The battle for civil rights

1.

The battle for civil
rights
Докладчик
Студентка группы И/б-18-1-о
Янковенко Д.В.

2.

The battle for civil rights
Although slavery was formally
abolished in the mid-nineteenth century, for
more than a hundred years after that, black
Americans were considered "second-class
people" and subjected to various forms of
discrimination.
In the 50s of the last century, the
mass struggle of African - Americans for their
rights began and resistance to racism
increased sharply. The "Negro question"
came to the forefront of domestic political
life. This activation was natural. The
consequences of the process of changing the
social composition of "colored" citizens have
become particularly noticeable : from the
once agricultural population, AfricanAmericans have become predominantly

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The battle for civil rights
How did it all start?
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, a 42year-old black seamstress at a Department store in
Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, was arrested
and then fined for refusing to give up a seat on a
bus to a white passenger, as required by local law.
After the arrest of Rosa Parks, Ed Nixon, who
headed the local Union of sleeping car
conductors, called on the black community to
boycott urban transport in protest. A boycott of
bus lines in Montgomery was soon led by a young
black priest, Martin Luther King. Thanks to the
efforts of king and members of the boycott
Committee, the protest of the black population
lasted 381 days and went down in history as
"Walking for freedom" - the protest participants
had to walk to work and local bus companies
suffered large losses.

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The battle for civil rights
The leaders of the boycott filed a lawsuit in Federal district court, which in December 1956 recognized the
unconstitutionality of laws on segregation in city buses. Buses in Montgomery were integrated. But white supremacists started
shooting at them. A black girl was severely beaten, a pregnant woman was shot in the leg, and bombs exploded in black
neighborhoods. The violence stopped after it was strongly condemned by a local newspaper, a number of white priests, and a
local business Association.
In 1957, a Federal court ordered integration in the municipal schools of little Rock, Arkansas. Nine black
children were selected to enroll at little Rock Central high school, but the local police, by order of the state Governor, did not
allow them to attend classes. After some hesitation, us President Dwight Eisenhower deployed soldiers from the 101st
airborne division to enforce the court order. Soldiers accompanied the little Rock nine to school. When the children finally
entered the Central school, they were met by an angry crowd who insulted them. A similar clash occurred in New Orleans in
November 1960, when four black girls entered Franz elementary school in the Ninth district

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The battle for civil rights
New stage
A new phase of the civil rights struggle began in 1960, when on February 1, four black
students took seats for whites in a segregated diner at a Woolworth's Department store in
Greensboro, North Carolina. They were forced to leave, but the next day dozens and hundreds of
other black students followed suit. So began a wave of sit-in demonstrations, when activists
entered "white-only" establishments or sat in white-only seats and demanded to be served,
refusing to leave. By the end of March 1960 they have already been held in more than 50 cities.
They were reinforced by" reclining"," kneeling", and" bathing " demonstrations in libraries,
theaters, churches, and swimming pools. White students also joined the black protesters. Initially,
these actions were carried out spontaneously, but in April 1960, the "Student nonviolent
Coordinating Committee" was formed. Protesting students symbolically elected king as the leader
of their movement. Many of them carried a memo with the words: "Remember the teachings of
Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Remember love and non-violence."
Special rules of conduct were developed for participants in demonstrations in eateries, which
called for not responding to violence with violence, abstaining and not responding to insults,
behaving politely and amiably, sitting straight and always facing the counter. Thanks to such
protests, Diners in more than 150 cities in the southern States were desegregated during 1960.

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The battle for civil rights
In March 1960 The "Congress of racial
equality" called for "moving sit-ins-demonstrations to
the roads" of the country. This was the beginning of the"
freedom rides", the purpose of which was to check the
reality of using public transport and public places in
accordance with Federal law and draw public attention
to the facts of segregation. On may 4, 1961, the first
group of participants left Washington on an intercity bus
to the South of the country. In Anniston (Alabama), their
bus was set on fire, upon arrival in Birmingham, the
participants of the "RAID" were severely beaten by an
angry crowd, and in Mississippi they were arrested for
"disorderly conduct". "Freedom raids" lasted all summer
of 1961. Black and white activists on intercity buses
came to the southern States, broke into groups at bus
stations, in cafeterias, shops, motels, sat down or threw
themselves on the floor, seeking equal service with
whites. They were mocked, beaten, and buses were set
on fire. Many participants of the "raids" were arrested
and put on trial. But as a result, the owners of many
retail and service businesses were forced to abandon the
practice of segregation in their establishments. The
Federal Commission for regulating interstate
Commerce, for its part, was also forced to ban
segregation in long-distance buses and trains.

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The battle for civil rights
In 1962 The Supreme court of the United States decided
to enroll a black man, James Meredith, at the University of
Mississippi. However, this outcome was opposed by Mississippi
Governor Ross Barnet and a racist part of the state's residents.
Protesters gathered on campus. The resolution of the issue required
the intervention of the Federal government in the person of President
John F. Kennedy and attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy.
On September 30, James Meredith appeared at the University
accompanied by Federal marshals, but several thousand Federal
soldiers were sent to fully resolve the situation in Mississippi. During
the riots, two people were killed, 375 people were injured and about
200 were arrested. A number of military personnel remained to guard
Meredith until his release.
The racists resisted fiercely. In 1963 Alabama Governor
George Wallace stated: "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever." On June 11, 1963, there was an incident at the
entrance to the University when Wallace blocked the way for the first
two black students of the University of Alabama — Vivian Malone
and James Hood. On June 12, 1963, black activist Medgar Evers died
on the doorstep of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, from a bullet
from white racist Byron de La Beckwith..

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The battle for civil rights
President Kennedy in June 1963 sent a bill
to Congress on broad desegregation and measures
against discrimination against black citizens. To put
pressure on Congress, mass rallies and demonstrations
were organized in many cities in the United States to
demand the passage of this law. On August 28, 1963, a
March on Washington was held, which was attended
by 250 thousand people. This day has become a true
celebration of the unity of whites and blacks.
July 2, 1964 President Johnson signed the
civil rights Act of 1964, passed by Congress, which
prohibited racial discrimination in trade, services, and
employment. Martin Luther king, who was awarded
the Nobel peace prize in October 1964, launched a
campaign in the Alabama city of Selma to include
blacks in the voter rolls. On March 7, 1965,
participants in an unauthorized demonstration were
severely beaten and 78 people were injured on the
outskirts of Selma. Photos of this massacre were
published by all the major Newspapers in the world.

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The battle for civil rights
In the summer of 1967, spontaneous black riots broke out in 128 cities, culminating in the bloody riots in
Newark and Detroit. To draw public attention to the situation in the black ghettos, the southern Christian leadership
Conference moved its headquarters to Lowndale, a poor neighborhood of Chicago. Unions have been established
tenants, defending the rights of local residents to "slumlords" owners of slum houses. According to many American
researchers, king and his associates managed for a while to channel the spontaneous anger and destructive energy of
the desperate poor from the black ghetto into organized nonviolent protest to solve specific problems.
In 1967, king put forward the idea of a "March of the poor" on Washington to demand the passage of the
economic rights act, which was supposed to guarantee all poor Americans — black and white — a job and a living
wage. In Washington, they were to set up a demonstrative tent city, block city highways, and stage sit-ins in govern

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The battle for civil rights
The movement for black rights in the
United States was of tremendous importance, which
cannot be overestimated. In my opinion, it was after
the acquisition of civil rights by a black person that
the United States was able to fully integrate into the
society of States devoid of racial prejudice.
Of course, the situation of blacks after the
70-ies of the XX century left much to be desired, but
the situation was gradually corrected and now we can
observe equality in all social areas of contacts of the
inter-racial population of the United States. There is
another striking trend that has become quite
unexpected for me. Since the end of the 90s, there
has been a so-called reverse segregation. This is
expressed in the fact that, for example, the color of
the skin when applying for a job in the United States
again began to play a not yet important, but,
nevertheless, a significant role. Now black citizens of
the United States began to give more preference
when hiring than their white compatriots

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