1960s civil rights movement Flashcards
How was SNCC leadership different?
-SNCC rejected MLK top down leadership
-Focused on empowering local black communities
e.g held citizenship classes
What were Freedom Rides + date
1961- CORE and the SNCC also joined
-a small integrated group travelled the South to test SC rulings against segregation in interstate transport
Freedom rides result (2)
-White racists attacked the Freedom riders and burned their buses as Anniston and Alabama
-Attorney General Robert Kennedy began working to implement SC rulings
When was Birmingham and what happened
Birmingham (1963)
-MLK used children to protest
-Televised scenes
-Encouraged JFK to promote the Civil Rights bill
What was the March on Washington + date
1963
-Designed to publicise black economic and social inequality
-250,000 people attended and MLK “I have a dream”
Presidential actions that helped bring about the 1964 Civil Rights Act
-JFK’s death
-Johnson’s determination and legislative skills
Limitations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Did little to facilitate black voting
What was Selma + date(…)
1965
-Selma march to ensure right to vote
-Culminated in ‘Bloody Sunday’
-Encourages sympathetic interracial marches and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
BA unemployment statistics
-BA constituted 46% of America’s unemployed
What was the Nation of Islam (2)
- Black separatist religion,
- Emphasised economic self-help
What was King’s Northern strategy
-Chicago Freedom Campaign 1966
-Hoped to bring about ghetto improvements and draw media attention to discrimination in housing
Who established the Black Panthers + date
-Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966
-Black power advocates
Black Panther Ghetto improvements (2)
-Established clinics which gave health, welfare and legal advice
-Followed police cars to expose police brutality in the ghettos
What led to the decline of the Black Panthers (2)
-Successful targeting of the Black Panthers by the authorities between 1967-69
-Internal divisions
What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act do (4)
- Ended de jure segregation in the South
- Prohibited discrimination in public places
- Furthered school desegregation
- Established and Equal Employment Commission
Limitation of the 1964 Act?
-Did little to facilitate black voting
-BA in North and Western ghettos considered the Act insufficiently helpful; continued to suffer poverty and discrimination
What did the 1965 Act do (..)
- Made literacy tests illegal
- Made ‘constitutional interpretation’ tests illegal
- Replaced white registrars with federally approved officials
Other legislation that helped BA? (2)
1965 Education Act
- Great Society Programmes contributed to fall in black unemployment/ black poverty
What did Education Act 1965 do?
-Speeded up school desegregation and helped black colleges
Great Society Programme statistics benefitting BA(..)
-Contributed to a 34% fall in black unemployment
-25% fall in black Americans living below the poverty line
Black housing limitation
-Congress rejected Johnson’s bill to prohibit discrimination in housing and rental sales
LBJ executive action to increase affirmative action
Executive Order 11246
-Any institution receiving federal funding had to employ more non-whites
Problems of Native Americans (3)
-Poor housing and education
-Unemployment ranging from 20-80%
-Suffered from high rates of suicide and alcoholism
How were Native Americans inspired by black activism and achievements (3)
-National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) modelled upon the NAACP
-Black power movement inspired a Red Power movement
-By 1961, younger generation of Native Americans established the National Indian Youth Council
Nature of Native American campaigns for minority rights (2)
-More conservative Native American activists long emulated the NAACP litigation strategy
-Red Power activists used direct action, ‘fish ins’
Example of Native American litigation
1973- Northern Cheyenne of Montana won a federal court victory enabling a renegotiation of rights on their reservation
‘Fish-in’ details
- NIYC staged a fish-in in Washington state to remind white Americans of Native American treaty rights 1964
AIM monitoring police racism
-When monitoring police racism, Native American population in local jails fell by 60%
Example of native american campaign receiving nationwide media coverage
-1973 AIM occupation of the village of Wounded Knee
Native Americans legislative success + what did it do
- 1968 Civil Rights Act contained an ‘Indian Bill of Rights’
- Facilitated NA access to better social services
Criticism of the Indian Bill of Rights (2)
- Encouraged dependency culture
- Some resented federal government interference in tribal affairs
Why did Hispanic campaigns emerge (3)
-Inspired by black civil rights movement
-general atmosphere of the ‘decade of protest’
-economic and social problems
Mexican American organisation that litigated
LULAC- League of United Latin American Citizens
Methods used by the Hispanic civil rights movement (2)
-Continued litigation campaigns
-Union activity continued
First Puerto Rican elected to US Congress
1971- Herman Badillo of NYC
Cesar Chavez union creation
1965- farmworkers unions merged to create the United Farm Workers (UFW)
What do the UFW do in 1966
-UFW-organised national grape boycott, supported at one time by 17 million Americans
-Non-violent demonstrations against the mistreatment of farm workers
Result of UFW campaigns (2)
-1970 grape growers agreed to sign union contracts
-1975 California passed labour-friendly legislation
How was the Chicano movement influenced by black activism
- The Brown Berets modelled themselves upon the Black Panthers (more militant nature)
What did hispanic student activists establish
1967- Mexican-American Youth Organisation (MAYO)
What did MAYO campaign? (3)
-Against segregation
-Police brutality
-Inferior education
What did MAYO encourage
-School walkouts- e.g. 1968, amount 10,000 Mexican students in LA high schools staged walkouts or ‘Blowouts’
Chicano movement success (3)
-Put Mexican needs more firmly on the national political agenda
-National and local government responded with greater aid
-Encouraged pride in Hispanic culture/ education
Chicano movement shortcomings
-Many Mexican americans rejected Chicano militancy, feared it was strengthening the Republican Party
-Chicano support for illegal immigration alienated the UFW members (illegals accepted lower wages)
What was established in 1951
First Mattachine Society to promote greater tolerance
How was the gay rights movement influenced by black activism
More open and assertive gay rights movement in the younger generation-
Felt that the Mattachine Societies were insufficiently assertive
When were the Stonewall riots + what were they
1969, homosexual fought back against police harassment, triggering 5 days of rioting in which hundreds participated
Stonewall riots effect (3)
- Signalled new and increased gay group consciousness and assertiveness
- Slowly changing public attitudes
BUT - Gay rights in legislation of homosexual acts and freedom from discrimination had not yet been attained
What did the 1973 Supreme Court acknowledge
identifiable ethnic minority with a past pattern of discrimination
What did the 1974 Equal Opportunities Act do
Increased spending in bilingual education
When was homosexuality removed from the American Psychiatric Institute’s list of psychiatric disorders
1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed the diagnosis of “homosexuality”
What did the Gay liberation front do?
Encouraged people to come out and gay pride marches to increase visibility 1969
First openly gay congressman
Harvey Milk 1977
Native American direct action in the 1970s
Trail of Broken Treaties 1973
What did the Trail of Broken Treaties advocate for
demand redress for years of failed and destructive federal Indian policies
Native American education act
Indian Education Act 1972
