IB History 12 Civil Rights Notes
Racism and White Supremacy
Before the Civil Rights Movement
The United States was created in 1783 and comprised thirteen states.
The Declaration of Independence stated that all men are created equal with certain rights.
However, Native Americans and black slaves were not entitled to these rights.
Black Americans are descended from enslaved people brought to America to work on plantations
Civil Rights: the rights of an individual to legal, political and social equality, written into the US Constitution, including:
The right to vote
The right to equal treatment under the law
The right to a fair trial
The right to free speech, religion, and movement
The Civil Rights Movement aimed to secure these rights through law changes or changes in how the laws were interpreted.
Constitution of 1787 aimed to balance the powers of individual states and the central government, creating a federal system.
Federal government consists of a president, Congress (Senate and House of Representatives), and a Supreme Court.
Civil Rights Movement campaign involved demands for changes in federal law and appeals to the Supreme Court.
Discrimination, Segregation and Violence Against African-Americans
In the 19th century, there was increasing friction between the North and the South about whether new states admitted into the Union should be free or slave states.
The Republican Party emerged in the 1850s, representing those who wanted new states to be free states.
The fighting began in 1861, soon after the Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president and eleven slave-owning southern states seceded to form the Confederacy.
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 promised to end slavery in Confederate states, and in 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery.
Reconstruction was the process of rebuilding and reforming the Confederate states, and providing for the 4 million freedmen.
Freedmen had no money, land, or property. Northern charities helped provide food, clothing, hospitals, and schools, but few freedmen were given land and most ended up as sharecroppers.
Most white southerners wanted blacks to remain subservient and preserve white supremacy.
Several southern states enacted laws allowing whites to whip blacks for indiscipline, send them back to their previous owners, prevent them from being witnesses in court, and limit the areas where they could live.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) terrorized and killed many blacks for daring to rent or buy land, go to school, or get a better job.
In 1868, Congress passed the 14th Amendment guaranteeing'equal protection of the law' for all citizens, and declared that the federal government could intervene if any states tried to deny their rights.
In 1870, the 15th amendment was passed, granting black male suffrage.
Progress during Reconstruction:
Black men gained political power and were able to elect senators, Congressmen, magistrates, and sheriffs.
Black people set up businesses and newspapers, establishing their own churches and schools.
A black middle class of teachers, church ministers, businessmen, lawyers, and doctors emerged.
Progress proved to be short-lived as the North grew weary of involvement in the South and its troops were withdrawn.
With the removal of troops in 1877, a wide range of Jim Crow laws were passed by southern states to keep the races apart.
They kept the races apart in schools and hospitals, hotels and restaurants, cemeteries and parks, and on public transport.
Southern states also developed legal ways of preventing blacks from voting, such as poll tax, citizenship tests, and grandfather clauses.
White southerners justified the system on the grounds that blacks were inferior and dangerous, claiming that blacks had degenerated since the ending of slavery.
Rape came to be the most common justification for lynching.
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court stated that segregation was not unconstitutional as long as separate facilities were equal.
The Supreme Court decision appeared to epitomize the North's abandonment of southern blacks, and the federal government was effectively endorsing white supremacy.
The NAACP and the Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement
In 1905, a group of mostly northern blacks met at Niagara on the Canadian side of the US border, claiming that persistent, manly agitation is the way to liberty'.
In 1909, they set up the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had both black and white members and set out to publicize injustice.
Such atrocities were reported in The Crisis, the magazine which Du Bois edited for the NAACP.
The NAACP decided to employ the best lawyers and to take discrimination cases to the Supreme Court.
At the start of the 20th century, 90% of black Americans still lived in the South. Between 1914 and 1918, the Great Migration began.
Many blacks joined the armed forces during the First World War, but became embittered by their treatment in the army.
The Second World War and its outcome had a similarly dramatic impact on the lives of black Americans. Many supported the Double V campaign.
President Roosevelt responded by appointing the first black general, Benjamin O. Davis, and calling for equal opportunities for all in the armed forces.
Congress passed a law that offered returning soldiers financial aid to attend college and gain qualifications
During the war, 50,000 blacks arrived in Detroit, lured by job opportunities in arms production; there were even more white immigrants, many from the South.
Black soldiers returning to the North met hostility too, especially as competition for urban housing led to overcrowding and the deliberate exclusion of blacks from white neighborhoods.
Northern whites kept their distance from blacks, not by law but by social pressure.
Urban blacks took to gambling, prostitution, or theft. By this way, the southern stereotype of the lazy, criminal, inferior black person was replicated in the minds of some northerners.
One example was the campaign against racial discrimination in Chicago in the 1930s, boycottting stores that refused to employ African Americans.
In 1941, A. Philip Randolph planned a march on Washington, which led Roosevelt to set up the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC).
During the Second World War, NAACP membership leapt from 50,000 to 450,000, attracted wider support in the South and gave backing to local campaigns.
In 1944, the Court outlawed the all-white Democratic primary election in Texas, and more black men got to register to vote.
The Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who became president in 1933, gave a huge boost to the campaign for civil rights.
FDR took on many black advisers, his black cabinet', and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, advocated fair play and equal opportunity for Negro citizens'.
President Truman, who became president when Roosevelt died in 1944, passed a Civil Rights bill in 1947 banned segregation in public transport, poll taxes, and lynching, and desegregated the armed forces.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954
In the first half of the twentieth century, the NAACP eroded segregation, achieving equality within the segregated system.
In 1950, Thurgood Marshall argued before the Supreme Court that dual law schools at the University of Texas and segregated facilities at the University of Oklahoma had created separate but not equal facilities.
In 1952, the NAACP brought five cases to the Supreme Court, the first named of which was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Chief Justice, Earl Warren, said that segregation was dehumanizing and that the psychological effect of segregated schooling was to breed feelings of inferiority in young blacks, infringing their rights to equal protection under the law'.
Warren called for the desegregation of schools in order to comply with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, finally eliminating the legal basis for segregation in education by overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
But, opinion polls showed that the vast majority of white southerners were opposed to school desegregation.
In 1955, the Court's Brown II ruling called for desegregation with all due speed', but did not set any timetable and it left it to lower federal courts to ensure that schools were desegregated.
President Eisenhower (elected in 1952) did not endorse, let alone express support for, the Court's decision, and federal support for desegregation would not be forthcoming.
Opposition from whites was one of the most significant reasons for the lack of immediate desegregation, and many signed the Southern Manifesto, in March 1956, in order to condemn the Brown decision and unite the South in resistance.
The KKK was revived. White Citizens' Councils were set up and attracted widespread support
When nine black students were enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, they were met on arrival by a white mob.
President Eisenhower was forced to act, showing that the US Constitution was being upheld and justice done, sending in 1200 paratroopers to escort the students into school.
The crisis at Little Rock won increased support for the Civil Rights Movement nationally.
In the late 1950s, President Eisenhower's government passed two Civil Rights Acts where the first one, in 1957, set up a Civil Rights Commission to monitor racial relations and the second one, in 1960, imposed criminal penalties for public officials obstructing black voters.
Protests and action: from Montgomery to the Civil Rights Act
The Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-6
The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the best known events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, associated with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
City of Montgomery, in Alabama, had a population of 120,000, with a third being black, and public buses were segregated.
There were several factors that resulted in Rosa Parks staying in her bus seat on December 1, 1955:
Murder of Emmett Till
Years of NAACP activism and organizing
Local and city leadership advocating for change
The local leaders made fliers and held meetings to mobilize local African Americans using the slogan People don't ride the buses today. Don't ride it for freedom.
50 local church ministers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to extend the boycott. The MIA invited 26-year Old Baptist Martin Luther King to lead the group.
The first boycott demand was courteous treatment of black passengers; seating on a first-come, first-served with whites filling the bus from the front and blacks from the back; black drivers
The bus company rejected those demands fearing black people would boast. Bus company failed, abuse and death threats ensued.
The effort lasted 381 days supported through carpool and determination.
King's house was bombed during the process but the crowds remained non-violent.
In June 1956, the MIA challenged the segregation laws in a federal court, which ruled that the bus company's segregated transport was unconstitutional, in violation of the 14th Amendment.
The boycott led to the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in January 1957.
Sit-ins and Freedom Rides
On February 1, 1960, the four black students sat down at the whites-only lunch counter. The students were pushed around but did not retaliate.
The students were not completely spontaneous. This sparked a new wave of protest. Soon there were wade-ins on white-only beaches, read-ins in white-only libraries, and piss-ins' in white-only toilets.
There was growing impatience. Black people were earning their independence in African countries and some could not drink lousy cup of coffee.
In February 1960, students began a sit in at Nashville, Tennessee with direct action workshops. The students were arrested being replaced by more students. Three weeks later, the bus station lunch counter served blacks and a year later Nashville desegregated hotels, cinemas, fast food outlets, etc.
Woolworth's profits fell drastically, so they desegregated the lunch counters. The NAACP gave support in legal aid, training, and finance.
Ella Baker called on student leaders and formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
In November 1960 Kennedy won the election. During his campaign Kennedy said segregation was immoral and damaged America's international image.
In May 1961, thirteen volunteers, seven black and six white, set off on a bus journey from Washington DC to New Orleans known as Freedom Rides. When stopped, they did not use the facilities and sat together, not separate.
The first bus to Alabama was firebombed. When another bus arrived, the police stood by while thugs ordered the back riders to sit the back. They refused.
Many were joined by the SNCC volunteers. When the volunteers arrived in Montgomery, the Klansmen attacked with violence. They filled the jails. The Kennedy brothers sent 400 marshals.
Robert Kennedy compelled the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce desegregation. Fifteen years after the Supreme Court first ruled, in 1946, that segregation on interstate transport was illegal, the federal government finally enforced the Court's decision.
Project Confrontation: Birmingham 1963
The city of Birmingham, Alabama was the largest industrial city in the South, said to be the most segregated city in America. In 1956 after state NAACP had been banned, Fred Shuttlesworth established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. This created many racial tensions and protests.
King and his SCLC colleagues created Project C (confrontation) to disrupt traffic, boycott stores, and desegregate retail stores during easter. The people were met with police. He marched to city hall and was arrested and put in solitary imprisonment.
The newspaper was criticized, as the marches were claimed illegal and led by agitators. But King claimed the marchers were not extreme extremists, they believed in love not hate.
The SCLC called on the Children. They watched a movie, marched, then were arrested- thousands were jailed. In response, Chief Bul Connor used firehoses on the teenagers, photos in the national newspapers ensued. There was the intervention of the federal government followed with the desegregation of businesses. But, the rage was followed by bombings and attacks.
The March on Washington, August 1963
There was an organized march for jobs and freedom lead to show support for, Congress for the civil rights bill.
The March on Washington was directed by Randolph and organized by Rustin to publicize the legislation. The key leaders were King and Lewis speaking before the Lincoln memorial.
By 1963 they sought passing the civil rights bill after there were over 250,000 protesters and a nationally broadcast King’s speech.
Violence kept breaking out followed by the assassination of Kennedy but pressure remained to pass a comprehensive bill for all people regardless of skin color.
The achievements of the Civil Rights Movement
The passing of the Civil Rights Act 1964
When Johnson took the presidential office he insisted on getting congress to pass legislation as a means to end tension and push for racial equality. As a southerner, he realized segregation had made it difficult for the South.
When the civil rights bill stalled, Johnson insisted that it needed to go through, pushing for urgency.
He gained Republican Party support using his political experience by twisting arms and building relationships with fellow senators.
Johnson gained success with the senate passing the final vote on July 2, 1964.
His aim was securing implementation of the law which offered equal enjoyment and civil rights by creating a commission to help the enforcement of the same.
Campaigning for the Vote In Mississippi in the Early 1960s
There was still discrimination as the NAACP worked to enforce the laws for voting in Texas counties. There was a need for the enforcement of registration and ending racial crimes in Jackson and the other parts of Mississippi.
Between 1961 and 1963 the SNCC began a voter campaign in Mississippi with the goal of African Americans gaining success with voting. This sustained grassroots activity marked a new development in the campaign for black civil rights in the South. The movement was complemented by the gains of the NAACP lawyers, who took an increasing number of legal cases to the Supreme Court.
When the SNCC appealed to the federal government to intervene, the authorities in Washington insisted that law enforcement was a state responsibility.
Blacks lacked the resources to use for voter education as the goal became winning and joining forces with the democratic platform. Black men rose to power, the report by Truman and the committee on civil rights sought that nothing could be done.
Selma and the Passing of the Voting Rights Act 1965
Lyndon Johnson had won a landslide victory in presidential election of 1964, there was needed increase for the votes across many cities.
Blacks were denied voting, there was only 1% registered voting in Dallas county, there violence and jailing upon protests in Selma, Alabama. With the new bill in the works King, the SNCC sought pressure on federal governments by meeting with state troopers there there force and tear gas deployed.
Bloody Sunday became a widely known event; The SCLC, SNCC met in Montgomery sought pressure to the voting bill.
Johnson responded offering Congress, and the Senate, new voting rights within congress pushing for its approval.
Malcolm X and Black Nationalism
In 1965 the riot in Watts district, the black ghetto occurred in Los Angeles (arrest for drink- driving). Police used violence against these citizens. It was a community known for police brutality. It seemed as if, the civil rights laws had done nothing.
Many blacks were unable to find resources for city-life causing a growing number in ghetto areas that was increasingly segregated. While there was an increase in job opportunity and wealth for the white, very little was trickling down to the black Americans.
Black soldiers were no longer seen as a national priority. By the mid 1960, a shift occurred in civil rights, from a non-violent, interracial partnership, to a militant, black nationalist, separate-but-equal agenda.
The emergence of Malcolm helped with some goals of the SCLC as King began to express that change had to come or that the fire had to erupt. But at the end the focus began to take and shift. While King preached about his dream he said we could never reach that due to what had resulted for centuries prior.
Malcom X had seen his life turned upside down after his father died. As a man Malcolm spent his life in prison only for his release for him to be converted into the Nation of Islam. His reading and his new faith gave him a sense of purpose and also the firm belief that all his personal failures and family tragedies were caused by white racists.
The minister and civil leader believed that the only way to overcome 300 years of domination was for black men in America to take control of their own lives and communities.
By 1965, at the age of 39, Malcolm was also assassinated for preaching separation. Even if a change seemed possible, that was shut down.
Key debate
In the eyes of the vast majority of Americans, both black and white, Martin Luther King Jr was not only the most effective leader of the Civil Rights Movement but, for many, he was the leader of the movement. He gained support for civil right from the federal government and Congress, above all, the Supreme Court in the Brown ruling.
From the early twentieth century, the NAACP won several legal cases in the Supreme Court, culminating in the Brown decision of 1954, which declared segregated schooling to be unconstitutional although the civil rights act was eventually passed in July 1964.
Martin Luther King Jr was born in 1929 and brought up in Atlanta, Georgia, where both his father and grandfather were Baptist ministers. He encountered racial discrimination and segregation on a daily basis and later admitted it made him determined to hate every white person'.
Most urban blacks were still trapped by poor housing, poor schools and high unemployment caused from racial discrimination.