Civil Rights Movement: Racism and Violence Against African Americans

Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

• Period after the Civil War focused on securing freedom and equality through amendments.
  • $13^{th}$ Amendment (1865): Abolished slavery.
  • $14^{th}$ Amendment (1868): Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law.
  • $15^{th}$ Amendment (1870): Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race.

Rise of Jim Crow

• End of Reconstruction in 1877 led to Jim Crow Laws, enforcing racial segregation and discrimination.
  • State and local laws enforcing segregation in the Southern U.S.
  • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court upheld segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Economic Oppression

• New economic systems emerged post-slavery to maintain racial hierarchies and exploit Black labor.
  • Sharecropping: Black farmers rented land, often leading to perpetual debt.
  • Peonage: Debt slavery, forced labor to pay off debts.
  • Convict Lease System: Leasing prisoners (mostly African Americans) to private companies for labor.

Racial Violence

• Tool of terror to maintain white supremacy.
  • Ku Klux Klan (KKK): Founded in 1866, used violence to intimidate African Americans and allies.
  • Lynching: Widespread practice, thousands of documented cases between 1880 and 1950.
  • Race Riots: Targeted prosperous Black communities, e.g., Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Sexual Violence

• Used as a tool of racial oppression with impunity for white men raping Black women, reinforcing racial and gender hierarchies.

Disenfranchisement

• Methods used to prevent African Americans from voting after Reconstruction.
  • Poll Taxes: Fees required to vote.
  • Literacy Tests: Unfair tests to disqualify Black voters.
  • Grandfather Clause: Exempted those whose ancestors voted before the Civil War.
  • White Primary: Only white voters allowed in primary elections.
  • Smith v. Allwright (1944): Supreme Court struck down the white primary system in Texas.

Legal Discrimination

• Reinforced through legislation and court decisions.
  • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Established "separate but equal" doctrine.
  • Jim Crow Laws: Segregation in schools, transportation, and public facilities.
  • Civil Rights Cases (1883): Weakened federal protection against racial discrimination.

Resistance Efforts

• African Americans resisted oppression through legal, political, and grassroots efforts.
  • NAACP: Founded in 1909, fought for civil rights through the legal system.
  • Guinn v. United States (1915): Struck down the Grandfather Clause.
  • Black newspapers, churches, and organizations mobilized resistance.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Eliminated barriers to voting, including literacy tests.
• Selma to Montgomery marches highlighted the need for voting rights legislation.

Fair Housing Act (1968)

• Prohibited discrimination in housing.

Grassroots Activism

• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956): Led to desegregation of public buses.
• Freedom Rides (1961): Challenged segregation in interstate bus travel.
• SNCC: Organized sit-ins and voter registration drives.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Promoted white supremacy and racial violence during three distinct periods:
  • Reconstruction
  • The 1920s
  • Civil Rights Era (1950s-1960s)
• Targeted African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.
• Used bombings, assassinations, and collaboration with law enforcement to maintain segregation.

Supreme Court Cases

• U.S v. Reese (1875): Allowed states to use non-racial criteria for disenfranchisement
• U.S v. Cruikshank (1876): Weakened federal enforcement of voting rights

Impact of Disenfranchisement

• African Americans were effectively removed from and unable to participate in the political process. They also experienced economic exploitation and marginalization as a result, reinforced racial hierarchies

Segregation and Education Milestones

• Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938): Missouri had to provide equal law school education for Black students.
• Sweatt v. Painter (1950): A hastily created Black law school wasn't equal to the University of Texas Law School.
• McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950): Segregating a Black graduate student within a white university violated his right to equal education.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• Landmark case declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
• Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson decision in public education.
• Catalyst for the broader Civil Rights Movement and further legal challenges to segregation.

Little Rock Crisis (1957)

• Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the integration of Central High School, highlighting resistance to desegregation.

Economic and Social Discrimination

• Perpetuated through systems like sharecropping and Jim Crow laws, maintaining racial hierarchy and inequality

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)

• Began after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to desegregation of public buses and the rise of MLK Jr.

Freedom Rides (1961)

• Challenged segregation in interstate travel, leading to ICC regulations prohibiting segregation.

Journey and Challenges

• Federal Intervention
• Internal Debates: Some activists, like Malcolm X, criticized non-violence as too passive and advocated for self-defense
• Violent Backlash: Non-violent protesters often faced severe violence, testing their commitment to peaceful resistance

Freedom Summer (1964)

• Sought to register African American voters in Mississippi and educate them about their rights.
• The inclusion of white volunteers was strategic. Organizers believed that violence against white students would draw national attention and pressure the federal government to act

Civil Rights Act (1964)

• Outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.

Voting Rights Act (1965)

• Prohibited racial discrimination in voting, outlawing literacy tests and providing federal oversight.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Leader of the Civil Rights Movement advocating for nonviolent resistance.

Malcolm X

• Advocated for self-defense, Black nationalism, and economic independence.

NAACP

• Fought for civil rights through legal means, achieving victories like Brown v. Board of Education.

SCLC and SNCC

• Organizations committed to nonviolent resistance, differing in leadership and strategies: SCLC was church and MLK based while SNCC was grassroots with decentralized leaderships

Nation of Islam (NOI)

• Promoted Black empowerment, self-reliance, and separation from white society.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

• Legislation known as: Petty Apartheid and Grand Apartheid legislation
• Refers to the social, economic, and political dominance of the white population, but also their attempts to physically and racially separate populations to make their oppression easier. This included everything from bus seat laws, where certain race would have to sit in the back, all the way to separate racial homelands meant to force some people out the country

Economic Hardships

• Low wages and high unemployment in Black townships made even small fare increases unaffordable - Spontaneous Origins

The Defiance Campaign was a mass protest movement launched by the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952 to challenge apartheid laws through nonviolent civil disobedience - The Freedom Charter was a visionary document adopted in 1955, outlining the democratic aspirations of South Africans and calling for equality, justice, and human rights

The Sharpeville Massacre was a turning point in South Africa;s history

• It exposed the brutality of the apartheid regime and force the ANC to reconsider its strategy of nonviolent resistance

The Rivonia Trial was a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history

• marking the apartheid regime’s most significant legal assault on the ANC and its leadership - It was named after Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, where police discovered incriminating evidence of the ANC’s plans for armed resistance