1950s:
- Sweatt vs. Painter Thurgood Marshall ruled schools were not equal for blacks and whites.
- 1955 Alabama Rosa Parks. MLK Montgomery bus boycott.
- 1948, Truman ended segregation in armed forces (Korea)
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1954 (integrated schools) overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. - got painful opposition from the South, integration very slooowly
- 1957 Little Rock nine
- 1957 Congress passed Civil Rights Act
- MLK Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLC 1957 - black churches for black rights
- SNCC "sit in"
- Emit Till case 1955
1960s:
- JFK had put civil rights on the back burner, bc he needed support of the South for med and edu bills (those'd help blacks eventually...right?)
Freedom Riders were attacked -> federal marshal protection
JFK + MLK + SNCC = Voter Education Project (register disfranchised blacks)
Integrated universities. Ole Miss - James Meredith - 400 marshals and 3000 troops to enroll him.
MLK campaign Birmingham, Alabama -> campaigners were fought with attack dogs and hoses.
June 1963 televised JFK speech "moral issue" - called for civil rights legislation
Aug 1963, MLK peaceful "March on Washington" in support of JFK's speech - 200,000 - "I have a dream" speech
Violence, little headway w/ civil rights bill - Blacks were still denied ballot a lot in the South - poll tax, literacy tests, intimidation. Jan 1964 - 24th amendment - abolished poll taxes
1964- Mississippi "Freedom Summer" - 3 killed.
1965 MLK voter registration campaign in Alabama - tear-gassed, some killed.
LBJ speech - "we shall overcome." Voting Rights Act of 1965 - outlawed literacy tests and sent federal voter registrars to South. - Watts (a ghetto in LA) - blacks burned their own hood, many were killed.
Black struggle changed to militant, N and W cities, led by radical/violent spokespersons, aimed at black separatism.
Malcolm X - weird Islamo charismatic speaker -> separatism.
"Black Power" slogan. Riots in big cities.
MLK assassinated 1968 -> more ghetto gutting
Voter registration and school integration shot upward in South.
Effectiveness:
