The USA in the Sixties: Civil Rights Movement

The USA in the Sixties: Civil Rights Movement

Core Message

• Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
• Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. - MLK

The Civil Rights Movement

• The problem of racial segregation and inequality.

Brown vs. Board of Education

• A House divided against itself cannot stand - A. Lincoln
• Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
  • Linda Brown, a black girl, and her white friends lived in Topeka, Kansas.
  • She had to attend a separate, black-only elementary school.
  • The schools were segregated under the "separate but equal" doctrine.
  • NAACP took the case to court.
  • Local court case.
  • Supreme Court.
  • Justice Jackson (involved in Nuremberg trials).
• Segregated schools are harmful.
• Court Bans Segregation In Public Schools.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• 1955
• Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person.
• She was arrested.
• NAACP and MLK organized a boycott of the bus company.
• The bus company was almost bankrupted.
• Segregation on buses ended.

Lynching of Emmett Till

• A boy from the north of the USA visited relatives in the south.
• He supposedly whistled at a girl.
• He was kidnapped and shot.
• The court case was a joke.

Mississippi Burning

• 1964, a time when America was at war with itself.

Martin Luther King

• Born on January 14, 1928, and died on April 4, 1968.
• He came from a family of preachers.
• Advocated for peaceful resistance and non-violent protest.
• 1955: Montgomery bus boycott.
• 1961: Jailed after a campaign in Albany.
• 1963: March on Washington.
• 1964: Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1968: Murdered in Memphis.

1963: March on Washington

• "I have a dream"
• August 28, 1963
• A speech calling for an end to racism in the US.
• Over 250,000 people attended.

Speech: "I Have a Dream"

• Delivered at the Lincoln Memorial, honoring Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
  • Lincoln was the 16th president of the US and abolished slavery.
  • During the Civil War, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • The proclamation declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of America.
  • Lincoln gave hope for equal rights.
• Now: Still no equal rights, still discrimination, segregation, poverty.
• We are here to cash a check: forefathers promised 3 things: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
• But: America did not give these rights to the blacks.
• They are not asking for money; they only want freedom.
• Image of bank/check = continued justice.
• Now is the time to give these rights.
• No cooling off, no gradualism: NOW (fierce urgency).
• It would be fatal for the nation to overlook this moment.
• This summer, too many things have happened (protests).
• Blacks will not be quiet until things are settled.
• BUT: no wrongful deeds, no bitterness, no hatred. NO VIOLENCE!
• Policy of peaceful resistance.
• Dignity/discipline: we must not sink to violence.
• Physical force
• Support of many white people: we don’t walk alone.
• We can’t stop. We are not satisfied as long as there’s police brutality against negroes, segregated hotels, transport, no right to vote.
• I know that some of you have already suffered a lot.
• Go back to your own state, don’t despair! Because I have a dream.
• Deeply rooted in the American Dream.
• This dream = faith, hope.
• If America is a great nation, this must become true.
• Let freedom ring from all the mountains/states of the US.

Why is this such a great speech?

• Rock solid, unshakeable confidence.
  • Body language: calm and grounded / solid of his convictions/ self-confident.
• Used to preach: intonation, cadence, preacher-like drama to bring passion to speech.
• He uses powerful, evocative language.
• Rhythm & repetition.
• Building up towards a climax.
• Makes logical reasoning.
• With, not "at", his people.
• Forceful imagery (metaphors).