APUSH – Civil Rights 1950-68

Truman

Established Prez’s Committee on Civil Rights, which pushed for southern anti-lynching laws and tried to register more black voters, but was mostly symbolic and had little real effect. He also signed Exec Order 9981 in 1948. This desegregated the military. His support for civil rights cost him southern votes in the 1948 election.

Presidents Committee on Civil Rights

Pushed for southern anti-lynching laws and tried to register more black voters, but was mostly symbolic and had little real effect

Executive Order 9981 (1948)

Desegregated the military. Truman’s support for civil rights cost him southern votes in the 1948 election.

Eisenhower

Personally opposed the civil rights movement, but sent the national military to resolve the 1957 Little Rock Crisis, in which the AK gov’na (Orval Faubus) defied fed law and used the AK nat’l guard to keep black students from entering little rock central high. Also passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which established a Civil Rights Commission but had little real effect and was mostly symbolic

Little Rock Crisis

AK gov’na (Orval Faubus) defied fed law and used the AK nat’l guard to keep black students from entering little rock central high.

Orval Faubus

AK gov’na during Little Rock crisis

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Established a Civil Rights Commission, but had little real effect and was mostly symbolic

Kennedy

Strong supporter of the civil rights movement. However, most of Cong was Repub or Southern Dem, making it hard to pass civil rights bills. He did create the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to help end racial discrimination in the U.S. gov’t. He also asked his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to support civil rights as much as possible

Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity

Created by JFK to help end racial discrimination in the U.S. gov’t

RFK

JFK’s bro (think he was attorney general). Helped JFK in his civil rights campaign.

Johnson

Used to oppose civil rights, but when he became prez he became one of the movement’s greatest supporters. Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed public segreg and discrim, forbade racial discrim in the workplace, created the Equal Opportunity Commission to enforce these laws, and gave the prez more power to prosecute violators. Also helped to get the 24th Amend passed, which outlawed poll taxes.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Passed by LBJ, outlawed public segreg and discrim, forbade racial discrim in the workplace

Equal Opportunity Commission

Created by LBJ to enforce Civil Rights Act of 1964, and gave the prez more power to prosecute violators

24th Amendment

Passed when LBJ was Prez, outlawed poll taxes.

NAACP

This organizations primary goal is to end separate but equal.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1900s)

(SCC) Separate but equal is OK.

Missouri ex. rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

(SCC) U Missouri must either build a new law school for blacks or integrate them into the existing all-white school.

Morgan v. Virginia (1946)

(SCC) Segregated interstate buses are illegal.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

(SCC) Separate but equal professional schools are inherently unequal.

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)

(SCC) Thurgood Marshall wins this one. Segregated cafeterias, libraries, and classroom seats are illegal.

Thurgood Marshall

A main NAACP figure. Won a lot of Supreme Court cases that bolstered black rights. Would go on to become a Supreme Court justice in 1967.

Brown Vs. Board of Education (1951)

(SCC) Marshall argues, wins this one. Unanimous vote under the Earl Warren court that "separate but equal" is a false doctrine.

Southern Manifesto

A southern document signed by more than a hundred southern politicians. Stated that the states could nullify fed laws that they didn’t like and pressured southern states to ignore and reject the Brown decision.

Little Rock Crisis

AK gov’na (Orval Faubus) defied fed law and used the AK nat’l guard to keep black students from entering little rock central high. Ike sends fed troops to ensure that the Nine go to school. Faubus closes the schools in the county the next year in an act of defiance.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

After Rosa Parks is arrested, MLK rallies the black community to do this. This seriously hurt the bus companies. This lasted more than a year, and ended in ’56 when the SC declared segregated buses unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks

Refused to give up her seat. Was arrested for disorderly conduct, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.

Martin Luther King

Rallied the black community and organized the Montgomery bus boycott. Was a civil rights visionary.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

MLK and nearly 100 other black ministers form this organization in 1957 to encourage nonviolent protest to provoke segregationists and win support from moderate southern whites. Although it got more blacks to support the movement, it failed to spark controversy or get white sympathy

Nonviolent protest

Sit-ins (e.g. Greensboro), protests at colleges, boycott of segregated biz, etc.

Freedom Riders

Organized by CORE. A biracial group who rode interstate buses because they could. Met violent mobs and opposition. The mob violence and police inaction in Birmingham and Montgomery led to a response from the fed gov’t.

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality – Organized the Freedom Rides.

James Meredith

Fed court orders U Miss to accept him, the school’s first black transfer student. Miss. gov’na Ross Barnett and state officials won’t let him in. Kennedy sent U.S. marshals to get him into the school. Barnett organized a riot to attack the marshals. Kennedy the ordered 5,000 troops to secure the college and escort him to class.

Failure in Albany

Activists in Albany, Georgia launch a massive attempt w/ boycotts and sit-ins. The police, however, protect the protestors and treat activists with civility. B/c there’s no violent white reaction there, the protests fail to gain attention.

Birmingham Campaign

MLK moves the new center of protest to Birmingham. Black protests work this time: police attack protesters. Unexpectedly, black residents of Birmingham fight back against police and defend the activists. The violence prompts RFK and the justice dept to negotiate w/ city officials and the SCLC. SCLC agrees to end the protests, but only if more blacks are hired and the city enforces desegregation. Segregationists protest the agreement violently, forcing JFK to send fed troops to restore order.

Bull Connor

City commissioner of Birmingham, AL. Order’s police and fire dept to attack protesters with dogs and fire hoses

Children’s Crusade

MLK organizes a group of high school students to protest as well, hoping that it will shock people when even kids are attacked for their race.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

When MLK is in jail during the Birmingham protests, he writes this letter, which explains the civil rights movement to critics. The letter was published and circulated countrywide.

March on Washington 1963

The SCLC, SNCC, NAACP, and CORE organize a HUGE polit rally in D.C. More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial and MLK delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Passed by LBJ, outlawed public segreg and discrim, forbade racial discrim in the workplace

Equal Opportunity Commission

Created by LBJ to enforce Civil Rights Act of 1964, and gave the prez more power to prosecute violators

24th Amendment

Passed when LBJ was Prez, outlawed poll taxes.

Freedom Summer

SNCC & CORE organize voter registration campaign in Miss. SNCC gets 1000 northern white college students to register voters & teach civics classes to blacks in Miss. Resulted in lots of violence from southern extremists, including bombings, beatings, shootings, & arrests. Campaign is big success: Tens of thousands of black voters registered & attention drawn to civil rights movement.

Selma-Montgomery March

MLK organizes a march in Selma. Tens of thousands of black protesters petition for the right to vote outside of the city hall and are ignored. They then marched to the gov’na’s mansion in Montgomery. Police meet them with tear gas and clubs. "Bloody Sunday" is highly publicized and Americans in the North are shocked.

Voting Rights Act

Banned literacy tests and sent thousands of fed voting officials to the south to supervise registration. This got a huge jump in the black voter rate

Black Nationalism

Started with the Nation of Islam, which supported the "New Negro" and fostered a sense of black pride

Malcolm X

An Islamic civil rights activist. At first rejected integration and nonviolence and called on blacks to defend themselves — with violence if necessary. After a series of scandals in the Nation of Islam, he left it and went to Mecca. He returned with a different attitude and started working for integration rather than against it. In 1965, he was assassinated by three Muslim gunmen, probably for his exit of the NoI.

Black Power

Militancy, self-reliance, independence, and nationalism w/in the ranks of the civil rights movement. Outlined in the book of the same title.

Stokley Carmichael

Leader of the SNCC. Co-authored Black Power and campaigned for the U.S. to split into a black country and a white country.

Black Panthers

A party of frustrated activists in CA who wanted immediate equality for all blacks. Violent and militant; patrolled northern and western cities w/ handguns in search of racial violence against blacks. Also operated health and edu clinics for poor blacks. B/c of their extremism and willingness to violence, the gov’t cracked down on them in ’68 and ’69, ending them.

Watts Riots (1965)

Over 50000 blacks in L.A. burn and loot, attacking lots of neighborhoods and people, including other minorities. It took 20000 National Guardsmen to calm the conflict.

MLK Assassination and fallout

MLK is killed in 1968. His assassination inflames lots of riots around the country. The civil rights movement collapsed soon after due to feuds within its leading orgs and the loss of their greatest leader. Americans shifted their focus to the Vietnam War.