African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
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African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "American Civil Rights Movement" redirects here. For the earlier period, see African- American Civil Rights Movement (1896–1954). Prominent figures of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Clockwise from top left: W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.. African American topics History [show] Culture [show] Religion [show] Political movements [show] Civic and economic groups [show] Sports [show] Ethnic sub-divisions [show] Languages [show] Diaspora [show] Lists [show] Category · Portal This box: view • talk • edit The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring Suffrage in Southern states. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the South. By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from oppression by white Americans. Many of those who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, with organizations such as NAACP, SNCC, CORE and SCLC, prefer the term "Southern Freedom Movement" because the struggle was about far more than just civil rights under law; it was also about fundamental issues of freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality. During the period 1955–1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to crisis situations which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-in (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964,[1] that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to action. Contents [hide] • 1 Background • 2 Mass action replacing litigation • 3 Key events o 3.1 Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 o 3.2 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–1956 o 3.3 Desegregating Little Rock, 1957 o 3.4 Sit-ins, 1960 o 3.5 Freedom Rides, 1961 o 3.6 Voter registration organizing o 3.7 Integration of Mississippi Universities, 1956–1965 o 3.8 Albany Movement, 1961–1962 o 3.9 Birmingham Campaign, 1963–1964 o 3.10 March on Washington, 1963 o 3.11 St. Augustine, Florida, 1963–1964 o 3.12 Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 o 3.13 Civil Rights Act of 1964 o 3.14 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964 o 3.15 Dr. King Awarded Nobel Peace Prize o 3.16 Boycott of New Orleans by American Football League players, January 1965 o 3.17 Selma and the Voting Rights Act, 1965 o 3.18 Memphis, King assassination and the Poor People's March, 1968 • 4 Other issues o 4.1 Kennedy Administration, 1961–1963 o 4.2 American Jewish community and the Civil Rights movement o 4.3 Fraying of alliances o 4.4 Race riots, 1963–1970 o 4.5 Black power, 1966 • 5 Prison reform o 5.1 Gates v. Collier • 6 Cold War • 7 Documentary films • 8 See also o 8.1 General o 8.2 Activist organizations o 8.3 Activists . 8.3.1 Related activists and artists • 9 References • 10 Further reading • 11 External links [edit] Background This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008) After the disputed election of 1876 resulted in the end of Reconstruction, Whites in the South regained political control of the region, after mounting intimidation and violence in the elections. Systematic disfranchisement of African Americans took place in Southern states from 1890 to 1908 and lasted until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s. For more than 60 years, for example, blacks in the South were not able to elect anyone to represent their interests in Congress or local government.[2] During this period, the white-dominated Democratic Party regained political control over the South. The Republican Party—the "party of Lincoln"—which had been the party that most blacks belonged to, shrank to insignificance as black voter registration was suppressed. By the early 20th century, almost all elected officials in the South were Democrats. During the same time as African Americans were being disfranchised, white Democrats imposed racial segregation by law. Violence against blacks mushroomed. The system of overt, state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression that emerged out of the post- Reconstruction South became known as the "Jim Crow" system. It remained virtually intact into the early 1950s. Thus, the early 20th century is a period often referred to as the "nadir of American race relations". While problems and civil rights violations were most intense in the South, social tensions affected African Americans in other regions as well. [3] Characteristics of the post-Reconstruction period: • Racial segregation . By law,[4] public facilities and government services such as education were divided into separate "white" and "colored" domains. Characteristically, those for colored were underfunded and of inferior quality. • Disfranchisement . When white Democrats regained power, they passed laws that made voter registration more inaccessible to blacks. Black voters were forced off the voting rolls. The number of African American voters dropped dramatically, and they no longer were able to elect representatives. From 1890 to 1908, Southern states of the former Confederacy created constitutions with provisions that disfranchised most African Americans and tens of thousands of poor white Americans. • Exploitation . Increased economic oppression of blacks, Latinos, and Asians, denial of economic opportunities, and widespread employment discrimination. • Violence . Individual, police, organizational, and mass racial violence against blacks (and Latinos in the Southwest and Asians in California). African Americans and other racial minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it in numerous ways and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political redress, and labor organizing (see the American Civil Rights Movement 1896– 1954). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909. It fought to end race discrimination through litigation, education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that rejected separate white and colored school systems and by implication overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson. The situation for blacks outside the South was somewhat better (in most states they could vote and have their children educated, though they still faced discrimination in housing and jobs). From 1910 to 1970, African Americans sought better lives by migrating north and west. A total of nearly seven million blacks left the South in what was known as the Great Migration. Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation. They were faced with "massive resistance" in the South by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression. In defiance, African Americans adopted a combined strategy of direct action with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of 1955–1968. [edit] Mass action replacing litigation The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation within the court system that typified the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the 20th Century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized "direct action"—primarily boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, marches and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. This mass action approach typified the movement from 1960 to 1968. Churches, the centers of their communities, and local grassroots organizations mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions. This was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges. In 1952, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, led by T.R.M. Howard, organized a successful boycott of gas stations in Mississippi that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. The Montgomery Improvement Association—created