The Civil Rights Movement

Africans had been kidnapped and used for slave labor in the Americas long before this country was founded. In fact, Thomas Jefferson, himself a keeper of slaves including Sally Hemmings with whom many believe he fathered several children, warned that the institution of slavery would one day ring "like a fire bell in the night" throughout this country supposedly founded upon natural rights. Our third president proved to be right as the Civil War waged between 1861-1865 was largely about slavery and the economic way of life it made possible. After the war the 13th Amendment was enacted forever banning the peculiar institution. Soon came the 14th Amendment which granted citizens equal protection of the laws. The 15th Amendment granted, at least in theory,  the right to vote to those African American men who met other qualifications depending upon the state in which they resided. At the turn of the century a landmark decision titled Plessy v. Ferguson found that Blacks were entitled to treatment and facilities which were "separate but equal" from those of whites.  Thus began an era of Jim Crow, especially in the south, where laws and practices were carried out forcing Blacks into second class citizenship. Never mind that African Americans, as you know, fought bravely in all of our nation's wars. Second class? No that puts it too mildly. There is a man, James Cameron, who made Milwaukee, Wisconsin his home. At the age of 16 he survived a lynching in the town of Marion, Indiana in 1930! (A lynching was when an angry mob of whites took justice into their own hands and hung a black man for real or supposed crimes. The whole town would come out to watch. Often the bodies were burned and left to hang for several days). James watched as two of his friends were murdered and barely escaped murder himself. There is a PBS special about him and he operates the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee.

It wasn't until the decision of Brown v. the Board of Education that the Supreme Court found that separate but equal was a lie. In fact, that sending Black and White children to separate schools inherently deprived them of the education they could have from just interacting and learning about one another. Over night America's schools were ordered desegregated (many states ignored the ruling). It was Thurgood Marshall, attorney for the NAACP, who successfully represented Linda Brown and was to later become our nation's first African American Supreme Court justice. It wasn't until after the Korean War that President Truman ordered our armed forces desegregated. And then there's Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King & Malcolm X.

Jesse Jackson with Martin Luther King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel - day before assassination.

 

Again, true to my nature, I am getting ahead of things here. So much to tell you and so little time to teach! 

Here are the readings you need for this assignment.

Write one sentence demonstrating your understanding of and relationship between each of the following sets of terms.

1. Rosa Parks, Montgomery, Alabama & Boycott

2. Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act

3. Brown v. Board, Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School & Dwight Eisenhower (Click here to see what happened to the "Little Rock 9")

4. SNCC, SCLC & CORE

Emily Anne Mulvenna with the Reverend Jesse Jackson in Madison, WI, for a rally in February, 2011.

5. Sit-in & freedom rides

6. Martin Luther King & march on Washington

7. Black Panthers & Kerner Commission

8. Explain how the philosophies of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X differed. With whom do you agree more and why?

9. What gains were made by African Americans through the Civil Rights Movement?

 

Please watch this:

 

10. This is a tough question. Do you think we've come a long way or not? On one hand we have an African-American President; on the other Milwaukee remains one of the most segregated cities in America and there is a lot of political strife in our city, state and country. What would Martin Luther King say today?