Civil Rights Movement, 1950s–1964

Segregation in Post-War America

• Post–WWII United States often described as an “Affluent Society,” yet for racial minorities it was “anything but” affluent.
• Segregation entrenched in four key arenas:
  • Housing (neighborhoods, lending, suburbanization)
  • Education (dual school systems, funding disparities)
  • Public transportation (bus seating, ticketing practices)
  • Voting (poll taxes, intimidation, denial of registration)
• Significance: These overlapping systems created a self-reinforcing cycle of economic deprivation and political powerlessness for Black Americans, setting the stage for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s–1960s.

Housing Discrimination: Suburbs, Redlining, and Legal Challenges

• 1950s suburban boom (e.g., Levittowns): marketed almost exclusively to Whites; minority buyers were routinely denied sales.
• “White Flight”: exodus of White families and capital from inner-city neighborhoods → left behind shrinking tax base and deteriorating public services.
• Federal policies that amplified segregation:
  • Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) mortgages, including G.I. Bill guarantees, were withheld from Black applicants or applied on harsh terms, effectively subsidizing White homeownership while excluding minorities.
  • Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps graded neighborhoods for lending risk; areas with high minority populations labeled grade D, outlined in red → term “redlining.” Consequence: private lenders denied or wildly inflated interest rates for loans in these zones.
• Restrictive covenants: contractual clauses in property deeds barring ownership or occupancy by anyone “not of the Caucasian race.”
• Supreme Court response—Shelley v. Kraemer (1948):
  • Facts: The Shelley family (African American) bought a St. Louis home covered by a covenant excluding “people of the Negro or Mongolian Race.” White neighbors sued to block transfer.
  • Ruling: Such covenants could exist privately, but state courts could not enforce them; enforcement would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^{\text{th}} Amendment.
  • Significance: Did not outlaw discriminatory clauses themselves, but removed the legal teeth, encouraging future fair-housing efforts.

Education Desegregation: Brown v. Board and Its Aftermath

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): had legitimized “separate but equal.” In practice, southern expenditures on Black schools were a fraction of that for White schools.
  • Example (Topeka, KS): 12 White schools received \$673{,}850 vs. 61 Black “schools/shacks” receiving \$194{,}575.
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954):
  • Lead attorney Thurgood Marshall; social-science evidence from Kenneth & Mamie Clark’s doll experiment showed psychological harm of segregation.
  • Decision: Segregated public schools are “inherently unequal”; violates Equal Protection.
  • Implementation phrase: “with all deliberate speed” → allowed years of delay.
• Little Rock Nine (1957):
  • Central High School, Little Rock, AR; Gov. Orval Faubus deployed National Guard to block nine Black students.
  • Pres. Eisenhower federalized Guard & sent 1{,}000 paratroopers; marked first presidential use of troops for civil-rights enforcement since Reconstruction.
  • Faubus shut down schools the next year (“Massive Resistance”). By 1965, 75\% of southern schools remained segregated; rise of “segregation academies” (private White schools).

Backlash and Organized Resistance to Integration

• Claim: Brown decision “inspired by Communists” (Cold-War rhetoric used to discredit civil-rights demands).
• Southern Manifesto (1956): 101 of 128 southern congressmen (\$96$ House/Senate signers) vowed to maintain segregation by “any lawful means.”
• White Citizens’ Councils (WCC): middle- and upper-class White organizations (esp. Mississippi) employing economic intimidation:
  • Firing Black employees, raising rent, canceling credit.
  • Funded propaganda & legal challenges to stall integration.

Violence Against Civil-Rights Activists

• 1955 Emmett Till (age 14): visiting Mississippi; accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant.
  • Kidnapped, beaten, shot; body tied to a 70-lb cotton-gin fan and dumped in Tallahatchie River.
  • Mother Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on open-casket funeral in Chicago; photos galvanized national outrage.
  • Murderers acquitted by all-White jury; later confessed in Look magazine (double-jeopardy shield).
• Pattern of targeted murders:
  • Rev. George Lee, Lamar Smith, John Earl Reese, Medgar Evers—all linked to voter-registration or integration work; frequently faced both KKK and WCC hostility.
• Lesson: Graphic violence plus lack of legal redress highlighted the moral crisis of segregation to wider America.

Bus Segregation and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Jim Crow bus rules: Black riders paid fares at front, forced to re-enter through back; seats surrendered to Whites on demand.
  • Drivers carried pistols; refusal led to arrest or shooting.
• Prior challenges:
  • Pauli Murray (1940, VA) arrested for refusing to move.
  • Claudette Colvin (March 1955), 15-yr-old, pregnant; NAACP hesitated to make her the test case.
• Rosa Parks (Dec 1, 1955): veteran NAACP investigator; arrest deliberately chosen as ideal legal vehicle (age, class, complexion) for a boycott.
• Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec 1955 – Dec 1956):
  • Coordinated carpools, Black taxi networks, walking; inflicted major revenue losses on bus system.
  • Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (age 26) chosen—almost by default—to head the new Montgomery Improvement Association.
  • Emphasized non-violent resistance, broadened coalition to sympathetic Whites & churches.
  • King's home and four Black churches fire-bombed; still no large-scale rioting—moral contrast effective.
  • Browder v. Gayle (1956): Supreme Court struck down bus segregation, ending boycott.

Rise of Non-Violent Direct Action: Sit-Ins and SNCC

• Greensboro Sit-Ins (Feb 1960): four A&T State University freshmen sat at Woolworth’s “Whites-only” lunch counter.
  • Rapid diffusion: Richmond, Tallahassee, Baltimore, Nashville, etc.
  • Tactics: polite refusal to leave; endured beatings, knife wounds, cigarette burns.
  • By end of 1960: 2{,}000 arrested, often crammed into unsanitary jails.
• Birth of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), April 1960:
  • Mission: facilitate direct-action campaigns led by local Black communities, especially poor & disenfranchised.
  • 1961-1963: actions in 100+ cities; >20{,}000 activists (men, women, children) jailed.
  • Project C (Birmingham 1963):
  • Chose Easter shopping season to maximize economic leverage.
  • Images of 6{,}000 children (ages 6–16) attacked by police dogs & fire hoses broadcast worldwide.
  • Outcome: Birmingham agreed to integrate facilities and hire Black employees; national sympathy surged.

Freedom Summer (1964): The Voting-Rights Frontier

• Strategy: recruit large numbers (≈900) mostly White college students—if White volunteers were harmed, federal response more likely.
• Goals: mass voter-registration drive, Freedom Schools, community centers in Mississippi.
• Repression:
  • Over 1{,}000 arrests; dozens of churches & homes bombed or burned; KKK often cooperated with local police.
  • Kidnapping & murder of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman after investigating a church burning; FBI recovered bodies after 44 days.
• Result: media spotlight built momentum for federal voting-rights protections.

Legislative Victory: Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Pres. John F. Kennedy proposed sweeping bill but was assassinated (Nov 1963).
• Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson leveraged political capital & memory of JFK to secure passage.
• Key provisions:
  1. Outlawed discrimination in most public accommodations (restaurants, theaters, hotels, etc.).
  2. Banned employment discrimination on basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin.
  3. Authorized Justice Department to file suits to desegregate public facilities & schools.
  4. Created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate workplace discrimination.
• Significance: first broad civil-rights statute since Reconstruction; provided federal enforcement tools that grassroots activists had been demanding.

Ethical, Philosophical, and Practical Implications

• Ethical: Movement forced U.S. to confront contradiction between democratic ideals and institutional racism.
• Philosophical: Demonstrated power of civil disobedience rooted in moral law (Thoreau, Gandhi) to expose unjust positive law.
• Practical: Combined bottom-up pressure (boycotts, sit-ins, voter drives) with top-down reform (court rulings, federal legislation), illustrating multi-level strategy.
• International: Cold-War context meant U.S. credibility abroad hinged on progress at home; segregation became foreign-policy liability.

Key Statistics, Dates, and Formulas (Quick Reference)

• 1954 Brown v. Board decision.
• 1955–1956: 712 southern schools integrated; by 1965, 75\% still segregated.
• Suburban funding disparity example: \$673{,}850 vs. \$194{,}575 (Topeka schools).
• Montgomery Boycott length ≈ 381 days.
• Freedom Summer volunteers ≈ 900; arrests >1{,}000.
• Civil Rights Act signed July 2, 1964.

Connections to Earlier Lectures & Real-World Relevance

• Builds on concepts of federalism: tension between state sovereignty (Massive Resistance) and federal supremacy (Eisenhower, Supreme Court).
• Echoes Progressive-Era investigative tactics (muckrakers → media coverage of Till, Birmingham).
• Contemporary relevance: issues of housing discrimination persist via credit scoring algorithms; voter suppression debates mirror Freedom Summer obstacles; police violence imagery (Birmingham hoses ⇒ today’s viral videos) continues to shape public opinion.