What are Civil Rights?
Definition:
Civil rights are (...) the rights of individuals to receive equal treatment (and to be free from discrimination) in a number of settings including education, employment, housing, public accommodations etc.
Today, the term "civil rights" is also used to describe the advancement of equality for all people regardless of race, sex, age, disability, national origin, religion, or certain other characteristics.
source: civilrights.findlaw.com
What was the Civil Rights Movement and what effects can be seen today?
Sources
Information:
https://civilrights.findlaw.com/civil-rights-overview/what-are-civil-rights.html
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/expref/slavery/
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes
https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/14th-and-15th-amendments
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott
https://www.biography.com/news/black-history-birmingham-childrens-crusade-1963
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/the-greensboro-sit-in
https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2019/10/01/five-charts-that-will-change-the-way-you-think-about-racial-inequality/#23e0a1975fb2
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/ama-president-all-hands-deck-fight-achieve-health-equity
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/coronavirus-in-den-usa-afroamerikaner-sind-haerter-betroffen-a-60bfea78-dc87-482d-8fb9-151a50a3ee20?d=1586416145&sara_ecid=app_upd_xDl6zCyJhGEY9I3axx5s5LM6z4xunp&sara_ecid=soci_upd_KsBF0AFjflf0DZCxpPYDCQgO1dEMph
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/things-to-do/history/african-american-history/
Pictures:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/slavery-how-womens-key-role-in-abolition-has-yet-to-receive-the-attention-it-deserves-10467431.html
https://i1.wp.com/www.mylearning.org/learning/campaign-make-an-impact/2006.3715.jpg
https://dasg7xwmldix6.cloudfront.net/episodes/126608_Mk3Xklze.jpg
https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172697
http://calihist.weebly.com/postwar-era-suburbanization.html
http://www.blvckvrchives.com/chicagocabrinigreen
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Untitled-998x730.jpg
https://www.britannica.com/story/mother-of-the-civil-rights-movement
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration
https://talkbusiness.net/2017/09/netflix-documentary-chronicles-plight-of-little-rock-nine-ongoing-issues-with-u-s-public-school-system/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/07/1963-defining-year-civil-rights
https://www.history.com/news/kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-50-years-later
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington
https://oe1.orf.at/artikel/650663/I-Have-A-Dream
https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2019/10/01/five-charts-that-will-change-the-way-you-think-about-racial-inequality/#23e0a1975fb2
After WWII
How was life in America before the Civil War?
- Enslaved Africans came to North America in the early 17th century
- Slavery became the backbone of labor for the cotton industry which was mainly based in southern US states
- Gross National Product doubled(baby boom), wages rose
- standard of living rose for a large part of the population, increasing prosperity
- middle class expanded significantly
- suburbanization with double the number of houses within 10 years
- most Americans believed in equality but did not act on it
- while most white Americans prospered, more than half of the African American population lived in extreme poverty
- in the south segregation was a law, in the north it was a custom
- segregation lead to sub-standard education, housing and a lack of economic opportunity
Assuming you are an average white American and your total wealth is represented by 100$, how many dollars does an average African American have in comparison to you?
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the African American people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.
March on Washington (1963)
Police Brutality and Black Lives Matter
-Martin Luther King Jr.
- on the 28 of August around 250.000 people marched on the nations capital
- the march is also known as "the March on Washington for jobs and freedom"
- it is the home of the nation changing "I have a dream" speech which was held by Martin Luther King Jr.
- the president at the time, John F. Kennedy, was scared that the march would end in violence and that it would come to major outbreaks
Are we all equal today?
- in 2019 there were only 27 days out of 365 where the police did not kill anybody
- African Americans have a 3 times higher chance of being killed by the police than white people
- it does matter where you live
- some police departments kill black men at higher rates than the national murder rate
- 99% of the officers doing the killing have not been charged with a crime
- movements against injustice are still very much active today
- one of the biggest ones is Black Lives Matter which has been up and running since 2013
- one of the biggest reasons for the founding of the social movement was the shooting of the 17 year old Trayvon Martin
Greensboro Sit-in (1960)
- Slaves were being used to work long days which lasted well over 10 hours with no pay or personal freedom
- As "property" of their "owners" they had no protection from violence or mistreatment
Systemic Racism in America
- after four university students were denied service at a lunch counter in North Carolina they staged a sit in as protest
- they were inspired by the peaceful protests of Gandhi and felt pressed to action by the brutal murder of the black teenager Emmet Till who was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman at a supermarket
- Heavy media coverage of the peaceful sit in sparked other university students across the south to copy their approach paralyzing many businesses
- as a result of the peaceful movement many dining facilities across the south were integrated
source: mappingpoliceviolence.org
Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)
- regarded as the first large scale protest against segregation in US history
- took place from December 1955 until December 1956
- Claudette Colvin a 15 year old black girl was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a bus
- NAACP decided to protest this segregation but deemed Rosa Parks as a more suitable symbol
- one of the leaders of the protest who would later be very prominent was Martin Luther King Jr.
- multiple forms of racism still visible in the daily lives of African Americans
- it is proven through unemployment rates, higher education and housing situations and those are just to name a few
- African Americans are around 13% of Americas total population but 40% of Americas "prison population"
- criminal injustice is an enormous problem in the states
- black people have an about 30% higher chance of being pulled over for no reason
- on top of that, black people have double the chance of being put in jail for "petty crimes" in comparison to their white counterparts
- this goes for almost all minorities in North America
Civil Rights Movement
Little Rock Nine (1957)
- was a group of nine African American children who enlisted at the Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas
- it was also an verification of the Brown vs. Board case from 1954
- it caused massive outrage at the school and the governor of Arkansas (Orval Faubus) ordered the National Guard to prevent the students from entering the schools premises
- a few weeks later the President Dwight Eisenhower disposed federal troops in Little Rock to escort the nine students to school (this went on for one year)
- the students received large amounts of harassment and cruelty
- it took the Little Rock Nine 21 days to attend their first full day at Central High School
Emancipation of slaves
Today
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Brown vs Board (1954)
WWII
Conclusion
- Was proposed by Kennedy after over a decade of civil rights protest and growing sympathy from the public
- it banned segregation in all public places and ensured that African Americans could not be denied service on the basis of their skin color
- also ensured that no public funds could be used for any segregation campaigns
- was followed by the voting rights act (1965) which prevented literacy tests designed to keep African Americans from voting and the Fair Housing Act (1968) which aimed to balance the housing conditions across America
- in the south there was a law forbidding African American kids to go to normal public schools (since 1879)
- black children had to go to separate, sub-standard schools
- lots of black parents were outraged by this and started filing court challenges
- African Americans argued that it went against their 14nth amendment right
Children's Crusade (1963)
Breaking News
- the Civil Rights Movement changed a lot in America and is undoubtedly the biggest step towards equal rights for African Americans
- sadly laws cant change social opinions and racism is a problem that quite frankly might never go away
- even more than 50 years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. people of color face structural barriers when it comes to securing quality housing, healthcare, employment and education
- African Americans also face challenges when it comes to the criminal justice system in the United States
- the U.S supreme court decided that it is indeed unequal and got rid of racial segregation at public schools in 21 different states
- this sparked a massive white uprising in the south where districts chose to close their schools rather than desegregate them
- thousands of children went on the streets of Birmingham to protest peacefully against segregation
- some children even climbed out of the windows of their schools to go march on the streets
- to the peoples surprise, hundreds of kids were violently arrested, sprayed with water hoses and even beaten with batons
- the protests went on for days despite the circumstances
- the children wanted to provoke the leaders into getting rid of segregation
- TV and news outlets eventually started to cover to protests in their stories and brought a lot of attention with them
- the kids that took part were said to be expelled in an attempt to stop the protests
- seeing young kids being violently attacked on TV made people all around the world support their cause
- Blacks and Latinos have more than double the chance to die from Covid-19 than Whites in America (20%-30% in comparison 10%)
- this is due to geographical, social, medical and historical reasons
- the areas where minorities live in high percentages are often under-supplied in terms of medical facilities (e.g Hospitals)
- few African Americans have Health insurance
- people of color frequently can't afford to do home office due to the demands of their jobs
- healthcare in America is still evident to be segregated in some parts (Black people get tested less for the Corona-Virus
- With the end of the Civil War and the signing of the emancipation proclamation, around 4 million slaves were freed
- The 13nth amendment effectively terminated slavery in North America and the 14nth and 15nth amendments were ratified to give African Americans more rights. (ex.:right to vote)
- Southern states continued to restrict black citizens with the so called "black codes"
- In 1896 the "Jim Crow Laws" enforced the idea of "separate but equal" which segregated schools and public places.
Separate but not actually equal.
- contradicts the 14th amendment which made African Americans equal citizens
- separation made it possible to grant equal access while differentiating in quality
- segregation is proven to be psychologically damaging and destructive to a humans self-image
- Racism and violence still played a major role in society and was encouraged by segregation
- race riots and lynching took place frequently since lots of white people felt threatened by black emancipation
- in an attempt to promote white supremacy, groups like the KKK (Ku-Klux-Klan) were founded
"separate but equal" - problem solved?