Civil Rights—1950s & 60s. Civil Rights—Early Years Considered Eisenhower’s greatest failure as president o Mild advances, general avoidance o Preferred.

Civil Rights—1950s & 60s

Civil Rights—Early Years

• Considered Eisenhower’s greatest failure as president o Mild advances, general

avoidance o Preferred state/local action

—”you can’t change minds with laws”

o Warren appointment—”biggest damn fool mistake I ever made” • 1953-1969 “Warren

Court”• Catalyst for social change

Brown v. Board of Education

• NAACP—Thurgood Marshall—”legal lever”

• Eisenhower asked Warren to side w/ segregationist or deal w/ it latero Warren responded—”you mind your

business and I’ll mind mine”

• 1954—unanimous decision• “all deliberate speed”• Eisenhower did not endorse the

decision• Alabama ‘nullified’ the SC’s

decision • Citizen’s Councils (KKK)• Economic attack• Byrd called for “massive

resistance & “Southern Manifesto”• 1956—not a single black child

attended school with white children in 6 Southern states

Little Rock—1957• Arkansas Gov.—Orval

Faubus called national guard to prevent 9 black students from attending Little Rock HSo Order were “no niggers in the

building”o Elizabeth Eckford, 15, met with

chants of “lynch her”

• Eisenhower reluctantly dispatched 1,000 paratroopers o “hardest decision since D-Day”o Rational was to maintain law and

order not to enforce civil rightso First time since 1870 troops were

sent to protect black Americans

Little Rock• Faubus closed Little

Rock High Schools in 1959o Served 6 terms as governor

• Courts in various states struck down legislation that cut funding to integrated schools

• “massive resistance” was contained to the deep south

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks—1955o Refused to give seat to a white mano “niggers move back”o Arrested o Response= boycott of city busing

systemo 381 days—car pooling, arrests, church

burning, harassment o Separate but equal does not apply to

buses

• MJK Jr.o 26, son of a minister, grandson of a

slave, doctorate from Boston U, preacher in Montgomery

o Studied Thoreau & Gandhio Arrested twice during boycott and

gained national attention

• SCLC—Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• “militant non-violence”

Movement Expansion• Kennedy was also timid• Greensboro & ‘sit-

ins’(‘kneel-ins’, ‘wade-ins’)

• 3,600 black and white activists spent time in jail

• SNCC—Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committeeo Teaching non-violence and

toleration of abuse

Movement Expansion • Freedom riders • Robert F. Kennedy is

Attorney General o Asked Freedom riders to stop

• Challenge segregation on buses and trains

• Bus exploded, riders escaped to be beaten w/ pipes, bats, chains, buses

• Pressured federal action—ICC ordered waiting areas to integrated

Federal Intervention • James Meredith—

1962o Registered at U. of

Mississippio Gov. Barnett ignored court

order to allow him to register

o Robert Kennedy dispatched federal marshals

o They were assaulted by a mob, and federal troops intervened

o Riots occurred, 2 deaths and dozens of injuries

o James Meredith registered

Birmingham • Alabama Governor—

George Wallace o “segregation now, segregatio

n tomorrow, segregation forever!”

• Eugene “Bull” Connor—police commissioner o Sitting duck for civil

disobedience o Very dangerous o Used police dogs, tear gas,

electric cattle prods, and fire hoses while millions of Americans watched on television

Changes…• “Letter from

Birmingham City Jail” • J. Edgar Hoover (FBI)

o “the most dangerous negro…in this nation”

o Hatred border lined obsession o Attorney General Kennedy

gave permission to monitor private phone conversations, plant listening devices in hotel rooms, and circulate rumors

• Nobel Peace Prize—1964

Changes…• “this is a very serious

fight. We’re in this up to the neck. The worst trouble would be to lose the fight in Congress…A good many programs I care about may go down the drain as a result of this [bill]—we may all go down the drain…so we are putting a lot on the line”

• Wallace personally barred the door to University of Alabama

• Kennedy identifies the ‘moral ‘ issue for the first time—1963

• March on Washingtono 1963o “We Shall Overcome” o “I have a Dream”

• Birmingham Church bombing o 4 black girls die

LBJ Takes Office—1963

• “magnificent, inspiring”

• “insufferable bastard” • “I’m going to be the

best friend the Negro ever had”

• Emphasis on domestic policy

“Great Society”• “War on Poverty”• Harrington published The

Other America• Contrast to 1950s American

Dreamo Prolonged poverty o Unlikely escape o ‘modern poor’

• Programs unparalleled since New Deal o Job Corpso Head Start Programo Community Action Programo Medicare (elderly over 65)o Medicaid (economic hardship)o Federal aid for public schools o Public housing o 435 bills through Congress

Assessing the Great Society

• Criticisms o Medicare removed

incentive for hospitals to control costs so healthcare costs skyrocketed

o Federal welfare payments that reduced poverty were not sustainable

o Welfare fraud o Fueled a Republican

backlash—Nixon

• Successes?o Civil rights and voting

rights remain protected o Medicare and Medicaid

are two of the most appreciated government programs

o Highway Safety & Motor Vehicle Safety Act

o Higher Education Act = scholarships

Civil Rights Act--1964o Executive Order 8802

• FDR & New Deal Legislation

o Executive Order 9981• Truman & Armed Forces

o Civil Rights Act 1957—created Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department

o Civil Rights Act 1964• S. Democrat (Byrd)

filibustered (14 hr 13 min)• “we have just delivered

the South to the Republicans for a long time to come” –LBJ

Freedom Summer—1964

• 6.7% of eligible black voters were registered in Mississippio Poll taxes, literacy tests,

• Robert “Bob” Moses (SNCC)

• Refocus on political rights

• Brutal retaliation • Fairly successful

Selma • 1965• March from Selma to

Montgomeryo 25,000o Dispersed by 500 state trooperso “Bloody Sunday”

• Johnson provided troops for protection

• Voting Rights Acto Federal supervision of registration

in states and counties where fewer than half were registered

o Outlawed literacy and discriminatory tests

o Huge gains in voter registration

•

Another shift…• Fragmentation of movement • Shift from southern politics

to urban economics • Riots

o L.A.—1965 (Watts—black ghetto)• 34 dead, 4,000 jailed, 35 million

in damageo Chicago and Cleveland +40 other

cities (summer 1966) o Detroit 1967

• National guard and federal troops and tanks

• 43 dead, 1000 + injured

• Stokely Carmichael—head of SNCC—1966o Black Power o Ousted whites from SNCCo Black Panthers—armed “kill whitey”

black supremacy

Malcolm X• Why X?• Lansing, MI• Home was burned parents

supported Marcus Garvey’s black nationalism

• Abusive father, extreme poverty, crime, dropped out, jailed, etc…

• Joined NOIo Chicago-based o Cult-likeo “white devils” o Malcolm X increased membership

from a few hundred to tens of thousands by 1960

Malcom X• Dismissed MLK Jr. • “We Shall Overrunn” • Toured Africa & Middle East

asking for international support in the UN

• Assassinated in 1965 at age 39

• Black power only attracted about 15% of black Americans

• Positive? –influential in establishing black pride and forced MLK Jr’s attention on urban poverty

Feminism • Betty Freidan—The

Feminine Mystique o “comfortable concentration camps” o Empowerment

• NOW • Redstockings, WITCH

o Bra burning, burning Playboy, picketing Miss America, etc…

• Title IX (1972) • Roe v. Wade (1973)• ERA • “She Decade” 70s • Sexual Revolution

o Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Gay Rights • Stonewall Inn—1969

o Greenwich Village o Police raid of popular gay baro Gay Liberation Front o Encouraged “coming out”

• AIDS• Setbacks

o Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) o Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (1993) o DOMA (1996)

Immigration Act• Immigration and Nationality

Services Act 1965• “redress the wrong done to

those from southern and eastern Europe and the developing continents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America”

• Abolished discriminatory quotas in place since the 1920s

• “hemispheric visas”o 170,000 outside western hemisphereo 120,000 from withino No more than 20,000 from one countryo Allowed entry of immediate family

members w/out limit

Hispanic Civil Rights • WWII causation?• Hernadez v. Texas (1954)• 1960—median income was 62%

of general population • Unique dilemma? • Chicano Movement--La Raza

Unida--1970• Bracero Program

o Ended 1964o Trucked in day laborers from Mexico during

harvest o Hispanic leaders instrumental in ending

program

• Cesar Chavez & UFWo United Farm Workers o 1965 strike against corporate grape growers

in CA = media = grape boycott

• Success = population growth o 1960=3 milliono 1970=9 milliono 2012=52 million o Synthesis?

Native American Civil Rights

• Label shift…and back again…

• Conditions: white guilt, desperate economic situations (connect to War on Poverty) • Over half dependent on welfare,

alcoholism, 80% drop out rates • Termination bills contributed

• AIM (1963) American Indian Movement—”Red Power” o Occupation of Alcatraz o “Trail of Broken Treaties” o Sit in at BIA o (1973) 200 Sioux marched to occupy

Wounded Kneeo 10 week stand off

• Judicial Power o “The Longest Walk”

Compare and Contrast LEQ

• Prompt: Compare and contrast the goals of the various civil rights movements in the 1960s and 70s.