The Great Civil Rights Movement and the New Culture Wars

Objectives

• Understand why dominated groups participated in the Civil Rights movement.
• Identify the ways in which these groups were able to obtain many of the privileges of citizenship they had previously been denied.
• Discuss the current battles over multicultural education, bilingual education, and ethnocentric education.

"The Shadow of Hate"

Key Concepts

• From 1940 to the 1960s, dominated groups participated in the Civil Rights movement and protested their domination by members of the Protestant Anglo-American culture.
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was founded in 1909 by black and white citizens concerned about social justice, led the fight against segregated schools and public facilities.
• After a long legal struggle, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of schools. The court found that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not permit separate but equal schools.

Key Concepts

• The Brown decision met with great resistance and it was not until the enactment of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the federal government could take measures to enforce the Brown decision. Title VI allows the federal government to withhold money from segregated schools and also authorizes the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to initiate legal actions against school districts that refuse to integrate.

Key Concepts

• Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders in the Civil Rights movement used nonviolent confrontation to push for the full participation of African Americans in American society.
• Native Americans fought for an end to termination policies and for self-determination. In 1968, the enactment of the Bilingual Education Act provided funds that could be used to support bilingual programs in Native American languages and English.

Key Concepts

• The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act passed in 1975 allowed tribes to enter into contracts with the federal government for control of their own education and health programs.
• The 1988 Tribally Controlled Schools Act provided grants to tribes to support the operation of their own schools.
• White America’s "model minority" image of Asian Americans emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a response to the militancy of the black Civil Rights movement.

Key Concepts

• The model minority image was used to cover up racism and to bolster support for the notion of a color-blind society. Proponents of a color-blind society believed achievement would be determined by individual effort.
• In 1974, the Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols held that equal educational opportunity requires the provision of special instruction to students who do not understand English.

Key Concepts

• In 1946, a U.S. District Court found in Mendez et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County that Mexicans were not Native Americans and therefore could not be segregated in schools.
• In 1948, Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District held that schools in Texas could not segregate children solely because they were of Mexican descent; however, school districts could separate first graders within a school if tests showed they needed special English instruction.

Key Concepts

• In the 1960’s Mexican Americans advocated the use of Spanish in schools and the teaching of Hispanic history and culture. Students boycotted schools in Los Angeles, demanding bilingual education. The activist group La Raza Unida was also active in the movement for bilingual education and the incorporation of Hispanic culture in schools.

The debate over bilingual education continues today.
In 1964 the Immigration Act did away with the quota system established by the 1924 Immigration Act.
Multicultural educators have successfully integrated dominated people's history and culture into some school curriculums.
Many educators have also advocated the use of ethnocentric schools.

Spring Ch. 6

• Dominated groups participated in the Civil Rights movement in an attempt to establish a legal and educational system that recognizes the plurality of the United States.
• Through the use of protests and legal advocacy, these groups were able to obtain many of the privileges of citizenship they had previously been denied.
• The current battles over multicultural education, bilingual education, and ethnocentric education are discussed.