in the United States - including former slaves - citizens of the country and guarantees equal protection of the laws.

• Plessy v. Ferguson - 1896 - Supreme Court ruled that ‘separate but equal’ did NOT violate the 14th Amendment.

• This promoted segregation in all facilities….

Jim Crow Laws

Did WWII set the stage for the Civil Rights Movement?

• Demand for soldiers in the 1940s created a labor shortage of white male laborers.

• Military was desegregated by Truman in 1948.

The NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

• Focus on the inequality between the separate schools.

• On average, the nation spent 10 times as much money educating a white child than an African-American child.

• Thurgood Marshall - won 29 out of 32 cases argued before the Supreme Court - including Brown v. Board.

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka

Background information

The father of 8-year-old Linda Brown charged the BOE of Topeka with violating Linda’s rights by denying her admission to an all-white elementary school four blocks from her house. The nearest all-black elementary school was 21 blocks away.

Brown v. Board ….

• May 17, 1954 - Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “In the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place.”

• The Supreme Court unanimously struck down segregation in schooling as a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Reaction to the Brown Decision:• Kansas and Oklahoma - ‘No problem’

• Texas - may ‘take years’ to work out

• Mississippi and Georgia - vowed total resistance - “The people of Georgia will not comply with the decision of the court…We’re going to do whatever is necessary in Georgia to keep white children in white schools and colored children in colored schools.” Herman Tallmadge, Governor.

Brown II

• 1955 - Supreme Court handed down a second ruling that ordered school desegregation to be implemented “with all deliberate speed.”

• President Eisenhower initially refused to force compliance - Little Rock, Arkansas would change his mind.

Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas• 1948 - 1st southern state to admit African-

Americans to state universities without a court order.

• 1957 – Little Rock, Ark. was to integrate Central High School. 9 black students volunteered to go.

• Governor Orval Faubus - halted the desegregation.

Little Rock con’t

• Sept. 1957 – Gov. ordered National Guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine” from CHS.

• Federal judge ordered the nine students

admitted into the school.

1998 - Elizabeth and Hazel outside of Central High School

Little Rock con’t• Eisenhower ordered Nat’l Guard under

federal control. The school was integrated for the rest of the year.

• Lots of tv coverage• Gov. Faubus shut CHS down at the end of

the year rather than see it integrate. • September 9, 1957 - Civil Rights Act of

1957 -gave the attorney general greater power over school desegregation. First civil rights law since Reconstruction.

Montgomery Bus Boycott• Rosa Parks - December 1, 1955 - refused to give

up her bus seat to a white man. Parks was arrested and fined $14.

• Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) - Martin Luther King, Jr. elected to lead the group.

• King convinced the blacks to boycott the bus system – (lasted 381 days)

Quote by Rosa Parks

• “ I am leaving this legacy to all of you, to bring peace, justice, equality, love, and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die – the dream of freedom and peace.”

• 1988 interview

Montgomery Bus Boycott con’t• Organized car pools or simply walked.

• 1956 - Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.

• This proved the African Americans could unite and organize successful protest movement. NONVIOLENT!

• “ Don’t ever let someone pull you so low as to hate them.” MLK Jr.

• Martin Luther King, Jr’s philosophy was called - ‘soul force’ - nonviolent resistance.

• He was influenced by:– Jesus - love one’s enemies– Thoreau - civil disobedience - refusal to obey

an unjust law.– Gandhi - resist oppression without violence.

• “We will not hate you, but we cannot…obey your unjust laws…We will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.” MLK Jr.

SCLC and SNCC• SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership

Conference.

• Purpose - “to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of second-class citizenship”

• First director - Ella Baker – granddaughter of slaves.

SNCC (pronounced ‘snick’)

• SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

• Purpose - to organize student protests to hurry the pace of change.

• Staged sit-ins - protestors sat at lunch counters and refused to leave until they were served.

Sit-ins• Greensboro, North Carolina - television

coverage brought the movement into homes across the country.

• Whites beat, jeered, and poured food over the protestors, who refused to strike back.

The Triumphs, Challenges, and Changes of the Civil Rights

Movement

March on WashingtonAugust 28, 1963

“Freedom Riders”

• Freedom Riders – black and white students who chose to ride buses to challenge interstate bus discrimination.

Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders

• Two buses - ride across the South challenging segregated interstate buses.

• Bus One - Birmingham - riders were beat with chains, brass knuckles, and pistol-whipped. Ride ends in B’ham.

• Bus Two - Anniston, Alabama. Tire blew and an angry white mob tossed a fire bomb onto the bus, which exploded into flames.

Reaction to Freedom Riders:• AG Robert Kennedy ordered the drivers of the

buses to keep driving to Jackson, MS.

• Pres. Kennedy sent in federal marshals to protect the riders to Jackson. Once there, they were arrested.

• 1961 - Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and President Kennedy banned segregation on all interstate travel facilities, waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters.

Ole Miss, 1962

• Oxford, Mississippi

• James Meredith – African – Am. Air Force veteran won federal court cases allowing him admission into Ole Miss.

• Governor denied Meredith admission.

• Riots broke out on campus - 2 killed

Birmingham, Alabama• 18 bombings, 1957-1963

• April 1963 MLK Jr. arrived in Birmingham.

• Arrested on April 12 during demonstration.

• Wrote the famous, “Letter From A Birmingham Jail.”

• More demonstrations after King posted bail.

• On May 2, 1,000 AA children marched through B’ham.

• PC Eugene “Bull” Connor arrested 959 of them.

• Next children’s march was met with police.

• High-pressure fire hoses, attack dogs, etc. used on the protestors.

• Television caught it all on camera and millions of viewers heard the children screaming.

• Pres. Kennedy decided more Civil Rights legislation was needed.

University of Alabama• Governor George Wallace

• “I say, Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”

March on Washington• August 28, 1963

• 250,000 people - about 75,000 whites.

• Marched from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial

• MLK Jr.’s famous - “I Have A Dream” speech - called for peace and racial harmony.

Events after March on Washington

• 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL was bombed and four little girls were killed.

• LBJ signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 - prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender.

Freedom Summer • Summer of 1964• Focused in Mississippi - run by college students -

mostly white. • Register voters!

“Mississippi Burning”

• 1964 - Neshoba County, Mississippi

• Three workers - 1 African American, 2 white men go missing.

• Bodies found in shallow grave - tortured and killed by Klansmen and local police.

• 2005 - convicted of manslaughter not murder.

Selma to Montgomery• Campaign to register voters

• Jimmy Lee Jackson - shot and killed.

• MLK Jr. announced a 50-mile protest march.

• Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma - met with police brutality

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 - eliminated use of literacy tests.

• African Americans moved to Northern cities.• “white flight” - whites moved to suburbs.• De FACTO segregation - exists by practice or custom• De JURE segregation - segregation by law• De facto segregation - housing, schools, employment,

treatment by police.

• Whites wondered, “ Why would blacks turn to violence after winning so many victories in the South?

• Blacks needed economic equality - jobs, housing and education.

Malcolm X • Jailed for burglary at age 20

• While in prison, he studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam (NOI).

• Malcolm became an Islamic minister - believed that whites were the cause of black condition and that blacks should separate from white society.

• Advocated armed self-defense.

Ballots or Bullets?• Made Pilgrimage to Mecca and changed his

ways.• New slogan - Ballots or Bullets• “ Well, if you and I don’t use the ballot, we’re

going to be forced to use the bullet. So let’s try the ballot.”

• Pre-Mecca Malcolm vs. Post-Mecca Malcolm - Similarities? Differences?

• February 21, 1965 in Harlem - Malcolm X was shot and killed.

Black Power

• Stokely Carmichael

• Black Power became the battle cry of militant civil rights activists.

Black Panthers• Oakland California, 1966

• Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

• Fight police brutality in the ghetto

• Advocated self-sufficiency, full employment, and decent housing.

1968 - A Turning Point

• April 3, 1968 MLK Jr. Speech - “ I may not get there with you but…we as a people will get to the Promised Land. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

• April 4, 1968 - Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, MLK Jr. shot and killed by James Earl Ray.

• Riots erupted immediately - 100 cities in mass chaos.

1968

• Robert Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel in June 1968.

• Kerner Commission set up to study urban violence.

• Civil Rights Act of 1968 - ended discrimination in housing.

What did the Civil Rights Movement accomplish?

• Ended de jure segregation• African Americans established a greater

pride in their racial identity• Political gains - 1970, 2/3 of eligible

African American voters were registered. • T. Marshall - SC justice in 1967• Rev. Jesse Jackson sought Democratic

nomination for President in 1984 and 1988.

Who Said It?Martin Luther King, Jr or

Malcolm X?

“I am in Birmingham

because injustice is

here.”

“A man who stands for

nothing will fall for

anything.”

“Injustice anywhere is a

threat to justice

everywhere.”

“In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of

the facts to determine whether injustices exist;

negotiation; self-purification; and direct

action.”

“We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with

us.”

“Concerning nonviolence, it is

criminal to teach a man not to defend himself

when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by

the oppressor; it must be demanded by the

oppressed.”

“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means its too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it

weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you

had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you

up, now it puts you to sleep.”

“All segregation statutes are unjust because

segregation distorts the soul and damages the

personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of

superiority and the segregated a false sense of

inferiority.”

“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save

this country.”

“ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but

by the content of their character.”