Challenging Segregation
- Sit-in movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina with 4 young African Americans at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College in Greensboro. Josepch McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond and Franklin McCain.
- Frebruary 1, 1960 when the 4 friends were refused service at the lunch center, they stayed at the counter 'till they closed, then they announced that they would sit at the corner everyday until they were given the same service as whites. As they left the store, the four were excited. McCain was so energized, saying "I probably felt better that day than I've ever felt in my life."
- Students like Jesse Jackson, a student leader at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, wanted to see things change. The sit-in offered them to take matters into their own hands in a peaceful but powerful way.
- Those conducting sit-ins were hackled by bystanders, pinched, kicked, beaten with clubs and burned with cigarettes, hot coffee, acid- but most did not fight back. They remained peaceful and their heroic behavior, contrasted with the violence and anger they faced, grabbed the nation's attention.
- Ella Baker and students established the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Among SNCC's early leaders were Marion Barry, who later served as mayor of Washington D.C. and John Lewis, who later became a member of congress. African American college students from all over the south made up the majority of the SNCC's members, although many whites also joined.
- Many SNCC volunteers headed to Mississppi and other parts of the deep South. Several had their lives threatened and others were beaten. In 1964 local officials in Mississippi brutally murdered three SNCC workers.
- One SNCC organizer, Fannie Lou Hamer, had been evicted from her farm after registering to vote. She was then arrested in Mississippi for urging other African Americans to register and she was severly beaten by the police in jail. She then helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and she challenged the legality of the segregated democratic party at the 1964 Democratic National Contention.
- In 1961 CORE leader James Farmer asked the teams of African Americans and whites to travel into the South to draw attention to the South's refusal to integrate bus terminals. The teams became know as the Freedom Riders.
- In early May 1961, the first Freedom Riders boarded several southbound interstate buses. When the buses carrying them arrived in Anniston, Birmingham, and Montgomery, Alabama, angry white mobs attacked them. The mobs slit the bus tires and threw rocks at the windows. In Anniston, someone threw a firebomb into one bus, although fortunately no one was killed.
- In Burmingham the riders emerged from a bus to face a gang of young men armed with baseball bats, chains and lead pipes. They beat the riders viciously. One witness later reported, "You couldn't see their faces through the blood." The head of the police in Birmingham, Theophilus Eugene ("Bull") Connor, explained that their had been no police at the bus station because it was Mother's Day, and he had given many of his officers the day off. FBI evidence later showed that Connor had contacted the local Ku Klux Klan and told them he wanted the Freedom Riders beaten until "it looked like a bulldog got a hold of them."
- John F. Kennedy promised to actively support the civil rights movement if elected.
- African Americans responded by voting overwhelmingly for Kennedy.
- Kennedy created the Committee of Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO) to stop the federal bureaucracy from descriminating against African Americans when hiring and promoting people.
- After the Freedom Riders were attacked in Montgomery, the Kennedy's publicly urged them to stop the rides and give everybody a "cooling off" period. James Farmer replied that African Americans "have been cooling off now for 350 years. If we cool off anymore, we'll be in deep freeze."
- Outraged by brutality and worried that the government was losing control, Kennedy ordered his aides to prepare a new civil rights bill.
- Kennedy waited for a dramatic opportunity to address the nation on the issue. He went on television to speak about a "moral issue..."
-from Kennedy's White House Address
- On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators of all races flocked to the nation's capital.The audience heard speeches and sang hymns and songs as they gathered peacefully near the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King then delivered a powerful speech outlining his dream of freedom and equality for all Americans.
- King's speech and the peacefulness and dignity of the March on Washington had built strong momentum for the civil rights movement.
- President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22 1963and his vice president Lyndon Johnson became president. Many were skeptical that Johnson would support the Civil Rights Bill
- In February 1964, President Johnson's leadership began to produce results. The civil rights bill passed the House of Representatives by a majority of 290 to 130. The debate then moved to the Senate. In June, after 87 days of filibuster, the Senate finally voted to end debate by a margin of 71 to 29-four votes over the two-thirds needed for cloture. On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
- Even after the civil rights act of 1964 passed, voting rights were far from secure. The act had focused on segregation and job descrimination but did little to address voting issues.
- Across the South, bombs exploded in African American businesses and churches. Between June and October 1964, 24 African American churches in Mississippi alone were destroyed. Convinced that a new law was needed, Dr. king decided to stage another dramatic protest.
- In January 1965, the SCLC and Dr. King selected Selma, Alabama, as the focal point of their campaign.
- Just weeks after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, for his work in the civil rights movement, Dr. King stated, "We are not asking, we are demanding in the ballot." King's demonstrations in Selma led to approximately 2,000 African Americans, including schoolchildren, being arrested by Sheriff Clark. Clark's men attacked and beat many of the demonstrators.
- While the marchers kneeled in prayer, more than 200 state troopers and deputized citizens rushed the demonstrators. Many were beaten in full view of television cameras. This brutal attack, known later as "Bloody Sunday," left 70 African Americans hospitalized and many more injured.
- On August 1965, the House of Representatives passed the voting rights bill by a wide margin. The following day, the Senate also passed the bill. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 authorized the attorney general to send federal examiners to register qualified voters, by passing local officials who often refused to register African Americans. The law also suspended discriminatory devices such as literacy tests in countries where less than half of all adults had been allowed to vote.
- The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 marked a turning point in the civil rights movement. the movement had now achieved its two major legislative goals. Segregation had been outlawed, and new federal laws were in place to protect voting rights.
Main Ideas
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Preview of Events
May 1961-Freedom Riders attempted to desegregate interstate buses in the South. Spring 1963-Martin Luther King Jr., jailed in Birmingham. August 28, 1963-March on Washington. July 1964-President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1965-Voting Rights Act passed. |