New civil rights issues

New civil rights issues

By Richard Orton

​BENCHMARKS

SS.912.A.7.4 Evaluate the success of 1960s-era presidents’ foreign and domestic policies.

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SS.912.A.7.5 Compare nonviolent and violent approaches utilized by groups (African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanics) to achieve civil rights.

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SS.912.A.7.6 Assess key figures and organizations in shaping the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement.

URBAN PROBLEMS

Even though Congress passed civil rights laws in the 1950s and 1960s, racism continued to plague American society. Urban poverty also remained a persistent problem. At this time, the average income of African American families was only 55 percent that of white families. Almost half of all African Americans lived in poverty, with an unemployment rate typically twice that of whites. In 1965, approximately 70 percent of African Americans lived in large cities. Poor neighborhoods in these cities were overcrowded and dirty, leading to higher rates of illness and infant mortality. Juvenile delinquency rates rose, as did the dropout rate and the number of single-parent households

URBAN PROBLEMS

Just five days after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, riots erupted in Watts, a predominantly African American section of Los Angeles. Allegations of police brutality sparked this uprising. The riots lasted for six days, required more than 14,000 members of the National Guard and 1,500 law officers to restore order, and left the area smoldering. But Watts was only the beginning. Between 1964 and 1968, riots ravaged dozens of other American cities.

Multiple Choice

Which describes the pattern of where race riots occurred between 1957 and 1964?

• A areas where voter registration was restricted

• B East Coast cities

• C large urban centers

• D Southern states

The Kerner Commission

In 1964, President Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders—known as the Kerner Commission— to study the causes of the urban riots and to make recommendations. The Commission blamed racism for most inner-city problems and recommended creating inner-city job opportunities and constructing new public housing. Johnson never endorsed the recommendation, largely because the nation was spending so much money funding the Vietnam War.

The Kerner Commission

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., decided to focus on the economic problems facing African Americans. To call attention to deplorable housing conditions, Dr. King and his wife Coretta moved into a slum apartment in an African American neighborhood in Chicago. He and the SCLC hoped to improve the economic status of African Americans in poor neighborhoods.

The Kerner Commission

The Chicago Movement, however, did little to change conditions. A march through the all-white suburb of Marquette Park was met by angry white mobs more hostile than those in Birmingham and Selma. Mayor Richard J. Daley met with Dr. King to discuss a new program to clean up the slums. Although associations of realtors and bankers agreed to promote open housing, little changed.

Black Power

The Chicago Movement’s failure to improve economic conditions seemed to show the limits of nonviolent protests. After 1965, many African Americans, especially urban young people, began to turn away from King’s peaceful methods. Some leaders called for more aggressive forms of protest. Some organizations, including CORE and SNCC, believed that African Americans alone should lead their struggle. Many young African Americans called for black power, a term that had many meanings. A few, including Robert F. Williams and H. Rap Brown, interpreted black power to mean that physical self-defense was acceptable. To most, including Stokely Carmichael, the leader of SNCC in 1966, the term meant that African Americans should control the social, political, and economic direction of the movement.

Multiple Choice

How is Stokely Carmichael defining “black power” in this excerpt?

“This is the significance of Black Power as a slogan. For once, black people are going to use the words they want to use—not just the words whites want to hear. . . . The need for psychological equality is the reason why SNCC today believes that blacks must organize in the black community. Only black people can . . . create in the community an aroused and continuing black consciousness.”

• A as a separate black community

• B as integrating with full equality into American society

• C as abolishing segregation in Southern states

• D as removing restrictions on voting rights for African Americans

Black Power

Pride in African American heritage was a core belief of black power. Rather than adapting to white culture, proponents of black power emphasized racial distinctiveness, often taking African names and adopting African-style clothing and hairstyles. Traditional leaders of the civil rights movement, including Dr. King, criticized black power as a philosophy of hopelessness and despair. Malcolm X emerged as the symbol of the black power movement. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, he survived a difficult childhood and adolescence. In 1946, he was convicted of burglary and sent to prison where he took advantage of prison programs and educated himself. He also played an active role in the prison debate society.

Black Power

Eventually, he joined the Nation of Islam, commonly known as the Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam preached complete separation of the races and promoted black nationalism. After joining the Nation of Islam, Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X. The X symbolized the family name of his enslaved African ancestors. Malcolm X’s criticisms of white society and the mainstream civil rights movement gained national attention for the Nation of Islam. By 1964, Malcolm X had become disillusioned with the Black Muslims and openly criticized them. Because of this, organization members shot and killed him in February 1965

Multiple Choice

Why was Malcolm X murdered in 1965?

• A He was accidentally killed during the Watts riot in California.

• B He was murdered by unknown people while working to increase membership in the NAACP in Florida.

• C He was murdered by members of the Nation of Islam for criticizing the organization.

• D He was murdered by a white supremacist while supporting African American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

Malcolm X’s speeches and ideas influenced a new generation of militant African American leaders who preached black power, black nationalism, and economic self-sufficiency. In 1966, in Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale organized the Black Panthers. Black Panther leaders called for an end to racial oppression and for control of major institutions in the African American community, such as schools, law enforcement, housing, and hospitals

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​BLACK POWER

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In early 1968, the SCLC was planning a national “Poor People’s Campaign” to lobby the federal government to commit billions of dollars to end poverty and unemployment. Dr. King planned to lead people of all races and nationalities in a new Washington, D.C., protest, where they would camp out until both Congress and President Johnson agreed to pass the legislation.

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​Dr. King Is Assassinated

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Tragedy struck before the campaign had begun. On April 4, 1968, as Dr. King was standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, a sniper shot and killed him. His death touched off both national mourning and riots in more than 100 cities, including Washington, D.C. Without King, the Poor People’s Campaign did not achieve any of the SCLC’s major objectives.

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​Dr. King Is Assassinated

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DR. KING Is Assassinated

In the wake of Dr. King’s death, Congress did pass the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This law, sometimes known as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin when selling, renting, or financing housing. King’s assassination marked a turning point in the civil rights movement. After his death, the movement began to fragment. The shift to economic rights was already underway at the time of his death, and it was clear that the struggle to end poverty and provide more economic opportunity would be very difficult. This struggle would have to involve very different approaches than the movement had used in the past.

Open Ended

DESCRIBING

What were the goals of the Civil Rights Act of 1968?