Robert Ford (born December 26, 1948) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate from 1993 to 2013, representing District 42, which is located in Charleston . From 1974 to 1992, he served as a member of the Charleston City Council.
108-898: Robert Ford may refer to: Politics [ edit ] Robert Ford (politician) (born 1948), member of the South Carolina Senate Robert MacDonald Ford (1911–2004), Washington state politician Rob Ford (1969–2016), former mayor of Toronto Robert Ford (academic) , British political scientist Sports [ edit ] Bob Ford (basketball) (born 1950), American basketball player Bob Ford (American football) (born 1937), American football coach Bob Ford (golfer) (born 1954), American golfer, see Pennsylvania Open Championship Bobby Ford (born 1974), English footballer Bobby Ford (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), played for Dundee FC Robert Ford (sportscaster) , American sportscaster for
216-539: A 14-year-old African American from Chicago, visited his relatives in Money, Mississippi , for the summer. He allegedly had an interaction with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in a small grocery store that violated the norms of Mississippi culture, and Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam brutally murdered young Emmett Till. They beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River . Three days later, Till's body
324-473: A backlash for his involvement with white actress Kim Novak . Davis briefly married a black dancer in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence. In 1958, officers in Virginia entered the home of Mildred and Richard Loving and dragged them out of bed for living together as an interracial couple, on the basis that "any white person intermarry with a colored person"— or vice versa—each party "shall be guilty of
432-418: A brewing campaign finance scandal. Ford has been described as entertaining, controversial, and politically incorrect . He supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries and questioned Barack Obama 's appeal to white voters. Ford later apologized for his comments, stating that any Democrat could win and that he had supported other African American candidates for president in
540-605: A bus boycott was considered and rejected. But when Rosa Parks was arrested in December, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson of the Montgomery Women's Political Council put the bus boycott protest in motion. Late that night, she, John Cannon (chairman of the Business Department at Alabama State University ) and others mimeographed and distributed thousands of leaflets calling for a boycott. The eventual success of
648-588: A car salesman and later became a full-time legislator. Ford is a lifelong bachelor. Ford was elected to serve on the Charleston City Council, where he served from 1974 to 1992. During this time, Councilman Ford was indicted on forgery charges after an annexation petition for the Neck area included the names of dead people. However, he was not convicted. Ford ran for the State Senate and
756-473: A combined strategy of direct action , nonviolence , nonviolent resistance , and many events described as civil disobedience , giving rise to the civil rights movement of 1954 to 1968. A. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to support demands for elimination of employment discrimination in the defense industry ; he called off the march when the Roosevelt administration met
864-637: A database from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to check the legal status of workers. Ford co-sponsored a bill with Glenn McConnell that would limit the governor's authority to appoint and remove board members overseeing the Charleston port and increase required qualifications for board members. Ford opposed a bill giving Sanford authority over the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control . Ford ran to succeed Mark Sanford as Governor of South Carolina in
972-488: A felony" and face prison terms of five years. Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation . They were faced with " massive resistance " in the South by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression . In defiance, African-American activists adopted
1080-514: A fire in his home. Green was defeated in the primary election by a wide margin. Ford praised Obama's election in November 2008, but criticized South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn 's family for allegedly attempting to profit off Obama's victory. As senator, Ford has introduced many bills with only a small number becoming law, but has been more successful in contributing to compromise bills. After becoming senator, Ford attempted to have
1188-635: A march from Selma to Montgomery . The movement was led by Martin Luther King Jr. , James Bevel , and others, and press coverage of police violence using fire hoses and dogs against students attempting to walk to City Hall to talk with the mayor during the Birmingham campaign increased its public support. Discrimination was often supported by courts, including by the Supreme Court in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , which upheld
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#17327905614741296-578: A neighborhood a character or property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individual whose presence will be clearly detrimental to property values in a neighborhood." The result was the development of all-black ghettos in the North and West, where much housing was older, as well as South. The first anti-miscegenation law was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage . In
1404-571: A network of chapters as the NAACP did. It offered training and leadership assistance for local efforts to fight segregation. The headquarters organization raised funds, mostly from Northern sources, to support such campaigns. It made nonviolence both its central tenet and its primary method of confronting racism. In 1959, Septima Clarke , Bernice Robinson, and Esau Jenkins , with the help of Myles Horton 's Highlander Folk School in Tennessee , began
1512-465: A plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for blacks were routed to the lowest status and restrictive in potential mobility. Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants , redlining and racial steering ". The Great Migration resulted in many African Americans becoming urbanized, and they began to realign from
1620-493: A primary election. Sheheen's campaign has raised $ 33,000 as of January 2009, while Ford's campaign raised $ 6,000. On June 8, 2010, Ford finished in third place in the primary election with 18 percent of the vote. South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 1992 Primary election, August 25, 1992 Threshold > 50% Ford won the general election unopposed on November 3, 1992. South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 1996 Ford did not have
1728-699: A primary opponent on June 11, 1996. General election, November 5, 1996 South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 2000 Primary election Threshold > 50% First Ballot, June 13, 2000 Second Ballot, June 27, 2000 Ford won the general election unopposed on November 7, 2000. South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 2004 Primary election, June 8, 2004 Threshold > 50% General election, November 2, 2004 South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 2008 Primary election, June 10, 2008 Threshold > 50% General election, November 4, 2008 South Carolina State Senator, 42nd Senatorial District, 2012 Senator Ford
1836-531: A speech in Charleston, Illinois in 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people". By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes. By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage was still in force in 29 states. While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, in 1957 actor Sammy Davis Jr. faced
1944-505: A watershed historical moment without Mamie finding the strength to make her private grief a public matter." The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the black community throughout the U.S. The murder and resulting trial ended up markedly impacting the views of several young black activists. Joyce Ladner referred to such activists as the "Emmett Till generation." One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on
2052-441: Is "profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious or indecent." Ford argued he did not expect these proposals to be approved but wanted to start a discussion specifically targeting young African American men's fashion as well as rap music . He stated: "You don't have to emulate prisoners no more. You can emulate somebody like Barack Obama." Ford often opposed governor Mark Sanford's political goals, arguing his proposed reforms were unwanted by
2160-515: Is a proponent of stricter regulations of the financial industry. He sponsored a 2006 ban on payday lending , which was shown to discriminate against African Americans. In 2008, Ford blocked all House bills in the Senate until the bill was taken up. The bill failed in the Senate by a close vote and was heavily amended so lenders would not be banned but restricted. The bill then passed with Ford voting in favor but failed to advance after changes made in
2268-497: The 15th Amendment (1870) that gave black males the right to vote (only males could vote in the U.S. at the time). From 1865 to 1877, the United States underwent a turbulent Reconstruction era during which the federal government tried to establish free labor and the civil rights of freedmen in the South after the end of slavery. Many whites resisted the social changes, leading to the formation of insurgent movements such as
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#17327905614742376-470: The African American community. Ford attended Wayne State University and Grambling State University , from which he was expelled in 1969 before graduating for leading civil rights demonstrations. He was expelled by the university, despite it being historically black , because it relied on public funds which were controlled by a state government opposed to desegregation . Ford was a member of
2484-709: The American Civil War , eight serving presidents had owned slaves , almost four million black people remained enslaved in the South , generally only white men with property could vote, and the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites . Following the Civil War, three constitutional amendments were passed, including the 13th Amendment (1865) that ended slavery; the 14th Amendment (1869) that gave black people citizenship, adding their total for Congressional apportionment ; and
2592-715: The Confederate flag removed from the South Carolina State House . It was the last state capitol to display a Confederate battle flag, and Ford had picketed the building in the 1960s as a symbol of discrimination. Following years of debate, the flag was moved to a nearby monument with the adoption of a compromise bill authored by Ford. He was responsible for the passage of a 1998 bill that paired Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with Confederate Memorial Day as paid holidays. Ford stated that he hoped
2700-803: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose members attacked black and white Republicans in order to maintain white supremacy . In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant , the U.S. Army, and U.S. Attorney General Amos T. Akerman , initiated a campaign to repress the KKK under the Enforcement Acts . Some states were reluctant to enforce the federal measures of the act. In addition, by the early 1870s, other white supremacist and insurgent paramilitary groups arose that violently opposed African-American legal equality and suffrage, intimidating and suppressing black voters, and assassinating Republican officeholders. However, if
2808-827: The March on Washington in 1963, moderates in the movement worked with the United States Congress to achieve the passage of several significant pieces of federal legislation that authorized oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, including in schools, employment, and public accommodations . The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities and authorized oversight of registration and elections in areas with historic under-representation of minority voters. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbade property owners from discriminating in
2916-566: The South Carolina Department of Public Safety resigned under pressure from governor Mark Sanford . Ford sponsored legislation defining a hate crime "as an assault, intimidation or threat based on 'actual or perceived' race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin and sexual orientation." He also introduced several bills concerning gay rights in lodging , hospital visitation rights and partnerships. His partnership bill would provide for civil unions in South Carolina. The effort
3024-506: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff from 1966 to 1972 and worked for Martin Luther King Jr. (continuing after King was assassinated ) as a member of an advance team of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign . He was arrested 73 times for participating in protests during the civil rights movement. In 1973, he won a draft evasion trial on basis of conscientious objection . Ford worked as
3132-655: The Tuskegee Institute , to dine at the White House , making him the first African American to attend an official dinner there. "The invitation was roundly criticized by southern politicians and newspapers." Washington persuaded the president to appoint more blacks to federal posts in the South and to try to boost African-American leadership in state Republican organizations. However, these actions were resisted by both white Democrats and white Republicans as an unwanted federal intrusion into state politics. During
3240-545: The civil rights of all Americans. After the American Civil War and subsequent abolition of slavery in the southern states in 1865, the three Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution had granted emancipation and constitutional rights of citizenship to all African Americans, the majority of whom had recently been enslaved. For a short period of time, African-American men voted and held political office, but as time went on Blacks in
3348-552: The civil rights movement , several of Ford's public statements and legislative proposals as senator attracted media attention and controversy. He finished in third place in the June 2010 Democratic primary election for Governor of South Carolina . He resigned on May 31, 2013, in the midst of a political scandal on public funds spent in adult establishments. Ford was born in New Orleans , Louisiana ; his parents were leaders in
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3456-425: The 1950s and 1960s, the nonviolent protesting of the civil rights movement caused definite tension, which gained national attention. In order to prepare for protests physically and psychologically, demonstrators received training in nonviolence. According to former civil rights activist Bruce Hartford, there are two main components of nonviolence training. There is the philosophical method, which involves understanding
3564-473: The 2010 gubernatorial election. His platform included reinstating video poker to the state to generate returns from taxes on the gaming industry in an effort to balance the state budget, something he has proposed since the late 1990s. A law Ford sponsored in 2008 to make gambling legal failed to advance; he planned a voter referendum to repeal the ban. Ford faced state senator Vincent A. Sheheen of Camden and State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex in
3672-620: The Forces in the United Kingdom Robert B. Ford , president/COO at Abbott Laboratories Inc, CEO since 2020. See also [ edit ] Robert Forde (1875–1959), explorer Robert Michael Forde , colonial surgeon in The Gambia [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
3780-499: The House. A bill preventing consumers from taking out more than one loan at a time passed the House in 2009. Ford supported offshore drilling , stating conservation was not a priority for most citizens of the state. Geologists believe there is little oil to be found off the South Carolina coast. Ford wants to prevent the widening of Interstate 26 through Charleston, calling instead for a study for transportation needs. Ford emphasized
3888-1028: The Houston Astros Robert Ford (American football) (born 1951), American football coach Robert Ford (basketball) , American basketball head coach Characters [ edit ] Robert Ford ( One Life to Live ) , a fictional soap opera character Robert Ford, character in the TV series Westworld Others [ edit ] Robert Ford (outlaw) (1862–1892), the man who killed Jesse James Robert Ford (Canadian diplomat) (1915–1998), poet and Canadian diplomat Robert Ford Jr. (1949–2020), American journalist and record producer Robert Stephen Ford (born 1958), former American ambassador to Syria and former ambassador to Algeria Robert W. Ford (1923–2013), British radio officer and civil servant in Tibet Robert Ford (British Army officer) (1923–2015), adjutant-general to
3996-609: The Montgomery Improvement Association, joined with other church leaders who had led similar boycott efforts, such as C. K. Steele of Tallahassee and T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge, and other activists such as Fred Shuttlesworth , Ella Baker , A. Philip Randolph , Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison , to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC, with its headquarters in Atlanta , Georgia , did not attempt to create
4104-516: The Montgomery bus boycott to demand a bus system in which passengers would be treated equally. The organization was led by Jo Ann Robinson, a member of the Women's Political Council who had been waiting for the opportunity to boycott the bus system. Following Rosa Parks' arrest, Jo Ann Robinson mimeographed 52,500 leaflets calling for a boycott. They were distributed around the city and helped gather
4212-496: The NAACP and the national civil rights movement obtained federal court orders to integrate the prestigious Little Rock Central High School in September, 1957. The Nine faced intense harassment and threats of violence from white parents and students, as well as organized white supremacy groups. The enraged opposition emphasized miscegenation as the threat to white society. Arkansas Governor , Orval Faubus , claiming his only goal
4320-528: The Nine were teased and ridiculed every day. In the city compromise efforts all failed and political tensions continued to fester. A year later in September 1958 the Supreme Court ruled that all the city's high schools had to be integrated immediately. Governor Faubus and the legislature responded by immediately shutting down all the public high schools in the city for the entire 1958–1959 school year, despite
4428-647: The RCNL, Howard led campaigns to expose brutality by the Mississippi state highway patrol and to encourage blacks to make deposits in the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Nashville which, in turn, gave loans to civil rights activists who were victims of a "credit squeeze" by the White Citizens' Councils . After Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in March 1955,
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4536-855: The Republican to the Democratic Party, especially because of opportunities under the New Deal of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Substantially under pressure from African-American supporters who began the March on Washington Movement , President Roosevelt issued the first federal order banning discrimination and created the Fair Employment Practice Committee . After both World Wars, black veterans of
4644-503: The South were increasingly deprived of civil rights, often under racist Jim Crow laws , and were subjected to discrimination and sustained violence by White supremacists . African Americans who moved to the North to enhance their prospects in the Great Migration also faced barriers in employment and housing. Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal and civil rights, such as
4752-430: The South." From 1910 to 1970, blacks sought better lives by migrating north and west out of the South. A total of nearly seven million blacks left the South in what was known as the Great Migration , most during and after World War II. So many people migrated that the demographics of some previously black-majority states changed to a white majority (in combination with other developments). The rapid influx of blacks altered
4860-467: The annual Hampton Negro Conference in Virginia, said that "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage-earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South. There seems to be an apparent effort throughout the North, especially in the cities to debar the colored worker from all the avenues of higher remunerative labor, which makes it more difficult to improve his economic condition even than in
4968-791: The appointment of African American David Jones to the school board in 1953, convinced numerous white and black citizens that Greensboro was heading in a progressive direction. Integration in Greensboro occurred rather peacefully compared to the process in Southern states such as Alabama, Arkansas , and Virginia where " massive resistance " was practiced by top officials and throughout the states. In Virginia, some counties closed their public schools rather than integrate, and many white Christian private schools were founded to accommodate students who used to go to public schools. Even in Greensboro, much local resistance to desegregation continued, and in 1969,
5076-431: The attention of civil rights leaders. After the city rejected many of its suggested reforms, the NAACP, led by E. D. Nixon , pushed for full desegregation of public buses. With the support of most of Montgomery's 50,000 African Americans, the boycott lasted for 381 days, until the local ordinance segregating African Americans and whites on public buses was repealed. Ninety percent of African Americans in Montgomery partook in
5184-467: The boycott made its spokesman Martin Luther King Jr. , a nationally known figure. It also inspired other bus boycotts, such as the successful Tallahassee, Florida boycott of 1956–57. This movement also sparked the 1956 Sugar Bowl riots in Atlanta which later became a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1957, King and Ralph Abernathy , the leaders of
5292-550: The boycotts, which reduced bus revenue significantly, as they comprised the majority of the riders. This movement also sparked riots leading up to the 1956 Sugar Bowl . In November 1956, the United States Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling in the case of Browder v. Gayle and ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated, ending the boycott. Local leaders established the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus their efforts. Martin Luther King Jr.
5400-399: The bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks later informed Till's mother that her decision to stay in her seat was guided by the image she still vividly recalled of Till's brutalized remains. The glass topped casket that was used for Till's Chicago funeral was found in a cemetery garage in 2009. Till had been reburied in a different casket after being exhumed in 2005. Till's family decided to donate
5508-457: The case known as Brown II , the Court ordered segregation to be phased out over time, "with all deliberate speed". Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) did not overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson was segregation in transportation modes. Brown v. Board of Education dealt with segregation in education. Brown v. Board of Education did set in motion
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#17327905614745616-506: The city of Anniston, Alabama , two black ministers were brutally beaten for attempting to integrate the public library. Though there was resistance and violence, the integration of libraries was generally quicker than the integration of other public institutions. The situation for blacks outside the South was somewhat better (in most states they could vote and have their children educated, though they still faced discrimination in housing and jobs). In 1900 Reverend Matthew Anderson, speaking at
5724-827: The civil rights movement's peak in the mid-1960s, and still faced discrimination in jobs, housing, education and politics. A wave of riots and protests in Black communities in the 1960s, including in Los Angeles in 1965 , in Newark in 1967 , and in Chicago in 1968 following King's assassination lessened support from the White middle class. By the early 21st century, though " affirmative action " programs had expanded opportunities for Black and other minorities, Black income levels and life expectancy remained lower than that of Whites. Before
5832-580: The civil rights movements of 1865–1896 and of 1896–1954 . The movement was characterized by nonviolent mass protests and civil disobedience following highly publicized events such as the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. These included economic boycotts such as the Montgomery bus boycott , " sit-ins " in Greensboro and Nashville , a series of protests during the Birmingham campaign , and
5940-622: The constitutionality of those state laws that required racial segregation in public facilities in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , legitimizing them through the " separate but equal " doctrine. Segregation, which began with slavery, continued with Jim Crow laws, with signs used to show blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, non-whites had to wait until all white customers were served first. Elected in 1912, President Woodrow Wilson gave in to demands by Southern members of his cabinet and ordered segregation of workplaces throughout
6048-528: The country, which was most commonly employed against African Americans . The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, and had modern roots in the 1940s. After years of direct actions and grassroots protests, the movement made its largest legislative and judicial gains during the 1960s. The movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for
6156-517: The court majority opinion that Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. The lawyers from the NAACP had to gather plausible evidence in order to win the case of Brown vs. Board of Education . Their method of addressing
6264-719: The demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 , which barred racial discrimination and created an agency to oversee compliance with the order. The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation that had typified the civil rights movement during the first half of the 20th century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized " direct action ": boycotts, sit-ins , Freedom Rides , marches or walks, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance, standing in line, and, at times, civil disobedience. Churches, local grassroots organizations, fraternal societies, and black-owned businesses mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions. This
6372-462: The demographics of Northern and Western cities; happening at a period of expanded European, Hispanic, and Asian immigration, it added to social competition and tensions, with the new migrants and immigrants battling for a place in jobs and housing. Reflecting social tensions after World War I, as veterans struggled to return to the workforce and labor unions were organizing, the Red Summer of 1919
6480-590: The doctrine of separate but equal . At the culmination of a legal strategy pursued by African Americans, in 1954 the Supreme Court struck down the underpinnings of laws that allowed racial discrimination as unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education . The Warren Court made further pro-civil rights rulings in cases such as Browder v. Gayle (1956) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), banning segregation in public schools and public transport, and striking down all state laws against interracial marriage . Following
6588-579: The entire process of developing and training the mental, physical and moral powers and capabilities of human beings". Risa Goluboff wrote that the NAACP's intention was to show the Courts that African American children were the victims of school segregation and their futures were at risk. The Court ruled that both Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had established the "separate but equal" standard in general, and Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899), which had applied that standard to schools,
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#17327905614746696-402: The federal government found the city was not in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Transition to a fully integrated school system did not begin until 1971. Many Northern cities also had de facto segregation policies, which resulted in a vast gulf in educational resources between black and white communities. In Harlem , New York, for example, neither a single new school was built since
6804-552: The federal government. The early 20th century is a period often referred to as the " nadir of American race relations ", when the number of lynchings was highest. While tensions and civil rights violations were most intense in the South, social discrimination affected African Americans in other regions as well. At the national level, the Southern bloc controlled important committees in Congress, defeated passage of federal laws against lynching, and exercised considerable power beyond
6912-521: The first Citizenship Schools in South Carolina 's Sea Islands . They taught literacy to enable blacks to pass voting tests. The program was an enormous success and tripled the number of black voters on Johns Island . SCLC took over the program and duplicated its results elsewhere. In the spring of 1951, black students in Virginia protested their unequal status in the state's segregated educational system. Students at Moton High School protested
7020-612: The funeral in Jet is credited as a crucial moment in the civil rights era for displaying in vivid detail the violent racism that was being directed at black people in America. In a column for The Atlantic , Vann R. Newkirk wrote: "The trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of white supremacy ". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-white jury . "Emmett's murder," historian Tim Tyson writes, "would never have become
7128-473: The future overturning of 'separate but equal'. On May 18, 1954, Greensboro, North Carolina , became the first city in the South to publicly announce that it would abide by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. "It is unthinkable,' remarked School Board Superintendent Benjamin Smith, 'that we will try to [override] the laws of the United States." This positive reception for Brown, together with
7236-457: The harm it did to all the students. The decision to integrate the school was a landmark event in the civil rights movement, and the students' bravery and determination in the face of violent opposition is remembered as a key moment in American history. The city and state were entangled in very expensive legal disputes for decades, while suffering a reputation for hatred and obstruction. During
7344-427: The individual person's attitude and mental response to crises and violence" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). Hartford and activists like him, who trained in tactical nonviolence, considered it necessary in order to ensure physical safety, instill discipline, teach demonstrators how to demonstrate, and form mutual confidence among demonstrators (Civil Rights Movement Archive). For many, the concept of nonviolent protest
7452-426: The issue of school segregation was to enumerate several arguments. One pertained to having exposure to interracial contact in a school environment. It was argued that interracial contact would, in turn, help prepare children to live with the pressures that society exerts in regard to race and thereby afford them a better chance of living in a democracy. In addition, another argument emphasized how "'education' comprehends
7560-460: The landmark Supreme Court case of Smith v. Allwright (1944), which prohibited white primaries , progress was made in increasing black political participation in the Rim South and Acadiana – although almost entirely in urban areas and a few rural localities where most blacks worked outside plantations. The status quo ante of excluding African Americans from the political system lasted in
7668-441: The last African Americans were elected to Congress from the South before disenfranchisement of blacks by states throughout the region, as described below. From 1890 to 1908, southern states passed new constitutions and laws to disenfranchise African Americans and many Poor Whites by creating barriers to voter registration; voting rolls were dramatically reduced as blacks and poor whites were forced out of electoral politics. After
7776-491: The leadership of Walter Reuther , the United Auto Workers donated $ 75,000 to help pay for the NAACP's efforts at the Supreme Court. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas , that mandating, or even permitting, public schools to be segregated by race was unconstitutional . Chief Justice Warren wrote in
7884-440: The legislation would improve race relations in South Carolina. Ford described the election of judges by popular vote as a major goal and supported increasing the number of judges. He supported giving more authority to law enforcement, including the ability to search people on parole and probation without warrant, making attempted murder a crime with lifelong sentence, and increasing penalties for possession of illegal guns. Ford
7992-411: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Ford&oldid=1243824279 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Robert Ford (politician) Originally involved in
8100-419: The method of nonviolence and why it is considered useful, and there is the tactical method, which ultimately teaches demonstrators "how to be a protestor—how to sit-in, how to picket, how to defend yourself against attack, giving training on how to remain cool when people are screaming racist insults into your face and pouring stuff on you and hitting you" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). The philosophical basis of
8208-473: The military pressed for full civil rights and often led activist movements. In 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 , which ended segregation in the military . Housing segregation became a nationwide problem following the Great Migration of black people out of the South. Racial covenants were employed by many real estate developers to "protect" entire subdivisions , with
8316-505: The need for more funding for school programs, which he claimed is necessary due to the small number of pupils attending college and to remedy lacks of knowledge in geography and civics , which he wants reinstated as a school subject. Ford was told about favoritism, intimidation and racism in the South Carolina Highway Patrol and publicized it with Glenn McConnell. Subsequently, director and deputy director of
8424-531: The number of whites in the South. Characteristics of the post-Reconstruction period: African Americans and other ethnic minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it in numerous ways and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political redress, and labor organizing (see the Civil rights movement (1896–1954) ). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
8532-470: The original casket to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American Culture and History, where it is now on display. In 2007, Bryant said that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her story in 1955. On December 1, 1955, nine months after a 15-year-old high school student, Claudette Colvin , refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and
8640-505: The overcrowded conditions and failing facility. Some local leaders of the NAACP had tried to persuade the students to back down from their protest against the Jim Crow laws of school segregation. When the students did not budge, the NAACP joined their battle against school segregation. The NAACP proceeded with five cases challenging the school systems; these were later combined under what is known today as Brown v. Board of Education . Under
8748-413: The past. Ford's comments prompted a primary challenge in 2008 from Charleston lawyer Dwayne Green. In the beginning of his campaign, Green managed to raise double the amount of campaign funds Ford raised, and although Ford's fundraising improved he for the first time attended a candidate forum to receive free publicity, because his campaign had financial difficulty resulting from the contested primary and
8856-501: The practice of nonviolence in the American civil rights movement was largely inspired by Mahatma Gandhi 's "non-cooperation" policies during his involvement in the Indian independence movement , which were intended to gain attention so that the public would either "intervene in advance" or "provide public pressure in support of the action to be taken" (Erikson, 415). As Hartford explains it, philosophical nonviolence training aims to "shape
8964-445: The pressure of the lawsuit with a school boycott in 1959. During the boycott, some of the first freedom schools of the period were established. The city responded to the campaign by permitting more open transfers to high-quality, historically white schools. (New York's African-American community, and Northern desegregation activists generally, now found themselves contending with the problem of white flight , however.) Emmett Till ,
9072-446: The primary intent to keep " white " neighborhoods "white". Ninety percent of the housing projects built in the years following World War II were racially restricted by such covenants. Cities known for their widespread use of racial covenants include Chicago , Baltimore , Detroit , Milwaukee , Los Angeles , Seattle , and St. Louis . Said premises shall not be rented, leased, or conveyed to, or occupied by, any person other than of
9180-653: The public, and he mostly opposed Sanford's fiscal policy and worked to override budget vetoes by the governor, claiming he was removed from the interests of citizens. An exception were security measures for the State House complex which Ford agreed were too costly. He also opposed Sanford's goal to increase the number of roll calls in the State Senate and voted against a 2008 immigration reform bill favored by Sanford, stating it would be an ineffective deterrent and would lead to less driving safety. The reform would have required all employers to use state driver's licenses or
9288-475: The remainder of the South, especially North Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama, until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s to provide federal enforcement of constitutional voting rights. For more than sixty years, blacks in the South were essentially excluded from politics, unable to elect anyone to represent their interests in Congress or local government. Since they could not vote, they could not serve on local juries. During this period,
9396-633: The rental or sale of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and the Black Power movement emerged, which criticized leaders of the existing movement for their cooperative attitude and adherence to legalism and nonviolence . Black Power leaders, including within the Black Panther Party , demanded not only legal equality, but also economic self-sufficiency for the community. Support for Black Power came from African Americans who had seen little material improvement since
9504-459: The same time as African Americans were being disenfranchised, white southerners imposed racial segregation by law. Violence against blacks increased, with numerous lynchings through the turn of the century. The system of de jure state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression that emerged from the post-Reconstruction South became known as the " Jim Crow " system. The United States Supreme Court made up almost entirely of Northerners, upheld
9612-646: The states failed to implement the acts, the laws allowed the Federal Government to get involved. Many Republican governors were afraid of sending black militia troops to fight the Klan for fear of war. After the disputed election of 1876, which resulted in the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops, whites in the South regained political control of the region's state legislatures. They continued to intimidate and violently attack blacks before and during elections to suppress their voting, but
9720-432: The time period considered to be the "African-American civil rights" era, the predominant use of protest was nonviolent, or peaceful. Often referred to as pacifism, the method of nonviolence is considered to be an attempt to impact society positively. Although acts of racial discrimination have occurred historically throughout the United States, perhaps the most violent regions have been in the former Confederate states. During
9828-546: The turn of the century, nor did a single nursery school exist – even as the Second Great Migration was causing overcrowding. Existing schools tended to be dilapidated and staffed with inexperienced teachers. Brown helped stimulate activism among New York City parents like Mae Mallory who, with the support of the NAACP, initiated a successful lawsuit against the city and state on Brown 's principles. Mallory and thousands of other parents bolstered
9936-414: The unanimous Supreme Court ruling, many states began to gradually integrate their schools, but some areas of the South resisted by closing public schools altogether. The integration of Southern public libraries followed demonstrations and protests that used techniques seen in other elements of the larger civil rights movement. This included sit-ins, beatings, and white resistance. For example, in 1963 in
10044-512: The white or Caucasian race. While many whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward black people, many other whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions, a process known as white flight . From the 1930s to the 1960s, the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) issued guidelines that specified that a realtor "should never be instrumental in introducing to
10152-480: The white-dominated Democratic Party maintained political control of the South. With whites controlling all the seats representing the total population of the South, they had a powerful voting bloc in Congress. The Republican Party —the "party of Lincoln" and the party to which most blacks had belonged—shrank to insignificance except in remote Unionist areas of Appalachia and the Ozarks as black voter registration
10260-471: Was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges used by the NAACP and others. In 1952, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), led by T. R. M. Howard , a black surgeon, entrepreneur, and planter organized a successful boycott of gas stations in Mississippi that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. Through
10368-404: Was a way of life, a culture. However, not everyone agreed with this notion. James Forman, former SNCC (and later Black Panther) member, and nonviolence trainer was among those who did not. In his autobiography, The Making of Black Revolutionaries , Forman revealed his perspective on the method of nonviolence as "strictly a tactic, not a way of life without limitations." Similarly, Bob Moses , who
10476-401: Was also an active member of SNCC , felt that the method of nonviolence was practical. When interviewed by author Robert Penn Warren, Moses said "There's no question that he ( Martin Luther King Jr. ) had a great deal of influence with the masses. But I don't think it's in the direction of love. It's in a practical direction … ." (Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren). According to a 2020 study in
10584-689: Was arrested, Rosa Parks did the same thing. Parks soon became the symbol of the resulting Montgomery bus boycott and received national publicity. She was later hailed as the "mother of the civil rights movement". Parks was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and had recently returned from a meeting at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where nonviolence as a strategy was taught by Myles Horton and others. After Parks' arrest, African Americans gathered and organized
10692-417: Was discovered and retrieved from the river. After Emmett's mother, Mamie Till , came to identify the remains of her son, she decided she wanted to "let the people see what I have seen". Till's mother then had his body taken back to Chicago where she had it displayed in an open casket during the funeral services where many thousands of visitors arrived to show their respects. A later publication of an image at
10800-497: Was elected President of this organization. The lengthy protest attracted national attention for him and the city. His eloquent appeals to Christian brotherhood and American idealism created a positive impression on people both inside and outside the South. The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine students who attended segregated black high schools in Little Rock , the capital of the state of Arkansas. They each volunteered when
10908-585: Was elected on November 3, 1992, taking office in 1993. He was reelected in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008. He served on the Senate Committees on Banking and Insurance, Corrections and Penology, General, Invitations, Judiciary, and Labor, Commerce and Industry, and was the ranking Democrat on several committees. Ford is a member of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus . Ford resigned on May 31, 2013 during
11016-613: Was founded in 1909. It fought to end race discrimination through litigation , education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), when the Warren Court ruled that segregation of public schools in the US was unconstitutional and, by implication, overturned the " separate but equal " doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. Following
11124-537: Was judged by state senator Mike Fair as predetermined to fail, but Ford cited the Democratic National Committee 's platform on the issue and argued that Barack Obama's election showed that a change should be attempted. Even if passed, the measure would be unenforceable, due to a constitutional amendment banning unions similar to marriage in South Carolina. Ford worked to outlaw profanity and saggy pants and to keep music from minors that
11232-493: Was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the U.S. as a result of white race riots against blacks that took place in more than three dozen cities. Urban problems such as crime and disease were blamed on the large influx of Southern blacks to cities in the north and west, based on stereotypes of rural southern African-Americans. Overall, blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced systemic discrimination in
11340-410: Was suppressed. The Republican lily-white movement also gained strength by excluding blacks. Until 1965, the " Solid South " was a one-party system under the white Democrats. Excepting the previously noted historic Unionist strongholds the Democratic Party nomination was tantamount to election for state and local office. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington , president of
11448-500: Was to preserve the peace, deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the black students from entering the school. Faubus defied federal court orders, whereupon President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened. He federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent them home. Then he sent in an elite Army unit to escort the students to school and protect them between classes during the 1957–58 school year. In class, however,
11556-625: Was unconstitutional. The federal government filed a friend of the court brief in the case urging the justices to consider the effect that segregation had on America's image in the Cold War . Secretary of State Dean Acheson was quoted in the brief stating that "The United States is under constant attack in the foreign press, over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various practices of discrimination in this country." The following year, in
11664-532: Was unopposed for reelection in both the Democratic primary and the general election. General election, November 6, 2012 Civil rights movement 1954–1959 1960–1963 1964–1968 The civil rights movement was a social movement and campaign in the United States from 1954 to 1968 that aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation , discrimination , and disenfranchisement in
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