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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > Howard Zinn's View on the Civil Rights Movement

1. The anger of Blacks was deep-rooted
   • Art, poems, Jazz, the Blues all expressed it
   • Communist organisations espoused civil rights as early as the 30s
   • Past injustices were strong motivation
   • Great migration changed everything
2. Truman
   • Concerned with international prestige
     1. Desegregation
     2. Moral and economic motivations
   • Could have gone further, but didn't
3. The Fifties
   • Brown v. Board of Education was just enough to gain the US prestige
     1. Was never really enforced
   • Black power had roots in Rosa Parks' time
   • Early stirrings of the movement had a powerful affect on southern Blacks, stirring something
4. JFK
   • Concerned about the support of the South
   • Didn't help CORE until it became a big thing
     1. Bobby sold them out
5. LBJ
   • Like LBJ, JFK, and all his predecessors, didn't truly protect the Blacks, so when they began to move, they experienced massive resistance
   • Civil Rights Acts "were enforced poorly or ignored"
   • Government tried to channel anger
     1. "into the voting box"
     2. March on Washington dominated by Kennedy, who made it peaceful
     3. MLK didn't express the anger, Lewis wasn't allowed to
     4. Malcolm X: "It was a sellout. It was a takeover."
     5. Bringing Blacks into coalition of democrats
   • Legislation was useless
     1. Voting hadn't helped the Harlem Blacks
     2. Kerner Report issued just for symbolism, thus was rejected
     3. Civil Rights Act of 68 gave riot stoppers more power
     4. MLK: Vietnam money wasting shows that government could help Blacks if it wanted to
     5. Riots after MLKís death show that the courts still won't help Blacks
     6. Vietnam distracts from Civil Rights movement?
     7. The Office of Economic Opportunity appeased Black Power
   • Because of failure of channeling, poor legislation, Black Power arose
6. The FBI v. Black Power
   • Organised a massive campaign against the Civil Rights movement
   • COINTELPRO worked since Kennedy in the background to destroy militancy
   • Actions surged in the Black Power days
7. Afterward
   • The Ghetto worsened steadily
   • Growing Black middle class splits the Civil Rights movement
   • Important Black figures today do not represent their community
   • Cities purposefully set poor whites against poor Blacks

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