Chapter 21sections 4 and 5
MLK
• Fourth generation Minister
• Rose to prominence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott
• The most important Civil Rights Movement leader
• Sought to awaken moderate Americans
• Lived with constant death threats and physical intimidation
Kennedy and Civil Rights
• Actively courted black votes
• Proposed Civil Rights legislation, but was blocked by Southern Congressmen
• Was accused to have moved slowing on Civil Rights issues– Kennedy did not want
to lose Congressional Support.
March on Washington - 1963
• “March for Jobs and Freedom”• Opposed by Kennedy, who didn’t want to
alienate southern congressmen
• Scorned by many Black Nationalist Groups
• Became a very powerful symbol
“I Have a Dream” speech
Johnson and Civil rights• Picked up where Kennedy
left off• Johnson did MUCH further
than Kennedy did on Civil Rights legislation
• CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964– Banned different
voting standards– Banned
discriminations in public places
– Banned discrimination on the base of race, sex, age, religion or nation of origin
“We have lost the south for a generation”. - LBJ
Freedom Summer - 1964
• Mostly college students (white and black)• Sought to register voters
• Subject to extreme violence
• Churches and houses were burned and bombed
• James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerman were murdered
Selma• Protest led by MLK• Violence against protestors• LBJ supports with federal troops
• Led to important legislation:• Voting Rights Act of 1965
– Federal officials could register voters
• 24th Amendment– Banned Poll taxes
The Rise of Black Nationalism
The Rise of Black Nationalism• Many
disavowed non-violence, felt it did not work, or took too long.
• “We shall overcome” became “We shall overrun”
• Sought to build up black pride and black communities
• Members were almost exclusively black
Black Panthers
• Most influential Black Nationalist group– Originally created to
monitor police in California
• Members sought to– Rebuild communities– Set up “Survival
Programs”
• Clashed with police, violence was not uncommon
Malcolm X
• Born to activist parents
• Outstanding student in Junior High, dropped out
• Turned to a life of “hustling”
• Joins Nation of Islam in Prison
• Emerges from prison with a purpose
• Very critical of MLK and non-violence, very distrusting of white society.
• "At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King."
• Prominent leader of Nation of Islam, then splits from group
• Goes on Hajj (pilgrimage)
• Returns a different man– More inclusive to whites,
and other groups– Blacks still have the right
to defend themselves
• 1965 – Allegedly Assassinated by the Nation of Islam
1968• Assassinations of MLK leads to widespread
rioting and disillusionment. • The Civil Rights movement is robbed of its most
prominent leaders
• LBJ does not run for re-election• RFK assassinated
• Tensions run high throughout the country; minor incidents set off riots that last for days, and destroy black neighborhoods.
• Stalls after 1968
• Black officials up 90%
• Black Mayors in many cities
• Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress
Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement
• Barbara Jordan (Texas) 1st Black Senator in Texas since Reconstruction, later US Congresswoman
• Thurgood Marshall – 1st Black Supreme Court Justice