16) The Civil Rights Movement

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The Experience of the War

African Americans were barred from jobs in the war industry. A. Phillip Randolph suggested they should organise a black march on Washington to demand that jobs should be available to them in this sector. They also wanted the abolition of Jim Crow in the army, the end to discrimination in housing and the end of Jim Crow in jobs. Roosevelt worried a big march like this could cause a communist sentiment in the people, so he made a deal with them. Executive order 8802 stated there would be no more discrimination in the war industry. So, the march was cancelled.

African Americans were trained as pilots and served in the Pacific and European wars. Many black workers also joined unions and the black vote became very important. They joined in the civil rights movement during the war and the Congress of Racial Equality was set up in 1942. The African Americans were becoming more organised and willing to protest. They were faced with discrimination at home and in the military. There were also rising racial conflicts, and so after the war, they were ready to fight for their rights. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was very important.

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Civil Rights and the Truman Administration

Thomas Dewey, the Republican Governor of New York, pursued the black vote by establishing a fair employment practices commission. He enjoyed considerable success among black voters in 1942 and in the 1946 New York state elections. The president was concerned in the new competition Dewey was presenting, so he started supporting civil rights. Although he did also feel a moral obligation and was concerned with the racial violence in the south.

KKK activity was rising, using mostly force to intimidate the black voters in the south. Politicians were earning votes there through condemning black voters, like Eugene Talmadge who won the vote to become the Governor of Georgia through saying things like "No N egro will vote in Georgia for the next 4 years".

On the 5th December 1946, Truman established the President's committee on civil rights who released a report one year later calling for federal anti-lynching, anti-segregation and anti-poll tax laws. It also called for laws guaranteeing voting rights, equal employment opportunity, and for a permanent commission on civil rights. In February 1948, Truman sent a special message to Congress calling for protection of citizens' rights. The southerner's weren't happy and Congress didn't respond, some claim Truman expected this to happen. Truman also moved to de-segregate the military, and by the beginning of the Korean War, segregated units were phased out.

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Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

In the late 1930s, the NAACP established its legal defence fund under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall. They aimed to destroy the 'separate but equal' doctrine that was established in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896 that led to the Jim Crow laws. They were going to do this by insisting on its literal interpretation as it was impossible, mainly to do with the cost, to create a truly equal but separate society. But, it led many black students to be admitted to formerly all-white schools. By 1947, the department of justice started supporting cases brought forth on behalf of the civil rights movement, particularly helping with cases concerning higher education. In 1947, they were trying to de-segregate schools.

In 1954, the supreme court decided the Brown vs Board of Education case that grouped several cases from several states. They said 'separate but equal' had no place in education, as the facilities weren't equal. The NAACP's legal strategy overturned the 58 year old Plessy case, but courts said that schools were to be de-segregated, but not immediately, although with all deliberate haste. This loophole allowed southern states and school districts to delay, and some even reisisted it.

Eisenhower, the new president, had lukewarm support to the decision and seemed to encourage resistance. He was opposed to segregation but hoped for a local rather than central government solution. He also wanted to pursue it more slowly, but called in federal troops to enforce de-segregation in Arkansas in 1957 who were just shutting down all the schools.

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The Civil Rights Movement (proper)

In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and NAACP member, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus. Following her arrest, local black leaders tried boycotting the city's bus system. The Montgomery Bus Boycott. But during this time, there was also difficulties in finding a leader, but Martin Luther King emerged. The boycott lasted a year, and in 1956, the supreme court called Alabama's Jim Crow laws unconstitutional meaning the black people had won. King became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 that was organised to coordinate civil rights activities in the south. This direct action where large numbers of people took to the street, when combined with the NAACP strategy and the legal strategy proved to be a powerful force.

The Sit-In Movement began on the 1st February 1960. 4 black students tried ordering coffee in Woolworths, but the employees refused to serve them. So, they decided to just sit there making them lose a lot of money. The movement spread, and on Easter weekend, a group of activists formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). MLK was even arrested for taking part in this movement in October and was sentenced to a few months of hard labour in a cold, filthy prison. But, he got ill, and JFK, who was a senator and presidential candidate at this point, convinced the judge to let him go on bond. Kennedy now received the black vote.

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JFK, LBJ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Kennedy moved slowly at first, disappointing the black voters, but in 1963, he requested federal legislation to outlaw segregation in public accommodation. In August, more than 250,000 people gathered for a march on Washington where MLK gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech, which Kennedy supposedly heard.

When JFK was killed, Lyndon Johnson filled his place and made civil rights his top legislative priority. He signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which outlawed all types of discrimination in jobs and housing (including against gender). It also authorised the federal government to withhold funds from public agencies that discriminated on the basis of race and gave the attorney general the powers to protect voting rights and end school segregation. But, it still didn't end southern practices against black votes. Activists realised this, so a group of black and white activists increased their Mississippi voting drive in the 'freedom summer'. In 1965, MLK led a series of demonstrations pressuring Johnson to send Congress a strong voting rights bill. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.

These 2 acts were the final moves and victories in the Civil Rights Movement, although this is questionable.

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Black Nationalism and Rising Militancy

Black people lost faith in the government. There was racism in the FBI and race riots, so black nationalism became the voice. Even though it was largely southern-based because of the Jim Crow laws, northern blacks were still living in poverty so it was important to them too.

The voice that increasingly spoke out for the discontented masses was black nationalism, including the voices of Malcolm X, Stokeley Carmichael (SNCC) and H. Rap Brown (SNCC). The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SNCC expelled all their white members saying black people needed power, not white friendship.

The Black Panther party advocated violence as a revolutionary tool. They received lots of media attention and publicly displayed rifles and shotguns, drawing the concern of many white people. But, many didn't realise the majority of the party were female and much of the work was done by the women. They promoted their social programme that was based on community support and uplift.

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