Civil Rights Movement

Nature of Discrimination 1964, Freedom Summer: expansion of efforts in Deep

Racism and Violence South, esp. Mississippi; formation of Council of
- 1921, Tulsa Race Massacre: ‘Black Wall Street’ Federated Organisations (COFO), volunteers to
neighbourhood destroyed by white mobs. advocate for voter education and political activism.
- Ku Klux Klan: paramilitary group; initial - 1965, Voting Rights Act: removed
opposition to reconstruction era reforms; disenfranchisement; federal examiners
1910s-1940s, 100% Americanism → overlooking voter registration.
persecution of minorities (incl. Blacks, Key Actors
Jews, Catholics); 1960s, over acts of Martin Luther King Jr.: Baptist, emerged during
violence → bombing of African-American Montgomery Bus Boycott; 1957, founded
churches, murder of activists, Southern Christian Leadership Conference →
intimidation. commitment to non-violent civil disobedience; ‘I
- Disenfranchisement through intimidation, poll Have a Dream’ → racial equality & unity,
taxes, and literacy tests. integration; Nobel Peace Prize → visibility; 1968,
Segregation & Education assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
- ‘Separate but equal’ doctrine (1896, Plessy v. Malcom X: grew up in poverty and discrimination,
Ferguson) criminal activities; conversion to Nation of Islam (NOI,
- 1954, Brown v. Board of Education → NAACP Black separatism); advocate for Black pride, self-
support, Supreme Court ruled reliance, self-defence; 1964, adoption of Sunni Islam,
segregation in public schools emphasis on Pan-Africanism; 1965, assassinated in
unconstitutional; opposition from White Harlem.
Councils → 1956, Southern Manifesto. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-68): Vice-President &
- 1957, Little Rock (Arkansas) School Board President; ‘Great Society’ agenda → combating
requested extension for desegregation → poverty, improving education, and advancing
not granted by Supreme Court (Cooper v. civil rights; key civil rights legislation; faced
Aaron); Governor Faubus prevented nine resistance from Southern Democrats →
African-Americans from entering Central realignment of political parties in the South.
High School, deploying the National Organisations
Guard → Pres. Eisenhower sent Federal National Association for the Advancement of Coloured
troops to protect students. People (NAACP): fight to discrimination, esp. in legal
field; pacific demonstrations and legal cases with
Protests and Action Supreme Court.
Non-violent protests Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC):
1955-56, Montgomery Bus Boycott: sparked from Rosa church-based organisation; non-violence;
Parks’ arrest; nationwide attention to civil rights organisation of mass protest; benefits of
struggle; NAACP attorneys Hastie + Marshall fought religious affiliation → able to mobilise large
against segregation in public transport; Montgomery quantity of people.
Improvement Association (MIA) and its president MLK Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC):
organised boycott; also white support. young activists, student-led non-violent efforts;
1956, Freedom rides: not unified support in civil focus on Black involvement in public life →
rights movement; demonstration at Abernathy's enfranchisement; northern students
church escalated into violence → Kennedy’s call volunteering in Mississippi.
for ‘cooling off period’; MLK did not support Nation of Islam (NOI): Islamic & Black nationalist
Freedom Riders’ continued struggle → internal movement; activism in urban areas and prisons
split, decentralised grassroots activism by SNCC → conversion; message of racial independence,
+ centralised leadership of NAACP; ICC no integration.
(Interstate Commerce Commission) issued a ban
on segregation on interstate travel.
1963, Birmingham (Alabama): SCLC organised
Project C (mobilisation of black community);
demonstration → MLK arrested → Letter from
Birmingham Jail; police violence against peaceful
protesters → JFK’s mediation
1963, Washington March: mediatic attention; MLK
scared of spontaneous violent escalation; JFK’s
attempt to call of the march and met with CRM leaders;
- 1964, Civil Rights Act by Pr. Lyndon Johnson
(JFK assassinated) banned segregation;
not properly enforced in the South →
peaceful march from Selma to
Montgomery, televised (pressure on
government).