8.6 Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1960

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain how and why the civil rights movement developed and expanded from 1945 to 1960

• Jackie Robinson

  • First African American to play baseball major league

    - Robinsons breakthrough had a huge impact on many

• Civil rights movement can be linked back to movement of African Americans from rural south to urban centers in the south & north

• African Americans began to have a growing influence in politics

  • Joined Democrats during New Deal

ORIGINS OF MOVEMENT

• African Americans fought against discrimination since 17th century

  • African Americans were still segregated by law in 1950s

    - kept from voting (poll taxes. test, grandfather clause, threats)

    - segreation & economic discrimination—→ poor education & poverty

PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP HARRY S. TRUMAN

• Truman was first president to challenge racial discrimination

  • Established Committee on Civil Rights

    - bypassed southern Dmemocrats who controlled congress

  • Strenghtend civil rights division in Justic Department

    - aided efforts of black leaders in ending segreation in schools

  • Ordered the end of racial discrimination throughout federal gov

    - included armed forces (changled life on military bases)

  • Urged congress for Fair Employment Practices Commission

    - kept employers from discriminating against African Americans

    - Southern Democrats blocked the legislation

CHANGING ATTITUDES IN THE COLD WAR

• Cold War played indrect role in changing gov policies & social attitude

  • US repuation for freedom & democracy vs Communist Ideology for heart and minds of poeple

    - Racial segreation & discrimination stood out as glaring wrongs

DESEGREGATING THE SCHOOLS AND PUBLICS PLACES

• National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

  • Worked through courts trying to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson

    - allowed for segreation through ¨separate but equal¨ facilities

    - case involved segreation of educational facilities

    - NAACP won series of cases involving higher education

BROWN DECISION

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

  • Case led by team of NAACP lawyers & Thurgood Marshall

    - argued segregation of Black Children in public schools

    - was viewed as unconsitutional bc of 14th amendement which guaranteed ¨equal protection of laws¨

  • Plessy was overturned and Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled:

    - separate facilities were unequal, hench unconsitutional

    - school segregation should end with deliberate speed

RESISTANCE IN THE SOUTH

• Opposition to Brown decision erupted throughout the South

  • ¨Southern Manifesto¨

    - signed by 101 members of congress

    - condemnd Supreme Court for abuse of judicial power

  • States fought decision in several ways:

    - temporarily closed public schools—→ set up private schools

    - KKK made a comeback & violence increased

  • Little Rock Central High School

    - Arkansas governor used national guard to prevent 9 black students from attending Little Rock Central High School

    - President Eisenhower intervened (upheld constitutional duty)

    - federal troops guarded black students at Little Rock

  • Resistance remained stubborn

    - fewer than 2% of black student attended integrated schools

MONTGOMERY BUSS BOYCOTT

• Bus ordered Rosa Parks to give up her bus seat for white passnegers

  • Rosa Parks

    - active member in local NAACP

    - arrested for not giving her seat (violation of segreation laws)

  • Sparked massive African American protest

    - boycott of city busses (Montogomergy Bus boycoot)

    - led to supreme court ruling segreation laws unconstitutional

    - inspired other civil rights protest

  • Martin Luther King Jr

    - emerged as inspirtation leader of nonviolent movement

NONVIOLENT PROTEST

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

  • Formed by Martin Luther King Jr

    - organized southern minister to support civil rights movement

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

  • Premoting voting rights & ending segregation

    - College students were refused service at lunch counter

    - students deliberately sat in restriced areas (Sit-in movement)

  • African Americans used it-ins to integrate into public areas

    - pressure marked turning point in civil rifhts movement

    - growing impatience of blacks—→ violent confrontations

FEDERAL LAWS

• Eisenhower was skeptical of Brown ruling

  • Still signed civil rights laws

    - first laws to be enacted by US congress since Reconstruction

    - allowed for permanent Civil Rights Commission

    - gave Justice Department new power to protect black voting

    - Southern officals still tried to discourgae black voting

• Court ruling & federal laws were only beginning of racial justice

  • Civil Rights movement continued

    - decades of protest, legislation, & court decisions

    - aaccess to schools, public places, voting, housing, jobs

    - went against traditons of segreation and descrimination