Standard 22 Presentation

1. Civil Rights Movement
1945-1970
Standard 22

2. Why was the Civil Rights
Movement Successful??
• A lot of progress took place
prior to the actual movement:
– Integration of military (based on
performance)
– Change in cultural/societal values
– Supreme Court rulings

3. Truman & Integration
• 1948…President Truman fully integrated
the U.S. Military
– Double “V” campaign
– FDR recruited African Americans (performed
well!)
– Tuskegee Airmen
• 1941
• US Air Force created an African American squadron
(99th Pursuit Squadron)

4. Causes of the Civil Rights
Movement
• Segregation without equal protection
• Momentum gained after WWII ended
• A more world-view of human rights and
their application
• Sensitivity to social equality
• Increase in Federal government
involvement in Civil Rights (legislation &
Supreme Court)

5. Social/Cultural Changes
• 1945 played in the
Negro League
• Organizations looking
for players who could
“handle racism”
professionally
• Signed with Brooklyn
Dodgers farm team
(Royals) in 1945
– $600/month

6. Brown vs. Board of
EducationBackground
Linda Brown was
denied admission
to her
neighborhood
school…Her
parents sued the
Topeka School
Board
Decision of Court
“In the field of
public education, the
doctrine of separate
but equal has no
place. Separate
educational
facilities are
inherently unequal”
Chief Justice Earl
Warren (1954)
Impact of the Case (in the South)
-Intensified the desire to defend segregation
-S. Harry Byrd (VA): told southerners to adopt
massive resistance
-Detailed “pupil assignment laws” adopted by school
systems to prevent integration

7. Martin Luther King Jr.
• King was
arrested for a
non-violent
protest
• Wrote a letter
to those who
would criticize
his involvement
in such
demonstrations
• “Injustice
anywhere is a
threat to
justice
everywhere.”

8. “I Have a Dream…”
• 1963 – Lincoln
Memorial
• Expresses the “gap”
between the American
Dream and the American
lived reality
• March on Washington
– Intended to show
support for civil
rights legislation

9. Civil Rights Act of 1964
Causes
• Wallace (governor
of AL):
“Segregation
today.
Segregation
tomorrow.
Segregation
forever!”
• Murder of Medgar
Evers (civil
rights activist)
• Kennedy announces
Civil Rights Bill
Consequences
•Made segregation
illegal in MOST
public areas
•Established Equal
Employment
Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)

10. Voting Rights Act 1965
• Passed August 4, 1965
• Registered
• Allowed
– federal examiners to register voters
– Suspended discriminatory devices (literacy tests)