This note pack includes in-depth and detailed notes on the Civil Society Protests covered in the Grade 12 IEB History syllabus. Everything you need for your exams or tests! These notes have been written by two History students who received A's from these study notes. These notes are SAGS compliant ...
Civil Society Protests
1950 - 1970
- Non-violent protests
- Demanded less discrimination against African Americans
- Women demanded equal rights and and end to gender discrimination
- Widespread opposition to the US war in Vietnam → protests by students & people calling for international
peace
- Other minority groups in the U.S were involved in different forms of protests
→ Native Americans spoke of “Red Power” and insisted on “Native American”
→ Mexican-Americans wanted bilingual and bicultural education to be called “Chicanos”
→ Gay rights activists protested against employment discrimination, unequal law enforcement,
harassment of individual and raids on gay bars
- Widespread protests in other countries against (1968)
→ Domination of Western capitalism, Soviet control over Eastern Europe, U.S presence in Vietnam (in
other countries)
- Led by a younger generation, especially students growing up after WWI → different ideals to parent’s
generation
- CRM took place in the context of two events:
→ The Cold War & Red Scare
→ The emergence of Independent Africa (an end to European colonisation)
- In the 1960’s African Americans made up 10% of the population
END OF CIVIL WAR & AMENDMENTS:
Civil War:
- 1861 - 1865
- fought in the US between North and South
- North → anti-slavery
- South → pro-slavery (used slaves for crops)
- Civil war freed slavery → caused an economic slump in the South
- If signed agreement to be able to rejoin the US → if US did rejoin, reconstruction
The Amendments:
- Amendments = constitutional laws → apply to entire country
- The amendments were designed to ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves
th
13 Amendment 14th Amendment 15th Amendment
- Banned slavery and all - Defined a citizen as any person - Prohibited governments from
involuntary servitude except in born in or naturalised in the U.S denying U.S citizens the right to
the case of a crime - Overturned the Dred Scott V. vote based on race, colour, or past
Stanford Supreme Court ruling servitude
stating that black people were
not eligible for citizenship
,Legal segregation:
- Gradually conservative whites regained political control in the Southern States of the U.S
- Passed laws which took away the voting rights of African Americans
- Enforced strict segregation laws → “Jim Crow” Laws
- Plessy vs. Ferguson → Supreme court ruling
- Ku Klux Klan
→ used violence and terror to make sure segregation laws were followed
→ White supremacist, extremist secret society
JIM CROW LAWS: (local laws)
- 1880 - 1960
- Enforced segregation through Jim Crow laws → direct contradiction to the Supreme Court ruling
- Named after a black character in minstrel shows
- States would impose legal punishments on people mingling with members of another race
- Banned intermarriage
- Ordered business owners and public institutions to enforce segregation
- States claimed that local law was more important than federal law, overlooking the Supreme Court ruling
Separate facilities:
→ Drinking fountain on the courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina (1938)
→ Movie theatre’s “coloured” entrance, Belzoni, Mississippi (1939)
→ Bus station in Durham, North Carolina (1940)
→ Greyhound bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee (1943)
→ Rest stop for bus passengers on way from Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee with separate entrances
for blacks (1943)
PLESSY VS. FERGUSON: (Jim Crow Laws upheld)
- 1980
- Homer Plessy tried to sit in an all-white railroad car
- After refusing to move, he was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for
segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations”
- Criminally liable if violated the statute
- Justice John H. Ferguson → judge
- Plessy found guilty on the grounds that the law was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police powers
based upon custom, usage and tradition in the state.
- Plessy filed a petition for writs of prohibition and certiorari in the Supreme Court of Louisiana against
Ferguson
→ asserting that segregation stigmatized blacks and made them appear inferior
→ violated of the 13th and 14th amendments
- The court found for Ferguson and the Supreme Court granted certiorari
*Certiorari - a writ or order by which a higher court reviews a case tried in a lower court.
, Civil Rights Movement:
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE USA
- Many African Americans lived in southern states - segregation laws discriminated against them +
prevented them from voting
- 1950s+1960s Civil Rights Movement emerges - used non-violent tactics to demand equality + end to
segregation
Origins of the Civil Rights Movement:
- African Americans - freed from slavery during American Civil War
- Short while after Civil war new laws were passed - gave political rights - including right to vote
- Gradually taken away when conservative whites regained political control
- Passed laws which took away voting rights + enforced strict segregation laws
Aims:
- Use peaceful protests to end social injustice and discrimination
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR:
- Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929
- Became Baptist minister in 1954
- Member of NAACP
- Played role in organising the Montgomery bus boycott
- House was fire-bombed → continued to keep boycott going
- In 1947: he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
→ focused on training civil rights activists to organise non-violent protests, how to deal with police, the
law and media
- Believed that civil rights protestors who were attacked or jailed could educate and transform their
oppressors through a dignified and non-violent way they accepted treatment
- Believed that blacks and whites could live together in equality
- Arrested many times
- Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his non-violent civil rights campaigns
- Criticism:
→ He pushed for too much change
→ Not going far enough/being too moderate
→ Disliked that he was willing to cooperate with whites
- WW2 - many African Americans found skilled work in wartime industries + fought for US army
- Many returned after war determined for change - end segregation
Key features and actions of the Civil Rights Movement:
1. A belief in non-violent protests using the acts of civil disobedience
2. Mass action through various peaceful resistance:
- Challenging state laws through courts, Marches, Newspaper petitions, Sit-ins, Songs, Voter
registration
3. Multi-racial integration
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