History Civil Rights Essay
Lind Wood 
018_civil_rights_1.ppsx
The Civil Rights Movement
Dr. James Patterson
Black Civil Rights Movement
Basic denial of civil rights (review)
Segregation in society
Inferior schools
Job discrimination
Political disenfranchisement
Over ½ lived below poverty level
Unemployment double national ave.
Ghettoes: gangs, drugs, substandard housing, crime
Early Victories
WWII egalitarianism and backlash against German racism
Jackie Robinson integrated professional baseball—1947
Desegregation of the armed forces ordered by president Truman—1948
Marian Anderson performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera House—1955
Increased interest in civil rights a result of Cold War propaganda
Brown v. Board of Education
1954 – Topeka, Kansas
Linda Brown: filed suit to attend a neighborhood school
“Separate educational institutions are inherently unequal.”
Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
Court says: integrate "with all deliberate speed.”
What did this mean?
Linda Brown and Family
Circumvention of Brown v. Board of Education Ruling
White supremacist parents feared racial mixing and attempted to block black enrollment.
Ignored the integration issue
Token integration
Segregation through standardized placement tests
Segregation through private schools
Stalling through legal action
By 1964, 10 years after the Brown case, only 1% of black children attended truly integrated schools.
Little Rock High School
1957 courts order integration in Little Rock
9 black students enrolled.
Governor called out militia to block it.
Mobs replaced militia after recall.
Eisenhower ordered federal troops to protect the students.
Daily harassment
Courageous black students persevered.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955--Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat to white man
Boycott of bus system led by Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Walking, church busses, car pools, bicycles
Bus lines caught in the middle
Rosa Parks being Booked
Supreme Court ruled bus companies must integrate.
Inspired other protests:
Sit-ins, wade-ins, kneel-ins
Woolworth’s lunch counter
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Non-Violent
Influenced by Ghandi
“The blood may flow, but it must be our blood, not that of the white man.”
“Lord, we ain’t what we oughta be. We ain’t what we wanna be. We ain’t what we gonna be. But thank God, we ain’t what we was.”
Freedom Riders
Activists traveled from city to city to ignite the protest.
Bull Conner: in Montgomery
Dogs
Whips
Water hoses
Cattle prods
Television
Public backlash
Civil Rights March (AL. 1965)
1963 - Washington, D.C. "I have a Dream“—200,000 Attended
Civil Rights Legislation
1964 - Civil Rights Act
1964 - 24th Amendment
Abolished Poll Tax
1965 Voting Rights Act
Affirmative action
Integration of schools
Great Society funding
Busing
African American Voter Registration Before and After Passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964
Change in the Movement
Impatience with the King philosophy
Stokely Carmichael / Black Power
Malcom X / Black Muslims
On the Washington march:
On dining:
H. Rap Brown
“Get your guns. Burn the city down.”
Riots
1960’s – 100+ major riots
Spontaneous
Summertime heat
Police incident
Looting / fires / firemen shot at
Watts—34 dead; $100 million in property damage
King & others failed to quiet mobs
Public opinion changed
Assassinations
1965—Malcom X killed by Black Muslims
1968—Martin Luther King, Jr. killed by James Earl Ray
Mysterious circumstances
1968—Robert Kennedy assassinated
Update
By 1980 50% + of blacks reached middle class
Discrimination in decline
Success stories abound
However, for inner city blacks:
Unemployment was double whites’
Wages 1/2
Drugs, violence, substandard housing
69% of black babies are born out of wedlock
45% of black households headed by single women—1/4 teenagers
Most likely to be poor (repetitive cycle)
Each year, over 6% of 18-24 year-old black men are murdered (#1 cause of death). Half of all U.S. murder victims are black. Houston Chronicle, 11-25-07
Hispanics
Median income in the 1960’s was 62% of the national average
80% held unskilled or semiskilled jobs, many as agricultural laborers
Segregation, discrimination, schooling, immigration issues
Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
Courts eliminated school segregation
Hernandez v. The State of Texas
Court denied the exclusion of qualified Hispanics from jury service
Hispanics
Sought unionization of the farm laborers
LULAC
Cesar Chavez: “La Causa”
La Raza Unida
Chicano Movement
MAYO (Mexican-American Youth Organization
Sought bilingual education
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
Legal residence for undocumented aliens who were in the U.S. since 1982
Fines against employers hiring illegal aliens
First LULAC Members
Women
1960’s over half of voters were women
No female supreme court justices, cabinet members, governors, ambassadors
2 out of 100 Senators
15 out of 435 Representatives
Unequal pay
1963 Equal Pay Act
1964 Civil Rights Act
Prohibited employment discrimination based on sex.
ERA: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the U.S. or by any state on account of sex.”
Passed Congress; never ratified by the states
Existing favorable legislation would be lost
Abolition of separate restrooms?
Encourage same-sex marriages?
Drafted into military and combat roles for women?
Women’s Liberation Movement
Women
Roe v. Wade (Texas case)
States may only limit the right to abortion during the third trimester of a pregnancy.
National Organization of Women (NOW)
Texas Women’s Political Caucus (TWPC)
Advances:
50+% of school board members
Over 100 mayors
Houston: Kathy Whitmire
Dallas: Annette Straus
Dozens elected to state legislature
University presidents
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Governor Anne Richards
Representative Barbara Jordan
Native Americans
Typical family earned less than $1000 per year
Unemployment was 10 times the national average
Suicide rate 100 times the national average
Life expectancy was 44 years
60% no electricity; 80% no running water
Followed protest pattern established by African-Americans
AIM: American Indian Movement
Alcatraz Island occupation: 19 months
Wounded Knee occupation: 71 days
Increased welfare, more economic opportunities, better health care, casinos, favorable court decisions
The Civil Rights Movement
History 1302
