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The American Odyssey

The American Odyssey. Chapter 20 – The Civil Rights Struggle. Challenging Segregation. Section One Pages 668-672. The Segregation System (P. 669). Segregation De facto in the North and legalized in the South Created two societies, one white and one black

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The American Odyssey

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  1. The American Odyssey Chapter 20 – The Civil Rights Struggle

  2. Challenging Segregation • Section One • Pages 668-672

  3. The Segregation System(P. 669) • Segregation • De facto in the North and legalized in the South • Created two societies, one white and one black • Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947 with his entry into Major League Baseball.

  4. The Segregation System(P. 669) • In the 1950’s the question of integration reached from the ball fields into classrooms. • A total of 17 states and the District of Columbia forbade African American and white children from attending the same schools. • Only 16 states required public schools to be integrated.

  5. The Segregation System(P. 669) • In 1950 the Supreme Court handed down a series of pro-civil rights decisions that gave lawyers for the NAACP hope that they could successfully challenge the “separate but equal” decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. • NAACP • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruled separate but equal rights for African Americans

  6. The Segregation System(P. 669) • Three decisions: • Railroad dining cars in the South had to provide equal service to whites and blacks. • African American students who already attended schools with whites could not be segregated. • Intangible factors had to be considered in schools when comparing quality of education, not just buildings and books.

  7. The Challenge of the Courts(P. 669-671) • After WWII, the NAACP, under the guidance of Charles Houston, instituted a series of court cases to chip away at the Plessy ruling. • Their concentration focused on: • Desegregating graduate and specialized schools first • Segregation itself

  8. The Challenge of the Courts(P. 669-671) • The battle against segregation fell to a team of NAACP lawyers headed by Thurgood Marshall. • They decided which segregated school district to bring to the Supreme Court via a long, drawn-out appeals process.

  9. The Challenge of the Courts(P. 669-671) • The case that helped overturn school segregation was Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas. • On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the unanimous decision: “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”

  10. Resistance to Brown(P. 671) • In 1955, the Supreme Court put force into the Brown decision by announcing that integration should take place “with all deliberate speed” and “at the earliest possible date.” • 80% of Southern whites opposed court-ordered integration.

  11. Resistance to Brown(P. 671) • Southern state legislators passed more than 450 laws and resolutions aimed at preventing enforcement of Brown. • In 1956, the Virginia legislature, with the support of the governor, cut off state aid to all desegregated schools. • That same year 100 Southern members of Congress signed the so-called Southern Manifesto. • It vowed to resist integration by all lawful means. • LBJ and two other Congressmen did not support the manifesto.

  12. Resistance to Brown(P. 671) • Eisenhower’s stance: • He stayed out the controversy due to his personal conviction and out of loyalty to his Southern constituents. • He refused to take a stance publicly • Privately, he lamented his appointment of Earl Warren, the driving force behind the Brown decision. • Eisenhower had won 4 Southern states in the previous election; the first Republican to carry so much since Reconstruction.

  13. Crisis at Little Rock(P. 671-672) • Five days after the Brown decision, the Little Rock, Arkansas Board of Education said they were willing to comply with the Brown decision by including black students at Central High School. • Governor Orval Faubus announced that he would use the state’s National Guard to prevent integration of Central High School.

  14. Crisis at Little Rock(P. 671-672) • Faubus instead added fuel to the fire by withdrawing the National Guard and allowing a white mob to block integration of the high school by nine African American students. • This was the last straw for Eisenhower

  15. Crisis at Little Rock(P. 671-672) • Eisenhower ordered federal troops into Little Rock. • This was the first time federal troops were sent into the South to enforce the Constitution since Reconstruction. • Out of protest, Little Rock public schools were closed for one year. • Most white students attended private schools, while most blacks had no schools to attend. • In 1959, following another Supreme Court ruling, the schools reopened and finally integrated for the most part.

  16. Freedom Now • Section Two • Pages 674-679

  17. The Bus Boycott(P. 674-676) • Although the civil rights movement had already begun, the decision by Rosa Parks not to give up her seat on a segregated bus set in motion a chain of events that thrust the movement into the forefront. • On December 1, 1955, Parks was arrested in Montgomery, AL when she refused to give up her seat in the middle of a bus to a white passenger.

  18. The Bus Boycott(P. 674-676) • Rosa Parks was fined $10 plus $4 in court fees while being found guilty for violating the bus law.

  19. The Bus Boycott(P. 674-676) • Civil rights leaders such as Jo Ann Robinson and Martin Luther King, Jr. organized a boycott of the Montgomery bus system, which had Parks arrested. • They wanted to exert economic pressure to force a change in the bus laws. • At this time, 52,000 total people rode the bus system and 40,000 were African American.

  20. The Bus Boycott(P. 674-676) • The boycott lasted 385 days. • Organizers of the boycott worked out an elaborate car-pooling plan to avoid using the Montgomery bus system.

  21. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • After the boycott in Montgomery, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the unchallenged leader of the African American protest movement. • At a conference of 60 Southern ministers, King was appointed president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

  22. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • Dr. King: • Was only 27 years old when he was appointed • Was the son of a Baptist minister – he was named after Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Movement • Attended Morehouse College in Atlanta then he received a PhD in theology from Boston University • Was ordained as a Baptist pastor in Montgomery in 1954.

  23. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • From the start, King urged his followers to use nonviolent resistance. • King linked his ideas to the Christian theme of loving one’s enemy. • He also studied the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.

  24. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • Gandhi: • Worked for freedom of India from British rule • Was assassinated in 1948 • Opposed the partitioning of India and Pakistan after achieving independence from Great Britain rule

  25. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • The Gandhian strategy of nonviolence involved four steps: • Investigation • Negotiation • Publicity • Demonstration • Civil rights organizers followed these steps to challenge segregation.

  26. Martin Luther King, Jr.(P. 676-677) • Soon after the victory in Montgomery, nonviolent methods were used in a startling new way by students in colleges and universities all over the country. • They vowed to integrate the nation’s segregated lunch counters, hotels, and entertainment facilities using a simple strategy – sitting.

  27. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • After African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technological College organized the first sit-in, backed by a boycott of stores with segregated lunch counters. • The sit-in movement spread like wildfire.

  28. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • By September 1961 some 70,000 African American and white students were sitting in for social change. • The targets of many sit-ins were part of national chains

  29. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • Students used variations of the sit-ins to integrate other segregated facilities: • “Kneel-ins” at churches • “Read-ins” in libraries • “Wade-ins” at beaches • “sleep-ins” in motel lobbies

  30. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • The driving center of the civil rights movement had spread from the legal committees of the NAACP and African American churches to college campuses.

  31. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • Ella J. Baker, executive secretary of King’s SCLC, was impressed with the courage and commitment of students. • She called together some of the student leaders of sit-ins in a 1960 conference. • Out of the meeting came a new civil rights organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

  32. A Season of Sit-ins(P. 677-679) • Within a year SNCC evolved into a full-fledged civil rights organization poised to break down the system of segregation that divided American society.

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