Civil Rights Movement
Profiles * Political Thought * Colonial Government * Colonial Government * Revolution * Constitution * Birth of Party Politics * War of 1812 * James Monroe: "Era of Good Feeling" and Monroe Doctrine * Jacksonian Democracy * Regional Conflict and Compromise * 1860 Election of Abraham Lincoln * Civil War 1861-62 * Civil War 1863-65 * Reconstruction and Impeachment of President Johnson * Gilded Age and Progressive Era * 1912 Election of Woodrow Wilson * 1916 Election and World War I * Women's Suffrage * Depression and 1932 Election of Franklin D. Roosevelt * Prelude to World War II * Pearl Harbor and Mobilization * World War II: European Theater * World War II: Pacific Theater * Atomic Bomb and End of World War II * 1948 Truman-Dewey Election * 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election * 1964 Johnson-Goldwater Election * Civil Rights Movement * Vietnam: Evolution of the American Role * Vietnam: Kennedy Administration and Intervention * Vietnam: Johnson Administration and Escalation * Vietnam: Nixon, Ford and Fall of South Vietnam * 1968 Humphrey-Nixon Election * Watergate Scandal and Resignation of President Nixon * 1976 Carter-Ford Election * 1980 & 1984 Reagan Elections * Clinton Impeachment * 2000 Bush-Gore Election * War in Iraq * 2008 Obama-McCain Election * 2016 Trump-Clinton Election |
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Integration of the University of
Alabama
The broader implications of Brown v. Board of Education again would be tested in the desegregation of the University of Alabama in June 1963. Elected to his first term as governor in the prior year, George Wallace pledged in his January 1963 inaugural address: “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” When African American students attempted to enroll in the University of Alabama pursuant to an order issued by a federal court, Wallace blocked their entrance, standing in the door of the enrollment office as he was flanked by state troopers. Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who had been sent to Alabama by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to enforce the court order with the support of federal marshals, directed Wallace to step aside, but Wallace refused, giving a defiant speech on how the federal action violated states' rights. After Katzenbach phoned the Attorney General, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. In a second confrontation at the door of the enrollment office, the head of the Guard, General Henry Graham, addressed the Governor, saying, "Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States." Wallace then briefly reasserted his objections, but eventually moved away, and the African Americans registered as students. |
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Freedom Summer
A coalition of civil rights organizations targeted Mississippi in 1964 for a voting rights campaign they labeled as Freedom Summer, during which activists and local residents encouraged African Americans to register to vote. Soon after they arrived, three young volunteers, two whites and one black who had come to assist the effort, were arrested by a deputy sheriff, who charged the driver of the car in which they were riding with speeding and held the other two “for investigation.” Although the men were released from custody later that night, they were followed out of town by two carloads of Ku Klux Klan members, pulled over and then beaten and shot to death on a remote rural road. Their bodies were discovered in an earthen dam near the murder site 44 days after they disappeared. After the state government refused to prosecute, the federal government initially charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and received relatively minor sentences. Civil Rights Act of 1964 In June 1963, President Kennedy proposed legislation to end segregation in public places and bar employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. After Kennedy's assassination in the following November, his successor Lyndon Johnson made the bill a priority, overcoming strong opposition from southern members of Congress within his own party. Johnson signed the bill into law as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2. Under the Act, segregation on the grounds of race, religion or national origin was banned at all places of public accommodation, including courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas and hotels. The act also barred race, religious, national origin and gender discrimination by employers and labor unions, and created an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission authorized to file lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved workers. |
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