Chapter 21 notes on US history and the civil rights movement of the 1960s

1. CHAPTER 29
The Civil Rights Movement
1954-1968

2. SECTION 1
Leaders and Strategies

3. I. EXPLAIN HOW THE ACTIVITIES OF EXISTING CIVIL RIGHTS
ORGANIZATIONS LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE
MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S.
A. Groundwork
 1) Grassroots efforts
 2) Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
B. NAACP – National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
 1) Interracial organization – both African American
 2) 1920’s and 30’s challenged segregation
 3) Worked to secure legal equality
 4) W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall

4. I. EXPLAIN HOW THE ACTIVITIES OF EXISTING CIVIL RIGHTS
ORGANIZATIONS LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE
MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S.
C. National Urban League
 1) Helped newcomers to cities by helping them find jobs
and housing
D. CORE – Congress of Racial Equality
 1) Founded by pacifists and directed by James Farmer
 2) Pursued its goals through peaceful confrontation

5. II. DESCRIBE THE PHILOSOPHY THAT MARTIN LUTHER
KING, JR. BROUGHT TO THE MOVEMENT.
A. Nonviolent protest
 1) A peaceful way of protesting against policies
 2) Did not resist even when attacked
B. SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
 1) Introduced the concept of nonviolent protest in 1957
 2) Organized by African American clergymen
 3) Shifted the focus of the civil rights movement from
the North to the South

6. II. DESCRIBE THE PHILOSOPHY THAT MARTIN LUTHER
KING, JR. BROUGHT TO THE MOVEMENT.
C. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 1) Organized SCLC
 2) Influenced by Gandhi and nonviolent protest
 3) Became leader of civil rights movement
 4) Tremendous poise and courage – Nobel Peace Prize
 5) Assassinated 1968 – Memphis, TN – James Earl Ray

7. III. EXPLAIN WHY SOME STUDENTS FORMED THEIR OWN CIVIL
RIGHTS COMMITTEE.
A. SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee
 1) Gave young African Americans activists a voice in the civil
rights movement
 2) Young student activists made decisions about priorities
and tactics
 3) “We Shall Overcome”
 4) Robert Moses

8. SECTION 2
The Struggle Intensifies

9. I. DESCRIBE THE GOALS OF SIT-INS AND FREEDOM RIDES
AND THE REACTIONS THEY PROVOKED.
A. Sit-ins Challenge Segregation
 1) Sit-in is a protest technique in which African
Americans
occupied a segregated establishment and demanded
service
 2) Often led to time spent in jail “Badge of Honor”

11. I. DESCRIBE THE GOALS OF SIT-INS AND FREEDOM RIDES
AND THE REACTIONS THEY PROVOKED.
B. The Freedom Rides
 1) Civil rights workers traveling on interstate buses to
protest segregation at terminals
 2) Organized to test a Supreme Court decision (1960) to
allow African Americans to exercise rights
 3) Violently attacked across South, especially in
Anniston, Alabama – as a result they received federal
protection.
 4) Supported by Attorney General Robert Kennedy

13. II. SUMMARIZE CIVIL RIGHTS PROTESTS IN ALBANY,
GEORGIA AND AT “OLE MISS”
A. Albany Movement
 1) Failed largely because the police chief prevented the
protesters from gaining public sympathy
B. Integration at “Ole Miss”
 1) James Meredith advanced the cause of civil rights
when he tried to enroll at Ole Miss
 2) President Kennedy responded to the riot by sending
U.S. Army troops to restore order and protect
Meredith

14. I. EXPLAIN HOW VIOLENCE AGAINST PROTESTERS IN
BIRMINGHAM AFFECTED ATTITUDES THROUGHOUT THE
NATION.
A. Birmingham, Alabama
 1) Civil rights leaders targeted Birmingham in 1963
because the city was highly segregated
 2) MLK called it “the most segregated city in the
country”
 3) Treatment of demonstrators by Birmingham police
angered most Americans – Americans were appalled
by police violence
 4) MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
 5) Birmingham police commission “Bull” Connor

16. SECTION 3
The Political Response

17. I. ANALYZE HOW PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S POLICIES ON CIVIL
RIGHTS CHANGED BETWEEN 1961 AND 1963.
A. Kennedy on Civil Rights
 1) Senator Kennedy won the support of the black
community
 2) As President, Kennedy moved slowly on civil rights to
avoid offending southern Democratic leaders.
 3) The Birmingham brutality prompted Kennedy to
propose a strong civil rights bill:
a) prohibited segregation in public places
b) advance school desegregation
c) Southerners in Congress filibustered

20. II. DESCRIBE THE POLITICAL IMPACT OF THE MARCH ON
WASHINGTON.
A. March on Washington
 1) August 1963 – 200,000 joined in D.C. to support civil
rights legislation
 2) Participants hoped to convince Congress to pass civil
rights legislation “jobs and freedom”
 3) Highlight: MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech

22. III. SUMMARIZE THE PROGRESS IN CIVIL RIGHTS MADE UNDER
LYNDON JOHNSON.
A. Johnson on Civil Rights
 1) “Honor Kennedy’s memory - passage of the civil
rights bill”
 2) To gain passage of his civil rights legislation, Johnson
had to overcome Senate filibuster using the cloture
rule
B. The Civil Rights Act 1964
 1) Considered to be landmark in American history
 2) Banned discrimination in all public facilities

23. III. SUMMARIZE THE PROGRESS IN CIVIL RIGHTS MADE UNDER
LYNDON JOHNSON.
C. Freedom Summer
 1) Voter registration in Mississippi
 2) Three workers were murdered
 3) Church and house burnings
D. Democratic Convention
 1) Mississippi Freedom Democratic party organized
and sent delegates to the Democratic National
Convention

24. III. SUMMARIZE THE PROGRESS IN CIVIL RIGHTS MADE UNDER
LYNDON JOHNSON.
E. Selma March
 1) Goal: to get voting rights legislation passed
 2) Selma, Alabama – MLK led a march of 25,000 from
Selma to Montgomery (50 miles)

25. III. SUMMARIZE THE PROGRESS IN CIVIL RIGHTS MADE UNDER
LYNDON JOHNSON.
F. Voting Rights Act 1965
 1) After Congress passed it, many African Americans
were elected to office at all levels
G. Legal Landmarks
 1) Civil Rights Act 1964
 2) Voting Rights Act 1965
 3) 24th
Amendment – barred use of a poll tax in federal
elections

27. SECTION 4
The Challenge of Black Power

28. I. COMPARE THE WAYS THAT JAMES BALDWIN, MALCOLM X, AND
OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS EXPRESSED ANGER AT THE PACE OF
PROGRESS TOWARD CIVIL RIGHTS.
A. The civil rights movement was divided over the
issues of nonviolence and integration with white
society
B. James Baldwin
 1) Wrote about the violent consequences of segregation
 2) Warned Americans that African Americans were
angry and tired of promises

29. I. COMPARE THE WAYS THAT JAMES BALDWIN, MALCOLM X, AND
OTHER AFRICAN AMERICANS EXPRESSED ANGER AT THE PACE OF
PROGRESS TOWARD CIVIL RIGHTS.
C. Malcolm Little – Malcolm X
 1) Father was a Baptist minister but died early in life
 2) Malcolm turned to life of crime – jail by age 20
 3) More militant movement
 4) Nation of Islam – group that believed Allah would
create a “Black Nation” – founded by Elijah Mohammed
 5) Black Nationalism – belief in the separate identity
and racial unity of the African American community
 6) Opposition to Integration – races should be separate
 7) Shot to death in 1965

31. II. EXPLAIN THE PRINCIPLES AND TACTICS USED BY
ADVOCATES OF BLACK POWER.
A. Stokely Carmichael – SNCC leader – increased
militant activity
 1) Black Power – idea that African Americans should
take charge of their communities
B. Black Panthers
 1) Wanted African Americans to lead their own
communities
 2) “Black is Beautiful” racial pride

33. II. EXPLAIN THE PRINCIPLES AND TACTICS USED BY
ADVOCATES OF BLACK POWER.
C. Riots in the Streets
 1) de jure segregation – rigid pattern of legal separation
of the races dictated by law
 2) de facto segregation – racial separation imposed by
poverty and ghetto conditions – facts of life
 3) Watts Riots – neighborhood of Los Angles California
 4) Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination 1968
 5) Kerner Commission 1968 – reported that the nation
was moving toward two separate and unequal societies

34. III. SUMMARIZE THE LEGACY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT.
A. Legacy
 1) Thousands of African Americans could vote for the
first time
 2) Segregation is made illegal
 3) Political process open for participation
 4) A new sense of racial/ethnic pride