1. Civil Rights Overview
Understandings and questions

2. Essential
Questions/UnderstandingsWhat were the long term causes of the Civil Rights Movement?
How did the greater global context influence the movement?
How can the movement be said to be strikingly different from 1945-
65 and 1965-1989?
Ministers and Militants: How do Martin Luther King and Malcolm X
represent the ―two trains‖ of the civil rights movement?
How do Malcolm and King represent the complexity of approaches
and understandings of civil rights in the United States?
Was the civil rights movement inspired, led and pushed forward by
great men or by grassroots?
Historiography: How have perspectives on the Civil Rights
Movements changed over time from the 1960s to the 1990s?

3. Martin Luther King, Jr., waving
to the crowd at the Lincoln
Memorial during the March
on Washington, D.C. (1963).
Civil Rights—basic overview
Activism, new legislation, and
the Supreme Court advance
equal rights for African
Americans. (1945-65) But
disagreements among civil
rights groups lead to a violent
period for the civil rights
movement. (1965-89)
NEXT

4. Pre-Civil Rights Movement
Long Term Causes and Influences I

8. Dallas Bus Station

9. Texas sign

11. Jim Crow Laws

12. Jim Crow Laws

13. Jim Crow Laws

14. Jim Crow Laws

16. The Two Trains?
W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington

21. Two African Americans, Two
Diverse Backgrounds
Booker T. Washington W.E.B. DuBois

22. Born a slave in southwestern Virginia, 1858
Believed in vocational education for blacks
Founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
Believed in gradual equality
Accused of being an ―Uncle Tom‖
Received much white support
Wrote Up From Slavery (1901)
Booker T.
Washington
I think I have learned
that the best way to lift
one's self up is to help
someone else.

23. Booker T.
Washington
Outlined his views on race
relations in a speech at the
Cotton States and International
Exposition in Atlanta – ―Atlanta
Compromise‖
Felt that black people should
work to gain economic security
before equal rights
Believed black people will
―earn‖ equality

24. Booker T.
Washington
Developed programs for
job training and
vocational skills at
Tuskegee Institute
Asked whites to give job
opportunities to black
people
Was popular with white
leaders in the North and
South

25. Booker T.
Washington
Was unpopular with
many black leaders
Associated with leaders
of the Urban League
which emphasized jobs
and training for blacks

26. My experience is that people who call
themselves "The Intellectuals" understand
theories, but they do not understand things. I
have long been convinced that, if these men
could have gone into the South and taken up
and become interested in some practical
work which would have brought them in
touch with people and things, the whole
world would have looked very different to
them. Bad as conditions might have seemed
at first, when they saw that actual progress
was being made, they would have taken a

27. Well educated-First African American to receive
Ph.D. from Harvard
Born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Wanted immediate equality between
blacks and whites
Wanted classical higher education for blacks
Wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
The Niagara Movement – led to NAACP
W.E.B. DuBois
The problem of the
twentieth century is the
problem of the color
line.

28. W.E.B. DuBois
Views given in The Souls
of Black Folks and The
Crisis
Strongly opposed Booker
T. Washington’s tolerance
of segregation
Demanded immediate
equality for blacks

29. W.E.B. DuBois
Felt talented black
students should get a
classical education
Felt it was wrong to
expect citizens to ―earn
their rights‖
Founded the NAACP
along with other black
and white leaders

30. After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman,
the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of
seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-
sight in this American world, — a world which yields him
no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see
himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a
peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this
sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes
of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world
that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever
feels his twoness, — an American, a Negro; two warring
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two
warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength
alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of
the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this
longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his

31. The ideological divide between Washington and
Dubois is often seen as foreshadowing for..

32. Washington v. DuBois
In your own words, summarize the strategies
employed by Washington and DuBois.
Specifically list the Pros and Cons of both
strategies.
Who would you support? Who represents your
style of reform/resistance? Should African
Americans, or other disenfranchised groups
agitate for equality?

33. Pre-Civil Rights Movement
Long Term Causes and Influences II

34. Context

35. 19th Century Abolitionists
Frederick Douglas was the editor of an
abolitionist newspaper.

36. Harriet Tubman
Helped slaves escape via the Underground
Railroad.

37. John Brown
He and his sons
killed 5 slave
masters in Kansas.
(1858)
Tried to incite a
slave revolt
Date is key: just
before the…

38. Two Centuries of Struggle
Conceptions of Equality
Equal opportunity: same chances
Equal results: same rewards
Early American Views of Equality
The Constitution and Inequality
Equality is not in the original Constitution.
First mention of equality in the 14th Amendment:
―…equal protection of the laws‖

39. Race, the Constitution, and
Public Policy
The Era of Slavery
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Slaves had no rights.
Invalidated Missouri Compromise
The Civil War
The Thirteenth Amendment
Ratified after Union won the Civil War
Outlawed slavery

40. KEY AMENDMENTS
• 13th Amendment:
• Abolished Slavery (1865)
• 14th Amendment:
• Civil Rights Amendment, citizenship, and
equal protection under the law (1868)
• 15thAmendment:
• African-American men given the right to
vote (1870).

41. BLACK CODES
* Originated in 1865 in Mississippi and South
Carolina.
* City ordinances prohibiting blacks from
being equal. Not allowed to…
* Carry weapons, testify against whites,
marry whites, serve on juries, start
businesses, travel w/out permits, rent
or lease farmland.

42. VOTING RESTRICTIONS
• 1) Literacy Test: Reading and writing
test.
• 2) Poll Tax: Pay $ to vote.
• 3) Grandfather Clause: You could vote
IF your Father or Grandfather had
been eligible to vote before Jan.1, 1867
• What was the goal of these
restrictions?

43. Would you have been able to
vote?
The Alabama Literacy Test
Which body of Congress can try impeachments of the
President?
At what time of day on January 20th does the term of the
President end?
If the president does not sign a bill, how many days is he
allowed in which to return it to Congress for
reconsideration?
If a bill is passed by Congress and the President refuses to
sign it and does not send it back to Congress in session
within the specified period of time, is the bill defeated or
does it become law?
If the United States wishes to purchase land for an arsenal
and have exclusive legislative authority over it, consent is
required from whom?
Which officer of the United States government is designated
as President of the Senate?
When is the president not allowed to exercise his power to
pardon?
Why is the power to grant patents given to Congress?
What is a tribunal?

44. Race, the Constitution, and
Public Policy
The Era of Reconstruction and Resegregation
Jim Crow or segregational laws
Relegated African Americans to separate
facilities
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Upheld the constitutionality of ―equal but
separate accommodations‖

45. Jim Crow
Jim Crow was NOT the
name of an actual
person.
In 1832 Jim Crow
became the stage
name of a performance
making fun of the
stereotypical black
person.

46. Context

47. Race, the Constitution, and
Public Policy
The Era of Civil Rights
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Overturned Plessy
School segregation inherently
unconstitutional
Integrate schools ―with all deliberate
speed‖
Busing of students solution for two kinds of
segregation:
de jure, ―by law‖
de facto, ―in reality‖

48. Thurgood Marshall

49. NAACP fought in the
courts
Thurgood Marshall was
hired by the NAACP to
argue in the Supreme Court
against school segregation.
He won.
He was later the 1st Black
Supreme Court Justice.

50. Context

51. NEXT
Civil Rights
SECTION 1
SECTION 2
SECTION 3
Taking on Segregation
The Triumphs of a Crusade
Challenges and Changes in the Movement

53. Section 1
Taking on Segregation
Activism and a series of Supreme Court decisions
advance equal rights for African Americans in the
1950s and 1960s.
NEXT

54. The Segregation System
Plessy v. Ferguson
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 act outlawed segregation
• In 1883, all-white Supreme Court declares Act
unconstitutional
• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling: separate but equal
constitutional
• Many states pass Jim Crow laws separating the races
• Facilities for blacks always inferior to those for whites
Taking on Segregation1
SECTION
NEXT
Continued . . .

55. Segregation Continues into the 20th Century
• After Civil War, African Americans go north to escape
racism
• North: housing in all-black areas, whites resent
job competition
1
SECTION
NEXT
continued The Segregation System
A Developing Civil Rights Movement
• WW II creates job opportunities for African
Americans
• Need for fighting men makes armed forces end
discriminatory policies
• FDR ends government, war industries discrimination
• Returning black veterans fight for civil rights at home

56. Challenging Segregation in Court
The NAACP Legal Strategy
• Professor Charles Hamilton Houston leads NAACP
legal campaign
• Focuses on most glaring inequalities of segregated
public education
• Places team of law students under Thurgood Marshall
- win 29 out of 32 cases argued before Supreme Court
1
SECTION
NEXT
Brown v. Board of Education
• Marshall’s greatest victory is Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka
• In 1954 case, Court unanimously strikes down
school segregation

57. Reaction to the Brown Decision
Resistance to School Desegregation
• Within 1 year, over 500 school districts
desegregate
• Some districts, state officials, pro-white groups
actively resist
• Court hands Brown II, orders desegregation at
―all deliberate speed‖
• Eisenhower refuses to enforce compliance;
considers it impossible
1
SECTION
NEXT
Continued . . .

58. continued Reaction to the Brown Decision
Crisis in Little Rock
• Since 1948, Arkansas integrating state university,
private groups--resisting
• Gov. Orval Faubus has National Guard turn away
black students
• Elizabeth Eckford faces abusive crowd when she
tries to enter school
• Eisenhower has 101st Airborne Division supervise
school attendance
• African-American students harassed by whites at
school all year
• 1957 Civil Rights Act—federal government power
over schools, voting
1
SECTION
NEXT

59. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Boycotting Segregation
• 1955 NAACP officer Rosa Parks arrested for not
giving up seat on bus
• Montgomery Improvement Association formed,
organizes bus boycott
• Elect 26-year-old Baptist pastor Martin Luther
King, Jr. leader
1
SECTION
NEXT
Walking for Justice
• African Americans file lawsuit, boycott buses,
use carpools, walk
• Get support from black community, outside groups,
sympathetic whites
• 1956, Supreme Court outlaws bus segregation

60. Martin Luther King and the SCLC
Changing the World with Soul Force
• King calls his brand of nonviolent resistance
―soul force‖
- civil disobedience, massive demonstrations
• King remains nonviolent in face of violence after
Brown decision
1
SECTION
NEXT
From the Grassroots Up
• King, others found Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC)
• By 1960, African-American students think pace
of change too slow
• Join Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC)

61. The Movement Spreads
Demonstrating for Freedom
• SNCC adopts nonviolence, but calls for more
confrontational strategy
• Influenced by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
to use sit-ins:
- refuse to leave segregated lunch counter until
served
• First sit-in at Greensboro, NC Woolworth’s shown
nationwide on TV
• In spite of abuse, arrests, movement grows,
spreads to North
• Late 1960, lunch counters desegregated in 48
cities in 11 states
1
SECTION
NEXT
Image

62. Sit ins
This was in Greensboro, North

63. Support of MLK and leaders, but organized
by college students…

64. Sit-in Tactics
Dress in you Sunday best.
Be respectful to employees and
police.
Do not resist arrest.
Do not fight back.
Remember, journalists are
everywhere!

66. Students were ready to take
your place if you had a class to
attend.

69. Not only were there
sit-ins. .
Swim ins (beaches,
pools)
Kneel ins (churches)
Drive ins (at motels)
Study-ins (universities)

70. Section 2
The Triumphs of
a Crusade
Civil rights activists break through racial barriers.
Their activism prompts landmark legislation.
NEXT

71. Riding for Freedom
CORE’s Freedom Rides
• 1961, CORE tests Court decision banning
interstate bus segregation
• Freedom riders—blacks, whites sit, use station
facilities together
• Riders brutally beaten by Alabama mobs; one bus
firebombed
The Triumphs of a Crusade2
SECTION
NEXT
Continued . . .
New Volunteers
• Bus companies refuse to continue carrying
CORE freedom riders
• SNCC volunteers replace CORE riders; are
violently stopped
• Robert Kennedy pressures bus company to
continue transporting riders

72. continued Riding for Freedom
Arrival of Federal Marshals
• Alabama officials don’t give promised protection;
mob attacks riders
• Newspapers throughout nation denounce beatings
• JFK sends 400 U.S. marshals to protect riders
• Attorney general, Interstate Commerce
Commission act:
- ban segregation in all interstate travel facilities
2
SECTION
NEXT

73. Standing Firm
Integrating Ole Miss
• 1962, federal court rules James Meredith may
enroll at U of MS
• Governor Ross Barnett refuses to let Meredith
register
• JFK orders federal marshals to escort Meredith
to registrar’s office
• Barnett makes radio appeal; thousands of white
demonstrators riot
• Federal officials accompany Meredith to
classes, protect his parents
2
SECTION
NEXT
Continued . . .

74. continued Standing Firm
Heading into Birmingham
• April 1963, SCLC demonstrate to desegregate
Birmingham
• King arrested, writes ―Letter from Birmingham Jail‖
• TV news show police attacking child marchers—
fire hoses, dogs, clubs
• Continued protests, economic boycott, bad press
end segregation
2
SECTION
NEXT
Kennedy Takes a Stand
• June, JFK sends troops to force Gov. Wallace to
desegregate U of AL
Image

75. Marching to Washington
The Dream of Equality
• August 1963, over 250,000 people converge
on Washington
• Speakers demand immediate passage of civil
rights bill
• King gives ―I Have a Dream‖ speech
2
SECTION
NEXT
More Violence
• September, 4 Birmingham girls killed when
bomb thrown into church
• LBJ signs Civil Rights Act of 1964
- prohibits discrimination because of race,
religion, gender

76. Fighting for Voting Rights
Freedom Summer
• Freedom Summer—CORE, SNCC project to
register blacks to vote in MS
• Volunteers beaten, killed; businesses, homes,
churches burned
2
SECTION
NEXT
A New Political Party
• Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party formed to
get seat in MS party
• Fannie Lou Hamer—voice of MFDP at National
Convention—wins support
• LBJ fears losing Southern white vote, pressures
leaders to compromise
• MFDP and SNCC supporters feel betrayed
Continued . . .

77. continued Fighting for Voting Rights
The Selma Campaign
• 1965, voting rights demonstrator killed in Selma, AL
• King leads 600 protest marchers; TV shows police
violently stop them
• Second march, with federal protection, swells to
25,000 people
2
SECTION
NEXT
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Congress finally passes Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Stops literacy tests, allows federal officials to enroll
voters
• Increases black voter enrollment
Chart

78. Action and civil courage,
1963-65

79. Voter
Registration
CORE
volunteers
came to
Mississippi to
register Blacks
to vote.

80. These volunteers risked arrest, violence an
death

81. The Fight
This man spent
5 days in jail for
―carrying a
placard.‖
Sign says
―Voter
registration
worker‖

82. "Your work is just
beginning. If you go back
home and sit down and
take what these white men
in Mississippi are doing to
us. ...if you take it and don't
do something about it.

83. Voter Registration
If Blacks
registered to
vote, the local
banks could
call the loan on
their farm.

84. Thousands marched to the Courthouse in Montgomery to protest
rough treatment given voting rights demonstrators. The Alabama
Capitol is in the background. March 18,1965

85. High
Schoolers
jailed for
marching

86. Bloody Sunday
In Selma,
pro-vote
marchers
face
Alabama
cops.

88. Selma to Montgomery,
Alabama

89. Tending the wounded

90. Marchers cross bridge

91. Many were arrested.

92. Police set up a rope barricade.

93. Marchers stayed there for
days.

94. We're gonna
stand here
'till it falls,
‘Till it falls,
‘Till it falls,
We're gonna
stand here
'till it falls
In Selma,
Alabama.

95. The Supreme Court ruled that
protesters had 1st Amendment right to
march.

96. Sacrifice for
Suffrage

97. Crime Scene
This woman
was killed by
the KKK while
on her way to
join voter
activists in
Mississippi

98. Selma to Montgomery Part
2

99. Part 2

100. NEXT
Section 3
Challenges and Changes
in the Movement
Disagreements among civil rights groups and the
rise of black nationalism create a violent period in
the fight for civil rights.

101. NEXT
African Americans Seek Greater Equality
Northern Segregation
• De facto segregation exists by practice, custom;
problem in North
• De jure segregation is segregation required by law
• WW II black migration to Northern cities results in
―white flight‖
• 1960s, most urban blacks live in slums; landlords
ignore ordinances
• Black unemployment twice as high as white
• Many blacks angry at treatment received from white
police officers
Challenges and Changes
in the Movement
3
SECTION
Continued . . .

102. NEXT
continued African Americans Seek Greater Equality
Urban Violence Erupts
• Mid-1960s, numerous clashes between white
authority, black civilians
- many result in riots
• Many whites baffled by African-American rage
• Blacks want, need equal opportunity in jobs,
housing, education
• Money for War on Poverty, Great Society
redirected to Vietnam War
3
SECTION

103. NEXT
3
SECTION
African-American Solidarity
• Nation of Islam, Black Muslims, advocate
blacks separate from whites
- believe whites source of black problems
• Malcolm X—controversial Muslim leader,
speaker; gets much publicity
• Frightens whites, moderate blacks; resented by
other Black Muslims
New Leaders Voice Discontent
Continued . . .
Ballots or Bullets?
• Pilgrimage to Mecca changes Malcolm X’s
attitude toward whites
• Splits with Black Muslims; is killed in 1965 while
giving speech
Image

104. NEXT
continued New Leaders Voice Discontent
Black Power
• CORE, SNCC become more militant; SCLC
pursues traditional tactics
• Stokely Carmichael, head of SNCC, calls for
Black Power:
- African Americans control own lives,
communities, without whites
3
SECTION
Black Panthers
• Black Panthers fight police brutality, want black
self-sufficiency
• Preach ideas of Mao Zedong; have violent
confrontations with police
• Provide social services in ghettos, win popular
support

105. NEXT
1968—A Turning Point in Civil Rights
King’s Death
• King objects to Black Power movement,
preaching of violence
• Seems to sense own death in Memphis speech
to striking workers
• Is shot, dies the following day, April 4, 1968
3
SECTION
Reactions to King’s Death
• King’s death leads to worst urban rioting in U.S.
history
- over 100 cities affected
• Robert Kennedy assassinated two months later
Image

106. NEXT
Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement
Causes of Violence
• Kerner Commission names racism as main
cause of urban violence
3
SECTION
Civil Rights Gains
• Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination
in housing
• More black students finish high school, college;
get better jobs
• Greater pride in racial identity leads to Black
Studies programs
• More African-American participation in movies,
television
• Increased voter registration results in more black
elected officials
Continued . . .
Chart

107. NEXT
continued Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement
Unfinished Work
• Forced busing, higher taxes, militancy, riots
reduce white support
• White flight reverses much progress toward
school integration
• Unemployment, poverty higher than for whites
• Affirmative action—extra effort to hire, enroll
discriminated groups
• 1960s, colleges, companies doing government
business adopt policy
• Late 1970s, some criticize policy as reverse
discrimination
3
SECTION