1954-1968: Civil Rights
Civil Unrest
The ongoing nationwide housing crisis for African Americans and other forms of systemic racism led to significant civil unrest in the 1950’s (Feagin, 2014, pp. 155-157). While a number of civil rights advancements were made—many supported by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the NAACP—positive steps like Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which desegregated schools, did little to reduce the overall impact of segregation. Civil rights advanced at a slow and sometimes violent pace (Feagin, 2014, p. 274).
Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights movement leaders in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln during the March on Washington, August 28, 1963
Source: Wikipedia
As the 1950’s ended and the 1960’s began, national civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged to champion Black resistance to systemic racism. In 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated, which led to serious unrest in Maryland. Pietila found that “In Maryland, boycotts and sit-ins erupted into rioting in the Eastern Shore town of Cambridge,” and that the governor “declared martial law and sent 425 National Guardsmen to quell the violence with the help of state troopers” (p. 189).
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The civil rights movement did, however, produce some success. President John F. Kennedy, and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, helped the U.S. Congress pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was meant to end race-based discrimination. This legislation and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were steps in the right direction, but as with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments passed after the Civil War, legal rights did not automatically create social and economic ones. Local governments and local institutions of housing, real estate, and education resisted federal laws as much as possible, especially in the south, which led to widespread civic upheaval in 1967 and 1968 (Feagin, 2014, pp. 204-205).