Summary History Theme 3: The Civil Society Protest
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Course
History
Institution
12th Grade
These notes come from myself, who passed matric of 2023 with an overall average of 87% in each subject i took.
Notes about the civil society protest involving Martin Luther King JR., Women’s Liberation Movement and SNCC, Malcom X and NAACP. The main theme is African American starting protests a...
- African Americans formed 10% of total population of America.
- In the 1950s many African Americans lived in the southern states of the USA where
the laws discriminated against them and prevented them from voting.
- In 1950s and 1960s a Civil Rights Movement emerged that used non-violent tactics
to demand equality and end segregation.
- Despite being freed from slavery during the Civil War of 1861-186, political rights
were not granted to blacks in these southern states.
- A white supremacist secret society known as the Ku Klux Klan enforced this
segregation.
National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP)
- Formed in 1909
- Fought against segregation and discrimination and campaigned against inequality
issues such as the right to vote and access to housing.
Congress for Racial Equality (CORE)
- Formed in 1942
- NAACP and CORE grew steadily.
- Over a million black men fought for the US army in World War II
- They returned from the war determined to bring about change and end segregation.
Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka
- Formed in 1954
- An important movement in the campaign for civil rights. NAACP challenged
segregation in the public education system.
- Linda Carol Brown was a black pupil in Kansas who was refused entry into the local
all-white primary school.
- The NAACP took her case to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that
segregation in the public school system was illegal.
- Other facilities such as libraries, restaurants and buses were also segregated.
- The southern states did not abide by the policy of the federal government which
was to end segregation.
- White racists intimidated blacks and prevented them from voting, which did go
against the constitution of the USA.
Role, impact, and influence of Martin Luther King Junior on Civil Rights Movement
, - Martin Luther King Junior was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 and became a Baptist
minister in 1954.
- He was a member if the NAACP and became a hero to many African Americans after
organising the Montgomery bus boycott.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Formed in 1957
- It trained civil rights activists how to organise non-violent protests and how to deal
with police, the law, and the media.
- King believed that activists who were jailed could educate and transform their
oppressors through the dignified and non-violent way they accepted their treatment.
- King believed that blacks and whites could live together in equality and friendship.
- He was arrested many times during his campaigns, his house was firebombed, and
he was continually harassed by police.
- He did remain committed to social justice and equality and was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1964 for his non-violent, civil rights campaigns.
- Martin Luther King Junior was criticised by some for not going far enough, for being
moderate, and for being willing to cooperate with whites.
- King was influenced by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi in India.
- During Gandhi’s 20 year stay in South Africa, he led non-violent protests the
discrimination of the Indian community of SA.
- He also used his satyagraha (or soul force) in India where he campaigned against
British rule over the country.
- India attained independence from Britain in 1947
Forms of protest through civil disobedience
The key features and beliefs of the Civil Rights Movement were:
- A belief in non-violent protests using acts of civil disobedience.
- Mass action through various forms of peaceful resistance such as challenging the
state law through courts, marches, newspaper petitions, sit-ins, songs, voter
registration campaigns etc.
- Multi-racial integration
Montgomery bus boycott
- In 1955 Rosa Parks, who was travelling on a bus in Montgomery Alabama, refused to
give up her seat for a white man.
- She thus defied the law in place in the southern states at that time and was arrested
and convicted of breaking the segregation laws.
Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)
, - Formed in 1955
- Martin Luther King Junior was appointed as the first president of the MIA.
- The boycott lasted for a year with people either walking to work or sharing lifts, and
the bus company lost 65% of its profits.
- White racists tried to crush the boycott by setting churches on fire and arresting
black leaders including King.
- Civil rights lawyers fought the case of Rosa Parks in court.
- In December 1965 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was against
the Constitution of the USA.
- The actions of Rosa Parks inspired other people to stand up for their rights, and she
remained an activist until her death at the age of 92.
Sit-ins
- Despite the success of the bus boycott in ending segregation on busses, many
facilities in the southern states remained segregated.
- In the 1950s many African Americans, inspired by the independence newly granted
to African states, became impatient for change.
Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Formed in 1950’s.
- In January 1960 the SNCC students in Greensboro, California staged a “sit-in” at a
lunch counter in a department store where blacks were allowed to shop but not sit
down to eat.
- Despite being abused and attacked these students refused to move and were soon
joined by 70 000 students across the southern states who held similar protests at
segregated facilities.
- They organised “kneel-ins” in churches, “read-ins” in libraries, “play-ins” in parks and
“wade-ins” on beaches.
- Despite violence and intimidation by white racists and the southern authorities,
thousands of students – both black and white – soon joined in the campaign.
- The sit-ins brought a measure of success, schools and stores were desegregated in
towns such as Atlanta and Tennessee, but the sit-ins also intensified the divisions
between King’s SCLV and the SNCC.
- Members of CORE (The Congress for Racial Equality) and the SNCC also became
“freedom riders” who travelled on interstate busses to force the integration of
busses and bus stations all over the south.
- Despite being attacked by groups of angry whites who set fire to the busses they
succeeded in the end, in gaining federal support for the desegregation of the bus
system.
- The “Freedom Riders” sat in pairs of black and white passengers and travelled
together on busses going south.
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