Chapter 3 Notes: US Civil Rights

The passing of the Civil Rights Act

1964
● President Johnson's role in passing the Act
○ Johnson had even more direct experience of the impact of segregation when he
was vice president. When his black cook, Zephyr Wright, and her husband were
driving the vice president's official car from Washington DC to his home state of
Texas, they could not use the toilets in a petrol station.
○ Instead, pull off on a side road, and as Johnson later recounted, 'they would
...Zephyr Wright, the cook of the vice president of the United States, would squat
in the road to pee.'
○ Johnson knew that an end to racial tension would attract business investment and
that desegregation would bring economic improvement to the South.
○ He had supported the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown case in 1954 and was
one of the few southern politicians who had not signed the Southern Manifesto
○ Even if it meant alienating southern Democrats, he was determined to exploit the
grief following Kennedy's assassination and, as a tribute, to pass his civil rights
bill.
○ Years later, Johnson said: ‘history books taught me that martyrs have to die for
causes.
○ John Kennedy had died. But his "cause" was not really clear. That was my job. I
had to take the dead man's program and turn it into a martyr's cause.'
○ Kennedy's civil rights bill stalled in Congress.
■ Johnson now infused it with asense of urgency and purpose, zeal and
decisiveness.
○ A highly experienced politician, Johnson was skilled at negotiation and
persuasion.
■ Many politicians were subjected to what journalists called the 'Johnson
Treatment': he moved in close, with a grip of the hand or the shoulder, a
hand on the knee or a nudge in the ribs.
■ Heflattered, he twisted arms and made deals: he promised federal help, to
an Arizona senator, for a water project in his desert state and offered
emergency aid to one of the Alaska senators after an earthquake.
■ Both of these senators were Republicans.

● The Civil Rights Act 1964

○ The Civil Rights Act virtually wiped out Jim Crow laws at once.
 ○ Businesses which employed more than 100 people were forbidden from practicing
racial discrimination and, within three years, the same provisions would apply to
smaller businesses as well.
○ It established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to act as a
permanent watchdog agency and investigate claims of racial discrimination.
○ The Supreme Court moved quickly to uphold the Act to pre-empt challenges to its
constitutionality.
○ However, Johnson recognized that legislation alone could not ensure equality.
○ John knew that much racial segregation and discrimination had been illegal for
many years but that laws had often not been enforced.
○ His government now took steps to ensure the new laws were enforced.
■ For instance, black Americans would no longer have to file suits in the law
counts to stop segregation.
■ Instead, it was the responsibility of the federal government to ensure it
was eliminated and now there was a greater guarantee of legal action
being taken quickly and effectively.
■ There were also other ways in which the government could act: Johnson
used federal funding to force the pace of school desegregation in the
South.
■ One of the most effective ways was by withdrawing federal funds from
schools that failed to integrate and by injecting money to support those
that were integrating.
○ Pockets of resistance still remained
■ For instance, in Virginia, which bordered Washington DC, a number of
schools closed down rather than allow blacks to attend.
○ Nevertheless, by September 1965, 88 per cent of school districts in the South had
complied.

● Campaigning for the vote in Mississippi in the early 1960s

○ The Civil Rights Act banned segregation in schools and all public places but it did
little to remove the obstacles that prevented blacks from voting.
○ In Mississippi, the SNCC had been campaigning since 1962 to increase voter
registration among rural blacks.
○ This campaign was the most sustained and intensive of the whole Civil Rights
Movement and it carried on despite intimidation, bombing, killing and lack of
federal government support.
○ It also highlights the importance of local struggles and the role of 'ordinary'
people in the Civil Rights Movement.

● Mississippi and civil rights

 ○ In the early 1960s, Mississippi was the poorest state in the USA. Nearly half of its
population was black, more than in any other state.
○ It also had the most
○ incidences of racist beatings and lynchings.
○ Only five percent of black people were registered to vote and no black person had
been elected to any office in the state since 1877, when Reconstruction ended.
○ However, for most black people, poverty was a far more pressing problem than
not being able to vote.
○ Most lived in small, isolated, rural communities and many had lost their jobs on
the land with the increased use of chemical fertilizers and mechanization.
○ Most of their children received only very basic, primary school education as much
less was spent on black schools than on white ones.

● Medgar Evers
○ Medgar Evers was one black Mississippian who was determined to change things.
○ He was a veteran of the Second World War (white veterans were usually highly
respected) but had still been prevented from registering to vote, by a white mob
with knives and guns.
○ Refused entry to the white-only University of Mississippi, he worked for the
NAACP, investigating violent crimes against blacks and campaigning for
desegregation and voter registration.
○ In the late 1950s, he organized a voter registration drive. He knew that once
blacks were registered to vote in Mississippi, they could wield great power.
○ Making up nearly half the population of the state, they would be able to elect
Congressman and local legislators and officials.
○ However, the forces of white supremacy were both well organized and well
financed.
■ Lawyers, judges and politicians were often members of the white Citizens'
Council (see page 33).
■ Fear of unemployment deterred many blacks from attempting to register to
vote; those applying had to state the name of their employer which meant,
in the words of one activist, 'you would be fired by the time you got
home'.
○ The authorities employed informers and spies, and published racist articles in the
newspapers.
○ Not surprisingly, very few blacks tried to register to vote.
○ Medgar Evers' work was brought to a sudden, tragic end: just a few hours after
Kennedy spoke on television on 11 June 1963.

● The SNCC campaign in Mississippi 1961-3

 ○ In 1961, the local NAACP group invited SNCC leader Bob Moses to recruit and
send in volunteers.
○ Many of them had experience of sit-ins and the Freedom Rides.
○ Many gave up their studies in order to be full-time activists.
○ The idea was that they would live alongside poor, rural blacks, developing local
leaders according to local needs.
○ This was very much the approach favored by Ella Baker ever since the first
student sit-ins in 1960.

● Freedom Summer 1964 recruited northern, white students as civil rights activists in
Mississippi
○ Integrationist, non-violent approach criticized by some SNCC activists, especially
after rejection of MFDP at Democratic National Convention
○ Attracted greater publicity but very limited gains in voter registration
○ Grassroots campaigning by SNCC in Mississippi in early 1960s was met with
violence, often condoned by state authorities
■ Mississippi was the poorest state in USA with highest percentage of
blacks yet lowest percentage of black voters

● Accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement

○ Empowered a generation
○ Showed that ordinary people can change the world
○ Change can happen if laws are enforced
○ Increased and elevated a black middle class

● Challenges still remaining

○ Laws can't change people's attitudes
○ Racism still deeply entrenched in US society
○ Balance of power in government has not changed
○ Huge segment of the black population left behind

● SNCC voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, since 1963

● SCLC targeted Selma for campaign in 1965 to gain maximum publicity and force federal
government to pass Voting Rights Act
● Police violence on Bloody Sunday and killing of a white clergyman caused national
outcry and increased pressure on president and Congress
● Voting Rights Act led to huge increase in black voting and election of black officials
across the South within a few years
● Riots in Los Angeles in 1965 suggested that civil rights legislation made little difference
to life in the urban ghetto
● Civil rights leaders criticized Malcolm X
● Malcolm X appealed to blacks in the northern ghettoes by
○ Espousing black nationalism
○ Criticizing the integrationist approach to civil rights
○ Calling for black people to defend themselves, with violence if necessary
● Many recognized that he voiced the feelings of young, urban blacks and instilled, in
many, a sense of black pride