Civil Rights - 1955-80

1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Two women were arrested for refusing to give up their seats in 1955 → Claudette Colvin, a 15 year-old girl, was unmarried and pregnant → Mary Louise Smith came from a poor family and her father had a drink problem → the NAACP refused to take their case because of the use the opposition might make of their circumstances

• On 1 December, Rosa Parks, a respectable, dignified 42 year-old woman and NAACP member, was arrested for sitting at the front of the bus → the NAACP’s lawyer took her case

• The following day, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to organise the boycott → newly appointed Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr, was chosen as leader

• The MIA leafleted and held meetings to publicise the arrest and boycott → organised taxis and other transport to get people to work

• Over 75% of bus users were black and 90% stayed away from buses

• Boycott lasted for 380 days

• King carefully followed rules of non-violent protest and kept the media informed about events → media interest grew as the boycott carried on

• City government penalised taxi drivers for taking fairs; the MIA organised car pools

• Homes of King and NAACP leader E.D. Nixon were fire bombed

• Government imprisoned King and others for conspiracy to boycott

• Some boycotters lost their jobs

• On 13 November 1955, the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional → desegregated buses by 21 December

• Hardened racial divide → in the next local elections white candidates who favoured segregation were elected → 3 days after the buses were desegregated king’s home was firebombed and snipers shot at black passengers sitting in white seats

Martin Luther King Jr

• Became the face of the civil rights movement → media attention overshadowed other leaders

• In 1957, he set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) → refined he non-violent protest rules with an eye to creating the best possible impression in the media

• It must always be clear who is the oppressor, who the oppressed; never give the media the image of a violent black American, it harms the cause

• Getting arrested, as publicly as possible, and going peaceably, is good publicity → King was arrested many times, and wrote articles and gave interviews from jail about the civil rights cause → before a protest, campaigners were taught how to go limp if the police tried to move them from a sit-in

• Accept as many white people as possible on protests → King happily met with white officials who might help the civil rights cause, even though some black people criticised this

1957 Little Rock, Arkansas

• In 1957, nine black children were selected to attend the previously all-white Central High School → the racist governor, Orval Faubus, sent the state National Guard to stop these children going in ‘for their safety’

• 8 of the children went to school by car, with the NAACP organiser → the ninth, Elizabeth Eckford, didn’t get the message and went on her own → the National Guard turned her away and she was surrounded by a screaming mob, many calling for her to be lynched

• Photographs of the incident shocked the world → King got a meeting with President Eisenhower, in which he pointed out the political damage this was doing to his administration and urged federal intervention → Eisenhower reluctantly sent in federal troops to guard the children going to and from school, and in the corridors

• The children were subjected to years of taunts and violence

• Homes of local NAACP leaders were firebombed several times

• Faubus closed the school for the whole of the following year to ‘let things cool off’, but the school was eventually integrated for good

1960 The Greensboro sit-in

• On 1 February, four black students went into a Greensboro department and waited to be served at the segregated lunch counter until the store shut → they returned the next day with 30 other students → the next day, nearly all the seats were occupied by black students

• The media filled with images of calm, well-dressed black students sitting waiting to be served while a crowd of white louts yelled at them, blew smoke in their faces and poured food over them

• The Woolworth store desegregated in July

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• Set up in Raleigh, North Carolina on 15 April 1960 → racially integrated organisation of young people → believed in non-violent direct action → students took training sessions in how to cope with abuse and violence from whites during demonstrations

• Sent out ‘field secretaries’ to live and work in dangerous parts of the South → encouraged voter registration → black people needed the political power of the vote to get government attention

• Took non-violent protest into places where there was likely to be violence

1961 Freedom rides

• CORE and the SNCC carried out a series of freedom rides in the South, organised by James Farmer of CORE → tested whether bus restroom facilities had been desegregated, as they should have been after a 1961 Supreme Court Ruling

• The freedom riders knew that, the deeper into the South they went, the less likely it was that this had happened and the more likely it was that they would meet with a violent reception → intention of provoking a crisis, knowing that the publicity would affect the way the world looked at the USA → desperate measures seemed to be the only way to get the government to enforce legislation, not just pass it

• First two buses were attacked and riders, black and white, were beaten up at several stops

• At Anniston, Alabama, one of the buses was firebombed after the bus had been chased by about 50 cars, some of them police cars → media coverage showed shocking levels of violence

• Freedom riders were imprisoned in Birmingham and beaten up in Montgomery → three were killed, but others kept riding

1963 Birmingham, Alabama

• Nicknamed ‘Bombingham’ for the regularity with which black homes, businesses and churches were firebombed

• King and the SCLC pushed to desegregate the whole town → campaign began on 3 April and the protestors’ leaflets made specific reference to the American Dream

• One tactic was to get arrested and fill the jails → by the end of the month, the jails were full

• Children were trained in protest tactics and, when they marched, the racist chief of police, ‘Bull’ Connor, ordered his men to use high-pressure fire hoses and dogs on them

• Shocking pictures went worldwide → Kennedy, seeing them, felt ashamed and sent in federal troop to restore calm on 12 May → following that, Birmingham was desegregated

• Birmingham and its publicity was a significant factor in Kennedy pressing forward on civil rights legislation → a poll after showed that 42% of people thought race was the USA’s most pressing problem (only 4% said this in 1962)

1963 March on Washington

• Showed the scale of civil rights activism → biggest civil rights protest up to that date → 200,000 - 500,000 involved

• Speakers like King were joined by famous white singers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

• Hundreds of thousands of people marched

• King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech instantly became famous

1964 Freedom Summer

• In 1964, an election year, the SNCC decided to push for voter registration, sending large numbers of volunteers to the South

• Sent 45 volunteers, mostly young, white and able to pay their own way (and afford bail to get out of jail) to Mississippi → teamed up with local organisations for the task; most local volunteers were black

• On 20 June, the first batch of students set out → 3 disappeared the next day and were found dead six weeks later

• By the end of the summer, there had been three more murders, 35 shooting incidents and countless beatings

• About 17,000 black people tried to register to vote that year → only 1600 were accepted

Black Power

• In 1965, Stokely Carmichael, leader of the SNCC, set up the Lowndes County Freedom Organisation in response to black feeling that, even if they had a vote, why vote for Southerners?

• In June 1966, James Meredith led the March Against Fear through Mississippi → he was shot on the second day → King took over, urging multiracial non-violent behaviour

• Carmichael said non-violent protest wasn’t working → he wanted the SNCC and the civil rights movement to radicalise and exclude white campaigners → he suggested the slogan ‘Black Power’ replace the traditional cry of ‘Freedom’ → the symbol of a raised arm and clenched first was famously used in 1968 by some black American athletes who won medals at the Olympics

• Some radical groups wanted separation, either within the USA or by leaving the country altogether (as the Back to Africa movement advocated)

• Most worked on a local level, and this is where they got the best results → students pressed for more black staff and courses on black history → workers set up radical trade unions to push for black jobs, equal pay and opportunities

• Ideas behind Black Power radicalised many long-established civil rights groups, or at least made them more pragmatic → the leader of the NAACP in Atlanta accepted the slowing of desegregation in 1973 in return for more control over black schooling

Black Panthers

• Set up in 1966 → worked in black communities to keep order → also organised community projects such as free breakfasts for schoolchildren → ten point programme included decent housing and black history courses at university

• The fact that they wore a uniform and carried guns caught the government’s notice

Riots

• In 1964, there were major riots in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, each set off by an instance of police brutality, but with the long-term problems of city life for blacks as their root cause

• Riots every Summer until 1971 → tempers in overcrowded areas with poor facilities at their worst

• Government intervention to calm the violence became seen as acceptable → violence by state police and guardsmen in the early 1960s had been seen by many as excessive

• Media coverage of the riots meant that the image of non-violent black people assaulted by whites was replaced the the image of burning cities and young black men with a petrol bomb

• It helped hasten civil rights legislation, but brought a white backlash, not helped when riot-torn areas were given federal government aid → in 1965, the Watts district of Los Angeles got $18 million after the August riot there

1966 Northern Crusade

• After 1964, King began to focus on the North, visiting the badly provided, overcrowded black ghettos

• In the Summer of 1966, there were 20 major riots in city slums all over the USA → King announced a ‘Northern Crusade’ to improve slums by setting up tenant unions, improving working conditions and teaching young people about non-violent protest

• He began with Chicago, where over 800,000 black Americans lived, mainly in ghettos

• The Northern Crusade petered out → King claimed significant gains but others felt it had brought no permanent change

• It was harder to get political support for social issues than for segregation

• King’s relationship with the media was turning sour → he accused them of trying to make non-violent campaigners like himself make militant statements, or they wouldn’t be reported

• In 1967, he took up issues of poverty in general, beginning to plan a Poor People’s Campaign with a march and a camp in Washington → as part of his support for the rights of poor workers, he supported a strike of Memphis sanitation workers in March 1968 → he was assassinated while on this campaign

1964 Civil Rights Act

• Bans discrimination for sex or race in hiring, firing and promoting

• Equal Opportunities Commission is set up to enforce this

1965 Voting Rights Act

• Banned attempts to stop people voting because of their race

• Provisions put in place for five years for federal enforcement of this → enforcement provisions have to be reconfirmed, with extensions, in 1970, 1975, 1982 and 2007

Busing

• In 1965, the NAACP took the town of Charlotte to court because its school reorganisation by area meant that, as many black people lived in the poorest areas, there was an ‘informal’ segregation

• The NAACP pushed for busing black children to schools in other areas, to integrate them → the courts turned this down but, in 1971, the Supreme Court upheld the idea of busing → other cities were able to introduce busing after this, often against local resistance

Black upper and middle class

• Black upper classes tended to be based in cities such as New York and Washington and to model themselves on white society

• Proof of equality of blacks and whites → many radicals felt they had sold out by trying to fit into white society

• Black professionals had, if not equal, significant access to work in the higher levels of business, education, government and the law

• Significant number of black politicians at local, state and federal level

General achievements

• Socio-economic employment score for black men; 16 in 1940, 21 in 1960, 31 in 1980 → black women; 13, 21, 26

• Several routes to success via sports and entertainment, as well as professions

• Featured more on television and in cinema, books and magazines

• Black home owners and graduates increased

• More black Americans voted, although voter registration slowed after 1968 → in 1966, government census figures show 58.2% of black Americans were registered to vote; in 1980, this was 60%

Limits to success

• Some black people were able to reach for the American Dream; few were doing it on an equal level with white Americans → even the wealthiest of black Americans were made to feel unequal

• The passing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act meant that many people now felt that the issue of civil rights had been dealt with

• Affirmative action orders were followed, but not all black Americans thought this was an advance → it resulted in a ‘minority quota’ way of thinking that created its own limits and made black people who got jobs feel they were not there on merit

• The radicalisation of some parts of the movement and the rioting in cities made many less sympathetic to the rights of black Americans

• The death of King made some people turn from black civil rights to other issues (e.g. Vietnam)

• The poor were getting poorer and more were falling below the poverty line than in 1959

• There were more black children in schools, but most of these schools were still in the poorest areas and some were still segregated

• Black babies were more likely to die and black schoolchildren were less likely to succeed and more likely to drop out of education

• Gang culture began to dominate the ghettos of the big cities, especially Los Angeles; crime rates were higher

• In 1980, 75% of black high school dropouts, aged 35-34, had criminal records