The Civil Rights The Civil Rights MovementMovement
Essential Questions• What impact did the Dred Scott case and the
Emancipation Proclamation have on the early struggle for civil rights?
• Why did the Supreme Court interpret early civil rights laws and the 14th Amendment narrowly in the late 19th century?
• What gains did the movement make in desegregating schools and public places in the mid-20th century?
• What other goals did the civil rights movement strive for in the middle and late 1960s?
• In what ways did the civil rights movement evolve in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
• What overall impact did the civil rights movement have?
The Dred Scott Case: Origins
• Slave whose master had moved him to free territory for several years
• Sued for his freedom
• Lost in state and federal courts
• Case appealed to U.S. Supreme Court in 1857
Dred Scott
The Dred Scott Case: Decision
• Majority opinion written by Chief Justice Taney
• Ruled that a slave wasn’t a citizen and couldn’t sue in court
• Also ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
The Emancipation Proclamation• Announced by
Lincoln in 1862 after the Battle of Antietam
• Freed slaves only in “territories in rebellion,” not border states
• Signed on January 1, 1863
• Essentially unenforceable
President Abraham Lincoln reads the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet
The “Civil War” Amendments• 13th Amendment abolished
slavery
• 14th Amendment granted ex-slaves citizenship; guaranteed equal protection, due process
• 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote
• Supreme Court ruled these only applied to the federal government
A print celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment
“Jim Crow” Laws• Name came
from a minstrel show character
• Mandated separate facilities for whites and blacks
• Black facilities usually worse Laws dictating separate drinking fountains for whites
and blacks were commonplace in Southern states
Plessy v. Ferguson• Case involved segregated
train facilities in Louisiana
• Court ruled that “separate but equal” did not violate 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause
• Harlan only dissenting justice
Justice John Marshall Harlan
Washington vs. Du BoisBooker T. Washington:• Believed that blacks should
assimilate into the “world of work” by learning technical skills
• Established the Tuskegee Institute
W.E.B. Du Bois:• Contended that blacks
should receive a liberal-arts education
• Co-founded the NAACP
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. Du Bois
The New Deal and Civil Rights
• FDR’s commitment to civil rights lukewarm
• Several New Deal agencies discriminated against blacks
• Tenant farmers and sharecroppers protested
• Randolph proposed a “March on Washington”
A flyer for A. Philip Randolph’s proposed “March on Washington”