Download civil rights movement

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The battle for freedom of American
«negroes» in the ‘50s and ‘60s
THE ANTECEDENTS: JIM CROW LAWS
The History of The Jim Crow Laws
A white suprematist in action
DEFINITIONS
JIM CROW
 A practice or policy of segregating or
discriminating against black people, as in
public places, public vehicles, or
employment.
 so called from the name of a song sung
by Thomas Rice (1808-60) in a minstrel
show
 A series of local laws enforced by single
States in between 1876 and 1965 in the
USA
GONE WITH THE WIND: the black Mama
FACTS
Slavery (1619-1865): was present in the South since 1619,
when the first slaves arrived in Virginia.
Reconstruction (1865-1877): it is a period in which Blacks
should have seen their rights enforced. Instead, they
witnessed a terrible backlash of the more radical wing of
the Republican Party
Jim Crow (1865-1965): as we have already seen, it
indicates a series of laws that repressed Blacks in the South,
after the Civil War up to the Civil Rights Movement
FLAGELLATION
IN A COTTON
PLANTATION
A SLAVE FAMILY
A SLAVE SHIP
«SEPARATE BUT EQUAL»
 American Civil Rights Movement is a mass protest movement against racial segregation and
discrimination in the Southern United States, that came to national prominence during the mid1950s.
 This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants
to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery.
 Although American slaves were emancipated as a result of the Civil War(1861-1865) and were
then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights
continued during the next century.
 Through nonviolent protest, the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s and ’60s broke the pattern of
public facilities being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important
breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period
(1865–77)
A LITTLE LEXICON: Look up new words
To enforce
Backlash
To grant
Segregation
To secure
HISTORICAL
REFERENCES
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United
States constitutional law according to which racial
segregation did not violate the Fourtheenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution,
adopted in 1868, which guaranteed "equal
protection" under the law to all citizens.
Under the doctrine, as long as the facilities
provided to each race were equal, state and
local governments could require that services,
facilities, public accomodation, housing, medical
care, education, employment, and transportation
be segregated by race, which was already the
case throughout the former Confederacy.
(1896)
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, IN THE ’50s
AND THEN
CAME ROSA
Bet You Didnt Know Rosa
Parks History
IT ALL STARTED IN ALABAMA
 By refusing to give up her seat to a white
man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city
bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks
(1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights
movement in the United States.
 The leaders of the local black community
organized a bus boycott.
 Led by a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., the boycott lasted more than a
year and ended only when the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation
was unconstitutional.
Rosa Parks
One of the buses Blacks decided to boycott.
Their successfull struggle determined the economic
collapse of the Southern Bus Company
Rosa Parks has her fingerprints taken
A LITTLE LEXICON: Look up new words
Plaintiff
Fingerprints
Tear gas
Billy clubs
Seamstress
MARTIN
LUTHER KING
 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 –
1968) was an American
Baptist minister and activist
 He was a leader in the Civil
Rights Movement.
 He is best known for his role
in the advancement of civil
rights using nonviolent civil
disobedience based on his
Christian beliefs
1929-1968
WASHINGTON
1963: the march for
Jobs and Freedom
 POLITICAL RALLY
 TO SHED LIGHT
 TO FACE
 GROWING STRUGGLE
 A SPIRITED CALL
 On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans
gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally
known as the March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom.
 Organized by a number of civil rights and religious
groups, the event was designed to shed light on
the political and social challenges African
Americans continued to face across the country.
 The march, which became a key moment in the
growing struggle for civil rights in the United
States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I
Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial
justice and equality.
WASHINGTON, 28th OF AUGUST 1963
I HAVE A
DREAM
Martin Luther King Jr's speech "I have a
dream"
«WE SHALL OVERCOME»
BY
JOAN BAEZ
We Shall Overcome
PLACES NAMED BY REVEREND KING
SELMA TO MONTGOMERY :
the march for granting Blacks the right to register to vote
In march 1965, three marches took place in Alabama :
Blacks demonstrated in order to have their right
to register to vote recognized
Selma to Montgomery March
THE MARCH
 On the third attempt , Martin Luther
King plus 3200 demonstrators
succeeded in reaching
Montgomery.
 They walked for three days in order
to cover the 54 miles-- around 90
kms-- to reach Montgomery.
 By that time, President Lindon
Johnson had endorsed the March,
providing that Federal Troops
protect marchers, against the State
Troops of Alabama
«Their cause must be our cause
too, because it’s not just
negroes but, really, it’s all of us.
We must overcome the
crippling legacy of bigotry and
injustice and we shall
overcome.*
*President Lindon Johnson used the very same
words Rev. Martin Luther King had previously used
A LITTLE LEXICON: Look up new words
Crippling
To clear
the way
To cross
over
To rule
To sense
the mood
OTHER ACTORS
MALCOM X:
JOHN KENNEDY:
peace is not the way
the new Frontier
1925-1965
1917-1963