-
Period: to
Presidential Policy Speeches
-
Truman Address NAACP
Click: Truman Addresses NAACPPresident Truman calls for"freedom and equality to all our citizens." While addressing the NAACP national convention from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Truman insists that full civil rights must come soon. However, he offers only small changes such as a setting up an advisory committee on civil rights. Still, his speech is ambitious in its goals:
"We must make the Federal Government a friendly, vigilant defender of the rights and equalities of all Americans. And again I mean all Americans." -
Brown v. Board of Education
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court strikes down school segregation. The 9-0 decision gives new energy to the civil rights movement. NAACP lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (pictured, center) argued the case. In his ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that segregating students by race "generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." -
Rosa Parks & Bus Boycott
When Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white person, she is arrested. That incident in Montgomery, Alabama sets off a boycott of the city bus system that lasts for over one year. The boycott helps inspire the NAACP to file a federal lawsuit challenging bus segregation. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott Victory
The Montgomery Bus Boycott ends after a Supreme Court decision is put into effect ending bus segregation in Alabama. -
Eisenhower Pushes for Civil Rights Law
Click: President Eisenhower's 1957 State of the UnionIn his State of the Union address, President Eisenhower argues Congress should pass the first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction. Voting rights is the central theme:
"Steadily we are moving closer to the goal of fair and equal treatment of citizens without regard to race or color. But unhappily much remains to be done." -
1957 Civil Rights Act Becomes Law
1957 Civil Rights Act is singed into law by President Eisenhower. The law protects voting rights, creates Civil Rights Division at Justice Department and allows for prosecution of people who violate federal voting laws. -
Little Rock Central High School
Under orders of President Eisenhower, Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas is desegregated. Nine black students were escorted in by federal troops after Eisenhower sent in the U.S. Army and federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of the pro-segregation governor. -
Lunch Counter Sit-Ins Begin
Four black students in Greensboro, N.C. sit at an all-white lunch counter and are refused service. Soon, the protest method spreads across the south. -
1960 Civil Rights Act Becomes Law
Eisenhower signs 1960 Civil Rights Act, closing several loopholes in the 1957 Civil Rights Act. -
Kennedy Addresses Nation on Civil Rights
Click: Kennedy Address to Nation on Civil RightsIn an historic live speech to the nation, President Kennedy announces that he has used the Alabama National Guard to force the integration of the University of Alabama. Kennedy uses the live television address to push for a comprehensive civil rights bill. -
"I Have A Dream" Speech Delivered
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have A Dream Speech" during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The massive and historic march and the iconic speech draw national and international attention to the civil rights movement. -
President Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas
President Kennedy is assassinated by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald as the president's car travels through a Dallas street. -
President Johnson Addresses Congress
Click: Johnson Addresses CongressIn the hours after Kennedy is assassinated, Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as president. Five days later, he argues that Congress should carry on Kennedy's call for action on civil rights:
"I urge you again, as I did in 1957 and again in 1960, to enact a civil rights law so that we can move forward to eliminate from this Nation every trace of discrimination and oppression that is based upon race or color. There could be no greater source of strength to this Nation both at home and abroad." -
Johnson Signs 1964 Civil Rights Act
Click: Johnson Address on Singing of Civil Rights ActPresident Johnson fulfills his plan to pass the civil rights law President Kennedy had envisioned less than a year earlier. In signing the historic and sweeping law 1964 Civil Rights Act, Johnson aims to finally elimate racial discrimination:
"This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our States, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country." -
Johnson Argues for New Voting Rights Act
Click: Johnson Speech to Congress on Voting RightsPresident Johnson goes before Congress to press for a new votiong rights act. He argues that voting protections were cut from the 1964 Civil Rights Act and he once again frames the issue as a basic right:
"In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath." -
Johnson Signs 1965 Voting Rights Act
Click: Johnson Address on Singing of 1965 Voting Rights Act President Johnson addresses nation and says the 1965 Voting Rights Act breaks down one of the final walls of racial injustice:
"So, we will move step by step—often painfully but, I think, with clear vision—along the path toward American freedom." -
Johnson Signs 1968 Civil Rights Act
Click: Johnson Addresses on Signing 1968 Civil Rights Act Johnson's final civil rights law protected people of color from housing discrimination. He signed it twelve days after Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated by a white supremacist. Riots had broken out in response. Johnson tied the events together in his address:
"We just must put our shoulders together and put a stop to both. The time is here. Action must be now." -
George H.W. Bush Signs ADA
Click: President Bush Signs ADA Decades after the major civil rights speeches of the 1960s, President George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act. It mandated "reasonable accommodation" for people with disabilities. In his address, Bush said it built on the 1964 Civil Rights Act:
"Legally, it will provide our disabled community with a powerful expansion of protections and then basic civil rights." -
Clinton Signs Family Medical Leave Act
Click: President Clinton Signs FMLA The Family Medical Leave Act extended the idea of civil rights and allowed workers to take up to 12 unpaid weeks off work to deal with an illness or birth:
"Family and medical leave is a matter of pure common sense and a matter of common decency. It will provide Americans what they need most: peace of mind. Never again will parents have to fear losing their jobs because of their families."
