The Civil Rights

Movement
{ There were two phases to the Civil Rights movement:
one phase between 1945-1965 and the other after 1965.
  Black equality became a significant
political issue for the Democratic Party
 WWII had been fought against racism
abroad—hard to keep harboring it at
home
 Black veterans came home dedicated to
change
 Increasing number of White Americans
condemned segregation
 Discrimination in the United States hurt
our propaganda battle against the
I. Why Did the Civil Rights
Communists
Movement Take Off After
1945?
II. The Truman Years
 Truman’s 1948 election
year agenda
 No significant Civil Rights

congressional legislation
 Truman moves on his own

to do what he can for Civil

Rights
--Desegregation of the
military (1948)
 Jackie Robinson’s

breakthrough (1947)
II. The Truman Years (cont.)
 Split at the 1948
Democratic convention
 Energized Truman hits the

campaign trail hard

 Republican Dewey runs a

boring, conservative
campaign
 Truman’s stunning election

 Truman’s “Fair Deal”

(1949)
III. The Battle in the Courts
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
-- “separate but equal”
facilities = legal
 Smith v. Allwright (1944)

 First attack = “separate is

not equal”
 Brown v. Board of

Education of Topeka,
Kansas (1954)
-- Chief Justice Earl
Warren
III. Battle in the Courts
(cont.)
 Eisenhower disapproves of
Brown decision
 Desegregation “with all

deliberate speed”
 Other Warren Court Civil

Rights decisions
 Popular opposition to the

Brown decision
 No real progress on

desegregation at first
IV. The Eisenhower Years
 Eisenhower’s philosophy
related to Civil Rights laws
 First Civil Rights Acts

passed since the Civil War

(1957 and 1960)
 Opposition to the

integration of Little Rock

Central High School
(1957)
--Governor Orville Faubus
V. Out of the Schools and Into
the Buses
 The arrest of Rosa Parks
(December, 1955)
 The Montgomery, Ala. Bus

Boycott
 The leadership of Martin

Luther King, Jr.

 The “Montgomery” model

for Civil Rights activism:

boycott, publicity, courts
 SCLC formed (1957)
VI. A Mass Movement Takes
Shape

 Lunch counter “sit-ins”

begin: Greensboro, NC
(February, 1960)
 SNCC created (April,

1960)
 CORE “Freedom Rid

e” (May, 1961)
VI. A Mass Movement Takes
Shape (cont.)
 Demonstrations in
Birmingham, Alabama
(April, 1963)
--Eugene “Bull” Connor
 “Letter from Birmingham

City Jail”
 Governor George Wallace

tries to block integration of

the University of Alabama
(Fall, 1963)
VI. A Mass Movement Takes
Shape (cont.)
 JFK finally begins to
campaign for Civil Rights
legislation
 Continued violence even in

the face of some progress

 Martin Luther King, Jr.

and the March on

Washington (August,
1963)
-- “I Have a Dream”
VI. A Mass Movement Takes
Shape (cont.)
 Mississippi Freedom
Summer Project (1964)
 MFDP Protests at the 1964

Democratic convention
 Voter registration in

Selma, Alabama (1965)

--Sheriff Jim Clark
 By the mid-1960’s,

substantial success in the

South had been achieved
VII. The Kennedy and
Johnson Years
 JFK’s initial reluctance to
push for Civil Rights laws
 The integration of Ole’

Miss (1962)
--James Meredith
 JFK finally decides to push

past better enforcement to

new congressional Civil
Rights legislation
VII. The Johnson Years
(cont.)
 The role of Kennedy’s
assassination in the Civil
Rights movement
 Civil Rights Act of 1964

 Anti-poll tax Amendment

(24th—1964)
 Voting Rights Act (1965)

 Impact of the Voting

Rights Act
VII. The Johnson Years
(cont.)
 The tone of public political
discourse changed after
1965
 Johnson appoints first

Black cabinet secretary:

Robert Weaver of HUD
(1966)
 Much more needed to be

done for Civil Rights

outside of the South, so 2nd
phase began
VIII. The Era of
Disillusionment: 1965 On
 Early to mid-1960’s
were a hopeful time for
Civil Rights advocates
 Goal of Assimilation

 A “Spoiled Utopia”

after 1965—things
would not be that
simple
A. New Problems
 Residential Discrimination
-- “Red Lining”
 The Challenges of School

integration in the North

 The historical, traditional

segregation of northern
cities
 The resurrection of the

KKK once again

 More effective White

opponents in the North

B. Race Riots
 Watts Riots in Los Angeles
(Summer, 1965)
 Riots each summer from

1965-1969
--Chicago and Cleveland
(1966)
--Newark and Detroit
(1967)
--Washington, D.C. (1968)
B. Race Riots (cont.)
 Riots as an expression of
grievance against the
White American consumer
society
 Riots shocked the White
American public
 Frustration and self-
destruction expressed in
these riots
 Unlike earlier race riots,
these riots were not started
by White mobs
C. “Black Power”
 Growing tension
between SNCC and
Martin Luther King, Jr.
--Stokely Carmichael
 “Black Power”

 Carmichael succeeded

by H. Rap Brown as
head of SNCC (1967)
C. “Black Power” (cont.)
 The formation of the
Black Panther Party in
Oakland, CA (1966)
--Huey Newton
--Eldridge Cleaver
 Resurrection of the

philosophy of Marcus
Garvey
C. “Black Power” (cont.)
 The leadership of Malcolm
X
--Black Muslims
--Assassinated in 1965
 Cultural expressions of
“Black Power”:
--Afro Hairstyles
--Black-studies programs
-- “Negro” no longer used
--1968 Olympics
D. Decline of the Civil
Rights Movement
 Economic contraction
works against Civil Rights
concessions
 Northern phase not as
successful
 Resistance from White
Unions
 Vietnam replaces Civil
Rights as the liberal
crusade
 Martin Luther King, Jr.
loses influence with LBJ