Chapter 20: The Civil Rights Struggle

Chapter 20 tells the story of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the struggle of African Americans to gain full recognition of their rights as citizens.

Section 1 details how the early civil rights movement focused on deconstructing the segregation system. The NAACP brought several cases before the Supreme Court after World War II, but its case against school segregation rocked the barriers of segregation and the school systems that practiced it. Opposition to the Supreme Court's ruling took many different forms, and conflicts arose between federal and state authorities over the issue. Southern resistance crystallized when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus refused to comply with integration, forcing President Eisenhower to send federal troops to protect African American students. It took a while, but eventually the Supreme Court's decision was accepted throughout the nation.

Section 2 describes how civil rights protesters took action during the 1950s. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a crowded Montgomery bus, the civil rights movement accelerated. African Americans orchestrated boycotts and sit-ins to force integration, and new organizations formed to answer the demand for African Americans' rights. Advocating nonviolent resistance, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., rose to become the leader of the civil rights movement. Students especially took an active role in the movement, bringing their impatience and energy to the tactics of civil disobedience.

Section 3 explores the federal government's response to the civil rights movement. President Kennedy welcomed the support of African American voters but offered little support for promoting their civil rights. Only after years of trying to appeal to both sides of the civil rights issue did he finally throw his full support to the movement. The 1960s saw the birth of one tactic after another as African Americans set out on freedom rides, voter registration drives, protest demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches. Their persistent efforts culminated in the passage of two monumental civil rights laws—the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Section 4 tracks the civil rights movement from the beginnings with its internal divisions to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As younger African Americans grew impatient in the struggle for civil rights, a new direction for the movement came into focus. Leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael encouraged their followers to take pride in their African heritage, and some talked of black separatism. Some followers began to accept violence as a means of social protest. Riots in cities and murders of African American leaders reflected a growing fury and frustration that became ever more evident in a nation that found itself becoming more deeply engaged in a war in Vietnam.