AIM 51: How Did the Civil Rights Movement Begin?

From the end of WW II through the 1950’s there was a great fear in the US over the continuing spread of communist influence. The Soviets had exploded their own atomic bomb in 1948 & China had become a communist nation on 1949.

Senator Joseph McCarthy, of Wisconsin, claimed that he had a list of over 200 communists who were working either for the government, in the US Army, or for universities. He accused many people of being communists but he had no real proof.

However many in the US & Congress were willing to believe him because of this fear of communism. He ruined many lives with these false accusations & had so much influence that few feared to challenge him. Finally after his investigations were televised & the public could see that he was a bully, with little proof, Americans demanded that his power be reduced. However the fear of communist expansion still remained in the US.

The Civil Rights movement began in the late 1940’s when President Truman integrated the armed forces & made speeches demanding that all Americans be guaranteed the right to vote. In 1954 the Supreme Court made a decision that demanded that all US public schools be integrated.

In the Brown vs. Topeka, Kansas Board of Education decision, the Court ruled that separate school for blacks & whites was unconstitutional. The Court ordered that all US public schools be integrated as quickly as possible.

In the fall of 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the white section of a Montgomery bus & moving to the rear to the black section. Her arrest led to a fourteen month long boycott by Montgomery’s black citizens, led by Martin Luther King, of the Montgomery bus system. The Supreme Court finally ruled that Montgomery’s segregated bus system was illegal & that it had to end. The boycott was over & the busses were now integrated.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, US Army soldiers were sent to that city to protect the rights of nine black high schoolers who wanted to be admitted to the all white Central High School. The soldiers drove the “Little Rock Nine” to school every day and were assigned to protect them during the school day. The high school became integrated.

HOMEWORK: Read Chapter Summary pg. 561 & pg. 560. Do ques 1 – 5 0n pg 560. Do pg 559 ques 2 & 3 & pg. 563 ques. 11 – 13.

BRING TEXTBOOK TO CLASS FOR THE NEXT LESSON. WE WILL SEE A VIDEO THEN HAVE A TEST ON THIS CHAPTER.