oralreport


 * Oral Report by Annie and Samantha****Topic-** The Civil Rights Movement**Interview Subject-** Sheldon Schiff [Samantha's Grandfather]

The Civil Rights Movement was of the most important movements ever in US history. It created equality for the black population, living in the US. It fought laws and decrees that were prejudiced to African Americans. And it created laws and decrees that would increase equality, such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. People's eyes were opened to how bad racism really is. Though the Civil Rights Movement was largely positive, there were some things that were negative in the movement, such as the Black Panther Party. The BPP was a military party of African Americans, who wanted to achieve equality, but through any measures, no matter how violent. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was basically the exact opposite of the BPP, but he still wanted to achieve the same goals. He wanted to achieve them through peace, though. Dr. King led many acts of nonviolent civil disobediance, sit-ins, protests, boycotts, and marches. Dr. King is probably most famous for his exhillerating "I had a Dream" speech. It was tragic when the great MLK was assasinatted on his hotel room porch by James Earl Ray in 1968. Dr. King was only age 39.

Though MLK Jr. was a large part of the civil rights movement, he was just a leader of the movement. There were so many events leading up to his death, and when he was shot, hysteria broke. Almost every city or town had mass rioting and craziness.

There were many invents throughout the entire movement leading up to the tolerance our nation has today.


 * 1948 || July 26Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." The order also creates the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services. ||
 * 1954 || [[image:http://i.infoplease.com/images/tmarshall3.gif width="100" height="120" align="right" caption="Thurgood Marshall" link="http://www.infoplease.com/id/A0831961"]] May 17The __[|Supreme Court]__ rules on the landmark case __[|//Brown// v.//Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.//]__, unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 //Plessy// v.//Ferguson// ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for __[|NAACP]__attorney __[|Thurgood Marshall]__, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1955 || Aug.Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan __[|Emmett Till]__ is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a //Look// magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. Dec. 1[[image:http://i.infoplease.com/images/rosaparks-bus.jpg width="180" height="139" align="right" caption="Rosa Parks" link="http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0837678.html"]](__[|Montgomery, Ala.]__) NAACP member __[|Rosa Parks]__ refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend __[|Martin Luther King, Jr.]__, is instrumental in leading the boycott. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1957 || Jan.–Feb.Martin Luther King, __[|Charles K. Steele]__, and __[|Fred L. Shuttlesworth]__ establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline," he urges.
 * 1957 || Jan.–Feb.Martin Luther King, __[|Charles K. Steele]__, and __[|Fred L. Shuttlesworth]__ establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline," he urges.

Sept.(__[|Little Rock, Ark.]__) Formerly all-white Central High School learns that__[|integration]__ is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor__[|Orval Faubus]__. __[|President Eisenhower]__sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "__[|Little Rock Nine]__." ||
 * 1960 || Feb. 1(__[|Greensboro, N.C.]__) __[|Four black students]__ from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.

April(__[|Raleigh, N.C.]__) The __[|Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]__ (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of __[|Stokely Carmichael]__ (1966–1967). [|**Top**] ||
 * 1961 || May 4Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "__[|freedom riders]__," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by __[|The Congress of Racial Equality]__(CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white. ||
 * 1962 || [[image:http://i.infoplease.com/images/jmeredith2.gif width="100" height="132" align="right" caption="James Meredith"]] Oct. 1__[|James Meredith]__ becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. ||
 * 1963 || April 16Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "__[|Letter from Birmingham Jail]__," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.

MayDuring civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world.

June 12(__[|Jackson, Miss.]__) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old __[|Medgar Evers]__, is murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later he is __[|convicted for murdering Evers]__.

Aug. 28(__[|Washington, D.C.]__) About 200,000 people join the __[|March on Washington]__. Congregating at the __[|Lincoln]__ Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "__[|I Have a Dream]__" speech.

Sept. 15(__[|Birmingham, Ala.]__) Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are __[|killed when a bomb explodes]__ at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1964 || Jan. 23The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.

SummerThe Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a network of civil rights groups that includes CORE and SNCC, launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. It also sends delegates to the __[|Democratic National Convention]__ to protest—and attempt to unseat—the official all-white Mississippi contingent.

July 2__[|President Johnson]__ signs the __[|Civil Rights Act of 1964]__. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.

Aug. 4(Neshoba Country, Miss.) The bodies of __[|three civil-rights workers]__—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by__[|President Johnson]__. James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the __[|Ku Klux Klan]__, who murdered them. ||
 * 1965 || [[image:http://i.infoplease.com/images/malcolmx.t.gif width="100" height="140" align="right" caption="Malcolm X" link="http://www.infoplease.com/id/A0831348"]] Feb. 21(__[|Harlem, N.Y.]__) __[|Malcolm X]__, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the __[|Black Muslim]__ faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.

March 7(__[|Selma, Ala.]__) Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.

Aug. 10Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.

Aug. 11–17, 1965(__[|Watts, Calif.]__) Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles.

Sept. 24, 1965Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, __[|President Johnson]__ issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1966 || [[image:http://img.infoplease.com/images/blackpanthers.a.jpg width="150" height="196" align="right" caption="Members of The Black Panthers Party"]] Oct.(__[|Oakland, Calif.]__) The militant __[|Black Panthers]__ are founded by __[|Huey Newton]__ and __[|Bobby Seale]__. ||
 * 1967 || April 19__[|Stokely Carmichael]__, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." The term's radicalism alarms many who believe the civil rights movement's effectiveness and moral authority crucially depend on nonviolent civil disobedience.

June 12In //Loving// v. //Virginia//, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws.

JulyMajor race riots take place in Newark (July 12–16) and Detroit (July 23–30). ||
 * 1968 || April 4(__[|Memphis, Tenn.]__) Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist __[|James Earl Ray]__ is convicted of the crime.

April 11__[|President Johnson]__ signs the __[|Civil Rights Act of 1968]__, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. ||
 * 1971 || April 20The __[|Supreme Court]__, in __[|//Swann// v. //Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education//]__, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving __[|integration]__ of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1988 || March 22Overriding __[|President Reagan's]__ veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. ||
 * 1991 || Nov. 22After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, __[|President Bush]__reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination. [|**Top**] ||
 * 1992 || April 29(__[|Los Angeles, Calif.]__) The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King. ||
 * 2003 || June 23In the most important affirmative action decision since the 1978 //__[|Bakke]__// case, the Supreme Court (5–4) upholds the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."

(**See also**: __[|Affirmative Action Timeline]__.) [|**Top**] ||
 * 2005 || June 21The ringleader of the __[|Mississippi civil rights murders]__ (see __[|Aug. 4, 1964]__),__[|Edgar Ray Killen]__, is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes.

October 24Rosa Parks dies at age 92. ||
 * 2006 || January 30Coretta Scott King dies of a stroke at age 78. ||
 * 2007 || FebruaryEmmett Till's 1955 murder case, reopened by the Department of Justice in 2004, is officially closed. The two confessed murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were dead of cancer by 1994, and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue further convictions.

May 10James Bonard Fowler, a former state trooper, is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson 40 years after Jackson's death. The 1965 killing lead to a series of historic civil rights protests in Selma, Ala. ||
 * 2008 || January__[|Senator Edward Kennedy]__ (D-MA) introduces the Civil Rights Act of 2008. Some of the proposed provisions include ensuring that federal funds are not used to subsidize discrimination, holding employers accountable for age discrimination, and improving accountability for other violations of civil rights and workers' rights. ||

INTERVIEW: 1. What are the main things you remember from the civil right movement?Everybody heard the stories or horrors that were taking place in the deep South.Down in the South there were segregated water fountains, segregated sections in the armies, and it was tougher for them to get into sport teams. Life there wad definitely not easy for them. I thought it was wonderful when the Kennedy's got into the movement in the 60s, they really stood up for the black people. It was one of the first times in my lifetime where a high-class, political, wealthy, white family stood up for them. It was a big step in the Civil Rights movement and so sad when Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy were both killed! In the North, the people thought that segregation was bad [well at least the people that I associated myself with]. All my friends were very happy to see the movement happening, but the people in the South who were racist and KKK members were not at all happy. Another large step was that schools and universities started taking black people. They started getting jobs as policemen and firefighters in New York City, which later progressed to salesmen, and basically any job. They now have the same jobs as white people! And now we have a very intelligent President, who is African American. 2. Have you ever witnessed any of the key events of the Civil Rights Movement in person?No, not in person, but I had seen many invents through pictures in newspapers and magazines. Being in the North, I didn't see very much segregation in public places either, and I certaintly did not witness any lynching, but there were neighborhoods that were all black, as well as neighborhoods that were predominately white. 3. How did you feel during the movement? How were you affected? Being a liberal kind of person, I always felt bad because I knew black people that i always liked, and it was terrible to see how they were treated. It made me realize how unfair the society was. 5. How did you feel about the Black Panthers? Why?I thought that they were pretty terrible, and when you take the law into your own hands, its not good. It really bothered people, and it took the movement one step backward. The Black Panther Party turned people off and was definitely not a positive group. 6. Did you ever have any friends who were involved or in the civil rights movement?No. 7. Do you remember martin luther kings speech? did it effect you right away or later? Yes. It was very moving. It instantly was played over and over again, because it was so intellectual and so well done. From the first time I heard it, I realized how special the speech was, and really how special Dr. King was. It was so tragic when he was assassinated! 8. How did you feel when martin luther king was shot? how did other people feel?I felt terrible, it felt like we had lost a president. All of my friends in the North felt terrible because it was such a sad thing. People were nervous that it was going to start something awful! Everyone was fearful that the Civil Rights movement might come to a stop, or turn to violence instead of peace. 9. Do you think civil rights have improved since then? How?Absolutely! Well, we have a black president of the US. that says a lot. It's not gone fully but its in the 80%. Though segregation is not legal, you still see some racism and segregation in cities and towns. When I drive through certain neighborhoods such as Harlem, I notice that there are almost zero white people in there, and in some towns there are almost no black people either. It makes me realize that the movement is not over because there is still forms of segregation! The Civil Rights Movement was an extremely important time in our country for African Americans. Our country needed change. Though I cannot imagine what it would be like to live in a country so divided between races, segregation was a dark part of our nations history. //Everything// was segregated, from public pools to movie theaters; bathrooms to water fountains. It was really interesting to here Grandpa Shelly's opinion on the entire matter, because he in fact lived during this difficult time. It was really interesting to hear his point of view, living in the North and being a white man. The Civil Rights Movement was if not the most important, of the most important movements in American history ever. Since Grandpa Shelly had lived through the entire movement, he still thinks that the Civil Rights Movement is still moving forward today, albeit at a much slower pace. Electing an African American president is a huge feat, in his opinion. It truly shows that our country is growing up, and our society is not a jaundiced one. Though not all the events in the Civil Rights Movement were positive, if those events had not transpired, our country may not be at the point of tolerance it is today. Every single event, no matter how big or small it was, molded our nation into what it is today. Though there is still racism in today's society, I hope that in the future, our generation eliminates the barrier even more so between the black and white population, and that we all live freely, not color blind, but celebrating our differences.
 * Review:**

"Civil Rights Timeline." Info Please. 2000-2009. 31 may 2009 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

Garcia, Jesus, Donna M. Ogle, C. Frederick. Risinger, Joyce Stevos, and Winthrop D. Jordan. //Creating America//. 1st ed. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littel, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Print. "The Black Panthers." //History Learning Cite//. 2002-2009. 31 May 2009 [|http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_panthers.htm].