AA Civil Rights 2024 PDF

Lesson 22 The Black Panther movement Huey Newton and Bobby Seale extended previous ideas of armed black groups to found the Black Panther movement in Oakland, California. Weapons were carried openly and defence groups were formed against police brutality. In...

Lesson 22 The Black Panther movement Huey Newton and Bobby Seale extended previous ideas of armed black groups to found the Black Panther movement in Oakland, California. Weapons were carried openly and defence groups were formed against police brutality. In some areas, fghhng broke out in the streets. The dishnchve Black Panther salute was made by two African American athletes in the 1968 Olympics, much to the consternahon of white America. The 1972 Black Power convenhon excluded whites. Polihcal demands had gone considerably beyond those of the mid-e 19605’ mainstream movement. Black Panther aims included the following:  economic equality  an end to capitalist exploitahon  compensahon in the form of land and housing  separate juries for black people and protechon from police inhmidahon. Essenhally, this was a confict between a white state and a separate black culture. The Black Power movement was going back to Washington’s idea of ’dipping your bucket’, being self-ereliant, but in a very diferent way. It had more in common with Garvey’s organisahon but it did not atract the huge membership and was heavily infuenced by the aahon of Islam. However, its goals were too difuse to be easily realised. What the separahst organisahons gave rise to was a new confdence and pride in being black and a sense that white values could be challenged rather than accepted. The achievements of the civil rights legislahon began to look as limited as the achievements of Reconstruchon in promohng a harmonious society. The civil rights movement unhl 1992 The Violence in US cihes in 1965 and the rise of militant African American groups disappointed moderate supporters of civil rights. The movement split and King’s later campaigns against poverty and the Vietnam War were less successful. The problem seemed to be that despite the gains in voter registrahon and laws against discriminahon, the economic inequality of African Americans was a bar to equal opportunity and fuelled more extreme African American opposihon. Recognising the need to do more to reduce discontent and unrest, President aixon took up posihve discriminahon in his Philadelphia Plan, and Congress and the Supreme Court backed the policy. The Equal Opportunity Employment Act of 1972 helped to increase African American employment. Civil rights had taken on a wider aspect than merely polihcal right Lesson 22 Jesse Jackson Jackson was a college educated Baphst Minister. He took part in SCLC achvihes 1941-e Born in South Carolina to an unmarried and was one of King’s inner circle. However, his ambihon and asserhveness mother. alienated him from the mainstream SCLC leadership and he resigned in 1971. He formed People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) and the Rainbow Coalihon, 1959-e Graduated from high school which aimed to unite all civil rights groups. He was notable for being the frst 1964-e Graduated from aorth Carolina A&T, a black possible African American candidate for the presidency obtaining 0.5 million university votes in the Democrahc primary contest in 1984 and 7 million when he stood again in 1984. An atempt was made by Jackson to recreate the enthusiasm for 1966-e Worked in the civil rights movement change of the King era when he stood for presidenhal candidate in 1984 and 1988. The idea was ambihous – to unite African Americans who had divided 1968-e Ordained as a Baphst minister between integrahonist and separahst and to re-ecreate the alliance with the 1971-e Founded People United to Save Humanity white liberals. With more African candidate was a possibility. However, Jackson failed both hmes to win the nominahon. 1984-e Stood unsuccessfully for president There were limitahons to progress, both polihcal and economic, and the case 1988-e Second unsuccessful bid for presidency of the beahng of Rodney King in 1991, and the acquital in 1992 of the white policemen who had beaten him and the subsequent race riots showed that 1991-e7 – Senator for Washington DC the past held the USA in a frm grip. Another area of improvement was desegregahng educahon: the radical idea of busing children from diferent areas into desegregated schools did make a diference. However, it was unpopular and declined in the 1970s as middle-eclass parents found suburban areas where there was no integrahon policy. Both aixon and his Republican successor, Ford, supported parental opposihon to busing. By the mid-e19705 it was the Democrats who were more likely to do more for the African American cause. However, President Carter (1977-e81) was greatly crihcised for his limited measures. The problem was that economic problems had come to dominate, with higher oil prices causing infahon and a general slump in the US economy. This disadvantaged African Americans as it had in the 19005. It made quotas for jobs unpopular and reduced opportunihes for many African Americans, a disproporhonate number of whom were dependent on state welfare. Even during the conservahve administrahon of Ronald Reagan, there was some progress towards civil rights. The Vohng Rights Act of 1982 strengthened penalhes against discriminahon and there was a Civil Rights Restorahon Act. There was also a general increase in the number of African Americans holding public ofce (100 in 1964 and 8000 in 1992). However, Reagan’s reduchons of welfare benefts fell disproporhonately on the African American populahon. Without a central unifying issue and faced with complex economic and social problems, the achvihes and membership of the civil rights organisahons declined from the high points of the 1960s. The dynamic leadership of King was an inspirahon for one of his followers and it seemed that there might be a chance of an African American president, but Jesse Jackson could not command the support he needed. Lesson 21 Separatism Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Another traditon oo Aorican American organisatons had not sought the same aims as King and others. From the isolated atemmts afer econstructon to oorm distnct Aorican American communites to the widely summorted Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a key strand had been semaratsm and Black Nationalism. Garvey’s UNIA was short lived but smectacular. His newsmamer had a large circulaton. The marades in New oork in 1+20 were among the largest ever seen in the city, and membershim may have reached a million. This was a clearly natonalist blackkbased organisaton which stressed the worth oo Aorican Americans in a wider context. It did not mursue the aims oo white Americans, but rather used the economic mower oo modern camitalism to generate entermrises and a major shimming line. It insmired actvism such as that oo Malcolm X’s oather and was an obvious oorerunner to Black Power. In many ways, it was the high moint oo organisaton by and oor Aorican Americans:  It did not oocus on highlightng black victms and showing harsh treatment.  It celebrated Aorican values and strengths.  It stressed economic immrovement and entermrise orom the start.  It had internatonal summort.  Like King, it used religiousktyme oervour and had a dynamic and charismatc leader. There was, however, litle chance oo an alliance with white liberal America and although Garvey had a mrivate army, it could not save him orom arrest and immrisonment. Also, unlike the NAACP and CO E, its goals were difcult to defne and achieve in the short term. Nation of Islam (NII) The vein oo radicalism and semaratsm was kemt alive by the NOI. Founded in Detroit by Wallace Fard Muhammad and dominated untl 1+97 by Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole in Georgia), this organisaton exmanded considerably in the 1+70s with the helm oo convert Malcolm X. Although described as the oldest natonalist and semaratst organisaton, it came afer the UNIA, with which it had common oeatures. Both demended on charismatc leaders, both saw the struggle in the USA oo Aorican Americans in a broader context, and both relied on a vibrant newsmamer and clear ideas oo black sumeriority. The impact of the NOI includes the following:  The links with the Islamic religion increased the emotonal ammeal oo the NOI, and the belieo that Aorican Americans were the chosen meomle oo Allah gave the movement a religious strength akin to the mower oo Southern bamtsm behind the SCLC and distnct orom the more ratonal and secular NAACP and CO E.  The ideology was much stronger than other civil rights organisatons, as was its semaraton orom summort orom white America or alignment with its values.  In the much more smiritually intense atmosmhere oo both the UNIA and the NOI, maters oo voter registraton and equal molitcal rights were not mriorites.  For members oo the NOI, the eforts oo King and the demeaning smectacle oo molice hoses mlaying on massive black resisters were objects oo hatred. The achievements oo the Civil ights Act seemed irrelevant when the sumeriority and mower oo the black race were not accemted. Lesson 21 Changes in the civil rights movement The more critcal outlook oo the NOI massed into the Black Power movement, and by 1+64 the civil rights movement was losing its unity, as many saw King and his organisaton as litle more than ’Uncle Toms’ excessively demendent on white handouts. The limitatons oo King’s achievements were shown when James Meredith the frst ever Aorican American to enter the University oo Mississimmi in 1+62 was shot dead on a civil rights march in 1+66. The years between the Civil ights Acts and this murder had seen increasing racial tension and the ofen slow immlementaton oo reoorm and change. The mreviously nonviolent SNCC and CO E embarked on a new course. SNCC member Stokely Carmichael, in a rally oollowing the murder, said simmly ’What we need is black power’. The mood changed orom coomeraton with white America to isolaton and conorontaton. SN CC and CO E groums began to exclude whites and to celebrate Aorican culture, music, oood and hair, and to make much more radical molitcal demands. Lesson 20 Other organisatons: CORE, SNCC, SCLC, COFO Origins: Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's protest strategies of nonviolence and civil disobedience, in 1942 a group of Black and white students in Chicago founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), helping to launch one of America’s most important civil rights movements. Taking a leading role in sit-ins, picket lines, the Montgomery Bus Boycot, Freedom Rides and the 1963 March on Washington, the group worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders throughout the 1950s and mid-1960s until, in 1966, under new guidance, it turned its focus from civil disobedience to becoming a Black separatist and Black Power organization. Organisations such as the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) shared strengths and weaknesses. They united white liberal opinion and expertise and they had specifc targets which ofen resulted in tangible progress. The legal challenges mounted by the NAACP led to key Supreme Court decisions. The campaigns of CORE, which was founded in 1942, with two-thirds of its initial membership being white, were focused on key areas. CORE’s actiiss and ispact: Freedos Rides  Freedom Rides started in 1947, when eight white activists challenged segregation on buses in the South. However in the atmosphere of activism and organisation CORE initiated and organized the Freedom Rides in the spring of 1961, with a mission of testing two Supreme Court rulings, according to The New York Times: Boynton v. Virginia, which desegregated bathrooms, waiting rooms and lunch counters, and Morgan v. Virginia, which desegregated interstate buses and trains.  Freedom rides had more efect in 1961. This time, opposition was more pronounced, as was publicity.  It provoked mob violence in Anniston and Birmingham and savage ill treatment of the African American Freedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi.  As Kennedy was led to authorise the Interstate Commerce Commission to desegregate interstate transport, it had, as with the NAACP’s actions, an immediate result.  A similar example of focused action was the campaign to desegregate schools in Chicago; an indication that action for segregation following NAACP’s court victory had been slow. Later deielopsents: Sit ins There had been a proliferation of civil rights organisations. The NAACP Youth Council of 1958 has organised sit-ins to challenge desegregated lunch counters, most notably at Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. (On Feb. 1, 1960 four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond, took seats at the segregated lunch counter of F. W. Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. They were refused service and sat peacefully until the store closed.) The Montgomery Bus Boycot showed the efectiveness of local organisations, not only the local NAACP but also the Montgomery Women’s Political Council. To sustain the boycot, the Montgomery Improvement Association had been formed by Martin Luther King Jr and his allies, and out of this came the infuential SCLC (coiered in King lesson) with its headquarters in Atlanta, which was backed by highly competent organisers. This organisation was diferent in that it had a guiding political philosophy and a highly articulate fgurehead in King. One of its founders was infuential in forming the Student Noniiolent Coordinatng Cossitee (SNCC) in April 1960.  Lesson 20 Council of Federated Organisations The diferent elements came together in the Council of Federated Organisatons (COFO) in February 1962, with a strategy of increasing voter registration in the Deep South. The Council of Federated Organisations included both SCLCCORE and the NAACP, as well as the SCLC and the SNCC. NAACP SNCC CORE SCLC (Southern Christan Leadership Conference)- Mass desonstratons The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC most famous actions is closely associated with its frst president, Martin Luther King Jr. The emphasis moved away from carefully planned campaigns and legal challenges to more mass demonstrations and a broader appeal for change. Aware that in Kennedy, who had been elected in 1960, there was a mood for change, the SCLC and King’s actions were as follows:  The avowed philosophy was non-violence.  The campaigns looked for white liberal support.  They won support from organised religion in the South.  They wanted to demonstrate mass feeling.  They looked to invoke the constitutional right of freedom of expression over local state laws which prevented demonstrations. The frst demonstration in Albany, Georgia, in 1961 was thwarted by careful preparation from the local police chief, Laurie Pritchet, who restrained his men and was sure to have King released afer his initial arrest. However, in Birmingham, Police Chief Connor obliged by the use of force, all the more shocking since the organisers used children to carry on the protest when the adult marches and sits-in were failing. King gained maximum publicity from his arrest and his time in Birmingham jail. The greatest expression of non-violent, multiracial protest with the various organisations working together was the March on Washington in August 1963 (see picture). King’s rhetoric, numbers, publicity and the support of the presidency, came together to create an event seen as historic and watched throughout the world. The scale was greater than anything atempted since 1865 or afer. A key element was the gathering of white support, which was at its strongest since Reconstruction. In 1964, at a march in St Augustine, the world saw the spectacle of the 72-year-old mother of the governor of Massachusets being arrested for breaking segregation laws which seemed part of a remote and unsavoury past. Although earlier organisations had achieved favourable Supreme Court decisions or executive orders, the Ciiil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 seemed triumphs for efective mass organisation. Lesson 19 The Natioal Assiciatio fir the Avaaoceeeot if Cilirev Peiple (NAACPr Enquiry questinn How important were organisations in achieving civil rights? The experience of the loss of rights afer the Reconstructon period showed the dangers of African Americans relying on individual leaders or the protectve power of the federal state. There had been instances of African Americans banding together to protect their lives and property, but no overarching organisaton had formed to safeguard rights. The Natioal Assiciatio fir the Avaaoceeeot if Cilirev Peiple (NAACPr The frst major organisaton had to wait untl the early twenteth century and then was not predominantly led by African Americans. The NAACP proved to be of major importance. Of the 37 major civil rights organisatons in the USA today, the NAACP is the only one from the major period of civil rights agitaton to remain. The NAACP originated from concerns about race riots and lynchings expressed in the so-called Niagara Movement. The NAACP included African American campaigners WEB Du Bois and Ida Wells, and liberal white social reformers and campaigners. Its inital founding dates from 1909 and the name was chosen in 1910. Du Bois was its only senior black commitee member. Its aims concerned sufrage rights, equal justce, beter educaton, equality before the law and employment opportunites according to ability. This was an organisaton more for African Americans than by them and it was initally dominated by Jewish white liberals. The main thrust of its campaigns was legal. The target was to challenge the Jim Crow laws of the South, which ran contrary to consttutonal amendments. It also campaigned in a relatvely restrained way against President Wilson’s policy of segregatng federal employment and in favour of allowing African Americans to serve as ofcers in the armed forces. It established 50 local branches and a journal, and set up marches in protest against the flm The Birth of a Naton and against race riots in St Louis in 1917. However, it did not recruit a mass followingt it had only 6000 members by 1915. It used its middle-class membership more for legal challenges against votng restrictons in the South and it efectvely blocked moves to make segregaton of African Americans into distnct districts illegal in 1917. A more dynamic recruitment policy led to an increase in membership in the 1920’s but law remained its main tactc. It defended African Americans sentenced to death in Arkansas afer riotng, who claimed they had been tortured. It also publicised the evils of lynching. The NAACP’s achievements were relatvely modestt  The NAACP achieved a Supreme Court ruling in 1944 that it was illegal to deny African Americans the right to vote in primary electons.  Its long and steady legal campaigns increased the role and reputaton of the black lawyer Thurgood Marshall.  There was a steady atack on segregaton, which culminated in the Brown V. Topeka Board of Educaton ruling in 1954. However, the actual enforcement of the policy was beyond the resources of the NAACP.  Local actvists spearheaded one of the most signifcant developments of the post-war period in 1955, when Rosa Parks challenged the segregated bus regulatons in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest was quickly followed by the issue of 52,000 leafets calling for a bus boycot. This changed the nature of the NAACP’s work and introduced the idea of using organisaton and economic pressure and also exploitng the publicity of a celebrated case. However, when the NAACP was barred from Alabama all it could do was to challenge the decision in the courts and leave the state untl 1958. This opened the way for more dynamic local organisatons using mass campaigning. Thus, the 1955 bus boycot was a high point but also an indicaton of the limitatons of the NAACP.  It was instrumental in the campaign in 1959 to integrate the schools in Litle Rock. Thus, the most famous incidents of the 1953 were the work of the NAACP, but afer its partcipaton in the March io Washiogtio io 1963, which it did much to organise, its days of greatness seemed to be over. Lesson 18 Resistance to civil rights in the 1950s Civil rights actvists faced resistance from a nmmeer of somrces  The state governments, legislatmres, senators and representatvess The Repmelicans did not penetrate the ’solid Somth’s The Democrats’ politcal dominance as emilt on their defence of segregaton and smpremacy and they presented a formidaele earrier even to strong presidents like Trmman and Kennedys  The entrenched oppositon of the jmdicial system in many areas of the Somth, ith police forces, local comncillors, comrts and jmries eeing determined to hold eack changes  The vestges of the Klan and similar organisatons and the traditons of violence and lynchings among the hite popmlatons Access to eapons as easy and White jmries ere mn illing to convict in the matter of racial crimes Civil rights as ofen seen as Northern interference, mmch as aeolitonism and ’carpet bagging’ * had eeen seen eefore and afer the Civil Wars *The South objected violently to Northern ofcials and businessmen, afer the Civil War, interfering in their affairs and using corrution to gain the votes and suttort of former slaves. With the changes stemming from the Second World War and the greater pressmre for change, a revival of politcal violence in the Somth as apparents There as a ave of eomeings of homes of African Americans ho had eecome more prosperoms in Birmingham, Alaeamas The sympathies of police chief ’Bmll’ Connor allo ed attacks to go ahead ithomt investgatons When the Freedom Riders appeared in Birmingham, Connor allo ed Klan memeers to attack them for feen minmtes ithomt taking actons There ere attacks on the homes of memeers of the NAACP in Florida in 1951s The assassinaton of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963 in Mississippi as not an isolated instance of politcal violences The 16th Street Baptst Chmrch in Birmingham as eomeed in 1963, and the mmrder of three civil rights orkers in Mississippi (the smeject of the lm Mississippi Bmrning) sho ed the failmre of radical hite oppositon to appreciate any change in the tde of pmelic opinions Ho ever, contnming violence had prodmced a similar reacton in the 1870s, ith greater energy pmt into la enforcement and revmlsion at the impact on the USA’ s internatonal repmtatons Ho ever, as ith the 1870s, it proved impossiele to prevent acts of violence, hich contnmed sporadically in the 1970s and 1980ss A tmrning point as the execmton of a Klan memeer for the lynching of an African American in 1981 in Alaeama, althomgh it took sixteen years for pmnishment to ee inficteds That as the rst tme in the period that a hite man had eeen convicted and execmted for racial mmrder since the 1870ss Althomgh distmreing, the oppositon to civil rights ey Somthern amthorites and individmals and gromps smch as the White Citiens’ Councils (Formed in the Somth follo ing the Bro n decision of 1954s Middle class emt aims the same as KKK- violence, intmidatons Used economic po er esgs pressmred insmrance companies to cancel African American policies) as not nearly as effectve in the 1950s and 1960s as it had eeen in the Reconstrmcton periods De antly segregatonist hite governors, like rrval Famems, ho tried to prevent desegregaton of schools in Arkansas, and George Wallace in Alaeama, only served to pmsh relmctant administratons to mse federal amthority to enforce Smpreme Comrt decisions eecamse of media attentons Lesson 18 Greater television coverage meant that discriminaton, segregaton, violence and disregard for the la comld not ee hidden a ay as they had eeen in the period from 1877 to the 1940ss Effectve oppositon depended on smpport from Smpreme Comrt rmlings and the politcal indifference of the federal governments rnce that had changed, as a resmlt of more effectve civil rights organisaton and the inspiraton of individmal leaders, then oppositon seemed merely old fashioned, desperate and dangeroms to the USA’s repmtatons Summary diagram: KKK State Governments 1950s  Intmidated  Legislated in favomr  State governors and  Lynched of KK senators  Beat  Restricted African  Democrats in the  Claimed hite omen Americans votng Somth ere in danger  Did little to stop  Jmdicial system  Stopped African lynching  Traditon KKK Americans  Allo ed  Police Bmll Connor votng/registering segregaton  White Citiens’  Prevented attendance Comncil at desegregated schools Carpet bagging - The Somth oejected violently to Northern ofcials and emsinessmen afer the Civil War interfering in their affairs and msing corrmpton to gain the votes and smpport of the former slavess Smch intrmders ere ofen portrayed as carrying eags made omt of carpet material, hence the names Lesson 17 Violence- Lynching What did lynching involve? A lynching is the public killing of an individual who has not received any due process. These executons were ofen carried out by lawless mobs, though police ofcers did partcipate, under the pretext of justce. Southerners did not just rely on the law to deny civil rights to black people. The period between 1880 and 1910 saw the height of a lynching campaign against black people. Lynchings were violent public acts that white people used to terrorize and control Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, partcularly in the South. Lynchings typically evoke images of Black men and women hanging from trees, but they involved other extreme brutality, such as torture, mutlaton, decapitaton, and desecraton. Some victms were burned alive. Afer the Civil Waar and especially the end of Reconstructon, the majority of lynching took the form of atacks on southern black men. It was alleged that the victm had commited a serious crime such as raping a white woman, an acton so vile that it was claimed justce could not wait for the courts but had to be dispensed immediately there and then. Lynching was sometmes regarded as a public event which even children occasionally atended. Southern state governments and police forces did litle to stop it. Cases against lynching were rarely brought to court and, if they were, the all-whites juries would not convict.. Lynchings were ofen public spectacles atended by the white community in celebraton of white supremacy. Photos of lynchings were ofen sold as souvenir postcards. Lesson 17 High profle lynching cases: The lynching of Mary Turner in Brooks-Lowndes County, Georgia, was one of the lynching investgatons by Waalter Wahite on behalf of NAACP. Abusive plantaton owner, Hampton Smith, was shot and killed. A week-long manhunt resulted in the killing of Mary Turner's husband, Hayes Turner. Mary denied that her husband had been involved in Smith's killing, publicly opposed her husband's murder, and threatened to have members of the mob arrested. On May 19, 1918, a mob of several hundred brought her to Folsom Bridge, ted Mary's ankles, hung her upside down from a tree, doused her in gasoline and motor oil and set her on fre. She was stll alive when a member of the mob split her abdomen open with a knife. Her unborn child fell to the ground, was stomped and crushed. Mary's body was riddled with hundreds of bullets. The tde may have turned against lynching, but white supremacy and violence contnued to terrorize Black communites. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered for allegedly firtng with a white woman. Till's murder and subsequent injustce deeply afected the Black community and roused a young generaton of Black people to join the Civil Rights Movement. NAACP declared Till's murder a lynching. An all-white jury acquited the two men accused, who later bragged about their crimes in a magazine artcle. Mamie Elizabeth Till- Mobley, Emmet Till's mother, decided to hold an open-casket funeral to put her son's brutalized body on display for the world to see. Jet Magazine published photos of his body in the casket, along with the headline "Negro Boy Waas Killed for 'Waolf Wahistle,'" causing natonal outrage among Black and white Americans alike, helping to catalyze the Civil Rights Movement. Activism against lynching: Ida B Wells opposing lynching: Ida B Waells began her campaign against discriminaton in 1884 when she refused to give up her seat on a train to a white man. She was forcibly removed and sued the railroad company. She publically opposed lynching afer her friends, who owned a grocery shop, were lynched for rape, led by the white owners of a rival shop. She was also a devoted supporter of women’s rights and of the vote for women. Waells challenged two myths, frstly that alleged rape was ofen not the cause of lynching and secondly, she called into queston the idea of total white female innocence in some of the alleged rapes. Afer publishing her opinions, Waells had to leave her home town of Memphis, Tennessee and move to New York where she expanded her views in the New York Age. She contnued her message, speaking to branches of the newly formed Natonal Associaton of Coloured Waomen. (1896) Lesson 17 Given the reforming atmosphere of the progressive era, she was received sympathetcally but she failed to gain any commitment from Congress or the President for an ant-lynching law. The southern defence that a federal ant-lynching law would interfere with states’ rights, always won the argument. “The matee came up foe judicial investigatonn but as miight have been expectedn the white people concluded it was unnecessaey to wait the eesult of the investigaton—that it was peefeeable to hanig the accused fest and tey him afeewaedd. Ida B Waells speaking in 1892 NAACP led a courageous batle against lynching. In the July 1916 issue of The Crisis, editor Wa.E.B. Du Bois published a photo essay called "The Waaco Horror" that featured brutal images of the lynching of Jesse Waashington. White attudes: The obsession with rape of white women by black men is revealing. It was feared that liaisons between races could lead to a naton of mixed race individuals which would destroy the whole concept of rigid segregaton which was developing. At the same tme as measures were introduced for segregaton and discriminaton in votng, southern states introduced miscegenaton (mixture of races) laws banning inter-racial sexual relatons. A lesser known way of depriving black people of their civil rights was convict leasing. Bankrupt governments would lease out convicts for cash to businessmen, who therefore acquired a useful form of cheap labour. The working conditons, especially in the mines, were appalling. They would work long hours, be severely under fed and face severe discipline. This system seemed to be an atempt to retain slavery by other means and was much more common in areas with higher black populaton. Lesson 16 How strong was the opposition to civil rights? The sudden change in the status of African Americans in 1865, together with the bitterness of the Civil War, was bound to bring opposition from the white South. In the face of Congressional Reconstruction and military rule, the Southerners resorted to secret organisations and a resumption of some of the guerrilla warfare they had practised in the civil war itself. The most notorious organisation was the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan The origins of the Klan go back to a secret society formed in Tennessee in December 1865. Overall coordination was attempted in 1867 at a meeting in Nashville, and the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest was a notional national leader or ’Grand Wizard’. Their ideology was one of white supremacy and their political aim was to undermine Republican domination of the South. Their strongest characteristic was not, however, national organisation but localised groups of people with a variety of grievances, pursuing personal grudges and indulging in racist violence and intimidation. Methods of the Ku Klux Klan members  They used intimidating methods: white hoods, flaming crosses and secret oaths.  They physically attacked, beat, lynched and murdered African Americans, destroying their property and on occasion setting off bombs.  Powerful sexual elements, of white women in danger, were employed, that would recur for the next century.  Freedmen’s Bureau members were targeted in the 1860s, and again in the 1950s and 1960s, when civil rights workers were killed.  Efforts were made to stop African American voters from registering and voting. These were later institutionalised as Jim Crow laws.  They attacked African Americans to stop them from attending desegregated schools something that again reappeared in the struggle for desegregation in the 1950s. A formidable precedent was set in this period for white opposition to civil rights. The scale of violence was quite considerable. There were 2000 deaths and injuries in Louisiana alone in the run-up to the 1868 presidential election. President Grant, elected in 1868, was prepared to suspend habeas corpus (the right only to be detained by lawful arrest) and use federal troops to suppress violence, Lesson 16 for example, in South Carolina in 1871. The Klan’s methods also led to Republicans and African Americans uniting against it, having the opposite effect of its supporters. Effective indictments by federal courts began to have their effect by the early 1870s and the national organisation was not strong enough to resist federal powers. State legislatures also turned against it. The Klan itself withered away but individual acts of terrorism continued. Attitude and Actions of state governments From 1877, the opposition to civil rights did not centre on illegal terrorism but came from the activities of legally constituted state governments, the indifference of Congress and the administrations, and the judgments of the Supreme Court. The new direction of the court was seen in a judgment in 1882, which declared legislation against the Klan unconstitutional. The situation in the South descended to official restrictions on African American political rights with the Jim Crow laws and ridiculous voting qualifications, while the traditions of the Klan period were maintained in the growth of lynchings, which the local and state authorities did not do much to control. The federal government looked on and did little. The situation reverted to the pre-Civil War period where the South could regulate its own affairs with regard to race. In place of slavery there was segregation, sharecropping and inequality before the law in social and economic matters, and the application of random and terrifying localised violence. The Ku Klux Klan became inactive because there was no real necessity for it to exist. The revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the twentieth century The Klan was reborn in 1915 on the basis of a myth. The film The Birth of a Nation portrayed the Klan as part of a heroic struggle against Northern domination and black control. A group led by William Joseph Simmons in Georgia revived the ’historic’ costumes but the agenda was considerably wider. It attracted anti-urban, anti-immigrant Protestant racists. Its enemies were not specifically African Americans trying to ’get above themselves’ but included Jews, Catholics, foreigners and opponents of the prohibition of alcoholic drink. As its targets were more widespread, the effects on African American civil rights were much less especially as they had to all intents disappeared in the South. By the mid-1920s, the Klan was in decline. Racial attacks continued, but violence was sporadic for example there were several attacks on African Americans in 1927. However, Klan membership fell from 4 million in 1920 to 30,000 in 1930. The Klan lingered on in the South throughout the period. Key words: Habeas corpus - The right only to be detained by lawful arrest. The Birth of a Nation - The Southern fi lm-maker D.W. Griffi ths offered a notorious historical drama in 1915 showing a Confederate veteran meeting injustice and corruption when he returns home in 1865 and taking a heroic stand by joining the Ku Klux Klan. It was immensely controversial Lesson 14 Malcolm X Malcolm Litle was, like King, the son of a civil rights actvist and minister, aarl Litle. However, aarl had been a follower of Marcus Garvey and a strong believer in African separatsm and natonalism. aarl’s civil rights actvism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organisaton lack Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm’s fourth birthday. Regardless of the Litle’s eforts to elude the Legion, in 1929, their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, aarl’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks. Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Litles were certain that members of the lack Legion were responsible. Malcolm’s mother sufered an emotonal breakdown several years afer the death of her husband and was commited to a mental insttuton, while her children were split up among various foster homes and orphanages. Malcolm drifed to oston, where he became a professional criminal. In 1946, him and a friend were arrested and convicted on burglary charges, and Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison, although he was granted parole afer serving seven years. Malcolm’s brother Reginald belonged to the religious organisaton the Nation of sllam (NIsa. Intrigued by Islam, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader alijah Muhammad and subsequently converted. Muhammad taught that white society actvely worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving politcal, economic, and social success. Among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people. y the tme he was paroled in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname “X” (He considered “Litle” a slave name and chose the “X” to signify his lost tribal name.). Like other leaders, his skill was in speaking and writng and he was responsible for rapid growth in membership from around 400 in 1952 to approximately 40,000 by 1960 including the famous boxer Muhammad Ali. Unlike any of the other major leaders, he preached for violent revoluton and his range of ideas went beyond that of his predecessors, linking socialism with pan-natonalism, ant-colonialism and radical Islam. This, and concerns about alijah Muhammad’s genuine belief in Islamic moral principles, led to a break with the NOI in 1964. Malcolm X has been accused of achieving very litle in terms of legislaton but he made a compelling case that the only language whites understood was the language of violence and pain. In so doing, he arguably pushed whites into the arms of King, which led to politcal equality. Furthermore, much of his success was focused on social and economic advancements. eginning in the 1960s, Malcolm was invited to partcipate in numerous debates, including forums on radio statons, television programs and universites (including Oxford and Harvard University). In 1963, the New York Times reported that Malcolm X was the second most sought afer speaker in the United States. On June 29, 1963 Malcolm lead the Unity Rally in Harlem. It was one of the naton’s largest civil rights events. In March 1964, afer his split with the NOI, Malcolm forms the Muslim Mosque, Inc. Several months later, he also organises the Organisatons of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm’s autobiography, which he worked on for two years with writer Alex Haley, was published in November 1965. y 1977 his autobiography had sold 7 million copies and in the 90s Time magazine named The Autobiography of Malcolm X as one of ten "required reading" nonfcton books. Malcolm X believed in African identty, freedom, and independence. He loathed the racially ofensive word “negro”. His lifestyle inspired the formaton of many black empowerment groups. More importantly, he helped to introduce a Lesson 14 new term “American-American” when referring to black people. Thus, “negro” and “colored” were deemed ofensive. In 1964 Malcom X encouraged lack people to support lack businesses statng “When you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live the community in which you spend your dollar becomes richer and richer; the community out of which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer.” Malcolm X became less commited to violence and more to the force of purely spiritual values. Just as King became more politcally radial in later life, so Malcolm X ironically sofened his approach, partcularly afer his trip to African and the Middle aast and completng haji, the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet Mohammed at Mecca. Like King he was assassinated in 1965. At a speaking engagement in the Manhatan’s Audubon allroom on February 21, 1965, three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 tmes at close range. Malcolm’s assassins were convicted of frst-degree murder in March 1966. The three men were all members of the Naton of Islam. Consider the following when assessing Malcolm X’s impact on civil rights;  The infuence he had on the emergence of the lack Power movement was considerable  Given his aims, it was not possible for him to claim the sort of success that King could claim over the civil rights legislaton.  He had less popular support than Garvey at his height and perhaps a less coherent strategy.  He had considerable infuence in promotng a sense of sense of pride and identty among African Americans that did not depend on integraton or acceptng with values. Lesson 13 Martin Luther Kin Jr It was King who brought together many of the previous trends. Like Randolph, he was the son of a minister. This religious background showed him the importance of organisaton and gave him a moral vocabulary, although this was not new. The leaders of Reconstructon were well versed in biblical rhetoric and Garvey was able to inspire crowds with proud oratory. King was taught about organisaton and tactcs by Randolph. Local leaders had already laid much of the foundatons for change and King was organising in an era when American society was more eager for change than in Du Bois’s and Garvey’s tme. He also faced some of the same critcism that Washington did in seeking to work with white supporters. His leadership produced a similar reacton to that of Washington in the growth of more radical leaders such as Malcolm X. Arguably, without the work of all of his predecessors, King could not have made the impact he did, but having said that he brought distnctve leadership qualites and he refected a lot of previous developments. Kin durin the Civil Ri hts movement- Activism King became the Baptst minister in Dexter Street Baptst Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. A number of diferent strands of previous civil rights actvity came together in 1955 when King supported other groups in the Mont omery bus boycot where many were boycotn (African Americans refusing to use the segregated buses) the buses afer an NAACP actvist, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to vacate a whites- only seat on a bus. Local civil rights supporters had been waitng for an opportunity to act. King saw the value of concerted acton and organisaton, he formed, with others, the Southern Church Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. This resulted in 1956 Browder V Gayle Supreme Court ruling that bus segregaton was unconsttutonal. Like Garvey and Randolph, King saw the power of mass demonstratons. What was striking was the religious element. He was inspired by the mass enthusiasm of the preacher Billy Graham and was also conscious of the power of the Southern churches to unite support behind civil rights. Unlike Garvey, he also aimed at links with white supporters. His aims were integraton and equality, with white cooperaton. He was aware of the importance of the modern media. He encouraged sit-ins statng “the youth must take the freedom struggle into every community in the South” in 1960 King was convinced to partcipate in a sit in a local department store. nn nctober 19, 1960, 5 individuals, including Dr. Martn Luther King Jr., were arrested in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, afer refusing to leave their seats at segregated department store lunch counters. He inspired the youth to partcipate in sit ins too. Whilst he did not partcipate himself, he most certainly inspired the youth with resulted in the most famous sit in Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960. If marches and sit-ins provoked a violent reacton from the white authorites in the South, then this tme they would be shown on television both natonally and internatonally and would amount to excellent publicity. Lesson 13 Finally, King understood the power of rhetoric and the telling phrase. This was demonstrated on March on Washin ton, political demonstration held in Washin ton, D.C., on Au ust 8,, 1963, that was atended by an estmated 50,000 people to protest racial discriminaton and to show support for major civil rights legislaton that was pending in Congress. His famous ‘I have a dreams speech’ in Washington in August 1963 contains some of the most powerful words of any US oratory: ‘I have a dream that my four litle children will one day live in a naton where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’. Delivered in Washington to 50,000 black and white people, King’s speech combined oratory of a religious character with a direct emotonal appeal to a large crowd, demonstratng a high level of organisaton, to a mixed audience showing white support in a non-violent protest. More radical actvists like Malcolm X were critcal of the fake show of unity, the lack of emphasis on the key issue of economic inequality, its obvious appeal to the white community and its false sense of unity in referring to the ‘American Dream’. King, unlike the other leaders, took a major role in the marches and demonstratons. He was arrested 9 tmes. From the first of the major marches in Atlanta in 1961, he faced hostlity from the white authorites. nverall, they played into his hands. In January 1963, Martn Luther King announced that he would lead a demonstraton in Birmingham, Alabama. He chose Birmingham specifically as it was one of the most segregated cites in the USA. It was notorious for police brutality and the local Ku Klux Klan was one of the most violent. It became known as the Birmin ham riots as Chief Eu ene ‘Bull’ Connor in Birmingham in 1963 obliged by using water hoses, beatngs and arrests. Connor was a former sports broadcaster who was elected in 1937. He was a commited segregatonist and his harsh treatment of the civil rights march in Birmingham in 1963 had the opposite efect of its intentons. Instead it gained support and accelerated civil rights legislaton. King’s ‘Leter from Birmin ham Jail’ thus was given added emotonal appeal. The non-violent marches, although not always as controlled as King made out, also allowed white sympathisers to join. King took care that a march in St Augustne, Florida was joined by Northern white supporters. The march from Selma to Alabama, achieved legendary status. The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent actvists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citzens to exercise their consttutonal right to vote, in defiance of segregatonist repression; they were part of a broader votng rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlightng racial injustce, they contributed to passage that year of the Votng Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement. In 1968 Martin Luther Kin initiated operation breadbasket an atempt to expose the sheer economic discriminaton in job opportunites between black and white Americans. Afer King’s death the initatve was followed along by Jesse Jackson who by 1975 had secured $15million in job opportunites for African Americans and cemented companies such as Coke and Pepsi could no longer discriminate against African American. nn 7 January 1966, Martn Luther King and the Southern Christan Leadership Conference (SCLC) announced plans for the Chica o Freedom Movement, a campaign that marked the expansion of their civil rights actvites from the South to northern cites. King believed they were “needed to help eradicate a vicious system which seeks to further colonize thousands of Negroes within a slum environment” (King, 18 March 1966). Afer negotatng with King and various housing boards, a summit agreement was announced in which the Chicago Housing Authority promised to build public housing Lesson 13 with limited height requirements, and the Mortgage Bankers Associaton agreed to make mortgages available regardless of race. However, city ofcials failed to take concrete steps to address issues of housing despite the summit agreement. In 1968 MLK put efort to gain economic justce for poor people in the United States. It was organized by MLK and the SCLC. Under an "economic bill of rights“, the Poor People's Campai n 196, asked for the federal government to prioritze helping the poor with a $30 billion ant-poverty package that included, among other demands, a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing. An economic bill was never passed, and leaders spoke with regret about the occupaton. The campaign did produce small changes. They included more money for free and reduced lunches for school children and Head Start programs in Mississippi and Alabama. The USDA (agriculture) released surplus commodites to the naton's one-thousand poorest countes & food stamps were expanded. Consider the following when analysing King’s impact on civil rights:  The scale of actvity made it possible for civil rights legislaton to be passed urgently  Randolph had succeeded in achieving changes in the law, but not as fundamentally as King.  Both Garvey and his successor Malcolm X may have achieved a high level of awareness among African Americans but not the positve outcomes of 1964 and 1965.  However, King engendered critcism and disapproval in a similar way to Washington for working too closely with white supporters and presidents.  King was critcised by some of his fellow actvists for inconsistent and hesitant leadership and failed to solve fundamental economic and social problems. Lesson 13 Philip Randolph Integrationist policies were continued by Philip Randolph. He was influenced by Du Bois’s writings and moved to New York, where he was active as a union organiser for African American workers. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) elected him president in 1925. This was the first serious effort to form a labor institution for employees of the Pullman Company, which was a major employer of African Americans. Membership in the Brotherhood jumped to more than 7,000 with Randolph as leader. After years of bitter struggle, the Pullman Company finally began to negotiate with the Brotherhood in 1935 and agreed to a contract with them in 1937. Employees gained $2,000,000 in pay increases, a shorter workweek, and overtime pay. In the summer of 1941 A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for a march on Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the exclusion of African Americans from positions in the national defence industry. The threat of 100,000 marchers in Washington, D.C., pushed President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, which mandated the formation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission to investigate racial discrimination charges against defence firms. In response, Randolph cancelled plans for the march. This major tactic was new: Du Bois had organised a march in New York in 1917 and it led to the highly effective tactic of the mass march on Washington in 1963, which King dominated but Randolph organised. In 1947, Randolph, along with colleague Grant Reynolds, renewed efforts to end discrimination in the armed services, forming the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later renamed the League for Non-Violent Civil disobedience. When President Truman asked Congress for a peacetime draft law, Randolph urged young black men to refuse to register. Since Truman was vulnerable to defeat in 1948 and needed the support of the growing black population in northern states, he eventually capitulated. On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman abolished racial segregation in the armed forces through Executive Order 9981. The following should be factored in when considering the impact of Randolph on civil rights:  Understanding of the power of non-violent mass demonstration was Randolph’s key contribution to the civil rights movement.  He used the economic power of organised labour  He put considerable pressure on Truman to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948  The use of marches, demonstrations and effective organisation, working with white sympathisers and putting pressure on administrations paid off in the long run, and these key tactics (derived in part from resistance to British rule in India under Mohandas Gandhi) moved the civil rights movement on more than other leaders had done, and laid the basis of King’s success  Randolph is a key figure in linking the aspirations and ideals of previous leaders with the organisation necessary to put effective pressure on administrations. Du Bois was the inspiration but did not organise support in comparable numbers. Washington saw the importance of economic  Lesson 13 development but had no interest in political aims or mobilisation. Garvey could attract large numbers, but his aims were not specific enough to be achievable. Links to Martin Luther King Jr It was King who brought together many of the previous trends. Like Randolph, he was the son of the minister. This religious background showed him the importance of organisation and gave him a moral vocabulary, although this was not new. King was taught about organisation and tactics by Randolph, he arranged for a man named Rustin to teach King how to organize peaceful demonstrations in Alabama and to form alliances with progressive whites. King was organising in an era when American society was more eager for change than in Du Bois’s and Garvey’s time. Picture taken at the White House in 1963 NAACP executive Roy Wilkins Martin Luther King Jr Vice President Lyndon B Johnson Philip Attorney General Robert F Randolph Kennedy (brother of JFK) Lesson 13 Martin Luther King Jr King became the Baptist minister in Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. A number of different strands of previous civil rights activity came together in 1955 when King supported other groups in Montgomery in boycotting (African Americans refusing to use the segregated buses) the buses after an NAACP activist, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to vacate a whites-only seat on a bus. Local civil rights supporters had been waiting for an opportunity to act. King saw the value of concerted action and organisation, he formed, with others, the Southern Church Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. This resulted in 1956 Browder V Gayle Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Like Garvey and Randolph, King saw the power of mass demonstrations. What was striking was the religious element. He was inspired by the mass enthusiasm of the preacher Billy Graham and was also conscious of the power of the Southern churches to unite support behind civil rights. Unlike Garvey, he also aimed at links with white supporters. His aims were integration and equality, with white cooperation. He was aware of the importance of the modern media. He encouraged sit-ins stating “the youth must take the freedom struggle into every community in the South” in 1960 King was convinced to participate in a sit in a local department store. If marches and sit-ins provoked a violent reaction from the white authorities in the South, then this time they would be shown on television both nationally and internationally and would amount to excellent publicity. Finally, King understood the power of rhetoric and the telling phrase. His speech in Washington in August 1963 contains some of the most powerful words of any US oratory: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’. Delivered in Washington to 250,000 black and white people, King’s speech combined oratory of a religious character with a direct emotional appeal to a large crowd, demonstrating a high level of organisation, to a mixed audience showing white support in a non-violent protest. More radical activists like Malcolm X were critical of the fake show of unity, the lack of emphasis on the key issue of economic inequality, its obvious appeal to the white community and its false sense of unity in referring to the ‘American Dream’. King, unlike the other leaders, took a major role in the marches and demonstrations. He was arrested 29 times. From the first of the major marches in Atlanta in 1961, he faced hostility from the white authorities. On the whole, they played into his hands. Police Chief Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor in Birmingham in 1963 obliged by using water hoses, beatings and arrests. Connor was a former sports broadcaster who was elected in 1937. He was a committed segregationist and his harsh treatment of the civil rights march in Birmingham in 1963 had the opposite effect of its intentions. Instead it gained support and Lesson 13 accelerated civil rights legislation. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ thus was given added emotional appeal. The non-violent marches, although not always as controlled as King made out, also allowed white sympathisers to join. King took care that a march in St Augustine, Florida was joined by Northern white supporters. The march from Selma to Alabama, achieved legendary status. In 1962 Martin Luther King initiated operation breadbasket an attempt to expose the sheer economic discrimination in job opportunities between black and white Americans. After King’s death the initiative was followed along by Jesse Jackson who by 1975 had secured $15million in job opportunities for African Americans and cemented companies such as Coke and Pepsi could no longer discriminate against African American. On 7 January 1966, Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) announced plans for the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign that marked the expansion of their civil rights activities from the South to northern cities. King believed they were “needed to help eradicate a vicious system which seeks to further colonize thousands of Negroes within a slum environment” (King, 18 March 1966). After negotiating with King and various housing boards, a summit agreement was announced in which the Chicago Housing Authority promised to build public housing with limited height requirements, and the Mortgage Bankers Association agreed to make mortgages available regardless of race. However, city officials failed to take concrete steps to address issues of housing despite the summit agreement. In 1968 MLK put effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by MLK and the SCLC. Under an "economic bill of rights“, the Poor People's Campaign asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with a $30 billion anti-poverty package that included, among other demands, a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing. An economic bill was never passed, and leaders spoke with regret about the occupation. The campaign did produce small changes. They included more money for free and reduced lunches for school children and Head Start programs in Mississippi and Alabama. The USDA(agriculture) released surplus commodities to the nation's one-thousand poorest counties & food stamps were expanded. Consider the following when analysing King’s impact on civil rights:  The scale of activity made it possible for civil rights legislation to be passed urgently  Randolph had succeeded in achieving changes in the law, but not as fundamentally as King.  Both Garvey and his successor Malcolm X may have achieved a high level of awareness among African Americans but not the positive outcomes of 1964 and 1965.  However, King engendered criticism and disapproval in a similar way to Washington for working too closely with white supporters and presidents.  King was criticised by some of his fellow activists for inconsistent and hesitant leadership and failed to solve fundamental economic and social problems. Lesson 12 Marcus Garvey controversy When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house…the Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because “the good Christian white people” were not going to stand for my father’s “spreading trouble” among the “good” Negroes of Omaha with the “back to Africa” preachings of Marcus Garvey. My father, the Reverend Earl Little, was a Baptist minister, a dedicated organizer for Marcus Garvey’s UNIA. Garvey, from his headquarters in New York City’s Harlem, was raising the banner of black-race purity and exhorting the Negro masses to return to their ancestral African homeland—a cause which had made Garvey the most controversial black man on earth... [My father] believed, as did Marcus Garvey, that freedom, independence and self-respect could never be achieved by the Negro in America, and that therefore the Negro should leave America to the white man and return to his African land of origin... I remember seeing the big, shiny photographs of Marcus Garvey... The pictures showed what seemed to me millions of Negroes thronged in parade behind Garvey riding in a fine car, a big black man dressed in a dazzling uniform with gold braid on it, and he was wearing a thrilling hat with tall plumes. I remember hearing that he had black followers not only in the United States but all around the world, and I remember how the meetings always closed with my father saying, several times, and the people chanting after him, “Up, you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!” The Autobiography of Malcolm X 1964 I am transmitting information that has come to my attention about the activities of Marcus Garvey. Garvey is a West-Indian negro and in addition to his activities in endeavouring to establish the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation he has also been particularly active among the radical elements in New York City in agitating the negro movement. Unfortunately, however, he has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation. It occurs to me, however, from the attached clipping that there might be some proceeding against him for fraud in connection with his Black Star Line propaganda and for this reason I am transmitting the communication to you for your appropriate attention. Memo from President J Edgar Hoover to the FBI My downfall was planned by my enemies. They laid all kinds of traps for me. They scattered their spies among the employees of the Black Star Line and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Our office records were stolen. Employees started to be openly dishonest. I had to dismiss them. They joined my enemies, and thus I had an endless fight on my hands to save the ideals of the UNIA and carry out our program for the race. My negro enemies, finding that they alone could not destroy me, resorted to misrepresenting me to the leaders of the white race, several of whom, without proper investigation, also opposed me. The UNA has been misrepresented by my enemies. They have tried to make it appear that we are hostile to other races. This is absolutely false. We love all humanity. We believe that the black people should have a country of their own where they should be given the fullest opportunity to develop politically, socially and industrially. Marcus Garvey Autobiography 1923 Lesson 12 W.E.B. Du Bois 1868–1963 Later civil rights leaders were hard on Washington, and there is more continuity with his oormer oollower, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. None oo Washington’s writings had the impact oo Du Bois’s the Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903. The division between the oollowers oo Washington and those oo Du Bois were later mirrored in divisions between King’s passive resistance and integrationist ideas and the more radical and separatist views oo the Black Power movement. Du Bois’s idea was that there should be an elite- the Talented Tenth- who would lead Aorican Americans to equality and social and political equality and integration. He was appalled by the lynchings-1700 deaths between 1885 and 1894- and spoke with a passion that anticipated the rhetoric oo King much more than they dry rationalism oo Washington. ‘Why did ood make me a stranger and outcast in my own house?’ The Niagara Movement oounded in 1905 was opposed to Booker T Washington’s idea oo working with the white system and wanted an end to desegregation. The movement pressed oor more radical change and laid the ooundation oor the NAACP in 1909. Du Bois accepted the alliance with white supporters and as director oo research and publicity oo the NAACP he was the only Aorican American to hold ofce in the organisation, publishing the infuential l ournal The Crisis. Du Bois recognised that there had been gains: by 1913, Aorican owned 550,000 homes, 937,000 oarms and 40,000 businesses; there was a 70% literacy rate, 40,000 churches, 35,000 teachers and 1.7 million pupils in public (state-ounded) schools. However, Washington’s vision was hardly oulflled. President Wilson introduced segregation in oederal bureaus; lynchings and violence continued unabated and the movement oo Aorican Americas northwards had produced race riots in 1917. The worst were in St Louis, and Du Bois organised a 10,000 man protest march in New York, anticipating later civil rights marches. The wave oo racial violence which swept the USA in 1919 produced condemnation orom The Crisis in the so-called Red Summer, but Du Bois’s interest shifed to international afairs and pan-Africanism. This was the belieo in the need oor unity and solidarity among Aoricans all over the world. It recognises the distinct values and the common heritage oo all Aoricans in terms oo history, culture, values, achievements, and rights. Du Bois’s interest in pan-Aoricanism was shared by another radical fgure, arcus oarvey. The following should be factored in when considering the impact of Du Bois on civil rights:  Du Bois had shifed atention to the need to publicise civil rights through the press and to organise, but his radicalism led him along diferent paths.  His interest in pan-Aoricanism was shared by another radical fgure oo a much diferent type, arcus oarvey, and his belieo in organising was shared by Asa Philip Randolph. These men show the wide variation in individual leadership. Lesson 12 Souls of Black Folk: The most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the rise of Mr Booker T. Washington. His leadership began at the tme when Civil War memories and ideals were rapidly passing; a day of astonishing commercial development was dawning; a sense of doubt and hesitaton overtook the freedmen’s sons. Mr Washington came at the psychological moment when whites were a litle ashamed of having paid so much atenton to Negroes [during Reconstructon], and were concentratng their energy on dollars. Mr Washington practcally accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races. Mr Washington withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citiens. He asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things— First, politcal power; Second, insistence on civil rights; Third, higher educaton of Negro youth, — and concentrate all their energies on industrial educaton, the accumulaton of wealth, and the pacifying (calming down) of the South. As a result of this tender of the palm-branch (peace ofering), what has been the return? In these years there have occurred: 1. The disfranchisement (taking away the right to vote) of the Negro 2. The legal creaton of a distnct status of civil inferiority for the Negro 3. The steady withdrawal of aid from insttutons for the higher training of the Negro. Mr Washington’s doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shif the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro’s shoulders and stand aside as critcal spectators (onlookers); when in fact the burden belongs to the naton, and the hands of none of us are clean if we do not all work on rightng these great wrongs. Marcus Garvey- 1887–1940 Lesson 12 arcus oarvey was born Jamaica and was politically radicalised by his support oor a printers’ strike when he was an apprentice. In 1912, he set up the Universal Negro Improvement Associaton (UNIA) in Jamaica. He corresponded with Booker T Washington and wanted to set up an industrial institute in Jamaica. While in the USA to raise ounds in 1916, he established his association there and set up a shipping company called the Black Star Line, to promoting worldwide commerce among black communities. In 1919 The Black Star Line ship set sail with an all-black crew under the command oo a black captain, Joshua Cockburn. However, the Black Star Line oailed and Estimates oo the company's losses are as high as $1.25 million. He was a strong believer in pan-Africanism and a separate Aorican state. Like Washington, he saw the importance oo economic development and set up the Negro Factories Corporation to promote manuoacture and trade among Aoricans, In ay 1920, l ust months afer its oounding, oarvey reported that the corporation had taken over the management oo a Harlem steam laundry and a millinery and a hat oactory. By June 1920, the Negro Factories Corporation had opened the Universal Steam Laundry, with a Universal Tailoring and Dress aking department. The Negro Factories Corporation also supported three grocery stores in Harlem, two restaurants, and a printing press. Ultimately, the Negro Factories Corporation oell victim to organizational mismanagement as well as unrealistic hopes. It became insolvent in 1921. oarvey’s speeches drew large crowds and he stressed the proud Aorican traditions and the inherent strength and worth oo Aoricans. He claimed that the UNIA had 4 million members, making it the largest oo the organisations. He was opposed by Du Bois, who thought that the efort should be oocused on equal rights within the USA and atempting to integrate Aorican Americans and secure l ustice and equality oor them, not stressing their separate identity. His commercial schemes collapsed when he was accused oo and imprisoned oor oraud. He returned to Jamaica and later planned a scheme whereby 12 million Aorican Americans would be taken to Liberia, the state established oor oormer slaves on the west coast oo Aorican. This came to nothing and he died in London in 1940. The following should be factored in when considering the impact of Garvey on civil rights:  oarvey’s slogan ‘Aorica oor the Aoricans at home and abroad’ and his glorifcation oo Aoricanism in some ways prefgured Black Power, but his eccentricity makes him a lone fgure.  He claimed that ood and Jesus were black and set himselo up as the president oo the Republic oo Aorica with sort oo Napoleonic aristocracy oo dukes, ceremonies and parades.  He collected the considerable sum oo $10 million and atracted very large amounts oo support.  Because the economic venture oailed, and because oo his imprisonment and later schemes, he has been seen as an isolated and bizarre fgure, but this was not the view oo many contemporaries.  His organisation was not matched by anything beoore 1917 and not again until the mass movement oo the 1960s. Lesson 12 Lesson 11 The role of African American individuals- Booker T Washington- 1856–1915 How important was the role of individual African Americans in the development of Civil Rights? The most influential African American leader of the later nineteenth century was Booker T Washington. Booker Taliaferro Washington was famous as an educator and for both gaining the confidence of white Americans and his moral authority among African Americans. He believed that hard work, education, and seriousness of purpose would lead to African Americans showing their true worth, increasing their prosperity and gaining white confidence. The hostility shown by the whites during Reconstruction and their obvious fear of domination by a poorly educated underclass of agricultural workers convinced him that political civil rights should be abandoned in favour of personal improvement. In his early career, Washington built up the Tuskegee Institute and showed powers of administration and leadership. He held high moral values and was untouched by the many corruption rumours which surrounded other businessmen. As such, he expected others to follow his example and believed that being careful with money, punctual, sober and hard-working were features every man should possess. In Washington’s hometown of Tuskegee, the emphasis was on literacy, numeracy and practical skills rather than theoretical and intellectual accomplishments. Washington hired teachers and inspired other Institutes to model themselves on Tuskegee. He realised that if black people learnt the basics, some would follow a more academic education later. He did not think that practical work was all black people were capable of and instead thought of it as a starting point. By Washington’s death the Tuskegee Institute had 100 well equipped buildings, roughly 1,500 students, 200 faculty members teaching 38 trades and professions. In his death, he left Tuskegee Institute close to $2,000,000 (equivalent to $53,572,368 in 2021) The development of his Institute coincided with Jim Crow laws, the campaign to prevent black men from voting and the rise in lynching. Washington considers a number of responses to these problems. The idea of African Americans returning to Africa was quickly rejected on the grounds of impracticality and lack of desire. Assimilation of the races on equal terms with civil rights for all seemed even less plausible. He was also unconvinced that a move to the rapidly industrialising north was the overall answer. He noted that white northerners generally preferred the employment of immigrants from Europe to offering job opportunities to southern black people. Reconstruction had caused problems for inexperienced African Americans who had suddenly been given power. The success of his institute and the hopes brought about for gradual improvement without political or social change won support. The millionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave Washington $600,000 in bonds. His ideas were most clearly stated in Atlanta in 1895 and in his autobiography. He told African Americans to ‘dip your bucket’ – to take responsibility for their own progress and accept white supremacy. Given the huge problems of resisting the Jim Crow laws and the lack of any developed white support for radical political change, this seemed to many to be quite rational and practical. Washington was invited to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and he became an informal adviser to both Roosevelt and President Taft. Towards the end of Washington’s life, he gave money in private to challenge segregation laws and while rarely writing them himself, he encouraged others to publish articles critical of the way separate legal treatment of black people progressed. He felt that too much open criticism could undermine his position of strength in the white community. Lesson 11 Speech in Atlanta 1895 Washington gave a speech in Atlanta, Georgia in 1895, in which he argued that if white people could regard black people as potential economic partners rather than dangerous political opponents then the race question would be defused. Segregation would be accepted for the time being. The speech had an instant impact and the ideas expressed became known as the Atlanta Compromise. It was an attempt by black people to reach an accommodation (reach an acceptable compromise but not to your liking) with the white dominated south. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our freedom we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more attractive than starting a dairy farm or garden. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, “Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. A small section of the 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech Impact of Booker T Washington: (agree disagree- change task in lesson) The following should be factored in when considering the impact of Washington on civil rights:  One study suggests that ‘For some twenty years Washington practically ruled Black America.’ Education was the key to the emergence of other leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr.  Cooperation with white leaders did, in the end, yield progress in civil rights in the 1960s.  The stress on economic improvement anticipated the post-1964 direction of the civil rights movement, which sought more economic opportunity and saw the key to progress as reducing poverty.  Washington promoted some opposition to Jim Crow laws behind the scenes and in secret, but was too concerned about antagonising the white South and ending long-term progress in education and economic opportunity.  Like King, he was criticised by those who sought more radical aims and was hugely respected by the white community – the first African American to achieve this fame and respect. Lesson 9 The 1990s The situation by the early 1990s High unemployment, poverty, poor schools and housing, and unfair treatment by police led to race riots in the summer of 1965. The worst riots were in Watts, Los Angeles, where 34 people died. The failure of federal government to address the underlying causes of racial tension was seen in the re-emergence of serious riots in 1992, again in Los Angeles, triggered by the events surrounding Rodney King. In Los Angeles on 3 March 1991, Rodney King, an African American taxi driver, was speeding to get away from the police who were chasing him. Five white police officers used excessive force while arresting him, badly beating him while he was lying on the ground. The incident was videotaped by a resident who sent the tape to the local news station, which then broadcast it to the world. The bulk of the Johnson administration’s measures reinforced what had been enacted after the Civil War but had not been implemented after 1877:  Economic inequality remained. In 1989, 77 per cent of whites graduated from high school as opposed to 63 per cent of African Americans.  The gap was bigger in college graduation, with 21 per cent of whites graduating as opposed to eleven per cent of African Americans.  In 1988, unemployment among African Americans was five percentage points higher than for whites – a figure higher than in the 1950s.  African Americans occupied only half of the managerial and professional occupations of whites.  Although African American family income doubled from 1950 to 1989 (to $16,800), the gap between African American and white incomes increased far more, from $7000 in 1950 to $12,000 in 1987.  The average hourly wage for African American men was $6.26 as compared to $7.69 for white men. Lesson 9 The retreat of middle-class black people into the suburbs left a problematic social gap between suburbs and inner cities. The conclusion of the authors of a major study in 1990 was that, ‘Despite the successes of the Civil Rights Acts, harsh economic conditions for America’s bottom half have brought disillusion to more and more blacks and disillusion with the political realm with declining turnout in elections and disaffection’ Lesson 8 Progress- Post War & Role of Federal government Why was there such limited progress?  The issue of civil rights was peripheral in comparison with the other KEY TERM- issues facing the USA in the period. The prolonged Depression of the 1930s, followed by the Second World War and then the Cold War, Cold War- Afer 1945, the USA clashed distracted administratons from difcult and contentous racial issues. more and more with the Communist  The infuence of the Southern Democratc senators and USSR and the countries it controlled in representatves presented a barrier to passing efectve civil rights eastern Europe and its allies (the so- called ‘Communist bloc’). There were legislaton – bills failed in 1938, 1946, 1948 and 1950. two diferent world views. The USA  There was limited electoral support for civil rights given that so many supported parliamentary democracy African Americans could not vote, and the issue was not a popular one and economic freedom, the socalled in the North untl the 1960s. ‘capitalist’ free-market system. The  Civil rights acton would have meant a great deal of interventon in the Communists had a one-party state, South, where racism had become frmly established and supported by dominated by a dictatorial leader, which state and local governments. Presidents faced a revival of civil war controlled economic life through hatreds and issues of states’ rights. natonalised industry and agriculture.  In the North, the infuu of large numbers of African Americans from The Cold War lasted untl the fall of the 1915 had made racial hatred common and made the whole issue of USSR afer 1989. civil rights go beyond dealing with ‘backward’ Southern attudes.  The liberalisaton involved in civil rights legislaton opened administratons to the charge of being ‘Communist’ or subvertng traditon.  Even a conservatve Southerner such as Truman, who shared many of the prejudices of the South, was bitterly critcised by conservatve Democrats for eupressing concerns about civil rights and condemning lynching and violence What had changed by the 1960s?  The contnuing violence and discriminaton of the South had given ammuniton to the Communist bloc in the Cold War who saw the USA as merely defending a rotten capitalist spread.  Better communicatons, especially the spread of television, brought racial violence to the home of Americans natonally.  The murder of a 14 year old African American, Emmet Till, from Chicago by two men in Mississippi in August 1955, and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury afer only an hour’s deliberaton, shocked the USA. Till’s crime was that he had talked ‘fresh’ to a white woman.  Pictures such as the one above which show a southern mob abusing a black schoolgirl at Litle Roc * in 1957 were dangerously bad for the image of the USA.  Also, by 1960, African Americans were better organised and more skilful in making demands. *Little Rock 1957: Following the Brown v.Topeka Board of Educaton decision (lesson 7) the NAACP enrolled 9 African American students into Litle ock igh School. They were denied entry by angry crowds, supported by National Guard, volunteer military forces, ordered by governor Orval Faubus. Eisenhower sent highly trained troops to restore order. The students were allowed in but faced harassment. Faubus served as Governor untl 1966 and shut all public schools intending to privatse them and enforce segregaton.  Lesson 8 Presidents: (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon) John F. Kennedy- 1961-1963 Lyndon B. Johnson- 1963-69 Richard Niuon- 1969-74 The Kennedy administraton saw itself as a modernising government, but despite Kennedy’s sympathetc speeches and his appointment of more African Americans to positon of authority, he was slow to make civil rights the key element in his administraton. is speech to Congress echoed Truman’s speech in 1948 as a declaraton of support for civil rights. It was all too true to say that ‘harmful, wasteful and wrongful results of racial discriminaton and segregaton stll appear in virtually every aspect of natonal life’, but to take decisive acton was more difcult given the infuence of the Southern white bloc in Congress. Kennedy fnally submitted a general civil rights bill to Congress on 19th June 1963. By 1963, civil rights had been forced to the forefront of natonal politcal by two elements. One was on-going violence, euemplifed by the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers on 12 th June 1962. Evers had served in WW2, worked for the NAACP in Mississippi and publicised the case of Emmett Till. e was murdered in June 1963 and his white killers were acquitted by an all-white jury. The other was the increasingly efectve campaign by various civil rights organisatons. The March on Washington on the 28 th August by 250,000 people demanding civil rights was the largest public demonstraton seen in the capital. It also led to one of the most efectve speeches by a civil rights leader, when Martn Luther King Jr said ‘I have a dream...’ owever, what made change possible was the assassinaton of President Kennedy on the 22 nd November. Under the new vigorous leadership of a Southern Democratc president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and with the very emotonal rallying cry that Kennedy’s vision had to be fulflled, civil rights legislaton became more eutensive and efectve than at any tme since Reconstructon. Date Measure Explanation rd th 23 Jan The 24 Amendment stated that the right of citiens This ended the regulaton in Southern states that only 1964 to vote should not be denied or abridged by failure to those who paid the poll tau could vote, which eucluded pay the poll tau or any other tau many African Americans 2nd July Civil Rights Act (Public facilites and employment) This prevented local juries deciding on cases of 1964 Federal courts would hear cases involving discriminaton discriminaton in votng, public facilites and educaton 14th Dec The Supreme Court upheld the accommodaton eart of Atlanta Motel v. United States- a Southern motel 1964 aspect of the Civil Rights Act unsuccessfully challenged the legality of being forced to accept African American guests. 8th Mar The Supreme Court overturned a Mississippi law United States v. Mississippi. The decision was backed by 1965 discriminatng against African American voter Johnson and federal acton was taken registraton 6th Aug Civil Rights Act (Votng Rights) This act passed into law the 15th Amendment 1965 24th Sept Euecutve Order 11246 called for afrmatve acton to Discriminaton was barred in all federal employment 1965 end under-representaton of racial minorites in the workplace. 3rd Oct Immigraton Act Ended immigraton quotas based on natonal origin, race. 1965 Religion or colour. Lesson 8 The federal government’s dismantling of the restrictve laws passed in the period afer 1877 was a key feature of the Johnson administraton. In 1960, the Supreme Court declared bans on parades, processions and public demonstratons (a Jim Crow law) in Birmingham, Alabama, to be unconsttutonal. Restrictons on votng ended and discriminaton in public areas and housing was no longer permissible. owever, despite changes in the politcal status of African Americans, it was more difcult to afect economic equality, which might ensure more stable race relatons. Economic inequality It was harder for federal authorites to deal with deep-seated economic inequality. President Niuon’s Euecutve Order 11578 required all employers with federal contracts to draf affirmative action policies to actvely promote African Americans. An Act of 1972 eutended equal employment legislaton to all federal, state and local governments. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 (Employment) put the burden on businesses to show that any discriminaton in employment did not spring from racial discriminaton but was based on the genuine requirements of the company. Key words: National Guard - US states, as well as having police forces, have volunteer partme military forces which are used in emergencies. They are under the control of the governors of the individual states Affirmative action -A change in the late 1960s was the policy of not merely trying to give African Americans equality of opportunity but of helping them by a form of positve acton and quotas for educaton and employment. This proved controversial and was reduced under the Republican administraton of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Lesson 7 Impact of Wars- Role of federal government The number of African Americans moving north dramatcaaal increased afer the First Worad War. Indeed, the impact of the War was feat aong before American join