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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF DELAY: THE SHIFTING ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS by Leif Erik Johnson A Project Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts In Education May, 2012 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF DELAY: THE SHIFTING ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS by Leif Erik Johnson Approved by the Master’s Project Committee: _______________________________________________________________________ Delores McBroome, Major Professor Date _______________________________________________________________________ Gayle Olson-Raymer, Committee Member Date _______________________________________________________________________ Tom Cook, Committee Member Date _______________________________________________________________________ Eric Van Duzer, Graduate Coordinator Date _______________________________________________________________________ Jena Burgess, Vice Provost Date ABSTRACT ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF DELAY: THE SHIFTING ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEIF ERIK JOHNSON One of the most tragic and moving stories in American history is the prolonged quest to recognize the civil rights of African Americans. This story, of both shame and hope, is captured in this project and presented as a one hundred year struggle of national politics, state repression, and individual courage from the end of the Civil War to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Students of history are familiar with the names of civil rights heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa parks, but there remains a need to give a more comprehensive historical perspective to students of how and why the struggles in the 1950s and 1960s began and what role the federal government played in both the setbacks and successes of the movement. This project provides educators with a thorough history starting with amending the Constitution during the Reconstruction period, the denial of those new rights with the creation of Jim Crow laws, and after 100 hundred years of struggle the final recognition of those Constitutional rights in the 1960s with national legislation. Along with this historical perspective in the literature review is a detailed lesson plan with an emphasis on analyzing primary documents. Through this lesson plan students will understand the complex nature of federal and state relations, alongside the power of social movements, and the importance of iii constitutionally protected civil rights in a democracy. Students will develop the necessary critical thinking skills to examine primary documents and cultivate an educated opinion on the difficult issues of race and government. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation for the Teaching American History (TAH) program without which I would not be receiving my Master’s Degree. It has been a great experience to be a part of such an enriching program. Thank you to Jack Bareilles for bringing TAH to Humboldt County. A thank you is also due to the very excellent TAH professors Delores McBroome and Gayle Olsen-Raymer who not only coached me through this project but illuminated me and many others to the wonders of history every month in our TAH meetings. When everyone else was sleeping in on Saturdays we were gathered around the PowerPoint expanding our minds. I would also like to thank all the professors in the Education Department at Humboldt State. Every professor I have encountered there has been extremely warm, gifted, and encouraging to me, which enabled me to not only complete this project but enjoy it as well. These great professors include Eric Van Duzer, Ann Diver-Stamnes, Patty Yancy, and my thesis advisor Tom Cook. I would also like to say thank you to my mom and dad, Randi and Nels, for instilling in me from the very beginning a desire to learn, with an appreciation for both education and history. I have felt more than supported by you two over the years as I have advanced my studies. I also have to thank and honor Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the folks at Stony the Road We Trod for the inspiration, as well as all the civil rights heroes mentioned in this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 68 CHAPTER 4: CONTENT ................................................................................................ 77 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................... 109 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 113 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 117 vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The role of the federal government in our lives and society is nowadays a divisive issue. Political debates in the United States often boil down to disagreements over what the function of government should be. To understand current political debates it is always important to have a historical knowledge of whatever issue is being debated. One of the most significant roles of the federal government has been its creation and enforcement of civil rights. However, concerning the civil rights of African Americans the federal government has spent far more time in the past ignoring those rights than actually enforcing them. Beginning in 1865, with the end of the Civil War, the federal government through amendments to the Constitution began to do away with the complete disenfranchisement of African Americans that had been normal practice since the inception of the United States. These reforms were only temporary as the 14th and 15th Amendments lay dormant for 100 years after they were first implemented due to state segregation laws and a lack of federal enforcement. Chapter Two presents a literature review which tells this story through the perspectives of historians who have studied it. The literature review explains not only the legal origins of civil rights during the Reconstruction period and how those bold assertions of racial equality were denied but also of how through continual struggle and federal recognition they were finally enforced in the 1960s. 1 2 Within those hundred years the literature review covers are the stories of those that set up the system of white supremacy called Jim Crow, those who opposed it, and the reactions of the federal government through it all. The literature review begins with a look at the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. The presidency of Andrew Jackson and his conflicts with Radical Republicans in Congress are analyzed to reveal the intense debate within the nation over what the rights of newly freed slaves would be. The creation of the Ku Klux Klan to violently oppose these new rights is examined alongside the federal government’s response under President Grant. The review then investigates how the demise of Reconstruction led to the rise of Jim Crow in the South with descriptions of the violence and oppression of Jim Crow and how it was institutionalized by state law as well as Supreme Court decisions. Chapter Two culminates with the work of groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to end Jim Crow and the federal government’s response under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Chapter Three presents a Methodology, which describes how and why I was inspired to study this topic. The Methodology goes on to describe the research question for this topic as well as what the research process looked like for this endeavor. Concluding the chapter is an explanation of how the eleven day curriculum for the project was created and a justification for its need in the classroom. 3 Chapter Four contains the eleven day lesson plan that addresses the role of the federal government in African American civil rights for 11th grade U.S. history classes as well as for 12th grade government classes. This curriculum is broken down into detailed day by day accounts of how the lessons are conducted. The state standards covered in the lessons are listed as well as definitions for all academic language used. The curriculum uses a blend of both teacher-centered lectures and student-centered analysis of primary documents. The main goal of the curriculum is to give students a comprehensive history of the struggle for African American civil rights and to develop their critical thinking skills in the process. Chapter Five is the Conclusion of the project and highlights the main points of the research and curriculum. Chapter Five also seeks to illustrate the limitations of this research project alongside the implications for further research in this field of study. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction This literature review represents a broad overview of civil rights history with an emphasis on the role that United States federal government played in both aiding
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