1. WE SHALL OVERCOME
Source: www.bepj.org.uk
Jillian Hamilton

2. Introduction
 The struggle for racial equality spanned the
1940s to the 1970s
 It was made up of four identifiable
movements:
 Labor activism
 Challenges to the courts
 Nonviolent mass direct action
 Assertions of black self-determination
 Each segment represented a distinct
emphasis and strategy
 This is why historians often speak of the civil
rights movement as a “movement of
movements”

3. Introducing Nonviolent Direct
Action
www.bepj.org.uk

4. Morgan v. Commonwealth of
Virginia (1947)
 1947
 Supreme Court ruling that
segregation on interstate
buses was unconstitutional on
the grounds of it being an
impermissible burden on
interstate commerce
 However, bus companies in
the South did not respect the
decision, which would have
meant defying local
segregation ordinances
 Discrepancy between the
legal outcome of the case and
the everyday realities of Jim
Crow bus travel tcjewfolk.com

5. CORE Activism
 CORE- Congress of Racial Equality
 Sought to correct this discrepancy that Morgan v.
Commonwealth of Virginia made apparent
 Assertive confidence in nonviolent direct action
 CORE leaders were influenced by the civil
disobedience championed by Gandhi during India’s
resistance to the British colonial rule
 Advocated Gandhi’s philosophy of satyagraha- love
and truth will triumph over violence and oppression
 Their goal was not to defy the Jim Crow seating policy
but rather to educate black communities along the bus
route of the supreme court decision in Morgan vs.
Virginia

6. The Journey of Reconciliation
 8 black men and 8
white men
volunteered for the trip
 12 were arrested
along the way
 The journey attested
to the lack of
knowledge of the
supreme court
decision in Morgan v.
Virginia
 Known as “freedom
riders” ebookee.org

7. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
 First successful example of mass nonviolent resistance
in the U.S.
 Began December 1955
 Mass grassroots economic withdrawal from bus
service
 Class-action lawsuit against the city by 4 black
women
 Highly planned and carefully strategized
 Encompassed black people of all classes and ages;
women played a crucial role
 Led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Emphasized nonviolence as a guiding credo of
moral courage and as strategy for winning the
sympathy of the nation

8. The Arrest of Rosa Parks

9. The leadership of Martin Luther
King, Jr.
 Selected by community leaders to lead the boycott
coordinated by the Montgomery Improvement
Association (MIA)
 King became head of MIA
 The MIA adopted the tactic of nonviolent protest
 MIA drafted 3 demands and presented them to city
officials
 That bus drivers treat black passengers with dignity and
respect
 That the city of Montgomery agree to hire black bus drivers in
black neighborhoods
 That the city adopt a first-come, first-served seating
system, with black fillings the rear and whites the front
 The mayor and attorneys for the bus line rejected
demands, expected boycott to fail

10. Victory in the Montgomery Bus
Boycott
 Four black women brought class-action
lawsuit against Montgomery Mayor Gayle
and other city officials
 Special 3-judge panel in the U.S. District
Court declared Alabama’s state and local
laws requiring segregation on buses
unconstitutional, and the supreme court
affirmed the judgment
 The supreme court’s ruling ended the 381-
day boycott by requiring an immediate end
to the city’s segregated bus system

11. New Leaders: James Lawson
 Taught weekly
workshops on
philosophy of
nonviolence in
Nashville
 In
workshops, students
learned to employ
nonviolent tactics
during
demonstration and
in the event of
violence through
mock sit-ins and www.blackpast.org
other forms of role-
playing

12. The Lunch Counter Sit-In
 Lunch counter was first
target in Lawson’s
students’ nonviolent
assault on segregated
Nashville
 Why lunch counter?-
Blacks throughout the
south had deep
resentment for stores
and restaurants that
took their money but
refused to let them dine
on the premises
 Rotating protestors as fineartamerica.com
arrests were made

13. The Albany Movement
 1961 the black community of Albany, Georgia
staged months of demonstrations in an
attempt to secure fair employment for black
workers, to end police brutality, and to
desegregate parks, playgrounds, city
buses, bus and train stations, and the public
library

14. Why the Albany Movement
Failed
1. Police chief Laurie Pritchett, determined to
undermine the movement, advised his officers
not to be violent (at least not on camera)
2. Lack of press coverage
3. Unity among civil rights groups began to
fracture

15. The Birmingham Campaign
 Letter from a
Birmingham Jail by
Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
 Received national
news coverage

16. The Northern Side of the
Movement
 Many grassroots
movements outside
the south that helped
to forge the national
civil rights movement
 Blacks in the north
still faced
discriminated
 Northern blacks
also staged
nonviolent teamsternation.blogspot.com
demonstrations and
sit-ins

17. The Problem of Housing in the
North
 In the north, no issue appeared more
intractable than housing
 Black ghettos in northern urban centers were
exacerbated by the black migration
 Met stern resistance and even violence if
blacks tried to move out of ghetto and into
neighborhoods where they were not wanted

18. The March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom
 As congress debated
the civil rights bill
more than 250,000
civil rights
proponents marched
on Washington in the
largest
demonstration in
American history up
mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu
to that time

19. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
 The most far-reaching law in support of racial
equality ever enacted by congress
 federal Community Relations Service
 federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)

20. Voting Rights Act of 1965
 Authored the
attorney general to
send federal
examiners to
register black voters
when he concluded
that local registrars
were not doing their
job
 Suspended literacy
tests and other
devices to stop www.aclu.org
blacks from being
able to vote