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Topic 13: The Civil Rights Movement

 Topic 13: The Civil Rights Movement

  1. Postwar: opportune moment for the Civil Rights movement
  2. 3 aspects of a grassroots movement: legal; religious; social
  3. Why did the federal government intervene?: cold war ideology
  4. Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965
  5. Increasing radicalism by the late sixties

Why was the postwar era an opportune moment for the civil rights movement to gain momentum?

  • Returning African American GIs (The 'Double-V Campaign')
    • Victory abroad against fascism & victory at home against racism
  • The emergence of an African American middle class - going to be the face of the Civil right movement. Non-violent direct action. 
  • Condemnation of racism after WW2 - Americans were exposed to the Holocaust and made us look at racial issues at home. "American Creed is at odds with its policy at home"
  • Role of Television - provides a visual rep. of what is going on. In the living rooms of Americans across the country
  • Cold War propaganda - Russia was brought to light by the US policy. Could argue that the Gov. backing the Civil Rights was more a political decision than a moral one 

What were the 3 'actors' involved in the civil rights struggle?

  • Activists - students, lawyers, South blacks, etc. 
  • Jim Crow defenders - protesting forced integration
  • Public opinion - bystanders not involved are watching and creating public opinion

Describe the 3 dimensions of the civil rights movement: legal, moral, and social

  • Legal - NAACP challenging social segregation
    • Legal dimension: How to challenge "separate vs equal" Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
    • NACCP, Thurgood Marshall, Jewish lawyers
    • Use of academic studies: The Kenneth Clark doll test
    • Brown vs. Board of Education 1954 (9 to 0) to dismantle Jim Crow Laws
    • ** important: social integration does not happen overnight - a slow process
  • Moral - the black church
    • Southern Christian Leadership Conference (led by MLK)
      • Montgomery Bus Boycott - protests were well dress respective church goers
    • Strands of religious thought in MLK's philosophy: 
      • Southern black church (Exodus) - Israeli slaves in Egypt being freed and lead to the promised land
      • northern theology (the "fallenness of man") - 
      • Eastern philosophy (Gandhi's doctrine of nonviolent resistance)
  • Social - student activism (SNCC, CORE)
    • Freedom rides
    • Freedom summer 1964
    • Sit-ins

Why did the civil rights movement become more radical by the mid-to-late 1960s? 

Black nationalism - increasing radicalization of the civil rights movemnt turns off more centrist-minded Americans (Black Panthers, Malcom X, etc)

Southern resistance:

  • Civil rights moves from grassroots to national level
  • Mobs in the south attacking the activits
  • Law enforcement - many where on the side of the south, so they would arrest the activits, beat them and even kill them
  • White councils - leading citizens in which they stated their resistance
  • Southern politicians -
  • Southern manifesto - 

Historical terms:

SNCC - Students for non-violent coordinate committee

CORE - Congress of Racial Equality

freedom summer - Black students would go to the south and try to register blacks in the south (Attempt to register southern blacks to vote)

freedom rides - 1961 attempt to integrate busses, refused to segregate when they got in the south from the north. Deliberately refusing segregation (attempt to integrate busing)

sit-ins - students trying to desegreagate places, like cafeteria. - activist would deliberately violate segregation in public areas, especially lunch counters, public transportation

non-violent direct action (NVDA) - Non-violent direct action belief to not 

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Brown vs Board of education - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.

Kenneth Clark's doll test - white and black children playing with black & white dolls. Segregation creates a feeling of inferiority in black children. 

White Councils - 

Civil Rights Act of 1964 (14th Amendment - freed slaves) - In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

Voting Rights Act of 1964 (15th Amendment) - It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified.

Fair Housing Act of 1968 - banned redlining and restricted covenance (contract clauses that limit a contracting party's future conduct. A restrictive land covenant prevents certain use of the land. preventing the sale of homes to blacks)

Cold War Propaganda - made it where they had to pass and outlaw discrimination becuase of what they were selling in their message during the cold war









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