Progress After The War

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Progress After the War

The struggle for civil rights in america spans many decades, many presidents, and across many states,
and it continues today. In many ways, World War II changed race relations in the United States and gave
momentum to the civil rights movement. In 1942, civil rights activist James Farmer helped to found the
interracial Congress of racial Equality CORE.
Resistance Through the Arts

The civil rights movement wasnt limited to nonviolent student and political organizations or the
leadership of individual activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr. African American musicians incorporated
the spirituals and gospel songs that arose out of the slavery era to help fuel the civil rights movement.
Challenging School Segregation

In the 1940’s, civil rights activists such as Thurgood Marshall and William Hastie began to mount legal
attacks on Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 case that established the doctrine of “separate but equal.” By
1953, five civil rights lawsuits had reached the Supreme court, including Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka. The year, President Eisenhower had appointed Earl Warren as the court's Chief Justice, even
though Warren's political views were more liberal than his own.
Thurgood Marshall
In his fist case as a lawyer, he helped defend Donald Murray, a young African American who had been
denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Law in 1935 Because of his race. Instead of
Maryland Marshall attended the Howard University of Law in Washington. In recognition of his brilliance,
Marshall was appointed to high-level judicial positions during the 1960’s.
Women Take a Stand

A year long bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, led to a landmark supreme court
decision against segregation on city buses. Rosa parks holds up the identification number in her booking
photo after being arrested during the montgomery bus boycott in 1956.
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Growing Movement

In the mid - 1950s, the struggle for civil right developed into a mass movement, and Martin Luther King,
Jr., Emerged as its leader. When he was 15 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr., left the segregated South for
the first time and spent the summer in Connecticut. Seeing African Americans and whites eating in the
same restaurants, shopping in the same stores, and worshiping in the same churches shaped his visions
of what the United States could be: a Multiracial,peaceful society.
Protests in Birmingham
In 1963, a brutal police response to peaceful protests in Birmingham, Alabama, prompted President John
F. Kennedy to propose strong new civil rights legislation. The prior year, in 1962, President Kennedy
received a telegram From DR.Martin Luther King, Jr., stating “ A virtual reign of terror is still alive in
Birmingham, Alabama. It is by far the worst big city in race relation in the United States.” For 15 years,
white segregationists have committed numerous acts of intimidation towards African Americans. On April
12, 1963, king himself was arrested and then held in solitary confinement for 8 day. On May 10, campaign
organizers made a deal with the Birmingham city leaders to end the demonstrations. The agreement
established a few thing, one was a timetable for ending segregation in facilities and opening a african
american work program. On June 11, 1963, segregationist governor George Wallace flanked state troopers
and blocked two African-American students from registering at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy had the governor physically removed by the National Guard and
allowing the students register. The turmoil in Alabama had many Americans horrified by the violence that
was taking place.
Demanding Reform
African-American civil rights activists worked their way through the nations judicial and legislative
systems in order to win the rights of full citizenship, but they also turned to nonviolent protest to raise
awareness for their movement. Sometime that meant even paying a legal cost. In 1967, four years after he
wrote the “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr., returned to alabama jail to complete
carving his sentence for participating in the 1963 civil rights movement. In 10 years, King had been
arrested more that 10 times for conducting peaceful protests.
The March on Washington

The 1963 March on Washington demonstrated the unity of the civil rights movement and featured one of
the most famous speeches in american history. The chief organizer of the march was Bayard Rustin.
Starting in 1941, Rustin and A. Philip Randolph had build an alliance of civil rights, labor, and religious
organizations, bringing unity to the movement. Rustin had expected 100,000 people to take part in the
1963 March on Washington but more than twice that number had arrived. People from all walks of life
come to participate singing “We Shall Overcome.” Even tho most were African American, but almost
one-fourth were white. They ended at Lincoln Memorial for the days main program, having featured
prayers, a performance from gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, speeches from multiple civil rights leaders,
and a speech from King himself. He bang by reminding his listeners that although almost 100 year have
passed from Lincoln's emancipation of enslaved people, “the Negro is still sadlycrippled by the manacles
of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” Putting aside his notes, KIng spoke of is dream for a
brighter future. The March on Washington had demonstrated the growing unity and power of the civil
rights movement.
Kings Famous Speech

Here was King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out its creed: “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal.”...“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Progress After the War

Resistance Through the Arts

Challenging School Segregation

Women Take a Stand

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Growing Movement

The March on Washington

Kings Famous Speech

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