CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Jim Crow Laws
By the 1950s, life in the Southern States of the US was determined by a
series of laws called The Jim Crow Laws. These laws forced black people to
live in separate areas and to use separate facilities for everything from
restrooms to clinics to schools. Despite the fact that the United States
Constitution gave everyone equal rights in theory, the fact that states
could pass their own laws meant that they could pass these discriminatory
laws. Their case for doing this and thus ignoring the constitution was
made stronger when the Supreme Court in 1896, in the case Plessy v.
Ferguson, ruled that individual states could impose segregation as long as
the segregated facilities such as schools and hospitals were ‘separate but
equal’. However, this was rarely the case; in fact in most cases the
facilities for Blacks were vastly inferior.
Voting Rights
Although these should also have been protected by the Constitution, in
fact Blacks were prevented from voting though various means. Literacy
tests, difficult reading tests or tests which included such questions as
‘Name all the Vice Presidents and Supreme Court Justices throughout
America's history’ were some of the measures put into place to make it
impossible for Blacks to register for voting.
All of this was backed up by the threat of violence. Anyone who went
against the Jim Crow laws risked losing their jobs or their homes or even
their lives. The legal system was dominated by Whites and supported
such intimidation.
The Ku Klux Klan played a key role in the intimidation of Blacks. This was a
white supremacist group that aimed to maintain white supremacy over
black people and immigrants. Dressed in white sheets, white hoods and
carrying American flags, they carried out violence and intimidation
through whipping, branding, kidnapping and lynching
The situation in the northern states of the USA
Although Jim Crow laws and segregation did not exist in the northern
states, there was still much prejudice and discrimination against Black
Americans which prevented equality. Black workers generally only earned
half of the wages of white workers and often lived in the worst areas.
Increased migration of black Americans from the South to the northern
industrial cities after the war increased racial tension.
Attempts to improve the situation before the 1950s
Two important organisations were established with the aim of improving
equality for black Americans. The NAACP (The National Association of the
Advancement of Colored People) had been set up in 1909 by a group of
leading black intellectuals. Its aim was ‘to ensure the political,
educational, social and economic equality of right of all persons and to
eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination’ and it did much to raise
awareness of issues. It used legal means to achieve equality.
A new organisation was established in 1942. CORE (congress of Racial
Equality) was inspired by the non-violent tactics of Gandhi in India and so
encouraged tactics such as ‘sit-ins’ in restaurants.
Both the NAACP and CORE did much to raise awareness of discrimination
issues in both black and white communities and membership of both
organisations grew after World War Two. However, there had only been
limited gains in civil rights by the end of the 1940s. Improving the rights
of blacks remained slow, difficult and dangerous. President Truman ‘s
attempt to guarantee greater civil rights for blacks was turned down by
Congress because Southern Democrats voted against it. Meanwhile,
individuals who tried to take action on their own faced both threats and
actual violence.
Legal action: Brown vs. Topeka Board of
Education, 1954
In September 1952, the NAACP brought a court case against the Board of
Education in Topeka, Kansas. This involved Oliver Brown suing the city
school board for preventing his 8-year old daughter, who was black , from
attending a white school. Instead the daughter was forced to travel much
further in order to go to a black school.
Thurgood Marshall, a black lawyer represented the NAACP in putting the
case against segregation and he won. Chief Justice Warren of the Supreme
Court concluded the following:
Separating white and coloured children in schools has a detrimental effect
upon coloured children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of
law; for the separating of the races is usually interpreted as denoting the
inferiority of the Negro group…We conclude that in the field of public
education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has not place. Separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal’.
He also ordered that the southern states should set up integrated schools
‘with al deliberate speed’. Some areas began to desegregate and by 1957,
more than 300, 000 black children were attending schools that had
previously been segregated. However, implementing the decision was
often deliberately delayed with southern States claiming ‘states rights’ –
that each state should be able to decide such issues for themselves. Tom
Brady, a judge in the southern state of Mississippi recalled the struggles of
the Civil War in his justification of opposition to the Supreme Court ruling:
‘..when a law transgresses the moral and ethical sanctions and standards
of the mores (customs), invariably strife, bloodshed and revolution
following the wake of its attempted enforcement. The loveliest and purest
of God’s creatures the nearest thing to an angelic being that treads this
terrestrial ball is a well-bred, cultured southern white woman or her blue-
eyed, golden-haired little girl…We say to the Supreme Count and to the
northern world, ‘You shall not make us drink from this cup’….We have,
through our forefathers, died before for our sacred principles. We can, if
necessary, die again.’
Such views were supported by the increasing activities of the Klu Klux
Klan and White Citizen’s Councils. Violence against blacks increased; the
most famous case of this time was the death of 14-year-old Emmett Till in
1955 who was brutally murdered while staying with relatives in
Mississippi. Those believed to be his murderers were acquitted by an all
white jury.
Little Rock, 1957
The first test of the Supreme Court ruling and of the government’s
commitment to see that that it was enforced came in 1957 when Little
Rock High School in Arkansas decided to allow nine black students to
attend. However, the nine students who attempted to enrol on
3rd September were prevented by the governor Orval Faubus; he ordered
state National Guardsmen to block their entry. Faced with this defiance,
Eisenhower was forced to order federal troops to the town to protect the
students. Press and television coverage of this event across the world was
an embarrassment to America which prided itself on a country of freedom
and equality
An extract from an interview with Elizabeth Eckford by British
journalist Peter Lennon. Guardian. 30 December, 1998.
I was fifteen in September 1957. At the time I thought the National Guard
were there to protect all students. I thought they were there to see that
order was maintained. I didn't realise they were there to keep me out of
school. My teachers expected there might be name-calling, but I thought
that eventually we would be accepted.
I was brought up to believe that students respected adults orders. That
was our expectation, because that was what occurred in the school that
we had attended. I had never seen adults appease students who were
behaving badly. Many of them did that day, and many of the teachers
tried to sit on the fence, tried to not take any side at all. I did not know
the Governor Orval Faubus would side with the segregationists.
Another day, we tried again. The soldiers told us to get into the car, get
our heads down and drove us into the basement by the side entrance of
the building. So the mob did not realise we were in. When they did they
attached the black news men who were outside. There were FBI men
observing all this and they nothing to stop it. Then Governor Faubus gave
the citizens of Little Rock two choices: keep the schools open and de-
segregate or close down all the schools. The vote was to close down the
schools and for a full year no school, white or black, operated in Little
Rock.
To what extent do you agree that Little Rock was a turning point
for desegragation and the civil rights movement?
Extract from Erin Krutko Devlin’s book entitled Remember Little
Rock. 2018.
During the 1957–58 school year, segregationist students inside Little Rock
Central High School continued their campaign to halt the progress of
school desegregation long after protestors, soldiers from the 101st
Airborne, and representatives of the press disappeared from the lawn
outside of the building. As part of their campaign of harassment, they
distributed small printed cards that mocked members of the Little Rock
Nine, the school administration, and the NAACP. With the support of adult
organizations like the Capital Citizens’ Council and the Mothers League of
Central High School, students passed out materials that accused
Superintendent of Schools Virgil T. Blossom of entering into a conspiracy
with the president of the NAACP’s Arkansas State Conference, Daisy
Bates, to impose integration on the residents of Little Rock. The Capital
Citizens’ Council distributed materials claiming that Bates had been given
free access to Central High School and had been given the power to act
as an 'unofficial principal' to interrogate white students resisting
desegregation.
Extract from Tony Freyer’s book entitled Little Rock on Trial.
2007.
The Little Rock confrontation sharply defined the African American
struggle for civil rights. On September 20, 1957, the federal court found
against Faubus’s claim of impending disorder, after which the governor
complied with the court order and withdrew the National Guard. On
September 23, however, nine black young people entered Central, but
were forced to leave when outside the school a crowd turned into a
threatening mob. Shortly after, President Eisenhower enforced the court
order by federalizing the National Guard and dispatching paratroopers of
the 101st Airborne to Little Rock. Troops remained at Central until the
academic year ended, but segregationist-supported youths harassed the
nine black students relentlessly. Tension again mounted during the
summer of 1958. Rather than comply with the law, Faubus closed the
city’s high schools. In 1959, Martin Luther King, Jr., commented that
Faubus’s actions did more to unite northern public opinion in favor of
African American civil rights than Eisenhower’s moves between inaction
and decisiveness.The federal government’s inconsistent response to the
segregationists’ massive resistance in Arkansas revealed grim realities. In
order to achieve significant support among northerners and elected
officials, black protesters could ultimately depend only upon themselves,
the northern media, a few federal judges, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Direct action: Montgomery Bus Boycott
On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks, a black woman travelling on a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white male and
stand at the back of the bus as was required by law. She was arrested and
fined $10. Rosa was an NAACP activist and it was clear to the NAACP that
Rosa Parks’ case could be used to highlight the unfairness of
discrimination. On the day of her trial, members of the NAACP organised a
24hour bus boycott. This was so successful that it was decided to continue
this protest. The Montgomery Improvement Association was set up (MIA)
and the bus boycott continued. Since 75% of the bus company’s business
was made up of black passengers, the boycott was very damaging. The
black people of Montgomery either walked or shared lifts though car pools
to get to work with the slogan, ‘People don’t ride the bus today. Don’t ride
it for freedom’. A young Baptist preacher called Martin Luther King was
chosen to lead the protest. He was a brilliant and moving speaker who
believed in non-violent political protest The Montgomery Bus boycott put
him in the national spotlight:
The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right.
There will be no crosses burned at any bus stops in Montgomery. There
will be no white persons pulled out of their homes and taken out on some
distant road and murdered. There will be nobody among us who will stand
up and defy the constitution of the Nation’
The boycott lasted for 381 days. Finally, following much national publicity,
the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional;
this also implied that all segregation of public services was illegal.
Throughout the boycott, the leaders were intimidated and arrested,
churches and homes were set on fire. However, the end result was a
great victory for the non-violence of the civil rights movement. Martin
Luther king emerged a key leader of the civil rights movement. He went
on to form the Southern Christian Leadership conference (SCLC) which
trained civil rights activists in non-violent tactics.
Direct Action: Freedom Rides 1961
In December 1960, the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of all
bus station facilities. To test whether integration was taking place, CORE
activists – black and white in 1961 began ‘freedom rides’. They faced
some of the worst violence of the civil rights campaign; riders were
stoned, beaten with baseball bats, buses were fire-bombed. The police
looked the other way. Over the summer, more than 400 freedom riders
were arrested – many more were beaten up. Nightly television pictures
angered many. It forced the Inter-state Commerce Commission and the
Justice Department under Attorney General Robert Kennedy to enforce
segregation on inter-state transportation.
Direct Action: Sit-ins
During the late 1950s, there were several other examples of direct action.
In 1960 four black students asked to be served at a white only counter in
Woolworth’s in Greensboro. The next day, 23 more students did the same.
The next day there were 66 students – both black and white. Within
eighteen months, 70,000 had taken part in similar sit-ins and 3,000 had
been arrested. These demonstrations were supported by a new student
organisation known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC). By the end of 1960, lunch counters had been desegregated in 126
cities. (See photo above)
Marches: Birmingham
The freedom rides showed how white violence against civil rights
protesters displayed on images in the media could help achieve increased
support for the civil rights movement. In April 1963, Martin Luther King
decided to take on Birmingham, Alabama, which he called ‘The most
segregated city in the United States’. The Chief Commissioner of Public
Safety Bull Connor, provided the kind of reaction that he was hoping for: in
full flare of the media he used electric cattle prods, powerful water hoses
and vicious dogs to attack the peaceful marchers. 1.000 marchers,
including hundreds of children and Martin Luther King himself, were
arrested.
The scenes in Birmingham were again shown on national television and
caused anger at home and condemnation abroad. The government was
forced to act; President Kennedy pressured Governor Wallace to get all
prisoners released and the Supreme Court had declared that
Birmingham’s segregation laws were unconstitutional.
Marches: Washington
The most high profile event of this period of Civil Rights activism was the
march to Washington organised by King. About 250,000 demonstrators
attended and King gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. The march
was a great publicity success and put further pressure on Kennedy to push
through his civil rights bill which he had introduced earlier in the year.
What was Freedom Summer?
Despite Kennedy’s commitment to the Civil Rights Bill, there was much
opposition to the bill in Congress, particularly from southern Democrats in
the Senate.
Violence continued against blacks and then, the whole movement faced a
blow when, in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. However,
President Johnson, Kennedy’s successor was able to push through the Bill,
partly as a result of his political skills and also because there was a wave
of sympathy for Kennedy’s ideas following his assassination (see source
below). The Act banned discrimination in education, housing and work.
President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation before signing the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, July 2, 1964
CORE, SNCC and NAACP now worked together to organise the Freedom
Summer . The aim of this was to get black voters to register to vote. This
was an issue in the southern states where blacks were prevented rom
voting by various measures
Marches: Selma
To bring more attention to the issue of voting rights, King now organised
another high profile march through Selma, Alabama. Here, only 383 blacks
out of 15,000 had been able to register to vote and the sheriff, Jim Clarke
was similar in his attitude to racial equality as Bull Connor in Birmingham.
Again, King realised that brutal treatment of the marchers would again be
televised and again work in favour of the movement. On what became
known as ‘Bloody Sunday’, on 7th March the marchers were indeed
subjected to clubs and tear gas. As a result of this President Johnson
agreed to introduce a voting act. The march from Selma to Montgomery
also went ahead peacefully in the end with King leading 25,000 people
from Selma to Montgomery.
Not all black Americans supported the Civil Rights movement and its non-
violent approach to achieving civil rights. In the mid 1960s violent riots
took place in many cities; large areas of cities such as Newark and Detroit
were looted and burned. In 1967, 83 were shot dead – most of these were
black. A government report that investigated the riots concluded the
‘White racism’ was chiefly responsible for the explosion of rage.
Many believed that progress in achieving civil rights was too still too slow,
that non-violence as a tactic had failed and thus that violence against
Whites was an acceptable tactic
What was the role and significance of Martin Luther King?
Martin didn't make the movement, the movement made Martin'.
(Civil rights activist Ella Baker)
Much had been achieved by the civil rights movement by the time that
King was assassinated in 1968. However, King's role in these
achievements has always been controversial.
Much of the criticism of King at the time came from militant black activists
who believed that change was too slow (see below). He certainly did not
believe in violence arguing that it would stand little chance of achieving
its goals. However, King did not shy away from criticising the US
government and many of his speeches and actions can be seen as radical.
With his 'Poor People's Campaign', for example, he planned to bring
Washington to a standstill by getting representatives of all America's poor
living in a temporary 'Resurrection City' in Washington. He argued that
this would cause 'massive dislocation... without destroying life or property'
and that it would be 'a kind of last, desperate demand of the nation to
respond to non-violence'.
Nevertheless, there has been controversy as to his actual impact on the
civil rights movement and the extent to which he was critical for the
movement.
Read more on MLK’s leadership here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/martin_luther_king_01.shtml
Historians on the role played by MLK
The bus boycott in Montgomery would have happened, even if King had
never been born. It was already a successful movement before he
became the leader of it. Similarly, with the sit-ins, and the Freedom Rides,
and the voting rights campaign. In all of these cases King was the
beneficiary of movements he didn’t start. That’s not to deny the
importance of Martin Luther King. I’ve spent the last 30 years researching
him. But it does put his contribution in context.
Professor Claybourne Carson. From an interview in 2020
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/15/clay-j15.html
'King became the lightening rod for the civil rights movement that
emerged in the wake of the successful bus boycott. During the 1960s he
gave innumerable speeches characterised by oratorical genius, led a
succession of mass marches in the heart of segregated America and
helped to reconstruct America race relations before his assassination in
1968'.
Dr Joe Street http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/46
'By adulating King for his work in the Civil Rights campaigns, we have
misrepresented the complexity of those struggles and ignored some of
the equally challenging campaigns of his last years'
Peter LIng. http://www.historytoday.com/peter-ling/martin-luther-
king%E2%80%99s-half-forgotten-dream
What was the role and significance of Malcolm X?
Although the civil rights movement saw victories in the legislation of 1964
and 1965, neither the right to vote nor guarantees of equality of
opportunity actually helped the economic situation of many African
Americans. This led to growing resentment. African American
unemployment remained twice the national average; almost one-third of
African Americans lived below the poverty line. Schools and social services
and housing remained of an inferior quality and the economic gap
between the two groups continued to widen. This frustration encouraged a
growing radicalism among many young African Americans. The civil rights
movement seemed to have achieved very little in all of these respects and
they demanded a more radical approach as indicated by Malcolm X's
speech below. Racial violence erupted in northern cities in 1965, the worst
being in the Watts District of Los Angeles.
Black Power
Out of this anger and frustration, a new approach developed known as
'Black Power' and 'black nationalism'. The term 'Black Power' was coined
by Stokely Carmichael who became chairman of SNCC in 1966 (and who
then expelled all Whites from the membership). The ideas of 'Black Power'
and 'black nationalism' can be seen in the actions and beliefs of the
'Nation of Islam' and The Black Panthers.
The Nation of Islam was a religious sect that rejected Christianity in favour
of Islam and preached that all Whites were devils. This group openly
supported separatism and many of its members rejected their slave
surnames and substituted them with an X.
Malcolm X was a brilliant speaker and organiser and helped to raise the
profile of the Nation of Islam and increase its membership.
However, in 1964, following a visit to Mecca, Malcolm X began to change
his views and to say that Whites could play a role in helping Blacks fight
for equality. As a result, the Nation of Islam split with Malcolm X leading a
break away group. He was assassinated in 1965 by three black Muslims.
