Hello, and thank you for joining me.

I'm Mr. Marchant and I'll be your history teacher for today's lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources and my top aims are to ensure not only that you enjoy our learning, but also that you can successfully meet today's lesson objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on civil rights in the USA, where we're asking ourselves, how successful was the American Civil Rights Movement? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the impact of civil rights legislation passed in the USA during the 1960s.

There are three keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are legislation, disenfranchisement, and enforced.

Legislation means laws passed by the government.

Disenfranchisement refers to when the right to vote is taken away from a group of people.

And if something is enforced, it means that people are making sure that laws and rules are being obeyed.

So today's lesson will be split into three parts and we'll begin by focusing on changes in the law.

During the 1960s, significant new laws were introduced, addressing issues of civil rights in the USA.

The passage of these laws was closely related to the work of the Civil Rights Movement and the actions of presidents John F.

Kennedy, JFK, and Lyndon B.

Johnson, LBJ.

JFK was elected president in 1960.

The election was very closely fought and Kennedy benefited from high levels of African American support.

As a result, many people expected that JFK would use his position as president to finally address the issue of civil rights in America.

Certainly, in the years following JFK's election, major civil rights campaigns, such as the Birmingham Campaign and March on Washington, were organised to put pressure on the president to introduce new civil rights legislation.

Kennedy was worried about opposition from Southern members of his own Democratic Party, but introduced proposals for new civil rights law in 1963.

However, before JFK's bill could become law, the president was assassinated in November, 1963.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've heard so far.

Why did JFK's election win increase hopes that the US government would take action on civil rights? Was it because JFK was African American? Because JFK benefited from significant African American support? Or because JFK promised an immediate end to segregation? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

There were increased hopes that the US government would take actions on civil rights because JFK had benefited from significant African American support in the 1960 election and many people believed the president would repay African Americans for that backing.

Following JFK's death, LBJ became president.

President Johnson was committed to passing a new civil rights law, and with nearly 30 years of political experience, Johnson knew exactly what he needed to do.

LBJ claimed that passing a civil rights law would honour JFK's legacy.

This helped the president to make the most of sympathy after Kennedy's death and allowed him to overcome opposition within his own party from Southern politicians.

In July, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Even so, the Civil Rights Movement continued.

In 1965, a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery, protesting the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South, was broken up violently by the police.

LBJ responded to these events quickly and demanded that Congress pass a new law on voting.

In August, 1965, the Voting Rights Act became law.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

LBJ demanded that Congress pass a Voting Rights Act after which protest? The Birmingham Campaign, the March on Washington, or the Selma to Montgomery March.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

After Bloody Sunday, which occurred during the Selma to Montgomery March, LBJ demanded that Congress pass a Voting Rights Act.

The new laws of 1964 and 1965 did not prevent African American discontent.

In fact, from 1964 to 1968, there were 329 major riots in 259 US cities, such as in New York and Los Angeles in 1965 and Detroit in 1967.

LBJ ordered an official inquiry into these riots, which concluded that they were the result of widespread inequality in discrimination against African Americans.

Not least, the poor ghetto conditions many continued to live in and harsh police treatment that African Americans often received.

In 1968, the US government passed a new Civil Rights Act, which has also been known as the Fair Housing Act.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we just heard.

We have a statement which reads, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act solved all issues faced by Black Americans.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that poor housing was one issue, which led to 329 riots between 1964 and 1968.

And the second says that Jim Crow Laws remained in place, leading to 329 riots between 1964 and 1968.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A.

Poor housing was still a major issue faced by African Americans even after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act were passed.

In fact, between 1964 and 1968, there were 329 riots, many of which were linked to terrible ghetto conditions in American cities.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about changes in the law into practise.

Starting with the earliest, I want you to sort the events shown in the table into chronological order.

You should use the numbers one to eight to indicate your answers.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to sort the events in the table into chronological order, and your answers should have gone as follows.

The first event in our table was that JFK's election raised hopes of new civil rights legislation.

The Civil Rights Act was passed to respect JFK's legacy in 1964.

This was followed by peaceful protestors being attacked at Selma by local police the next year.

Very soon after this attack, the Voting Rights Act was passed under President Lyndon B.

Johnson.

However, even despite these new laws, Black Americans rioted across America's major cities.

And by 1968, the Fair Housing Act was passed, otherwise known as the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

So really well done if you identified the correct chronological order for each of those events.

And now we can move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we're going to focus on the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act.

Three major pieces of civil rights legislation were passed by the US government during the 1960s.

These were the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Civil Rights Act, otherwise known as the Fair Housing Act.

So let's start by thinking about the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

This banned discrimination in public spaces like parks and theatres, therefore, making segregation illegal.

It also banned job discrimination and set up the Equal Opportunities Commission to investigate complaints of employer discrimination.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act also gave the federal government the right to remove funding from state projects which discriminated against African Americans and other groups.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

What was the name of the organisation set up to investigate claims of racial discrimination by employers? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was the Equal Opportunities Commission.

And so now we can think about the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

This aimed to prevent the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South.

It banned voter discrimination.

And the federal government took responsibility to register voters itself, rather than leaving states to do this, in areas where many people had been disenfranchised.

States could only introduce new qualification rules on who could vote if they had the approval of the federal government.

So let's think about everything we've just heard about the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

We have a statement which reads, bans on voter disenfranchisement were not enforced by the federal government.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the federal government fined states who did not help African Americans register to vote.

And the second says that the federal government took responsibility for registering voters in some areas itself.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was B.

The federal government took responsibility for registering voters in some areas itself.

This clearly shows that the intention of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was actually being enforced by the federal government to make sure that African Americans did benefit from this new law.

And now we can think about the 1968 Civil Rights Act, otherwise known as the Fair Housing Act.

This guaranteed many civil rights for Native Americans, and it also banned discrimination in the sale and rental of housing based on race, religion, or national origin.

It also made it illegal to neglect the maintenance and repairs of properties rented by people because of their race, religion, or national origin.

This was aimed at addressing many of the issues around ghetto conditions that had encouraged riots across northern American cities in the mid to late 1960s.

So which of the following was not part of the terms of the 1968 Civil Rights Act? That Native Americans were granted more civil rights.

That African Americans were granted greater protections from housing discrimination.

Or that police officers found guilty of racist discrimination were removed from their jobs? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

It was not a part of the 1968 Civil Rights Act for police officers found guilty of racist discrimination to be removed from their jobs.

However, the Act did provide greater protections from housing discrimination for African Americans and also granted more civil rights to Native Americans.

So we're now ready to put all of our knowledge about the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act into practise.

I want you to study the information in the table.

For each term, you need to identify whether it was part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, or the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done to everybody for your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to identify whether each of our terms were part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, or the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

And your answers should have been as follows.

For our first term, that it outlawed segregation in public spaces.

Well, this was achieved by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

For a law that banned housing discrimination, this was the purpose of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

For federal approval being required for new voter qualifications, this was something introduced by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

For the Equal Opportunities Commission being created, this happened under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

And for guaranteeing civil rights for Native Americans, that was part of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

So well done for all your work on that task, especially if you got each of those terms identified correctly.

And now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we're going to focus on the impacts of civil rights legislation.

The civil rights legislation of the 1960s represented major achievements for the Civil Rights Movement, which had campaigned for government action.

However, even at the time these laws were passed, Americans began to disagree with one another about whether these laws had achieved as much as was hoped for.

The new laws of the 1960s were seen as important symbolic and practical victories for the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.

Jim Crow Laws, which had segregated the South since the late 19th century, were overturned by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Meanwhile, the 1965 Voting Rights Act almost immediately benefited African Americans.

Almost 80,000 Black Americans, who had previously been disenfranchised, were registered to vote by federal officials just by the end of 1965.

The creation of the Equal Opportunities Commission also provided an important step towards preventing discrimination by employers.

Nevertheless, although new laws were passed to ban various forms of discrimination, in practise, racial injustice continued across the USA.

Nearly five years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, 68% of Black children in the South still attended segregated schools.

It took further action and another six years for the federal government to reduce this figure to 8% by 1974.

Similarly, although the Equal Opportunities Commission promised to help end discrimination in theory, it relied on people making complaints about their employers to take action.

Many African Americans were too worried about the consequences of making a complaint and so rarely did so.

So whilst African Americans gained new civil rights, these were often not enforced.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

What percentage of African American children in the South still attended segregated schools by 1968? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the percentage was 68%.

This was despite the 1964 Civil Rights Act declaring that all forms of racial discrimination and segregation should be banned.

And let's try another question.

This time, we have a statement which says, some African Americans were disappointed by the effects of the 1960s civil rights legislation.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that new civil rights were granted to African Americans but were not always enforced.

And the second says that the legislation of the 1960s discussed civil rights but granted no new rights to African Americans.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the first justification, A, was correct.

New civil rights were granted to African Americans but were not always enforced, and this led to widespread disappointment with some of the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

Many people were concerned that new legislation in the 1960s had failed to do much to improve the quality of life of most African Americans.

There were some improvements over the decade.

Poverty levels had fallen for Black Americans from 50% in 1960 to 30% in 1974.

However, there was still significant inequality between Black and white Americans.

Unemployment was around 5% for white Americans in 1970, while it was 8% for Black Americans.

This difference was even more noticeable for teenagers.

15% of white teens were unemployed, but 50% of Black teenagers were out of work.

Similarly, many African Americans felt that they continued to suffer from the negative attitudes of white Americans, especially those in power.

Despite recommendations that policing needed to be changed to provide fairer treatment for Black Americans, the legislation of the 1960s did almost nothing to improve how officers and local forces treated Black populations.

So thinking about what we've just read, which statement is most accurate? That increased civil rights led to most African Americans becoming richer than most white Americans.

That increased civil rights led to most African Americans becoming as rich as most white Americans.

Or that despite increased civil rights, most African Americans remained poorer than most white Americans.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

Despite increased civil rights, most African Americans remained poorer than most white Americans by the start of the 1970s.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge about the impacts of civil rights legislation into practise.

I want you to explain how the civil rights legislation of the 1960s affected African Americans across the USA.

You should write two paragraphs which may consider different areas of life affected or varying degrees of impact which Black Americans experienced.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all your hard work on that task.

So I asked for you to explain how the civil rights legislation in the 1960s affected African Americans across the USA, and your answer may have included.

Civil rights legislation in the 1960s helped ensure that African Americans received more equal treatment.

For instance, the 1964 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public spaces, which meant that segregation was outlawed across the South.

This helped African Americans enjoy equal access to facilities like parks and theatres as white Americans.

Furthermore, the 1965 Voting Rights Act introduced new protections to combat the disenfranchisement of Black Americans in the South.

In the same year that this was passed, nearly 80,000 African Americans were newly registered to vote, allowing them to exercise basic rights which had previously been denied to them.

So really well done if one of your paragraphs looked something like that response there.

And your answer may also have included.

Civil rights legislation led to disappointment in many African American communities because it was felt that new laws failed to improve the quality of their day-to-day lives.

For example, frustration at continued poor housing conditions led to 329 major riots in 259 US cities in the four years after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.

Despite another Civil Rights Act in 1968 to address housing discrimination, many African Americans still felt that legislation had done little to reduce economic inequality.

For instance, by 1970, Black Americans were almost twice as likely to be unemployed as white Americans.

So again, really well done if your own response looked something like that model which we've just seen.

And so now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

We've seen that the Civil Rights Movement helped push the federal government into passing new civil rights legislation during the 1960s.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act banned segregation and racial discrimination in many other areas of life, such as employment.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act took effective measures to end the disenfranchisement of African American voters in the South.

The 1968 Civil Rights Act aimed to end racial discrimination in housing, although many African Americans continued to suffer from discrimination, and inequalities between white and Black Americans persisted.

So really well done for all of your hard work and application during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources and I look forward to seeing you again in the future as we think further about civil rights in the USA and continue to ask ourselves, how successful was the American Civil Rights Movement?.