Lyndon B. Johnson - Civil Right movement Flashcards
The Johnson Treatment - passage of Civil Rights Act
Johnson used his ‘political muscle’ and powers of persuasion to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. As a senator for 35 years, he knew each congressman well and used this to his advantage.
- Used the N-word when addressing southern senators to create appeal.
- Threatened to tell congressman, Thurmond’s wife that he was having an affair with his black housemaid.
- Told Dixiecrat Richard Russell who created the filibuster, “If you get in my way, I will run you down”.
- Persuaded Everett Durkson of Illinois, that his name would be remembered in 100 years, next to Abraham Lincolns if he put an end to discrimination.
Civil Rights Act 1964
The 1964 Civil Rights bill had a 54 day filibuster attempt by Dixiecrats. But, through the Johnson Treatment, LBJ signed the bill into law in July.
Gave the federal government the tools to end de jure segregation in the South. Ended segregation in public areas, schools and established an equal employment commission.
However, African Americans still endured poverty, with black ghetto riots in East Coast cities, and it did little to facilitate black voting.
Freedom Summers (Mississippi Summer Project)
The Freedom Summers were a SNCC & CORE led campaign which lasted from June-August 1964.
Aimed at voting poll discrimination, making Freedom Schools teach about black history, and creating a Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party (to advocate for a black representative)
Met with violence from the Ku Klux Klan, and state enforcement who made riot trucks with cages to transport arrested blacks - news coverage drew in international attention.
Martin Luther King’s Selma campaign
King led AA’s to Selma Country Courthouse to protest anti-black voting, but failed despite a federal ruling.
- A troop shot a black youth shielding his mother from beatings & Sheriff Clark clubbed a black woman.
King wanted to be arrested to publicise anti-black voting. “There are more negroes in jail than those on voting rolls” he described in a letter.
SCLC and SNCC then organised a march from Selma to Montgomery, where they were attacked with clubs and teargas.
The Voting Rights Act 1965
Johnson passed a Voting Rights Act in 1965, abolishing literacy tests and poll taxes. All AA’s needed now to vote was citizenship and a registration form.
Registrars were now replaced with federal employees.
By the end of 1966, Mississippi had 59% of AA’s registered to vote and elected black official numbers increased by X12.
Urban riots and white backlash - limitations to Johnsons CR legislation
Successive summers of black ghetto riots from 1964-68 caused white backlash. As TV showed black youths screaming ‘burn, burn, burn’, gun sales to white suburbans soared - whites were turning against LBJ’s reform programme.
A 1966 poll showed 90% opposed new CR legislation. A leading democrat told Johnson we ‘we have come too far too fast during your administration’.
Riots showed Johnson could do little more to help African Americans after the Voting Act. ‘Whiskey’
Congress changing attitudes - limitations to Johnsons CR legislation
After 1965, congress responded to white reluctance for Civil Rights legislation after black violence.
- When LBJ tried to pass 1968 legislation to help AA children from rat bites in ghettos, members of congress joked they should send in a federal cat army to deal with his ‘civil rats bill’.
- rejected a 1966 civil rights bill to prohibit housing discrimination - 70% of whites opposed having large numbers of black neighbours.
The Nation of Islam
The NOI were a black supremacist group led by Elijah Muhammad. He claimed Allah created original human beings with black skin, and an evil scientist, Yakub, created other races.
He wanted to provide AA’s with an alternative to white man’s christian religion. ‘white Jesus, white angels, black devil’, and to keep AA and whites separated.
However, it received criticism for widening interracial divisions, when he called MLK a ‘fool’ and ‘Uncle Tom’ for wanting to use the same toilet as white people and wanted to send black people to Africa -unrealistic.
What did the Nation of Islam achieve?
NOI newspaper ‘Muhammad Speaks’ had weekly circulation of 600,000 by mid 70s - indicated people found comfort in messages of self-confidence.
Inspired ghetto inhabitants my promoting racial pride and economic self-help. Created businesses which provided rare employment opportunities in ghettos.
Created schools in Detroit and Chicago where children were taught black history.
“we don’t know our name, language or homeland”.
Malcolm X and his achievements
When X left the NOI in March 1964, he established the Organisation of Afro-American unity (OAUU), promoting black brotherhood and black political, social and economic independence in ghettos. But, didn’t create any effective long lasting organisation.
Established relations with white muslims and rejected the NOI’s racist stance, until his assassination in 1965.
The Black Panthers
The Black Panthers were a violent protest group set up by law student Huey Newton and influential speaker Bobby Seales.
In May 1967 they produced their 10 point programme
- we want freedom, housing, justice and peace
- we want education that teaches our true history
- an immediate end to police brutality
- exemption of black man from military service.
Slogan: “ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE”
Chicago Campaign 1966
In 1966, MLK moved his family into a ghetto apartment in Chicago to understand the conditions.
Northern whites who sympathised with AA’s, opposed MLK’s Chicago campaign as an influx of AA’s would cause local schools to deteriorate and plummet property values.
Watts riot
The first major urban riot was in Watts in 1965 in response to Malcolm X assassination -34 deaths, 1000 injuries and 3500 rioters arrested. MLK called it a ‘revolt of underprivileged against the privileged.
Riots in every large US city followed, such as Newark and Detroit. One Johnson aide counted 225 ‘hostile outbursts’ from 1964-68.
