Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement

Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the turbulent decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Voting Rights Act Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to ensure the voting rights of African Americans. Though the Constitution's 15th Amendment (passed 1870) had guaranteed the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” African Americans in the South faced efforts to disenfranchise them, including poll taxes and literacy tests, as late as the 1960s, when the civil rights movement focused national attention on infringements of their voting rights; Congress responded with the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited Southern states from using literacy tests to determine eligibility to vote. Later laws prohibited literacy tests in all states and made poll taxes illegal in state and local elections.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

On April 11, 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68), which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 [1] prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions. The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and as of 1974, gender; as of 1988, the act protects the disabled and families with children. It also provided protection for civil rights workers.

The Technology of Television Impacts America

The television had been introduced to the public at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Some of the earlier programs shown included a televised broadcast of the Geneva Conventions and a 90-minute documentary on reactions to the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941. World War II temporarily halted the television's development; in 1942, the manufacturing of receivers and television broadcasts were stopped. Community Antenna Television, CATV, was started in 1948 in America, with most television stations in large cities like New York. There were roughly one million televison sets by 1948. On television, there were comedy sketches, music, and news and commentaries, all in black and white. Only in 1953, was a colour system developed by RCA (Radio Corporation of America) approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the USA. In the 1950's more and more American households had TV sets. Programming had a huge impact on American culture. Civil Rights events were televised, as was Republican and Democratic Conventions; news about JFK's assasination and the Vietnam War. Information was viewable and readily accessible.

Brown vs. The Board of Education 1954

Imagine you are a seven year old and have to walk one mile to a bus stop by walking through a railroad switching station and then waiting for a school bus to go to a "black elementary school" or a school where only African American children went. This is what happened to Linda Brown, an African American third grader from Topeka, Kansas, even though there was a "white elementary school" only seven blocks away. A "white elementary school" was a school where only white students were able to attend.

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas
Click here for more information: http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/November-22-1963-Death-of-the-President.aspx

Robert F. Kennedy

On June 6, 1968, an assassin's bullet not only prematurely ended the life of Robert Francis (Bobby) Kennedy, the politician, but Kennedy the father, and Kennedy the potential statesman who was passionate about a number of global and national issues. Kennedy, who had originally supported a growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, became convinced that the war should come to an end by negotiated settlement. He called for inclusion of the alienated North Vietnamese National Liberation Front as a part of a political process and end what was, in his view, a civil war. Kennedy, as the attorney general in the John F. Kennedy cabinet, was a strident proponent of human rights, not only in America, but throughout the world.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.