US History - Civil Rights Movement

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EQ: What were the causes and effects of the Civil Rights Movement?

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Civil Rights Movement Overview

The movement for racial equality in the United States, known as the civil rights movement, started in the late 1950s. Through nonviolent protest actions, it broke through the pattern of racial segregation, the practice in the South through which black Americans were not allowed to use the same schools, churches, restaurants, buses, and other facilities as white Americans. The movement also achieved the passage of equal-rights laws in the mid-1960s intended to end discrimination against people because of their race. This article provides an overview of some of the main events of the civil rights movement.

When the United States first became a country, the majority of the blacks who lived there were slaves; they were not considered citizens and so were not granted the basic rights of citizens in the U.S. Constitution. This was changed several decades later with three amendments to the Constitution: the 13th Amendment (1865) bolished slavery, the 14th Amendment (1868)granted citizenship to former slaves, and the 15th Amendment (1870) gave blacks the same voting rights as whites. By 1870, the men could vote but the women could not. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned racial segregation by allowing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites, in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). In the South, however, new laws were passed to effectively prevent blacks from voting and to reinforce segregation practices.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) argued a series of desegregation cases before the Supreme Court. They culminated in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In that case, the Court ruled on May 17, 1954, that having separate schools for blacks made the schools inherently unequal and was thus unconstitutional. This historic decision inspired a mass movement by blacks and sympathetic whites to end racial segregation and inequality. Many whites, however, especially in the South, strongly resisted this movement. On Dec. 1, 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. This sparked a major protest that helped ignite the civil rights movement. Two local Baptist ministers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy, led a year long, nonviolent boycott of the bus system that eventually forced the bus company to desegregate its buses. Similar protest actions soon spread to other communities in the South. King became the leading voice of the civil rights movement.

In 1960 a group of black college students in Greensboro, N.C., insisted on being served a meal at a segregated lunch counter. This was one of the first of the movement's many prominent civil rights sit-ins, a form of nonviolent protest in which participants enter a business or public place and remain seated until they are forcibly removed or their grievances are addressed. As the movement spread across the United States, it forced the desegregation of department stores, supermarkets, libraries, and movie theaters.

In May 1961 a group within the civil rights movement began sending participants on nonviolent “freedom rides” on buses and trains throughout the South and elsewhere. The purpose of the rides was to test and break down segregation practices on interstate transportation. By September of that year, some 70,000 students, both black and white, were thought to have participated in the movement. Roughly 3,600 of the participants were arrested for their participation. All together, they traveled to more than 20 states.

The movement reached its climax on Aug. 28, 1963, in the March on Washington, a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C., to protest racial discrimination and to demonstrate support for civil rights laws then being considered in Congress. The highlight of the march, which attracted more than 200,000 black and white participants, was King's historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

In the years that followed, the civil rights movement won several important legal victories. On July 2, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. The act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in public accommodations, employment, and federal programs.

In the decades that followed, many civil rights leaders sought to achieve greater direct political power by being elected to political office. They also sought to improve employment and educational opportunities for blacks through programs which give preference to minorities in job hiring and college admissions decisions.

1954 - Brown v. Board of Education

1954 - Brown v. Board of Education: In the 1950’s, school segregation was widely accepted throughout the nation. In fact, law in most Southern states required it. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case decided unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had set the “separate but equal” precedent.

1955 – Mississippi and the Emmett Till Case

The Supreme Court decision fueled violent segregationist backlash against black citizens by gangs of whites who committed beatings, burnings and lynchings, usually with impunity, since all-white juries notoriously refused to convict whites for killing blacks. “The usual reasons for murder ranged from stealing food to talking back to a white person” (Williams 39). However, in 1955, two black men were murdered for trying to register black voters. But the case that drew the most national publicity was the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a teenager from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi that summer. On a dare from his pals, Emmett spoke flirtatiously to a white woman, saying “Bye, Baby” as he left a local store. Several nights later the woman’s husband and her brother forced Emmett into their car and drove away. Till’s body was found three days later in the Tallhatchie River. There was barbed wire around his neck, a bullet in his skull, one eye gouged out, and his forehead was crushed on one side. Despite overwhelming evidence of guilt based on eye-witness testimony, Bryant and Milan were found “not guilty” by an all-white, all-male jury. “The murder of Emmett Till had a powerful impact on a new generation of blacks. It was this generation, those who were adolescents when Till was killed, that would soon demand justice and freedom in a way unknown in America before”.


1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks, a 43-year-old black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat near the front of a bus to a white man. The following night, fifty leaders of the Negro community met at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church to discuss the issue. Among them was the young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leaders organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which would deprive the bus company of 65% of its income, and cost Dr. King a $500 fine or 386 days in jail. He paid the fine, and eight months later, the Supreme Court decided, based on the school segregation cases, that bus segregation violated the constitution.

1957 - Desegregation at Little Rock

Little Rock Central High School was to begin the 1957 school year desegregated. On September 2, the night before the first day of school, Governor Faubus announced that he had ordered the Arkansas National Guard to monitor the school the next day. When a group of nine black students arrived at Central High on September 3, they were kept from entering by the National Guardsmen. On September 20, judge Davies granted an injunction against Governor Faubus and three days later the group of nine students returned to Central High School. Although the students were not physically injured, a mob of 1,000 townspeople prevented them from remaining at school. Finally, President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was desegregated.

1960 - Sit-in Campaign

After having been refused service at the lunch counter of a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, Joseph McNeill, a Negro college student, returned the next day with three classmates to sit at the counter until they were served. They were not served. The four students returned to the lunch counter each day. When an article in the New York Times drew attention to the students’ protest, more students, both black and white, joined them, and students across the nation were inspired to launch similar protests. “In a span of two weeks, there were sit-ins in eleven cities” (Williams 129). Despite beatings, being doused with ammonia, heavy court fines, arrest and imprisonment, new waves of students appeared at lunch counters to continue the movement through February and March. “By late March, the police had orders not to arrest the demonstrators because of the national publicity the sit-ins were attracting” (Williams 133). Senator John F. Kennedy, one of the candidates in the presidential election that year, sent a statement to the sit-in students in Atlanta expressing the sentiment that “they have shown that the new way for Americans to stand up for their rights is to sit down” (qtd in Williams 135). This represented one of the few times that either presidential candidate addressed a civil rights issue during the campaign.

1961 - Freedom Rides

In 1961, busloads of volunteers of mixed races waged a cross-country campaign to try to end the segregation of bus terminals. Their plan was to test the Supreme Court’s ruling that segregated seating on interstate buses and trains was unconstitutional. Their legal action, however, was met with violence at many stops along the way. Local segregation laws were frequently used to arrest and try the freedom riders. But as one group was arrested, more arrived to take their place. Throughout the summer, more than 300 Freedom Riders traveled through the deep south in an effort to integrate the bus terminals. When freedom riders were savagely beaten in Montgomery, Alabama, one of President Kennedy’s representatives was also knocked unconscious and left lying in the street for half an hour. Kennedy felt this gave him justification to send in 600 federal marshals in a showdown between the state of Alabama and the federal government. After this confrontation, Kennedy made a deal with Democratic governors and congressmen who held power in the South. He would not send in federal troops as long as they made sure there was no mob violence against the riders.

1962 - Mississippi Riot

President Kennedy ordered Federal Marshals to escort James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi, to campus. A riot broke out and before the National Guard could arrive to reinforce the marshals, two students were killed.

1963 – Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most severely segregated cities in the 1960s. Black men and women held sit-ins at lunch counters where they were refused service, and “kneel-ins” on church steps where they were denied entrance. Hundreds of demonstrators were fined and imprisoned.

1963, May; Birmingham

Dr. King, the Reverend Abernathy and the Reverend Shuttlesworth lead a protest march in Birmingham. The protestors were met with policemen and dogs. The three ministers were arrested and taken to Southside Jail. Dr. King was held in solitary confinement for three days, during which he wrote, smuggled out of jail, and had printed his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a profoundly moving justification for the moral necessity of non-violent resistance to unjust laws.

1963 – August 28th March on Washington

Despite worries that few people would attend and that violence could erupt, civil rights organizers proceeded with this historic event that would come to symbolize the civil rights movement. A reporter from the Times wrote, “no one could ever remember an invading army quite as gentle as the two hundred thousand civil rights marchers who occupied Washington.” Here, Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

1963, September; Birmingham

The Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four little girls who, dressed in the “Youth Sunday” best, were preparing to lead the 11:00 am adult service. The bombing came without warning. Since 1911, this church had served as the center of life for Birmingham’s African American community. By the end of the day, riots and fires had broken out throughout Birmingham and another 2 teenagers were dead. This murderous act shocked the nation and galvanized the civil rights movement.

1963 – November 22nd Assassination of President Kennedy

Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Texan, became the next President of the United States.

1964 – July 2nd The Civil Rights Act of 1964

In his first address to Congress and the nation as president, Johnson called for passage of the civil rights bill as a monument to the fallen Kennedy. While the House of Representatives passed the measure by a lopsided 290-130 vote, every one knew that the real battle would be in the Senate, whose rules had allowed southerners in the past to mount filibusters that had effectively killed nearly all civil rights legislation. But Johnson had the civil rights leaders mount a massive lobbying campaign, including inundating the Capitol with religious leaders of all faiths and colors. The strategy paid off, and in June the Senate voted to close debate; a few weeks later, it passed the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the nation’s history, and on July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed it into law. The heart of the law deals with public accommodations, so that African Americans could no longer be excluded from restaurants, hotels and other public facilities.

1965 – February 21 - Malcolm X Assisinated

Assassination of Malcolm X at a rally in New York.

1965 - Selma

Outraged over the killing of a demonstrator by a state trooper in Marion, Alabama, the black community of Marion decided to hold a march. Martin Luther King agreed to lead the marchers on Sunday, March 7, from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital, where they would appeal directly to governor Wallace to stop police brutality and call attention to their struggle for suffrage. When Governor Wallace refused to allow the march, Dr. King went to Washington to speak with President Johnson, delaying the demonstration until March 8. However, the people of Selma could not wait and they began the march on Sunday. When the marchers reached the city line, they found a posse of state troopers waiting for them. As the demonstrators crossed the bridge leading out of Selma, they were ordered to disperse, but the troopers did not wait for their warning to be headed. They immediately attacked the crowd of people who had bowed their heads in prayer. Using tear gas and batons, the troopers chased the demonstrators to a black housing project, where they continued to beat the demonstrators as well as residents of the project who had not been at the march.

Bloody Sunday received national attention, and numerous marches were organized in response. Martin Luther King led a march to the Selma Bridge that Tuesday, during which one protestor was killed. Finally, with President Johnson’s permission, Dr. King led a successful march from Selma to Montgomery on March 25. President Johnson gave a rousing speech to congress concerning civil rights as a result of Bloody Sunday, and passed the Voting Rights Act within that same year. John Lewis, former freedom rider and voting rights registration organizer, and one of the young men beaten on the Selma Bridge that Sunday, currently serves as a U.S. Congressman for the State of Georgia.

1965 – Voting Rights Act of 1965

Prohibits literacy tests and poll taxes, which had been used to prevent blacks from voting. According to a report of the Bureau of the Census from 1982, in 1960 there were 22,000 African-Americans registered to vote in Mississippi, but in 1966 the number had risen to 175,000. Alabama went from 66,000 African-American registered voters in 1960 to 250,000 in 1966. South Carolina’s African-American registered voters went from 58,000 to 191,000 in the same time period.

1968 – April 4 - Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.

Activities

Lesson PowerPoint: The Civil Rights Movement

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Civil Rights Movement Turning Points I have a Dream - MLK Jr. Speech 1963

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