Civil Rights

Civil Rights Movement

• A mass movement to end racial segregation and discrimination in the southern US that gained prominence in the 1950s

• Had its roots in the resistance movement against racial oppression and the aboliton of slavery

• Although enslaved people were emancipated, and basic civil rights were granted through the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century

• Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s broke race barriers in public facilities in the South

• Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, activists began confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression

From Abolition to Jim Crow

• Equal rights for all were affirmed in the founding documents of the US, but many of the country’s inhabitants were denied essential rights

  • enslaved Africans did not have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

• The Consitution actually protected slavery

• The small number of blacks who lived outside the slave system were discriminated against and faced segregation

• Owners of enslaved people reacted to the 1831 Nat Turner slave revolt in VA by passing laws to discourage antislavery activism and prevent the teaching of enslaved people to read and write

Frederick Douglass

• Was most famous of formerly enslaved persons to join abolitionist movement

• His autobiography helped to expose the true horrors of slavery

• Spread his ideas throughout the world, even traveling to Europe to speak

• The country’s tension around slavery rapidly increased in the 1850s

Underground Railroad

• Series of routes and stations/safe-houses and churches

  • enslaved people would follow the North Star, a sign they were on the path to freedom

• Underground Railroad was illegal, but many people didn’t care and did whatever it took to assist enslaved peoples’ journey to freedom

• The route led all they way to Canada, where fugitive slaves would be deemed free

• Binghamton, NY was a hub of the Underground Railroad, since it lay on a river

• Underground Railroad aroused Northern sympathy for the lot of the slave, while convincing many Southerners that the North as a whole would never peaceably allow the institution of slavery to remain unchallenged

Dred Scott

• 1857: US Supreme Court rejected African American citizenship claims

• Essentially, slaves were property of their own and the Constitution protects people’s property against illegal seizures

• The Southern argument stated that the Fourth Amendment gave them the right to enslave and discriminate against a group of people

Brown v. Board of Education Topeka

• May 17, 1954: Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment

  • decision declared that separate educational facilities for white and African American students were unequal

• This rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine, advanced by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Ordered school authorities to integrate public schools quickly, but schools in the South remained almost completely segregated until late 1960s

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• December 1955: Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, even though it was required by law, and was arrested

  • inspired mass protests and a bus boycott

• Activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott the transit system and chose MLK Jr. as their leader

• MLK’s speeches introduced the country to a fresh voice and rhetoric

• African Americans made up 75% of bus passengers, but the city did not give in to the protesters demands

• Integration

  • June 5, 1956: Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the Fourteenth Amendment

  • Montgomery buses were integrated on Dec. 21, 1956, ending the 381 day long boycott

• Boycott was met with violence against black Americans and their personal property and public facilities