Unit 9 Lesson 3: Civil Rights Tactics Flashcards
By the 1960s, the civil rights movement had accomplished many judicial wins. The Supreme Court ruled the following unconstitutional: the exclusion of African Americans from juries in 1935; the segregation of schools in 1954; the segregation of transportation facilities in 1962; and the criminalization of racial intermarriage in 1967. These judicial successes were in large part because of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund (NAACP LDF).
Which organization did the freedom rides
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), most famous for its freedom rides to desegregate interstate buses
Which organization was of African American ministers famous for its marches
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of African American ministers initially led by Martin Luther King, Jr., most famous for its marches.
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Which oranization did sit ins
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), began as an organization of college students, most famous for its sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters
Ten years after Brown v Board ruled that schools needed to desegregate how many african americans were in majoirty black schools still?
en years after Brown v Board ruled that schools needed to desegregate, 98% of African American students nationwide still attended majority-Black schools.
Many activists supported the new tactic of Black Power.
Black Power had different meanings for different people.
What did Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor say
Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor, shut down sixty parks rather than let them desegregate and was quoted as saying,
Despite all the civil requirements African Americans still faced discrimiantion. Why
However, many of these new civil rights requirements, while officially on the books, were often not enforced. The same people who had once enforced legal discrimination were still in power. Now, they were officially in charge of enforcing equality. As a result, African Americans still faced discrimination.
Stokely Carmichael,
Stokely Carmichael, who became the chairman of SNCC in 1966.
What was black power for Stokely Carmichael
For Carmichael, Black Power was the strength of African Americans united as a political force. According to his book Black Power, Black Power is “a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.”
Black Power was part of a much larger process of cultural change.
The 1960s saw a rise in the movement of black pride. The African American community worked to raise self-esteem and encourage pride in African ancestry. Black pride urged African Americans to reclaim their African heritage. People adopted African and African-inspired cultural practices, such as intricate handshakes, natural hairstyles, and clothing made of fabrics with African ethnic prints.
The Nation of Islam, founded in 1930, supported Black Power. In the 1960s, its most famous member was
Malcolm X, who was born as Malcolm Little.
What did Nation of Islam do
The Nation of Islam believed that African Americans could not thrive in an atmosphere of racism.
What did Malcolm X believe
Rejecting the nonviolent strategy of many other civil rights activists, he believed in liberation “by any means necessary,” including violence and self-defense.
What did organizations associated with the Black power support
The other organizations associated with the Black Power movement supported working together with people of other races to fight for equality.
The Black Panther Party (BPP)
The Black Panther Party (BPP), founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, believed that African Americans were as much the victims of capitalism as racism.
BPP and free groceries and breakfeast programs
The BPP began free groceries and breakfast programs that inspired later government-run free breakfast programs for low-income students.
The Black Panthers also patrolled the streets of African American neighborhoods to protect residents from police brutality. How did FBI and police respond
The police and FBI felt threatened by the Black Panthers’ promotion of armed self-defense. Black Panther leaders were often arrested, and the group was involved in shootouts with the police in several cities. In 1969, the FBI assassinated BPP and Rainbow Coalition leader Fred Hampton in his sleep.
What did the BPP fight for
The BPP called for jobs, housing, education, as well as protection from police brutality and exemption from military service.
How did The Black Panther Party (BPP) organzie
They organized with other anti-capitalist organizations, including White, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous American organizations in “Rainbow Coalitions.”
They could not support violence for themselves, and they knew that images of their resistance would gain people’s sympathy. How did some feel about violence
Others felt that violence would be justified as self-defense. Thus, some African Americans embraced a more aggressive approach to securing civil rights.
Peaceful civil disobedience, promoted by several notable civil rights leaders, helped sway many opinions in support of the movement. Elaborate
Images of determined but nonviolent people being violently mistreated by racist mobs and law enforcement officers filled the nightly news. For example, the experiences of the freedom riders and the peaceful marchers seeking to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Selma, Alabama, revealed just how dangerous it could be to assert the simplest, most basic of rights.
In 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam amid tensions within the organization.
In addition to his personal differences with the leader of that movement, his views on black power were evolving and becoming less separatist.
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On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated as he addressed a crowd in Harlem, New York.
Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of his murder.
What idea did Malcolm X popularized
He had also popularized the idea of using violence in response to violence as a way to achieve the goals of Black Power.
Also, the vision of whites and African Americans working together peacefully to end racial injustice suffered a severe blow with the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968.
. Dr. King had gone there to support sanitation workers trying to unionize. On April 4, Dr. King was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of his motel. A white man named James Earl Ray was convicted after pleading guilty.
What appened in repsonse to Martin Luther King’s assiantion
Within hours, many of the nation’s cities exploded with riots. Supporters of Dr. King, shocked and angered by his murder, protested and rioted in major cities across the country.
The episodes of rioting that accompanied Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination were part of a number of urban riots that had shaken the United States since the mid-1960s.
Indeed, in the summer of 1967, before King’s assassination, over 150 race riots had occurred.
After Kings death how did people feel about peacfeull obtanning rights
Many Americans of all races now felt pessimistic about African Americans peacefully obtaining their rights.
While the riots after King’s assassination were neither more numerous nor more violent than those of the previous year, they still marked a
a turning point. Some Americans feared a race war.
What happen to the Black power movement and the BPP in result to Kings death
As a result, the Black Power movement grew. The Black Panther Party in particular expanded its offices across the country within the year of King’s assassination.
How was MLK’s assassination a turning point for the country?
Many civil rights activists became more suspicious of the government, and of the efficacy and safety of nonviolent protest. This would contribute to the growth of the Black Power movement. Many Americans became more afraid of riots, contributing both to the election of Richard Nixon and to the Civil Rights Act of 1968, including the Anti-Riot Act.
Meanwhile, many civil rights activists, including King’s family, felt suspicious of the government in the aftermath of the assassination.
King and other civil rights leaders had been subject to years of FBI harassment.
Compare the strategies for change promoted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers.
Dr. King spoke about using the power of civil disobedience and nonviolent action to achieve equality. He believed that resisting injustice in a peaceful way would gain the general population’s sympathy and lead to changes in civil rights policies. On the other hand, Malcolm X rejected nonviolent strategies and believed that violence in response to violence was appropriate. The Black Panther Party wanted jobs, housing, education, as well as protection from police brutality and exemption from military service for African Americans. They did their own patrols to try to protect African Americans, especially against police brutality. The Black Panther Party’s strategies for change aligned more closely to Malcom X’s strategy. This contrasted with Dr. King’s strategies for change.
