Civil Rights Movement- part 2

?
  • Created by: Rosie
  • Created on: 20-04-13 17:10

1945 social situation

  • North
    • no de jure segregation
    • 48% blacks live in urban area
    • war inspiration
    • ghettoism, police brutality and crime
    • lack of education
    • de facto segregation
  • South
    • challenging Jim Crow laws
    • more activism- boycotts
    • NAACP numbers increase to 450,000
    • de jure and de facto segregation
1 of 16

1945 economic situation

  • North
    • trade unions create pressure for equality
    • more job opportunities-factories
    • unskilled and low-paid jobs
    • ridiculously high rent for poor conditions
    • whites don't want to live near them as house prices drop
  • South
    • growing middle class of teachers, lawyers, doctors...
    • free college education for returning soldiers (GI Bill of Rights)
    • mainly domestic service and manual labour= worst jobs, sharecropping
    • demobilisation means whites return to jobs
2 of 16

1945 political situation

  • North
    • can vote now because of new boundaries
    • 250,000 blacks in harlem vote for black congressman
    • total of only 2 black congressman
  • South
    • NAACP make voting easier (Smith v Allwright)
    • literacy tests
    • not many sympathiser candidates
    • South only represented  by whites
3 of 16

1945 legal situation

  • North
    • not de jure discrimination
    • de facto discrimination
    • rare to see black policemen
    • police brutality
  • South
    • pressure built up for change
    • all judges, jurors, officials are white
    • no sentences passed when returning black servicemen are beaten
4 of 16

CORE's Journey of Reconciliation (1947)

  • to show differences between de jure and de facto and Morgan v Virginia ruling
  • 8 black and 8 white members travel by bus from northern states to southern states
  • black members sit in white areas
  • white members sit in black areas
  • successfully prove bus companies in south ignore rulings
  • 12 members arrested
  • failed to enforce desegregation of southern bus services
5 of 16

Direct Action (1945-55)

  • NAACP
    • encourage black voting registration
    • 1947 picket New Orleans biggest department stores
    • 1953 boycott school in Lafayette= inferior to white school
    • lynching investigations and court cases into lynches reduce the number of lynchings
  • UDL
    • week long bus boycott (1953)- too short for media attention and to hurt companies,
    • Operation Free Lift- a carpooling scheme
  • CNO
    • encourage Arkansas voter registration from 1.5% to 17.3%
  • CORE
    • Journey of Reconciliation (1947)
    • increase confidence
    • non violent protest achieved
6 of 16

Emmett Till (1955)

  • brutally murdered at 14 years old
  • mutilated body
  • wolf whistled at a white woman
  • first time white men were charged with murder of a black
  • BUT result was not guilty
  • encouraged many blacks to become civil rights activists
  • his mother had an open casket funeral to demonstrate what was done
  • Eisenhower made no comment
7 of 16

Autherine Lucy (1955)

  • successfully took Uni. of Alabama to court for refusing admission
  • BUT they expelled her and said she lied when she said they expelled because of her race
  • first expulsion of a black student form Uni. of Alabama
  • Eisenhower kept quiet
8 of 16

1945-1955 Conclusion

  • campaign methods developed
  • shows the importance of presidential action
  • successful cases showing segregation was unconstitutional
  • CORE NAACP UDL CNO organise campaigns, test rulings, challenge segregation
  •  Brown and Brown II highlight reluctance of white authorities to put Supreme Court Rulings into action
  • Progress was slow despite best efforts to end segregation laws
  • many in Congress oppose integration
  • Eisenhower laissez faire attitude to desegregating South
  • government, judges, police, jurors resist change and intimidate campainers
  • Southern racists quickly organise themselves to oppose rulings
  • CORE and NAACP hadn't perfected methods
9 of 16

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

  • Content
    • Rosa Parks refuse to give up seat, arrested, fined
    • Montgomery Blacks boycott buses, carpooling
    • Bus companies lose 65% revenue
    • NAACP court case (Browder v Gayle) desegregate buses after boycott fails to
  • Significance
    • show economic power of black people
    • highlight significance of media
    • establish SCLC
    • showed lengths whites would go to to stop desegregation
    • show Supreme Court willing to overrule Plessy v Ferguson
  • MLK
    •  let his church be used as a meeting place to plan
    • establish SCLC (in 1957)
    • his MIA instrumental in guiding boycott
10 of 16

Little Rock (1957)

  • Content
    • Governor Orval Fauvus use National Gurad to prevent 9 blacks entering a school
    • white mob
    • politically motivated
    • Eisenhower forced to take control- USA face (cold war), use national guard to escort students
    • Faubus closes schools and 4000 blacks and whites seek education elsewhere
    • Cooper v Aaron ruling
  • Significance
    • de jure led to de facto
    • force Presidential action and high level (1000 troops for 9 students)
    • show extent white southern racists would go
11 of 16

Greensboro sit-ins (1960)

  • Content
    • 4 students sat at white only counter in Woolworth's
    • day 2 = 27 students
    • day 4= 300
    • across 6 states- sit-ins, swim-ins.... all public places (parks...)
    • Woolworth's profits decrease by 1/3 in campaign
  • Significance
    • increased no. of CRM organisations
    • demonstrate speed that campaigns spread
    • significance of the media
    • show economic power of blacks
    • 1961 810 towns desegregate their public places
  • MLK
    • initially no involvement
    • encouraged sit ins and when called joined them
    • was lead rather than lead himself
    • SNCC established
12 of 16

Freedom Rides (1961)

  • Content
    • travel from W. DC to New Orleans using interstate transport
    • organised by CORE, 6 white and 7 black from CORE and SNCC swap seats
    • planned media attention
    • expect violence- white mob, police with links to KKK, no protection, in Montgomery no medics when battered with baseball bats
    • General Robert Kennedy enforced desegregation of interstate buses
  • Significance
    • marked high point in co-operation of CORE SNCC SCLC
    • showed Kennedy's new administration was sympathetic
  • MLK
    • didn't go to rides as on probation
    • made contact with riders
13 of 16

The Albany Movement (1961-62)

  • Content
    • Local Police Chief Laurie Pritchett ordered police to stop mobs and give respect and protection to protestors
    • all in order to deny media attention
  • Significance
    • show peaceful protests don't always work
    • led to divisions in organisations
    • in future plan to protest in places more likely to be attacked
  • MLK
    • followed not led
    • arrested but released by Pritchett perhaps to avoid media
    • acknowledged his tactics hadn't worked
14 of 16

Meredith and the University of Mississippi (1962)

  • Content
    • James Meredith- 1st black student at Uni of Mississippi
    • refused enrolment but Kennedy put pressure on governor to back down
    • Meredith faced mob on campus and couldn't enrol
    • Jennedy send troops to defend him and try to enrol successfully
    • riot broke out- 2 deaths
    • shunned but graduated with degree
  • Significance
    • did graduate 1963
    • presidential action
    • show lengths white mobs would go to
15 of 16

Civil Rights Act (1957)

  • the act that kick-started the civil rights legislative programme
  • pushed through by Eisenhower
  • aimed to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote as only 20% of African Americans had registered to vote
  • the final act became a much watered done affair due to the lack of support among the Democrats
  • any person found guilty of obstructing someone’s right to register barely faced the prospect of punishment as a trial by jury in the South meant the accused had to face an all-white jury as only whites could be jury members.
  • Political support and public confidence for the Act had been eroded when Eisenhower publicly admitted that he did not understand parts of it.
16 of 16

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all America - 19th and 20th century resources »