The rights of a country's citizen are called civil rights. Not until about 100 years after the end of slavery did African Americans gain anything close to full civil rights. The struggle for those rights, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, is known as the civil rights movement. Before the American Civil War most African Americans were slaves with no civil rights. The war ended in 1865. In the period that followed, called Reconstruction, African Americans saw some gains. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, approved in 1865, outlawed slavery in the United States. The 14th and 15th amendments, from 1868 and 1870, granted full citizenship—including the right to vote—to former slaves. All citizens, including blacks, were to be treated equally under the law. These newfound rights were often ignored, however, especially in the South. To keep many poor African Americans from voting, some states made people pay a tax—called a poll tax—before they could vote. Some states also required African Americans to pass very difficult tests if they wanted to vote. Violent groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also scared many blacks away from voting. At the same time Southern cities passed laws to keep blacks separate, or segregated, from whites. In many places African American children were kept out of schools attended by white children. Some public-transportation companies would not allow a black passenger to sit next to a white passenger. African Americans were refused service at some lunch counters and other public places. Employers often set aside the best jobs for whites and left the worst—and the lowest-paid—for African Americans. Because of both poverty and segregation, many blacks were forced to live in shabby housing in rundown neighborhoods. Some African Americans resisted this unfair treatment. They refused to ride segregated streetcars, for example, to call attention to the injustice. But not until the 20th century did blacks begin to put together an organized movement to push for civil rights. In the early years of the civil rights movement, its most important leader was W.E.B. Du Bois. In 1909 Du Bois joined with other black leaders and concerned whites to form a group called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP campaigned in the courts to win civil rights for blacks. Events of the 1950sBrown vs. Board of EducationThe first major victory in the civil rights movement was a historic U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954. In a case called Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, NAACP lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall argued against segregation in public schools. The Court ruled that separate schools for whites and blacks were unequal and therefore unconstitutional (against the Constitution). The Brown decision gave African Americans new hope that equality might be achieved through the courts. But many white people, especially in the South, did not want the system of segregation to change. The result was sometimes violence or ugly confrontations at schoolhouse doors. In 1957 federal troops had to be called into Little Rock, Arkansas, to maintain order when the first black students enrolled at Central High School. Montgomery bus boycottOn December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a black woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white rider. Blacks in the area protested her arrest by refusing to ride the bus system. After more than a year, the Montgomery bus company changed its policies so that all passengers would be treated equally. Late in 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. The outcome of the boycott encouraged people throughout the nation who wanted to change society without using violence. One of the leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott was a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. He would become the most famous figure of the civil rights movement. In the late 1950s he organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group dedicated to peaceful civil rights activities in the South. Events of the 1960sSit-insAnother way of trying to end segregation was the use of sit-ins. Protestors would go to a place such as a lunch counter where they knew they would not be served, sit down, and refuse to leave. They would not fight if police came to arrest them. This tactic attracted publicity, making everyone aware of the injustice and sometimes leading to boycotts. Many young people became involved in the civil rights movement through sit-ins. A group known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized many sit-ins during the 1960s. Freedom RidesBeginning in 1961 a civil rights group called the Congress of Racial Equality sponsored Freedom Rides through the South. In these journeys African Americans and whites traveled together on buses through the South. The rides were intended to test whether all people using public transportation to travel between states were being treated the same. Some of the Freedom Riders were brutally beaten or arrested. In Alabama one of their buses was bombed. Federal marshals often were sent to ensure the safety of the riders. March on WashingtonIn August 1963 some 250,000 people gathered near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to protest racial injustices and to show their support for a major civil rights bill that was being considered by Congress. The people sang
"We Shall Overcome"
, the anthem of the movement, and Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In it he emphasized his faith that all people, some day, would live in peace and harmony. Civil Rights ActThe civil rights movement lost a major supporter when U.S. President John F. Kennedy was killed in November 1963. However, the man who took his place, Lyndon B. Johnson, proved to be no less a champion of equality. He signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most extensive civil rights law in U.S. history. The act outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and federal programs. Communities that tried to keep their schools segregated could lose their federal funds. The act also guaranteed equal voting rights by getting rid of registration requirements and other procedures designed to keep minorities and poor people from voting. In the same year the 24th Amendment to the Constitution banned poll taxes. Voting Rights ActEven after the Civil Rights Act was passed, many African Americans still had a hard time using their right to vote. In 1965 mass demonstrations were held to protest the violence and other means used to prevent black voter registration. After a peaceful protest march at Selma, Alabama, was violently broken up by white authorities, Johnson responded with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act got rid of literacy tests and other voter restrictions and authorized federal intervention against voter discrimination. As a result of the act, many more African Americans in the South were able to register to vote for the first time. ViolenceSome people were very much opposed to the goals of the civil rights movement and did things to hurt and scare the people working toward progress. In September 1963 a bomb thrown into a Birmingham, Alabama, church killed four black girls. That same year Medgar Evers, an organizer for the NAACP in Mississippi, was killed outside his home in Jackson. In the summer of 1964, also in Mississippi, three workers on a project called Freedom Summer were murdered. The civil rights movement suffered a huge loss in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Beyond the civil rights movementEven before the death of King, some African Americans, particularly residents of poor urban areas, had begun to look for new leadership. They felt that the movement was progressing too slowly and not making big enough changes. In 1965 nearly half of American blacks lived below the poverty level. Their schools and other facilities were poor, and many had trouble finding employment and housing. Some were treated unfairly by the police. The frustration over such conditions led to riots in many cities. It also led many African Americans to turn to groups and leaders that were willing to use more extreme methods to gain what they wanted. Malcolm X was one of the major leaders of this new black power movement. The Black Panther party was an organization whose members carried guns and called for revolution. In the decades that followed, many civil rights leaders felt the best way to make changes was to get more African Americans elected to political positions. The number of black public officials increased dramatically beginning in the 1960s. Black leaders also sought to improve the economic and educational situations of African Americans by supporting affirmative-action programs. These programs tried to make up for past wrongs in job hiring and college admissions by assuring opportunities in the present for blacks, women, and other groups. Affirmative action was controversial, however, because some people felt that it discriminated against whites. |