Topic 3:
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
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
