A-level History, Paper 1 - Topic 2B Black American Civil Rights, c1955–80

Why is 1955 considered the start of the modern Civil Rights Movement?

• It marked the shift from legal challenges (NAACP courts strategy) to mass direct action protest.

• Sparked by the murder of Emmett Till

• Key developments:

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott begins (1955)

  • Emergence of Martin Luther King Jr

  • Growth of nonviolent protest strategy

  • Increased national media coverage

What caused the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

• Triggered when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat (Dec 1955).

• Organised by the Montgomery Improvement Association.

• Led by Martin Luther King Jr

• Lasted 381 days

• Outcome - 20 December 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in transport was unconstitutional

• First major success of mass nonviolent protest

Why was the Montgomery Bus Boycott successful?

Reasons:

• Strong organisation through churches

• National media attention

• Black citizens made up 75% of bus passengers

• The bus company lost 65% of its income because the majority of its customers were black.
  
  

What methods did Martin Luther King Jr use to campaign for civil rights?

• King promoted nonviolent direct action, inspired by Gandhi.

• Methods included:

  • boycotts
    marches
    sit-ins
    mass demonstrations

• He was the leader of the SCLC.

Why was King’s strategy effective?

• Because of violence against peaceful protesters:

  • Shocked national TV audiences
    Embarrassed the USA internationally during the Cold War
    Forced presidential intervention

  • E.g. Birmingham Campaign (1963) - Police chief Bull Connor used dogs and fire hoses on children.

What roles did major civil rights organisations play after 1955?

Example - Strategy - Example

• NAACP - Legal challenges - Brown v Board

• SCLC - Mass protest - Birmingham, Selma

• SNCC - Student activism - Sit-ins

• CORE - Freedom Rides - Interstate buses

What were the sit-ins and why were they important?

• Greensboro, North Carolina (1960) - Four students refused to leave a segregated lunch counter.

• Within months, there were 70,000 participants in the Southern States

• Led to the desegregation of many public facilities.

• Students at North Carolina State University set up the SNCC - They held courses to teach protestors how to remain non-violent when they were

  being attacked by racists.

What were the Freedom Rides (1961)?

• Organised by CORE and wanted to test the Supreme Court ruling banning segregation on interstate buses.

• Riders attacked by racist mobs in Alabama, e.g. the KKK.

• In total, 400 freedom riders were arrested and many more were beaten up. 3 freedom riders were actually killed.

• President Kennedy was forced to intervene, condemning the attacks by white racists.

Why was the Birmingham Campaign significant (1963)?

• It was seen as the most racist city in the South with no black police officers, bus drivers, firefighters or bank workers. Only 10% of the black population was registered to vote.

• Martin Luther King, as the head of the SCLC, hoped to get maximum publicity for his campaign in Birmingham.

• So many adults were arrested that they had to use children in the protest marches.

• Police response included dogs, fire hoses and mass arrests.

• The media played an important role in attracting white support for the civil rights campaign by showing pictures of peaceful protestors being attacked nationally.

• President Kennedy got involved by sending in federal troops to restore calm.

• Desegregation was eventually introduced into the city.

What was the significance of the March on Washington?

• 250,000 protesters participated, including 80,000 whites.

• King made his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

• The aim of the march was to pressure President Kennedy to pass the Civil Rights Bill.

What did the Civil Rights Act (1964) achieve?

• Banned discrimination in:

  • employment
    public facilities
    education
    housing (state-owned)

What were the limitations of the Civil Rights Act (1964)?

Did NOT:

• guarantee voting rights
  end economic inequality
  stop riots

Why was Selma important (1965)?

In Selma (Alabama), there were only 383 black voters out of a possible 15,000.

MLK decided to start a campaign to get black people registered to vote.

A 50-mile march was staged on 7th March 1965 from Selma to Birmingham

600 civil rights protestors participated in the march but were attacked by the local police with tear gas and clubs. It became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

The American public were shocked at images of police brutality.

AUGUST 1965 - Voting Rights Act Passed. Black Americans no longer had to a literacy test.

What did the Voting Rights Act (1965) achieve?

• Ended literacy test and banned voter discrimination.

• Impact:

  • Mississippi Black voter registration went from 6% (1964) → 59% (1968).

  • Black elected officials increased 6× between 1965–69.

Why did King move campaigning to the North after 1965?

• Between 1940-1965 4 million black people left the South for the North

• An increase in the use of technology meant the need for less manual workers so many blacks lost jobs.

• -Housing was segregated in Northern cities, with blacks prevented from buying/renting in white areas.

• -By the late 1960s, many white people in the North had lost sympathy for the civil rights movement.

• Ghetto life led to poor housing, lack of amenities, crime, drug and gang problems.

• Education inequality - 32% of ghetto pupils finished high school compared to 56% of white children.

What was the Moynihan Report (1965)?

• A study made by President Johnson of the economic position of black families.

• drew attention to high levels of crime and poor living conditions amongst many black families.

• Stated that the ghettoization in the North was leading to de facto segregation of education and housing.

• The report increased tensions between black radicals and President Johnson because it blamed black people for their economic problems.

What was the importance of the Chicago Campaign (1966)?

• Chicago was chosen as America’s second largest city with 700,000 blacks who lived in the South Side and West Side ghettos.

• Blacks there suffered unemployment, housing and education problems.

• King and the SCLC organised marches to campaign against housing segregation.

• Protests led to white backlash in Chicago.

• King left Chicago with little success. The campaign had been poorly organised.

What was Black Power?

• A black movement promoting:

  • racial pride
    self-defence
    economic independence

• It rejected non-violence and integration

• Created groups such as the Nation of Islam

What were the positive impacts of the Nation of Islam?

• Attracted criminals, drug addicts, prostitutes and turned them into model citizens, e.g. Malcolm X, who converted in prison.

• 1969 the Nation of Islam had 250,000 members and a newspaper called “Muhammad Speaks”.

• Members were expected to live a religious life emphasising marriage, rejection of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and flamboyant clothing.

• Malcolm X was an inspiring figure and increased the profile of ‘Black Power’.

• Cassius Clay, winner of the world heavyweight boxing title joined the ‘Nation of Islam’ in 1964 and became known as Muhammad Ali.

How did Malcolm X influence Black Power?

• He promoted the use of violence - condemned non-violence as cowardly and ineffective.

• He argued that black people had a right to defend themselves and fight for their freedom by any means necessary.

• Refused to work with other groups - Nation of Islam wanted black separatism and no integration with whites, rejecting Martin Luther King who they called an ‘Uncle Tom’.

• Malcolm X believed in ‘Black Nationalism’ where blacks should govern themselves and their economy within black communities. He wanted to exclude white people.

• After ongoing disagreements with the NOI, he was shot dead in February 1965.

What were the positive impact of the Black Panthers?

• Set up in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale.

• Like the NOI they recruited young black men who were getting into trouble.

• Tried to help poor blacks in the ghettos e.g provided free breakfasts for needy children, set up free health clinics.

• Schools were set up to teach black history and to help improve numeracy and literacy for adults and children.

What were the negative impact of the Black Panthers?

• Believed in violence

• Patrolled the streets with arsenals of pistols, shotguns and rifles.

• They were black nationalists like Malcolm X who wanted a separation from whites.

• Seen as too extreme by whites as they demanded reparations for the black community.

• Some members of the Black Panthers were also involved in robbery, prostitution, drug trafficking.

• In 1967 alone, 27 Panther members were shot dead and 750 arrested.

Why was the Black Power movement a failure?

• Frightened white Americans, and made the government hostile

• Black Power groups were unable to work together to harness black anger and turn it into a powerful movement

• National media defined Black Power as “violent, angry, controversial and anti-white”.

What were the major achievements of the Civil Rights Movement by 1980?

• Economic conditions had improved for blacks living outside the ghettos with an emerging black middle class.

• Much progress was due to affirmative action programmes started under Nixon. In 1977, 31% of black people were classified as middle class.

• By 1976, black voter registration in the South stood at 63% (only 5% below white voter registration).

• In 1964, there were about 500 black elected officials. By 1980 this had increased to nearly 4,000

• 1968-1971, the proportion of black children attending all black schools in the South declined from 68% to 18%.

• Increased presence of black Americans in the media and Hollywood.

What were the major limits of civil rights progress by 1980?

• Black men were disproportionately represented in the prison system. Black men were 7 times more likely to end up in prison than white men.

• The income gap between blacks and whites increased.

• The number of black children living in poverty increased to 44% by 1980.

• Many white people moved to white suburbs or placed their children in all white private schools to avoid integration across the USA.