Civil Rights Revolutions (pt. 2) - Detailed Notes

This section emphasizes a deeper understanding of historical events, moving beyond superficial explanations.

Double V drive for victory at home against prejudice and discrimination as well as victory abroad against the enemies of democracy.

Civil Rights activists leverage the Cold War to gain attention and foster support.
They contrasted American rhetoric about “freedom” and the fight against Communism to Jim Crow, systemic discrimination in public and private life, and unchecked violence against African Americans.

Revolutionary transformations:
- Undermines Jim Crow and leads to passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 (see 14th and 15th Amendments).
- Civil Rights Act of 1964: "An act to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights. . . to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes."
- Voting Rights Act of 1965: "AN ACT To enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes. . . SEC. 2. No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."

Considerable opposition:
- 90 Representatives and most southern senators sign the “Southern Manifesto” (1956), claiming that the SC had no right to rule on school segregation in the south, and called for “massive resistance” to the ruling in Brown v. Board.
- Beatings, bombings, and murders (e.g., Herbert Lee, a farmer who openly supported a SNCC voter registration drive shot in broad daylight by a state legislator).
- 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL bombed in 1963, killing four children.
- Public defiance: Gov. George Wallace of Alabama in 1963: “Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever.”
- 80% of all white southerners, according to polls, opposed integration.
Northern resistance to NAACP legal victories:
- Respond to Shelley v. Kraemer by forming “property protective” associations, pressure realtors to “steer” blacks away from white neighborhoods, and step up intimidation and violence.
- Albert Cole, the nation’s top housing official, declares in 1958 that it was not his job to promote integration, to “legislate an idea”.
- Northern congressmen received mail from constituents expressing their opposition to major civil rights legislation (2 to 1 in Illinois, for example, against Fair Housing Act of 1968).

Kennedy administration
- Discourages CORE activists from staging “Freedom Rides” (then promises Mississippi state officials not to challenge segregationist practices).
- Discourages SNCC from pursuing high-profile civil disobedience in favor of voter registration drives.
- SCLC and student activist pressure forces Kennedy administration to intervene in Birmingham, negotiate a settlement with city officials, and support ban of segregation at bus terminals.
- Proposes sweeping civil rights legislation in 1963 (unclear if it would pass if not for shock of assassination).

Long tradition of black “nationalist” thought
SNCC’s ideology and strategies transformed:
- Southern registration drives (new and more diverse membership; experience intransigence of power structure); address northern segregation and poverty.
- Face harassment, arrests, violence.
- Government and Democratic Party unwilling to compromise, reluctant to support blacks’ rights.
- e.g., DNC rejects MFDP in 1964; Bob Moses forced to file suit against Kennedy and FBI for not prosecuting whites who were attacking SNCC workers.

Most racial minorities denied access to basic entitlement programs, to new market for suburban homes, and to better paying jobs and professions.
Public housing programs underfunded (only about 10% of those deemed necessary built), poorly constructed, and segregated.
1949 Housing Act: “Title I” urban renewal program funded destruction of run-down urban neighborhoods (federal govt. subsidies demolition, enabling private developers to build; demolitions were supposed to be for the rejuvenation of blighted residential neighborhoods; instead, about 150,000 residential units (working class and low income, 2/3 minority) were destroyed and replaced with commercial and high-rent residential development or freeways.

1950s: “downtown revitalization”
- Redevelopment coalitions (local officials, business leaders, construction unions) draw on federal funds and local tax incentives to clear unused industrial space and older residential neighborhoods and build high-rises, new commercial and historical districts, and luxury housing.
- “slum clearance” usually amounted to what critics called “black and ethnic removal”: e.g., Boston’s urban renewal (b. 1959) focuses on the West End, South End, and Lower Roxbury, displacing thousands of longtime residents.

By 1965, Supreme Court rulings, executive actions, and Congressional legislation reasserts the federal government’s responsibility to protecting all Americans’ rights as citizens
The movement and, ultimately, the federal support for its aims, meets considerable opposition (and this will continue)
What are the limits of the era’s court victories and legislative reforms? How will a new federal commitment to anti-discrimination address economic inequality?

What, exactly, did the wide range of federal programs and actions—from the 1930s to the 1960s—do? Be specific and concrete.
What were the impacts, who benefitted, and who did not?
How did federal activity restructure the American economy, where and what people did for a living, and even the nation’s geography? (Why were places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas booming after World War II?)
How did different Americans interpret the federal government’s responsibilities and roles?
What did different Americans argue that government should and shouldn’t do?