race relations

• us a wealthy society but not for all its citizens

• jim crow, slavery, segregation

• separate but equal (plessy v ferguson)

• struggle for civil rights

• mlk:

  • takes on reins and leads the crm

  • one of the most influential figures in world history

  • gave a voice to the voiceless

• mbb: pivotal event in crm

  • took place in response to segregation

  • ‘a conflict between justice and injustice’ - mlk

  • marked beginning of the modern crm

  • triggered by rosa parks

  • black residents of montgomery outraged, needed a spark

intro

mix of all

• post ww2: 1 mil african american veterans demanding change

• us = ‘leaders of the free world’

  • why is home not a free world?

• 1948: truman desegregates army → catalyst

  • 1st time since lincoln had a president done something for civil rights

• soldiers coming back home to segregation

• 1909 naacp founded:

  • driving force of crm

    • non-violent legal battles

    • educated black + white lawyers take on B cases

ww2 and naacp

general race relations essay

• in topeka, kansas: father unable to enroll daughter linda brown into local school, sumner elementary

  • naacp takes on linda’s case

  • 1954: goes to supreme court with other parents

  • verdict = segregation deemed unconstitutional → all public schools integrated with ‘all deliberate speed’

  • ‘in the field of public education, the doctrine ‘separate but equal’ has no place’ - chief justice earl warren

• major victory for civil rights

  • 1st step in right direction

• south us vs north us - divided opinion.

  • virginia: would rather close schools than mix

brown v board

• 1957: eisenhower orders full integration of schools - new ruling

  • little rock 9 = selected by naacp to test new ruling (guinea pigs)

  • explosive moment in crm

• orval faubus uses arkansas national guard to block 9 students from enrolling

  • ‘Eisenhower doesn’t really understand the lengths that the South will go to, to preserve segregation’

• eisenhower uses federal troops (101st airborne) to ensure enrolment

  • huge win and impact for change

  • ‘Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.’ - Dwight Eisenhower

• ‘It took the entire US army to get me into high school.’ - Ernest Green Jr.

little rock 9

• bus segregation (separate para if mbb)

• context of montgomery

  • one of most segregated cities in south

  • 63% of all black women in montgomery were domestic workers

  • average black income was ½ of what white income was in montgomery

• rosa parks

  • secretary of naacp

• all deliberate and planned - meant to leave a mark

• 1 dec 1955: rosa parks refuses to give seat up

  • mentions emmett till

  • arrested for ‘breaking city law’

  • ‘i was not tired physically - no, the only tired i was, was tired of giving in’ - rosa parks

    • ordinary woman - showed others that they could resist nonviolently.

    • her sole action was the high point of crm

• 5 dec 1955: womens political committee organise 1 day boycott for her court date

  • bail paid by edgar daniel nixon

  • church = meeting point, leaflets, 35k flyers

  • 5 dec 1955: mia set up to organise longer boycott - mlk as leader

    • new to the area

• role of mlk:

  • religious pastor - dexter avenue baptist church

  • urged those attending church to join boycott

    • b people resonate religion deeply with culture

  • flyers

mbb 1

context

rosa parks

• front = white only, first 4 rows full = give up seat

• black people pay at front, get off and get on from back

• ‘the bus was among the first ways i realised there was a black world and a white world’ - rosa parks

• 75% of customers black, no black bus drivers

• white seats in good condition but black seats in disrepair and made look dirty

bus segregation

mbb essay but include with mbb paragraph if general race relations

• mia decide to continue boycott until 3 demands met:

  • black bus drivers.

  • drivers to be courteous to all

  • 1st come 1st serve

• support:

  • carpooling - lloyds of london insurance (intl support)

  • taxis charging bus fare (10 cents) - MIA funding taxis

• opposition:

  • psychological pressure from authorities

  • false media reports

  • police harassment - arrested for loitering

  • kkk pour acid on carpooling cars

  • mia homes firebombed

• 9 dec 1955: met with mayor of montgomery + owner of bus company

  • ‘comes the first rainy day and the negroes will be back on the buses’ - mayor

  • rained the next day and boycott continued

mbb 2

course - support and opposition

• huge success - huge momentum

  • blueprint for crm, inspiration for cr and change

  • role of mlk: largely down to organisational skills, leadership + inspirational oratory

• bus segregation declared unconstitutional

  • buses no longer segregated but jim crow laws still in effect elsewhere

• 20 dec 1956: boycott ends after 381 days

• all eyes on mlk

  • founds sclc (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) + organise other marches

  • transfers mass momentum to civil rights

    • cr act snd vr act

• ‘a total boycott is an economic threat which cannot be ignored’ - rashad robinson

mbb 3

success + mlk

• momentum of mbb kept going

• other groups formed - sncc + core

  • sncc = student non-violent coordinating committee

  • core = congress of racial equality

• 1960: sncc greensboro NC ‘sit-ins’

  • food and drinks poured for sitting at all-white counters

  • heavily publicised: copied in 50 other cities

  • led to desegregation of lunch counters

• 1961: core freedom riders

  • interstate buses still segregated - 4W+4B sit together on bus from virginia to mississippi

  • bombed and attacked by alabama white mob

  • led to desegregation of interstate buses

• why all one thing at a time? need more change

other peaceful groups

• apr 12 1963: mlk arrested by bull connor for protesting

  • ‘i was proud of my crime. it was the crime of joining my people in a non-violent protest against injustice’ - mlk

• apr 16 1963: writes open letter in prison

  • address nation. mlk pushing for civil rights - movement slowing down

  • publicised in 35k pamphlets

  • ‘Justice too long is justice denied’. - MLK

• may 2-10 1963: children’s crusade

  • ~1000 children skip school + march to city hall for civil rights

  • met with fire hoses + police brutality

  • image of 15yo attacked on nyt

    • Are we to say to the world… that this is the land of the free, except for the Negro? - JFK

• jfk announces he would introduce cr bill to congress in 1964

  • dies before it happens - handed to lbj

birmingham

• 1963: afraid congress won’t pass bill, crm organise march to washington dc

  • 250k present

• mlk famous speech

  • ‘i have a dream of a day when my four little children will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the quality of their character’ - mlk

• 1964: cr act signed into law by lbj

  • end to jim crow laws

• greatest achievement of crm but voting rights still missing

washington

• 1965: march 54 miles from selma to montgomery

  • highlight voting issue (only 3% of black people in selma registered to vote)

  • literacy tests, poll tax, inaccessible

• marchers attacked - lbj send national guard

• numbers from 3000 - 25000 once mlk joined

• 1965: vr act signed into law by lbj

  • gave black people the right to vote on same terms as white people

• in a few yrs, 5 states have black mayors

selma para points

• mlk followed philosophy of non-violent resistance

• influenced by mahatma gandhi + christian faith

• belief in love, reconciliation + peace

  • tools for achieving social change

  • put this idea into practice at mbb

• promoted non-violent methods

• maintained that moral force of the civil rights case would win in the end

• ‘we must get it in our hearts that it is possible to be courageous but yet non-violent’ - mlk

non-violence

mlk essay

• courageous stance against war

  • led to criticism but it solidified his moral leadership and character

• mar 1967: 1st antiwar speech in chicago

  • lbj a huge supporter but cared more about vietnam

• apr 1967: 2nd anti war speech in nyc

  • days + weeks after, loss in supporters incl lbj

  • ‘How can a nation spend so much money on a war when it could not feed or protect its own people? - MLK’

• 1965: 61% of americans supported us involvement in war. still thought they were winning

opposition to vietnam

• mbb was 1st organised non-violent black mass movement

  • showed change could be achieved w/o violence.

  • non violence was the most powerful weapon of all

  • without mbb, may not have been birmingham, washington, or selma

  • transformed a local protest into an opening chapter for us struggle for racial equality

• mlk became the symbolic face of crm

  • gave a voice to the voiceless

  • faced criticism - change too slow

• influenced crm’s across the world - nicra, stonewall uprising and indian american movement

• barack obama: 1st black president 2008-2016

  • shows how far we’ve come

  • still long way to go - black lives matter + unprovoked racist attacks

outro mix of all

• rise of new cr groups

  • nation of islam (muhammad ali)

    • ‘float like a butterfly sting like a bee’

  • black panthers (malcolm x)

  • focus on north - fight for power ‘through the barrel of a gun’ - violent

    • mlk faced criticism from these groups - change was too slow

• 1968: us divided

  • lbj war on poverty - helped a little but recession going on. most of available funds spent on vietnam

  • mlk assassinated - riots, looting, lost unity, lost their leader

• growth of northern cities like chicago

  • huge migration from south

  • ghettos, suburbs (levittown), redlining (denying loans/mortgages based on race)

  • projects - urban developments that gave rise to crime and drugs

  • mass riots in LA and chicago

urban injustice, poverty

rise in other cr groups

cr’s in the north