The Civil Rights Era 1954-1968

1. The Civil Rights Era 1954-1968

2. Civil Rights Montage, YouTube

3. The African American Civil Rights Movement refers to the period between 1954 and 1968 in which African Americans across the United States came together to speak out and take action against the lack of progress concerning their constitutional rights. Since the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation (1862), African Americans were still living in a Jim Crow south and severely segregated north. During this period, African Americans throughout the United States worked using various methods to: ►Outlaw racial discrimination ►Attain voting rights ► Secure self- reliance in respect to political,economical, labor, and social rights, in what they felt was still largely a white dominated society. ► This period was characterized by civil disobedience, including both violent and non-violent resistance.

4. Brown V. Board of Education ► In the states of the South, the laws of Jim Crow still held strong. As a result of Plessy V. Ferguson (Separate But Equal), many schools were still segregated by state law. However, conditions within the schools were far from equal. School children frequently complained about unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, as well as less qualified teachers compared with their white counterparts. On May 17th, 1954, the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Brown and declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional, effectively overruling the P. vs. F decision "segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children” Separate Does Not Mean Equal Little Rock 9

5. Rosa Parks & The Montgomery Bus Boycott ► On December 1, 1955, a tired Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, AL. As a result, the Montgomery Police immediately arrested her. ► In support, 50,000 of Montgomery’s African American population boycotted the bus system for 381 days, instead opting to walk, carpool, or take taxis. ► As a direct result, Montgomery's transportation authority lost 80% in income, and the bus system could not sustain itself without African American Riders.

6. ► By November of 1956, a Federal Court ordered the full desegregation of Montgomery's bus system ► A young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. was president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that directed the boycott

7. Non- Violent Disobedience : Public “Sit-Ins” ► In the spirit of Rosa Parks, and approved by Martin Luther King Jr., in Greensboro, North Carolina on Feb. 1st, 1960, four college students sat down at a segregated lunch counter to protest the lack of available seating for African Americans. ► These protesters were encouraged to dress professionally, to sit quietly, and to occupy every other stool so that potential white sympathizers could join in. The sit-in soon inspired other sit-ins in Richmond, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia ► As students across the south began to "sit-in" at the lunch counters of a few of their local stores, local authority figures sometimes used brute force to physically escort the demonstrators from the lunch facilities.

8. The March on Washington, 1963

9. ► On August 28th, 1963, a coalition of all the major civil rights campaign groups, including Martin Luther King Jr., planned a massive march, a peaceful protest for jobs and freedom, to end at the Lincoln Memorial. ► The movement had six basic demands: meaningful civil rights laws, a massive federal works program, full and fair employment,decent housing,the right to vote, and adequate integrated education. ► An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. ► After the march, King and other civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy at the White House.

10. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ► After the death of President Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson continued his policies and amongst heavy opposition from Southern Democrats, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was finally passed. ► On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations.

11. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ►The 1965 act suspended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests. ►It authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such tests were being used. ►The act had an immediate and positive impact for African Americans. Within months of its passage, 250,000 new black voters had been registered. ►Atlanta elected a black mayor, Andrew Young, as did Jackson, Mississippi, with Harvey Johnson, Jr., and New Orleans, with Ernest Morial.