Chapter 29

Civil Rights

(Chapter 29)
Read pages 628 - 631

1950's -

Books
Animal Farm, 1984, Crucible,
Catcher in the Rye

Movies - Ben Hur, Streetcar,
Ten Commandments, On the Waterfront

Sports - Spectator sports are becoming popular because of increased media coverage and leisure time

Television

Basketball
1956 Olympic Team sent the most of its players to the NBA
The Boston Celtics are starting their NBA dynasty.

Football - 1958, Colts v Giants in the NFL Championship Game considered by many to be the greatest game ever.

Baseball - Golden Age. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams made room for Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Duke Snider.

Jackie Robinson
became the first Black to play in the Majors.(1947)

Many of the greatest players of all time experienced racism during the 1950's and even the 1960's especially in the south during Spring Training.


*Plessy v Ferguson (1896)
Created a separate but equal society

-actually created a two nation country,
especially in the south.

-bathrooms, seating areas, restaurants even church seating
-Jesse Owens awards dinner-

Pres. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren to the Supreme Court. The Court proved to be very liberal during the 1950's and 1960's

Brown v Board of Education (1954)
argued by Thurgood Marshall: how could a Black Law School be equal to Yale Law.

Public institutions can no longer be legally segregated

Public Schools were no longer segregated.
(last schools were de-segregated by 1972)


Not well received in the south.

Arkansas - 1957
Governor Oral Faubus sent State Militia to prevent Blacks from mixing in white schools.

Ike sent
1000 paratroopers to control the white mob and militia

Rosa Parks - tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama

She served as an inspiration for
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The non-violent protest
Jesus Christ
Mohandas Gandhi
Dr. King

Strategy - always peaceful,

well dressed protestors
trained to take beatings

1) Southern resistance
- electric cattle prods, angry mobs, fire hoses

2)Riots and fire-bombings in the Northern States

3)June 1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace prevented blacks from enrolling in the University of Alabama. JFK forced him to back down

June 11, 1963 - JFK addressed the nation on TV calling for support on civil rights legislation.

NAACP leader of Mississippi, Medgar Evers, was murdered outside of his home (Ghosts of Mississippi)

March on Washington Aug 28, 1963. The purpose was to drum up support for Kennedy sponsored legislation

200,000 gathered in front of the
Lincoln Memorial Blacks and Whites

Civil Rights Act (1964) LBJ

-racial discrimination
not tolerated where there is federal funding.
-strong attempt to protect right to vote
-Equal Opportunity Commission
-Cooperation of the Attorney General in speeding up court cases to hasten de-segregation


24 Amendment(1964)
abolished the poll tax

Baker v Carr
Wesberry v Sanders(1964)
prohibited the illegal Gerrymandering of voting districts

1965 - Voting Rights Act