5.1: Civil Rights Movement in the USA

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

 The Time of Television and Computers

5.4 Continuing conflict in the Middle East

What is this lesson about?

After World War II, not everybody in the USA profited from the great economic growth the country experienced. In many - mainly southern - states, society was segregated. African Americans were treated as second-class citizens. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Civil Rights Movement gained lots of support by organising non-violent protest. In 1965, African Americans got the same rights as white Americans. However, discrimination was not completely eliminated and the struggle against this still goes on.

people in this lesson

Dr Martin Luther King

Malcolm X

Rosa Parks

Word Duty

standard of living: the welfare and well-being of citizens

second-class citizens: citizens who have fewer rights than the dominant group in society

Jim Crow Laws: set of racist laws enforcing segregation in the southern states of the USA (1890-1965)

Civil Rights Movement: a movement in the USA aimed at improving civil rights for African Americans in the USA

extremism: holding extreme political or religious views, often violently

WORD DUTY

Important dates in this lesson:

1865: slavery abolished in the USA

          K.K.K. founded

1957: Little Rock high school 

1963: March on Washington ("I have a Dream")

          president Kennedy murdered

1964: Civil Rights Act signed

1965: Malcolm X murdered

1968: Martin Luther King murdered

2008: Barrack Obama first colored president

2014: racial riots in Ferguson

At start of the first century, the area that is now called Israel was occupied by Rome. After an unsuccessful revolt against the Romans, most Jews lived in diaspora: they left the Roman Province of Palestine and moved to other areas in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Many preserved their culture, faith and practices; for this, they were often distrusted. In times of disaster, such as plagues, Jews became scapegoats.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

A Jewish homeland

The term 'Zionism' is derived from the Biblical word 'Zion', which is often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. In Hebrew, it indicates the most holy place in the world for Jews, the site of the First and Second Holy Temple of Jerusalem.

In the late 19th century, a nationalist movement called Zionism emerged from the Jewish communities in Central Europe. Their aim was to re-establish a Jewish homeland to escape anti- Semitic discrimination and persecution, particularly in Russia. Theodor Herzl, considered the founder of the Zionist movement, argued that the emancipation of Jews could only succeed if they had their own state. In 1896, he published Der Judenstaat (the Jews’ State), a practical plan of how a future Jewish state should be established.

In 1897, the Zionist organised a congress. The approximately two hundred participants decided that Palestine, an area then controlled by the Ottoman Empire, was the best option for re-establishing a Jewish homeland. Moreover this was their ancestral land, as taught in Jewish prayers. Following this congress, Herzl struggled to gain support for the Zionist plans from important world powers of that time. He discussed the project with the German Emperor, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian government and even the Pope, but in vain.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

The Balfour Declaration

Zionsm initially had few followers amongst Jews in Europe and America. Jews were divided between those who saw Judaism purely as their religion and those who connected it with a feeling of cultural and political nationalism.

During the First World War, Zionists and other Jewish communities had remained neutral. By 1916, France and England realised that the trench warfare had resulted in a standstill. In November 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Walter Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in Britain, stating that Britain supported plans for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Source 3.36 Part of Balfour’s letter to Walter Rothschild, November 1917.

Balfour’s letter became known as the Balfour Declaration. He tried to win over the Jews and hoped the Allied powers could get loans from Jewish bankers and entrepreneurs with advantageous terms. The British also saw a friendly Jewish state in the Middle East as a way to contain their power at the Suez Canal and the oil fields. Balfour at the time believed that Jews and Palestinian Arabs would be able to live together peacefully.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948)

After World War One, the Ottoman Empire fell apart. At the 1919 Peace Conference in Versailles, the League of Nations gave the Arab areas the status of British mandate.

This meant that Palestine came under British governance. Jewish immigrants were allowed to settle in Mandatory Palestine, though the British did not intend to make it an exclusively Jewish territory.

The Jewish settlers bought lots of farmland from landowners, who often lived in cities such as Beirut. Many poor Arab farmers, who had always leased their land from these landowners, were forced to leave their farms. The Jews turned swampy or barren areas into fertile farmland.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

The State of Israel

During and after the Second World War, many ships with Jewish refugees reached the Palestine coast. Zionists violently turned against the British Mandate. On 27th November 1947, the United Nations proposed a plan to divide Palestine into an Arab state (48% of the country) and a Jewish state (52% of the country), with Jerusalem remaining under UN control. The Jews agreed, but the Arabs protested strongly. Between 1947- 1948, a Civil War broke out in which both parties tried to conquer as much area as possible. The British could not restore order and handed its mandate over to the United Nations. In May 1948, a major Zionist leader, Ben Gurion, proclaimed the State of Israel. During this year, the Israelis were able to increase their territory and even conquered West-Jerusalem. In 1949, there was an armistice between the Arab and Israeli forces. The borders at that time were recognized by a majority of the United Nations, including the USA and the Soviet Union, as the borders of the new State of Israel.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

The First Arab-Israeli War

In the previous slide you  read how, straight after the founding of the State of Israel in May 1948, a military coalition of the surrounding Arab countries attacked Israel. Israel withstood this attack. Afterwards, Israel was a lot larger than at its founding. During the attacks, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left their homes and ended up in refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, or in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Some Palestinians had already fled at the outbreak of the war, hoping to return after the Arab nations had beaten Israel. Others fled because of the violence or were driven out by Israeli soldiers. Most refugees wanted to return to their homes after the war. Palestinian Arabs who had not fled, generally became Israeli citizens after the war. Many refugees wanted to join them, but Israel only allowed a limited number of people to return, fearing the loss of a Jewish majority in Israel

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War

In 1967, another war broke out, with Israel up against Egypt, Jordan and Syria on the other side. In six days, Israel won this so-called Six-Day War with the conquest of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, the Golan Heights in Syria and part of the West Bank in Jordan. The many expanded Palestinian refugee camps in these areas were now in the territory of Israel. Some refugees moved to camps in other countries, but many stayed and were now controlled by the Israeli military.

In 1973, another offensive took place. Egypt had been trying to start negotiations to regain the Sinai Peninsula, but in vain. So Egypt’s army invaded Sinai in order to force Israel to start negotiations. Egypt had signed an alliance with the Syrian president, who had been planning to conquer the Golan Heights again. Egypt’s invasion was unexpected by Israel, but in the end it was once more the strongest and held on to all the occupied territories. This war started on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism and a holiday in Israel, and lasted under three weeks.

All these wars ended in armistices. There were no peace conferences and no peace treaties were signed. The main reason for this is that the Arab countries did not want to recognise Israel as a legitimate state. As a result, the borders between the countries stayed where they were when the fighting stopped

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

The rise of Palestinian nationalism

Most refugee camps that came into being in 1949 and in the wars that followed, still exist. The population in these camps has increased greatly – a fourth generation is growing up there. The camps are overcrowded and living conditions are mostly very bad. For a long time, it was not clear who was responsible for these people. The government of Lebanon, for example, has never accepted the Palestinians as Lebanese citizens, even if they were born in the country.

This means that they are not allowed to get a job, and opportunities to get an education or medical care when needed are very limited. There is no organisation or authority that represents the Palestinian Arabs, as they never formed a unity in, for example, a state. In the course of time however, Palestinians did start to feel more and more united and Palestinian nationalism emerged. Other countries also increasingly started to refer to them as one people.

In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded. This was a cooperation of Palestinian groups that decided to work together in their fight against Israel. Their main goal was to destroy the Jewish state. To achieve this, the PLO resorted to terrorism, the use of violence against civilians for political aims.

The Palestinians now had a group that represented them, but because of the terrorism, the Israeli government refused to see them as a negotiation partner. The PLO not only organised terrorist attacks, they also provided help for the people in the refugee camps that nobody else took responsibility for. Because of this, the PLO quickly gained a lot of support from the people who lived there.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

An Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty
. 

In 1992, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin opened up to peace talks with the PLO, by now the main Palestinian authority. These peace talks, many held in secret in Norway, were the first ones that actually led to a treaty known as the Oslo Accords. These determined that Israel would pull back its troops from Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians received the right to rule their own territory (‘Palestine’ – proclaimed by the PLO in 1988) through a so-called Palestinian Authority, a sort of government. It was decided that the Palestinian Authority would develop its rule step by step. As some regions were more developed and better organised than others, it would take time before all regions were united into one country.

Both parties recognised each other’s existence and the PLO promised to stop terrorist attacks on soldiers and civilians; these attacks involved stones and Molotov cocktails being thrown and also suicide missions. Israel retaliated using machine guns and rockets.

Unfortunately, most of what was agreed in Oslo never became reality. The Accords were strongly opposed on both sides, and Yitzhak Rabin was even murdered for this by an Israeli. Today, both sides are still hostile to each other and peace still seems far away.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

An Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty
. 

In 1992, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin opened up to peace talks with the PLO, by now the main Palestinian authority. These peace talks, many held in secret in Norway, were the first ones that actually led to a treaty known as the Oslo Accords. These determined that Israel would pull back its troops from Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians received the right to rule their own territory (‘Palestine’ – proclaimed by the PLO in 1988) through a so-called Palestinian Authority, a sort of government. It was decided that the Palestinian Authority would develop its rule step by step. As some regions were more developed and better organised than others, it would take time before all regions were united into one country.

Both parties recognised each other’s existence and the PLO promised to stop terrorist attacks on soldiers and civilians; these attacks involved stones and Molotov cocktails being thrown and also suicide missions. Israel retaliated using machine guns and rockets.

Unfortunately, most of what was agreed in Oslo never became reality. The Accords were strongly opposed on both sides, and Yitzhak Rabin was even murdered for this by an Israeli. Today, both sides are still hostile to each other and peace still seems far away.

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

1. What does it mean to be a second-class citizen?

2. What is segregation?

3. Supporters of segregation often describe the way people
live together there as ‘separate, but equal’.
Was this true of the segregation in the USA?
Use the concept ‘Jim Crow Laws’ in your answer.

A bus station in the State of North Carolina in 1940

It was not only African Americans, but also many immigrants who lived in poverty. Attracted by America's wealth, many Europeans had packed their belongings and moved to the USA to start a new life in the 'land of endless opportunities'.

The southern states of the USA used to have a plantation economy based on the labour of African slaves. Many modern African Americans are descendants of former slaves.

African Americans and white Americans went to separate schools and hospitals, had separate waiting rooms at train stations, separate public water fountains and toilets, separate (places in) bars, restaurants, theatres, etcetera. 

The position of the two groups was not equal. Schools and hospitals for African Americans were of a lesser quality than those for white citizens. African Americans were only allowed to stand in the back of buses, while the seats in front were reserved for white people. Although the American constitution says that ‘all men are created equal’, African Americans in the southern states did not have the same rights as white citizens. These states had special sets of laws for African Americans. These laws were referred to as Jim Crow Laws, named after Jim Crow, a figure from a song sung by white artists who would do funny acts dressed as black people. The Jim Crow Laws put limits on the civil rights that all Americans were supposed to have. African Americans were not allowed to stand up against white people.

A poster announcing a show of a white artist performing as a black person in 1900. The act usually consisted of funny dances.

Although they lived segregated, there was contact between white and coloured people. Coloured people often worked for white people and often even raised their children.

4a) When do you think the photograph was taken?
c) What do you think the man who carries the sign saying ‘No Vietnamese
ever called me a nigger’ wanted to say?

The rise of the Civil Rights Movement

In the 1950s, protest against this unequal situation increased. African Americans started to demand the same opportunities that white Americans had, beginning with education. In 1954, the American High Court declared that segregation based on colour was not in line with the constitution and therefore illegal. As a result, African American students started to subscribe to white schools. This led to a lot of resistance among the white community. At many schools, African American students needed protection from policemen.

pro- and anti segregation protests, 1954.

Students shouting at African American student Elizabeth Eckford, as she tries to pass through the lines of National Guardsmen in an effort to gain entrance to Little Rock's (Ark.) Central High School.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division escort the Little Rock Nine students into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

5. Why do the students in the photograph need protection from the army?

However, it was a great break-through. After 1954, many more people started movements that strived towards more equality for African Americans. Together these movements were called the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s and ‘60s, their actions were mostly non-violent, based on non-cooperation, as Gandhi had done in India. After Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to stand in the back of a bus, a bus boycott was organised. Others organised sit-ins and marches.

Segregation in the bus: white people in the front , black people in the back.

If the front of the bus was crowded, black people had to give up their seats for white passengers

During the Bus Boycott, black people refused to take the bus, to force the bus company to lift the racist rules.

This was successful. The bus company almost went bankrupt and eventually changed the rules, allowing free choice of seats for everybody.

This is the bus company's website today..

Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger in the bus.

6. Name three forms of non-violent protest that the
Civil Rights Movement used.

7. The Montgomery bus boycott was probably more successful if coloured people refused to use the bus than if white people had refused to take the bus. Can you explain this?

The march on Washington, whre Martin Luther King gave his famous speech.

The most famous leader of this non-violent movement was Reverend Martin Luther King. In 1963, he organised a large march on Washington to demand ‘jobs and freedom’. He ended this mass meeting with his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, which made a huge impression on the world.

In 1964, President L.B. Johnson passed a Civil Rights Act (initiated by J.F. Kennedy), which made discrimination against African Americans (and everybody else) illegal and guaranteed the same employment rights and equal access to facilities for everybody. Equal voting rights and equal rights to housing were not yet guaranteed. It took until 1968 before African Americans had full civil rights.

8. Watch the video of Martin Luther King's speech.

Fill in the gaps.

slave owners

brotherhood

the American Dream

content of their character

that all men are created equal

slaves

skin

freedom and justice

White extremism

The rise of the Civil Rights Movement also caused a rise in white extremism. Many white people in the Jim Crow Laws-states saw their way of life threatened by the rise of the African American community. Groups emerged that intimidated, assaulted and sometimes killed supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. Such an extremist organisation was the Ku Klux Klan. The ‘KKK’ was originally founded in 1865, right after the abolition of slavery, but disappeared again a few years later. However, in 1915, a second Klan was founded: during the 1920s and early ‘30s, the KKK used extreme violence – such as public lynchings - against African Americans, Jews and other people who in their view did not belong within American society. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Klan was less openly active, mainly because the organisation fragmented into several smaller groups. Nevertheless they still played a big role in the violence against supporters - black as well as white - of the Civil Rights Movement.

A group of Ku Klux Klan members burning a cross in Knoxville, Tennessee. September 4, 1948.

The white suits, the pointy hats and a burning cross were the Klan’s trademarks.

The KKK feels very connected to the racial theories of the Nazis.

Here two children of KKK members bring the nazi salute.

The Confederate flag was the flag of the southern (slave) states during the American Civil War. Today it stands as a symbol of white supremism in the USA.

9. What is a lynching?

10. When and why was the Ku Klux Klan founded?

11. How many years are there between the abolition of slavery in the USA and the year the African American population of the USA received full civil rights?

The Civil Rights Movement had a lot of supporters, but some people thought that change should happen faster. This group increased after the murders of President Kennedy in 1963, African American activist Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther King in 1968. 

New movements, such as the Black Panthers and Black Power, not only wanted to change laws, but also change the minds of people. They wanted to make African Americans proud of what they were and to force white people to acknowledge them. Some groups, such as the Black Panthers, believed that it was legitimate to use violence to achieve these goals.

Black Panther members hold a news conference in Oakland after the shooting of one of their members, 17-year old Bobby Hutton, in 1968. Hutton was shot by Oakland police when he and Panther Eldridge Cleaver were evolved in a shootout with police. At microphones is Bobby Seale, and behind his left shoulder is William Lee Brent. 

The activist Stokely Carmichael, pictured here at a 1966 rally in Berkeley, Calif., took a stand against white oppression and helped popularize the term black power

12. Name two differences between the new movements - Black Power and Black Panthers - and the original Civil Rights Movement.

Slow change

Demonstrations and violent clashes went on, even after the Civil Rights Act had been passed, and most African Americans remained economically disadvantaged. In the 1980s and ‘90s, the matter gradually got less and less attention until in 2008, when African American Barack Obama was elected president. For many Americans, this was a very special occasion. It showed that there had been progress in the struggle for equality. However, by the end of his term, there was new unrest, when it became clear that white policemen still use more - and sometimes unnecessary - violence against African Americans than against white people. This triggered a movement with the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’.

Protestors carrying placards at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in New York City

28 November 2014

A group of demonstrators yell in front of police officers during a protest march on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo. on August 9, 2015. 

Protesters took part in a Black Lives Matter rally in Seattle on Apr. 15, 2017

13. Would you say that the struggle against inequality and discrimination of African Americans is over?
Use at least two arguments to support your answer.

That's it. All clear?

Write down one question about something in this lesson that you still don't fully understand.

IN THE NEXT SLIDE YOU CAN FIND THE VIDEO ABOUT THE LITTLE ROCK HIGHSCHOOL INCIDENT.
YOU CAN WATCH IT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.

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