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The civil rights movement.....

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here we go well sitting in the same spot [Lincoln statue sitting in chair]

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really takes its toll after a while but can a butt cheek fall asleep they sure

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must because I haven't felt old lefty in a few decades but you don't want to hear [Lincoln statue scratches butt]

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an old statues complaints... you want to hear about the civil rights

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movement....well after the Civil War ended in 1865 there was a period in the South

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known as reconstruction a roughly decade-long period of rebuilding that

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was directed by the federal government unfortunately I wasn't able to see this [Woman putting make-up on]

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happen because well you know the play was good basically the southern United

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States was left in shambles after the Civil War because the North won the

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conflict and they must've had one amazing leader and federal government

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took control of the situation they encouraged northerners to move south [Northerners moved to south of the US]

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to help the rebuilding process. They only use military force to protect the

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rights of African American they fought off a growing wave of white supremacist

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groups like the Ku Klux Klan by the 1870s however southern Democratic

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politicians had successfully reasserted control of the south with their newfound [Democratic politican plants a flag]

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power these white politicians created a new set of laws to disenfranchise

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African American citizens those racist regulations were known as Jim Crow laws

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named after an equally racist fictional character Jim Crow who'd been around

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since the 1820s - These laws severely limited the freedoms of the souths new

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African American citizens; enforcing segregation in schooling business and

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housing..banning interracial relationships and making it nearly [Man shouting and white woman and black man]

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impossible for African Americans to vote well these voter suppression efforts

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took many different forms some states forced voters to pay poll taxes to block [People paying voter fees]

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the poor from voting like literally you had to pay money to vote other states

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made voters prove they could read before they got a ballot....

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In both instances it's quite clear that these laws were meant to prevent

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african-americans from voting especially because some states straight up

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made exceptions to the laws that allowed white Americans to vote... well this

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nonsense went on for almost 100 years but then at the beginning of the 1950's

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something changed and the civil rights movement began - The civil rights

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movement was a huge social movement that destroyed those awful Jim Crow laws and [Civil Rights movement on TV]

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changed the American society forever there's no one event that kicked off the

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movement but there are a few we can identify as being particularly important

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well the first is Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court legal case in [The US Supreme Court building]

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1954 african-american students in Kansas got sick and tired of being forced into

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segregated and underfunded schools and decided to sue the local Board of

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Education in favor of school integration and they won, well it took going to the [African-American student in court]

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Supreme Court to get there but they did it well segregation was to be phased out

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slowly over time and while some southern states accepted this change without fuss

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others pitched the bigger fit than a superfan who was too late to buy Justin [Girl superfan throwing tantrum with Justin Bieber]

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Bieber tickets.....

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well the other major event that kicked off the civil rights movement was the

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Montgomery bus boycott, in Montgomery Alabama in 1955 an African American

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woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white [Rosa Parks arrested]

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man but she was sitting there he walked up he said move and she said no that

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seat giving up ting was actually required by the state strict Jim Crow

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laws stating that African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus we're not

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making this up people this actually happened well Parks protests was met with a huge

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wave of support basically a pre-internet flash mob of glorious nonviolent

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resistance unsatisfied with the city's response, the protestors kept it up for [People protesting for Rosa Parks]

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almost a year when a federal court ordered the city's buses to become

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desegregated it took them a year to do this the Montgomery bus boycott also

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launched a certain creature into national prominence a young man by the [Bus launching into the air and Martin Luther King appears]

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name of the Martin Luther King Jr despite these early victories the

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battle for civil rights had just begun well in 1957 in Little Rock Arkansas for

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example the governor Orval Faubus...

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ordered the National Guard to prevent African Americans from going to high

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school kids trying to go to schools and adults trying to stop them that's when [Kid studying at home and man appears]

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you know things have turned upside-down in this crazy world, well a similar event

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occurred in 1963 when Alabama Governor George Wallace literally put his own

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body between black students and the University of Alabama to prevent them

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from attending.. it was only 65-70 years ago people....

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As the 50s gave way to the 60s the civil rights movement only grew [Civil Rights getting heavier on a scale]

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more intense in the late 50s student activists started having sit-ins at

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segregated businesses well during a sit-in black protestors would just sit

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down in whites only establishment essentially forcing the owners to choose

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between willingly integrating their business or using the violence thing to [Arrow pointing to integration and violence]

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keep things the way they were sadly most businesses took the latter approach

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inflicting heart-wrenching violence upon peaceful protesters keep in mind we're

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not talking ancient history this is 50 years ago like your parents know about

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it go ask him they were there yeah and they're one of the many people who are

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still alive today who endured and somehow accepted this horrendous

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violence which really puts into perspective how the issues fought for

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during the civil rights movement remained really relevant today... Well in 1961 a

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group known as the Freedom Riders entered the scene - The Freedom Riders

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were an interracial group that defied segregation laws by sitting next to each

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other on Interstate buses intentionally breaking the law to highlight this [Interracial group of people sitting on a bus]

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injustice as with the sit-ins these bold acts were met with horrendous violence

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several buses were even bombed and this is not like Isis bombing people these

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were like you know Americans bombing [American man throws bomb and African-American man]

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Anyway Freedom Riders were also attacked by mobs in Birmingham

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Montgomery and countless other southern cities and three civil rights activists

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Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney were murdered in

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Mississippi in 1964 there's a movie you can see about that....

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well on the bright side Martin Luther King Jr. led the march on Washington for [Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech]

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Jobs and Freedom that same year a massive gathering of roughly 250,000

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people it was here that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous I have a dream

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speech which called for racial unity and dreamt of a future where everyone could [MLK speaking on stage]

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live side-by-side in peace it's one of the best speeches ever so if you haven't

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read it we're just telling you you should...The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was

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the first major piece of legislation passed after the March, the law banned

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any sort of discrimination based on race or ethnicity and ended segregation once

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and for all well a year later MLK Jr led a group of

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activists on a march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama to advocate for [People marching for voting rights]

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voting rights as usual the backlash was violent and barbaric earning the moniker

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Bloody Sunday for well obvious reasons fortunately this helped speed the passage

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of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which protected African American voting rights

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in the south, struck down poll taxes and it eliminated literacy tests well then [Federal Agent tears down poll taxes and literacy tests]

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in 1968 Martin Luther King jr. was assassinated, sparking riots and protests

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across the country this tragedy forced Congress to rush through their final bit

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of legislation in the Civil Rights era the Civil Rights Act of 1968, well this

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law built on many of the ideas established in the Civil Rights Act of

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1964 banning discrimination in the housing market and making it a federal [African-American couple approach a house for sale]

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crime to threaten or attack a person based on their race or ethnicity before

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we go on we have to talk more about MLK jr. born in 1929 King was the son of a

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preacher man making him destined like Luke Skywalker to pick up where his dad [MLK hanging off the edge of a platform and MLK's father as Darth Vader appears]

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left off....

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While in school Kings stumbled across some books by a fellow named [MLK falls over books]

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Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi famous death metal guitarist....

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Gandhi famous Indian

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political leader pioneered the field of non-violent resistance..that is the use of non-violent protests

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to cause political change...Used these techniques to free India from British colonial rule in 1930's...

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well nonviolent resistance can take the form of traditional protests, boycotts and

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marches as long as it doesn't leave a bruise it'll probably work here...[People protesting]

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Gandhi's philosophy had a huge impact on King and would shape his tactics

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throughout the civil rights movement not everyone was as in love with turning the

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other cheek however most prominent among this group was Malcolm X a key leader in

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a small religious sect known as the Nation of Islam, while many of the

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nation's beliefs are derived from mainstream Islam it's considered a

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distinct religion with its own beliefs like that Africans are the original [Arrows point to African people]

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people of mankind that the races should be separated and that white people were

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created by a mad scientist named Yakob [Yakob in the lab with a white man in a tube]

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unlike King, Malcolm wasn't dreaming of white and black children

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playing together in the schoolyard but he dreamed of more segregation on the

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basis that it would allow african-americans to determine their own

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future he also supported African Americans using self-defense in the face [Malcolm X giving guns to African-Americans]

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of racially based violence a view shared by the other groups like the Black

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Panther Party a militant civil rights organization founded in 1966 and nobody

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asked them whole thing with an eye for an eye leaves the whole

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world blind and toothless ....Well Malcolm would

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eventually break with the Nation of Islam in 1964 and convert to Sunni Islam [Malcolm stands with Sunni Islam]

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the most popular branch of Islam later that year

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well this shift softened Malcolm slightly while he still wasn't pulling a

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Gandhi, a'la Martin Luther King jr. he was

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open to the integration of the races and willing to express mild support for the [Malcolm takes down segregation sign]

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civil rights movement sadly this new phase in Malcolm X's life was cut short

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when he was assassinated in 1965 just three years before MLK would meet the

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same fate but the approaches of Malcolm X and

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Martin Luther King jr. were as different as different can be..just goes to show you

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how diverse civil rights movements can be well we see further evidence of

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this diversity in Bayard Rustin another prominent leader in the movement well

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Rustin wore a lot of different hats in his lifetime kind of like a Dr. Seuss [Rustin wearing lots of hats]

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character he was a nightclub singer in Harlem New York, a die-hard member of the

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Communist Party of America and an all-purpose political activist well by

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the late 1940s Rustin was a pioneering leader in the civil rights movement

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focusing particularly on techniques of nonviolent resistance, that's the time

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nonviolent resistance was a relatively new technique of social change and the

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grand scheme of things as any attempt at nonviolent protest in the 17 or 1800's

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would have ended with your head removed from your body most likely [Man taken to a guilotine]

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little known fact; Rustin was the one who helped King develop his nonviolent

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resistance tactics ahead of the Montgomery bus boycott which means that

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Rustin's fingerprints are all over one of the most important events in American [Rustin's fingerprints all over a bus]

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history...Rustin and King would continue working together over the decade and

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Rustin would become the chief organizer of the 1963 march on Washington though

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he received little credit for it at the time see many within the civil rights

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movement were skeptical of Rustin because he was openly gay which was so

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unheard of at that point in time that well he may as well have been a purple

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unicorn although Rustin was out during the 60s [Rustin appears with a unicorn horn and purple unicorn appears beside him]

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he didn't begin openly advocating for gay rights until the 80s when he made it

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the focal point of his career.....Though he's

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often forgotten Rustin is a crucial figure in the civil rights movement

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without him MLK might never have perfected his technique of nonviolent

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protest but don't think that just because King was advocating non-violence

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that he wasn't willing to get his hands dirty... In 1963

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King led a campaign to promote integration in Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama city]

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Alabama one of the most segregated cities in the country well their efforts

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included boycotts of local segregated stores, sit-ins at public restaurants and

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marches across the city well it was during one of these marches on Good

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Friday the Friday before Easter as it happens, the King was arrested for his [MLK arrested]

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part in the day's protests while in prison King wrote a letter that would

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end up being a lot more significant than your average email or text message [MLK writing a letter in jail]

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letter from Birmingham jail as it would come to be known was written in response

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to an editorial published by a group of local white church leaders these prominent

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priests and preachers painted King as an outsider looking to stir up trouble in

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Birmingham argued that he didn't give the local government enough time to

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respond to his demands and described his protest tactics with a generous serving

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of tea and shade...Well, not to keep score but King dunks on his haters immediately [MLK slam dunking a basketball]

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King starts by quoting some scripture just to prove he can get as biblical as

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the rest of them he compares himself to St. Paul one of the most important early

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leaders of the church likening his struggle for civil rights to the

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struggles of the early church...King then eviscerates the argument that he's an

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outsider in Birmingham saying that all the same issues affecting Birmingham

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afflict his home of Atlanta and countless other communities across

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America plus it's his freakin country Georgia and Alabama border each other [Georgia and Alabama on a map]

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with this Smackdown begun King starts describing his approach to nonviolent

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political resistance it's an easy four-step process [Lincoln discussing 4 step process]

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First; collect facts that determine whether or not injustice exists with

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this step King would visit a city to investigate the state of race relations

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there and connect with local residents to find out their personal stories if

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things were looking bad as they usually were he'd move on to step two [MLK discussing personal stories with a woman]

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negotiation well before kicking off the protests King directly approaches local

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leaders and business people to see if they can resolve the issue without

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conflict this step rarely ended in success.. As was the case with Birmingham local

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leaders wouldn't give King the time of day

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which means that it's time for step three self purification and no it's not

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some weird mystical ritual from Game of Thrones with a dragon... instead self [Game of Thrones characters and Dragon appear]

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purification is Kings spiritually charged way of saying preparation

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well preparation takes many forms like activists workshops that teach everyday

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people how to implement nonviolent political action group sessions that

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prepare protesters for the violence they're likely to face and maybe one or [Woman sprays man with firehose]

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two trips to Dave & Buster's if only for a morale boost because who doesn't like

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that... what's step four? direct action - direct

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action is an umbrella term for the nonviolent political action and the term

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includes strikes, boycotts, public demonstrations and marches sound

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familiar yeah they're the exact same tactics King employs throughout this [People protesting in the street]

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whole civil rights movement look King would love it if he could achieve his

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goals on step two and call it a day sure would be a whole lot less stressful but

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that rarely happens if ever forcing King to employ the often messy tactic of

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direct action...well having explained his tactics King takes on the [Person moves King piece in chessboard]

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clergyman's point beat by beat, why didn't he give local government more

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time to act before protesting? well Kings been through this rodeo before the

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people in charge never give up power without pressure why did he use direct

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action to cause chaos which might lead to violence....why does the

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hypothetical violence caused by protests outweigh the real violence faced by

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African Americans on a daily basis... King also makes a distinction between

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just and unjust laws...just laws as their name implies are just ie fair... They're like

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there's no need to debate whether murder is a bad thing or whether theft is [Person holding knife up to a woman]

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something to be a frowned upon but mixed up with all these valid laws are a bunch

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of invalid ones like those that enforced segregation and those that limit the

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civil rights of African Americans invoking a pre-internet version of

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Godwin's law which states that every debate eventually features at least one

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reference to Hitler.. King makes the point that every terrible thing that Hitler [Hitler's army marching]

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did during World War two was completely legal

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even though he perpetrated some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity

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ever well King uses this argument to support the

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idea that laws can be unjust and conversely that some illegal things like

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protesting and equal rights are actually good it's important to note however that [Woman driving a car]

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even though King comes down hard on his fellow clergyman's arguments his final

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message is a unifying one.. King stresses his respect for his foes as men of God

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despite his personal disappointment with their churches and he states that he

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hopes to meet them someday not as civil rights leaders but as a fellow clergyman

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and Christian brother don't underestimate the brilliance of Kings [MLK writing a letter]

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writing here he somehow manages to both destroy their arguments and leave them

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with an uplifting brotherly message which is the writing equivalent to you [MLK writing a letter and fire begins to spread]

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know being a Jedi Master... Another important piece of civil rights writing

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is Anne Moody's coming-of-age in Mississippi born in 1940 Moody is raised

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in a poor farming family in surprise-surprise Mississippi the book a

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memoir follows Moody from her childhood days performing odd job to making ends

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meet to her college years that took elude college to her eventual joining of [Moody at college and joins a protest]

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the civil rights movement the 1950's in this way Moody's book serves

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as a great document of the development of the civil rights movement after all

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Moody is inspired to join the movement after the brutal murder of

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14 year-old Emmett Till in 1955 an african-american kid from Mississippi

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who was accused of the unforgivable crime of flirting with a white woman [Young boy flirting with woman in supermarket and chased by angry mob]

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Moody also learns about the NAACP that's the National

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Association for the Advancement of Colored People - A famous civil rights

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organization Moody did it all, she took part in sit-ins at diners in Jackson

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Mississippi and even rubbed elbows with Medgar Evers a legendary Mississippi [Moody rubs elbows with Medgar]

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based civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963 by members of a white

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supremacist organization while the novel even ends with perhaps the most iconic

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civil rights movement of all the march on Washington we don't get to see the

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event itself but the novel closes out with Moody on a bus with her fellow

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activists heading to the capital city wondering if they will finally reach [Bus travelling to Washington]

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their goal of racial equality this abrupt ending is actually quite fitting

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after all though the civil rights movement achieved some incredible social

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change, there's still plenty of work left to do still plenty of racially

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based laws to overturn and plenty of hearts and minds that still need to be

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won over to the side of equality although the civil rights movement might [Lincoln statue talking about civil rights movement]

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not yet be over this lesson sure is and what did we learn well we learned that

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the civil rights movement was started in large part due to so-called Jim Crow

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laws racist regulations concentrated in the southern United States...Martin Luther

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King jr. is one of the first leaders we think of when we talk about the civil

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rights movement and for good reason his nonviolent tactics were some of the most [MLK Jr giving speeches for civil rights movement]

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effective drivers of social change nowhere is this more evident than in

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Kings letter from Birmingham jail which explains his philosophy on activism and

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equal rights in full detail but of course he wasn't the only civil rights

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leader with his own unique perspective there was also Malcolm X who took a more

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militant approach to civil rights than MLK and finally we can see Anne Moody's

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memoir coming-of-age in Mississippi as an amazing historical document of the

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movement it gives us a first-hand view of some of the most pivotal events of [Person raises hand]

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the era while there's still plenty more to learn about of the civil rights

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movement this lesson should give you a great foundation to build on...One piece

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of advice before you go if your boo ever wants to go out on the town to celebrate

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a big event just stay home and watch Netflix instead...[Lincoln statue giving advice and scratches his butt]

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