The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement

It would seem that the Constitution would guarantee civil rights to everyone, regardless of the color of their skin. Unfortunately, despite the obvious, many brave people - of all skin colors, races, religions, sexes, etc. - died to ensure basic fundamental rights for everyone. It should not have been necessary for laws to be passed guaranteeing EVERYONE the right to live where they choose, eat where they choose, use any drinking fountain they choose, marry whom they choose, worship where they choose, etc. The brave men and women who fought, and often died, for basic rights for everyone, are the TRUE patriots, not some buffoon waving the flag, and espousing patriotic platitudes at the top of his voice. This page is a brief, ongoing, history of the civil rights movement, and the struggle to ensure rights for EVERYONE.

PAGE CONTENTS:

A Look Back

The Civil Rights Movement Timeline

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks

A Look Back

For the first time in American history, a black man is a major party's nominee for the country's presidency.

Let's look at how African-Americans fought for their rights as citizens of the United States and asserted themselves as candidates for public office. The story doesn't start with the 20th-century's civil rights movement or with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The story starts with Reconstruction, the tumultuous period after the American Civil War.

Reconstruction was the consequence of the federal government's decision to make the Southern states pay a price for seceding from the Union. After the deaths of more than 620,000 soldiers, no one was ready to simply say, "No hard feelings. Welcome back."

But the Reconstruction Acts that Congress passed in 1867 and 1868 were not just to punish the South for the war. Everyone knew that the men in charge of the Confederate
states before the war were not going to support the 13th Amendment, which eliminated slavery, or the 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship to those freed from it.

So, in 1867, Congress divided most of the bottom half of the United States into five military districts. Federal authorities then sent Union troops to establish state governments, conduct trials, and generally run the show.

In the late 1860s, massive changes occurred on the voter rolls. Black men were given the right to vote. And most of the men who had served in the Confederate Army, or had supported it with supplies, were barred from voting.

The logical thing happened. Black men got elected to all sorts of local offices. They got elected to some state legislatures, too. And when the Confederate states were admitted back into the Union, one by one, the first African-Americans took their seats in the Senate and House of Representatives.

In 1870, South Carolina sent Representative Joseph Rainey to the House. Senator Hiram Revels represented Mississippi. Choosing Revels was, in fact, a deliberately symbolic act. He took the seat that Jefferson Davis held before Davis became president of the Confederate States of America.

From 1870 to 1901, twenty-two African-American men served in Congress. Of course, all were Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Some were former slaves. Half the men had attended college, and most had held elected office before coming to Washington.

The peak year of black representation was 1875, with two senators and six representatives. By 1891, that had dwindled to just one man in the House, as whites across the South regained their voting rights and organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan stepped up campaigns to intimidate black voters from coming to the polls.

The last African-American, George White, left the House of Representatives in 1901. He declared from the House floor, "This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negro's temporary
farewell to the American Congress; but let me say Phoenix-like he will rise up someday and come again."

Representative White was right. But it was not until 1928 that Oscar DePriest, a black man from Chicago, took his seat in the House. A few African-Americans were elected in
the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, but black Americans had to wait until 1966 to have six African-American representatives--the same number that had been achieved in 1875.

--Colleen Kelly

The Civil Rights Movement Timeline

In 1875, the U.S. Congress passed a Civil Rights Act, prohibiting racial segregation at "inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement." The Supreme Court struck it down, ruling that private businesses could do as they please. In fact, in 1896, the Court said that states could segregate, too, so long as their separate facilities were "equal."

It wasn't until May 1954 that the Court finally ate crow--Jim Crow. In the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision, all nine justices declared that segregated schools are "inherently unequal." Here's a look back at the civil rights fight that changed America, from the drive to desegregate the armed forces in 1948 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., 20 years later.

We continue the story, by reviewing 10 key events in the 20th-century civil rights movement that changed America forever.

1948 - Southern Democrats walk out of their party's convention when the party inserts a strong civil rights plank in its platform. A week later, they form the States' Rights Party (a.k.a. the Dixiecrats) and nominate Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president. Thurmond insists that "all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force . . . the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches." After the convention, Democratic President Harry Truman issues two executive orders, starting desegregation in the U.S. armed forces and ending racial bias in government hiring.

1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously bars segregation in the nation's public schools in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Accepting arguments made by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People--and one of its chief litigators, future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall--the Court rules that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and so violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The state legislatures of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi all declare the new decision to be "null, void, and no effect."

1955 - Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress, refuses to give a white person her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. Her action sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by a
relatively unknown Martin Luther King, Jr. A year later, after bus company revenues fall by 65 percent and the Supreme Court rules that segregated seating must end, Montgomery's buses desegregate.

1957 - Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas sends the National Guard to Little Rock, where guardsmen prevent nine black students from starting the school year at Little Rock Central High School. When a federal court insists that the students be admitted, a mob of more than 1,000 people makes sure they don't stay long. Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalizes the state's national guard and sends in 1,000 U.S. troops, who escort the nine black students into the previously all-white school.

1960 - Four black college students begin a "sit-in" at a whites-only Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, staying in their seats the whole day after being refused service. Soon, hundreds of students, civil rights leaders, churchgoers, and other concerned citizens join the protest, sitting at the lunch counter and boycotting the store. After six months, Woolworth desegregates. The successful sit-in sparks similar efforts nationwide.

1961 - "Freedom Riders," black and white, begin bus tours across the South to protest segregated terminals. Angry mobs firebomb one bus and stone others, and local police
arrest the riders. The Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregated facilities on all interstate bus routes.

1963 - Police arrest Martin Luther King, Jr., and other ministers demonstrating in Birmingham, Alabama--and turn fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators. Film of
the attacks sways public opinion further toward the protesters' cause and forces Birmingham officials to agree to the eventual desegregation of public facilities. In Washington, DC, 250,000 Americans gather at the LincolnMemorial to urge support for civil rights legislation. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the event.

1964 - Congress passes, and the states ratify, the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting poll tax in federal elections. Congress also passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the strongest piece of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction after the Civil War. The act outlaws any form of discrimination or segregation in federal voting procedures, public facilities, or public accommodations "on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin." The act also bans discrimination by schools and employers.

1965 - Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits state laws and practices, such as literacy tests, that effectively prevent minorities from voting. The act
also empowers federal examiners to register qualified voters. The number of registered black voters skyrockets. Prior to the act, only 23 percent of adult African-Americans can vote. By 1969, 61 percent can. In Mississippi alone, black voter registration jumps from 7
percent to 67 percent.

1968 - Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also called the Fair Housing Act, to prohibit discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Just days before the act passes, Martin Luther King, Jr., is gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in more than a hundred U.S. cities, and the civil rights movement begins a new phase.

--Michael Himick
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement

On December 1, 1955, forty-three year old Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery, Alabama city bus after finishing work as a tailor's assistant at the Montgomery Fair department store. As all black patrons were required to do, she paid her fair at the front of the bus, and then re-boarded in the rear. She sat in a vacant seat in the back next to a man and across the aisle from two women. After a few stops, the seats in the front of the bus became full, and a white man who had boarded stood in the aisle. The bus driver asked Parks, the man next to her, and the two women to let the white man have their seats. As the others moved, Parks remained in her seat. The bus driver again asked her to move, and she refused. The driver called the police, and she was arrested. She did not know it at the time, but this courageous act would lead to a 381 day bus boycott and the desegregation of buses throughout the United States.

After Parks arrest, community leaders spread the word that a one day bus boycott was scheduled for December 5. On that cold and cloudy morning, onlookers watched as the buses drove by with few black passengers onboard. The boycott had been a success.

On that afternoon, the leadership met and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association. As their spokesperson, they chose Martin Luther King, Jr., who was an unknown twenty-six year old minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. King was scheduled to speak that evening at a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church. After preparing a speech in only a few hours, Dr. King spoke about unity, Christian love, and nonviolence. It was a powerful message that set the tone for the boycott.

Also, at the mass meeting it was decided to continue the boycott. While there was not a call to end segregation on buses, there were three demands. They demanded courteous treatment from drivers, first come first serve seating, and black drivers for black routes.

To help transport boycott participants, a volunteer carpool began on December 13 with 300 vehicles. A transportation center in a downtown parking lot was created. It was used as a central meeting point where after passengers were picked up from various locations, they were brought to this center. From there, all those going to one section of town rode in a car together. The police quickly reacted by arresting drivers and passengers. Passengers waiting for car pools were often arrested for loitering, and drivers received traffic tickets two or three times a week and were even arrested for overloading their cars.

On February 1, 1956, the Montgomery Improvement Association filed suit in the United States District Court challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation. In the same month, Martin Luther King and more than 90 others were arrested for conspiring to conduct a boycott. Dr. King's trail and conviction received nationwide attention, and made him a national figure.

In June of 1956, the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The city appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court. In mid-November, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts ruling, and declared that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. Implementation of the Court's decision took place on December 20, 1956.

ROSA PARKS

On December 1, 1955, forty-three year old Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery, Alabama city bus after finishing work as a tailor's assistant at the Montgomery Fair department store. As all black patrons were required to do, she paid her fair at the front of the bus and then re-boarded in the rear. She sat in a vacant seat in the back next to a man and across the aisle from two women. After a few stops, the seats in the front of the bus became full and a white man who had boarded, stood in the aisle. The bus driver asked Parks, the man next to her, and the two women to let the white man have their seats. As the others moved, Parks remained in her seat. The bus driver again asked her to move, but she refused. The driver called the police and she was arrested. The arrest of Parks sparked the bus boycott in Montgomery, which eventually led to the desegregation of buses throughout the United States.

Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley and Leona McCauley. At the age of two, Parks, her brother, and her mother moved to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her grandparents. At the age of eleven, she began attending the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, which was funded by liberal northern women. She later began attending Alabama State Teachers College.

Upon completion, she moved with her husband, Raymond Parks, to Montgomery. Parks and her husband joined the local chapter of the NAACP. She acted as the secretary from 1943 to 1956. She also worked to help improve conditions for African Americans. She worked on cases involving such issues as, flogging, peonage, rape, and murder.

After her stand against bus segregation in Montgomery in 1955, Parks lost her seamstress job. So Parks and her husband moved to Detroit in 1957, where she later served on staff for United States Representative, John Conyers from 1965 to 1988.

In 1979, Parks won the Spingarn Medal for her civil rights work. Also, in her honor the Southern Christian Leadership Council established the annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. In 1987, after Raymond Parks' death, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to help young people. In 1996, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1999 she received the Congressional Gold Medal.

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