Lesson on Tuesday, April 24, 2018

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Aim: How did the civil rights movement evolve over time, and how did competing ideas and political alliances affect its growth and that of other social movements?

Bell Ringer: Review Mock Exam Questions - complete (10 min)

Agenda:

1. Thinking Like a Historian 26 (10 min)

2. America Compared 27:

Q3 / A: The similarities between colonized Africans and African Americans included a racial hierarchy that carried with it social, economic, and political disparities. The differences centered on the fact that the British lived in Africa as colonizers, whereas white and black Americans belonged to the same nation and were forced to negotiate ways to coexist.

2. Review Journals 154-158

A. Journal 154 - How did the growth of the black middle class assist the civil rights movement? 

The growth of the black middle class in the 1950s provided the monetary opportunity to organize against Jim Crow segregation. Its ranks reduced the leadership of the movement. In addition, children of the black middle class attended college and provided the large numbers needed to continue the movement. 
B. Journal 155 - Why did WWII play such a critical role in the civil rights movement? 

During WWII, black soldiers experienced equality in Europe while frighting to end Nazi tyranny, but returned to a segregated nation with limited opportunities. This hypocrisy was acknowledged through the Double V Campaign, which brought attention to the burgeoning civil rights struggle. In addition, the desegregation of the armed services during the Cold War by President Truman and the rise of the black middle class were made possible by WWII. 

C. Journal 156 - How did the Cold War work in the favor of civil rights? How did it work against the movement? 

In a time of growing fear of Communist expansionism, civil rights opponents charged that racial integration was "communistic". Truman worried about images of racist persecution in his democratic nation and worked to lessen the violence and oppression of white supremacy. However, McCarthyism and the hunt for subversives at home held the civil rights movement back. Some white southerners associated the civil rights movement with communism, and the NAACP was banned in many southern states as "anti-American" organization. 

D. Journal 157 - What lessons did activists learn from the evolution of the civil rights movement between 1957 and 1961?

Civil rights activists learned to be persistent with their protests and to rely on their strength in numbers; they learned that they could affect change through economic boycotts and peaceful protests, and they learned that violent opposition from southern whites helped advance their cause with the rest of the nation, especially Washington. 

E. Journal 158 - In what ways did white resistance hinder the civil rights movement? In what ways did it help?

White resistance clearly hindered the movement  by challenging virtually every level of integration in public education, transportation, and employment. The movement also faced violence, and key black leaders were murdered. Integration by court order that should have reached fruition by 1960 in stead of the early 1970s was slowed because of white resistance. Yet southern white determination failed in the face of television cameras that caught the beatings for the world to see. The Soviet Union used the treatment of blacks in the South as propaganda against the United States during the Cold War. Southern white violence ironically pressured presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson to acquiesce to African American demands for equality so that the United States did not look so bad to the world. 

3. You may be asked to demonstrate an understanding of how Cold War policies led to debates over the role of the federal government and how best to balance liberty and order.

4. Use the career of Thurgood Marshall to illustrate the legal challenges that civil rights activists employed to fight racial discrimination.

5. Exam Alert: In previous AP exams, students have been asked to analyze and evaluate the Brown decision, comparing this decision to the Plessy case of 1896. 

6. Thurgood Marshall (History for Kids) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtxSIXr5yM (4 min)

7. Crash Course US History #39 "Civil Rights and the 1950s" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S64zRnnn4Po&t=1s (12 min)


Terms to know: rights liberalism, Jim Crow, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), "To Secure These Rights", States' Rights Democratic Party, American GI Forum, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, black nationalism, Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party, Young Lords Organization, United Farm Workers (UFW), American Indian Movement (AIM).


Home Learning: 

1. Read pages 892-899

2. Journal 159 - Why were Black Power and black nationalism compelling to many African Americans? 

3. Journal 160 - What did the Chicano and American Indian movements have in common with the black freedom movement? 

*HW due on Thursday, April 26, 2018; on Wednesday April 25th we will work on DBQs. 

*Chapter 27 Vocabulary Quiz: Thursday, April 25th, 2018

Enrichment: 

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