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The African American Civil Rights Movement As a Long Lasting Process of Struggle for Freedom

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The African American Civil Rights Movement As a Long Lasting Process of Struggle for Freedom Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature The African American Civil Rights Movement As a Long Lasting Process of Struggle for Freedom Bachelor Thesis Brno2008 Supervisor: Author: Mgr.ZdeněkJaník,M.A.,Ph.D. HanaMarková I declare that this bachelor thesis is completely my own work and that all informationgatheredforitscompilationiscitedinthe bibliography. Brno1stDecember,2008 HanaMarková I gratefully thank my supervisor, Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, for his kind assistance, precious advice andwith providingme the useful materials necessaryfor understanding this complicated topic. Above all, I would like to thank him for his patience and valuablecomments. HanaMarková Annotation: This thesis deals with the African American Civil Rights Movement not only from the point of view of its most important years from 1955 to1965,but alsoexplains its first part throughslavery,BlackCodes andJim Crow laws how Americansociety became divided along the color line; the second part shows how the first half of the twentiethcenturythroughthe Great Migration,the Great Depression, andbothWorld Wars contributedtothe blackself-awareness,andimprovement of their social position; inaddition the increasingsuffrage movement andthe beginningof the ColdWar along with Brown v. Board of Education laid the foundation for the spreading of the movement; the thirdpart analyses the movement itself andis dividedinto four sub-parts according to the means that movement applied – boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides and marches; the thesis concludes withthe years 1964and1965 whenthe Civil andVoting RightsActs were passed. Keywords: AfricanAmericans,civilrightsmovement,slavery,JimCrowlaws,suffrage,boycotts, sit-ins,freedomrides,marches,NAACP,SNCC,SCLC 1 Contents Contents ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3 1. How it happened ..................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Enslavement....................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1.1 Conditions of Slavery ................................................................................................................ 6 1.1.2 Naturalization Act ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.1.3 Abolition of Slavery .................................................................................................................. 7 1.1.4 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Freedom or Non Freedom ............................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Black Codes and Reconstruction ............................................................................................. 10 1.2.2 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 11 1.2.3 Jim Crow Laws ........................................................................................................................ 12 1.2.4 Life under Jim Crow ................................................................................................................ 13 1.2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 15 1.3 Resistance at the Turn of Century ................................................................................................... 16 1.3.1 Lynching and Race Riots ......................................................................................................... 16 1.3.2 Foundation of the NAACP ...................................................................................................... 17 1.3.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 18 2. Precursors of the Movement ............................................................................................................... 20 2.1 Defenseless Blacks and the Defense of Democracy ......................................................................... 20 2.1.1 The Great Migration ................................................................................................................ 20 2.1.2 Consequences of the First World War ..................................................................................... 22 2.1.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 24 2.2 Improvements in Hard Times .......................................................................................................... 25 2.2.1 Period of Growth and the Great Depression ............................................................................ 25 2.2.2 An Emerging Power to Change the Status Quo ....................................................................... 26 2.2.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 27 2.3 The Second World War .................................................................................................................... 28 2.3.1 Perception of the War and the Segregated Army ..................................................................... 28 2.3.2 The March on Washington Movement .................................................................................... 29 2.3.3 The South during the War, Bloody Riots, and the NAACP ..................................................... 30 2.3.4 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 31 2.4 The Final Steps toward the Movement ............................................................................................ 33 2.4.1 Suffrage ................................................................................................................................... 33 2.4.2 The Cold War as an Ally to the CRM and Support from Truman ........................................... 35 2.4.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 37 2.5 Prelude to the Movement ................................................................................................................. 38 2.5.1 The Main Focus of Attention at Mid-century .......................................................................... 38 2.5.2 Brown v. Board of education ................................................................................................... 39 2.5.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 41 3. The Civil Rights Movement ................................................................................................................. 42 3.1 The Start of the Movement ............................................................................................................... 42 3.1.1 The Murder of Emmett Till ..................................................................................................... 42 3.1.2 Rosa Parks’ refusal .................................................................................................................. 43 3.1.3 The Explanation of the Movement .......................................................................................... 44 3.1.4 The Means of the Movement ................................................................................................... 45 2 3.2 Not Only Boycotts of the 1950s ....................................................................................................... 48 3.2.1 The Montgomery Bus Boycott ................................................................................................ 48 3.2.2 Formation of the SCLC ........................................................................................................... 50 3.2.3 The Civil Rights Acts of the 1950s .......................................................................................... 52 3.2.4 Crisis in Little Rock ................................................................................................................. 53 3.2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 54 3.3 The Sit-in Movement ........................................................................................................................ 56 3.3.1 The Sit-in Movement in Greensboro ....................................................................................... 56 3.3.2 Spreading of the Sit-ins and Formation of the SNCC .............................................................. 57 3.3.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................
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