The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring suffrage in Southern states. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4 1913 – October 24 2005 was an African American Civil rights activist whom the U Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa This article covers the phase of the movement between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the South. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from White domination. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies The Economy of the United States is the largest national economy in the world Politics of the United States takes place in the framework of a presidential, Federal republic where the President of the United States (the Head of Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid support or interaction for survival it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy.
Many of those who were most active in the Civil Rights Movement, with organizations such as SNCC, CORE and SCLC, prefer the term "Southern Freedom Movement" because the struggle was about far more than just civil rights under law; it was also about fundamental issues of freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement
Background
After the disputed election of 1876 and the end of Reconstruction, whites in the South resumed political control of the region under a one-party system of Democratic control. Please DO NOT flip the colors --> The United States presidential election of 1876 was one of the most disputed and intense presidential elections in American history The voting rights of blacks were increasingly suppressed, racial segregation imposed, and violence against African Americans mushroomed. This period is often referred to as the "nadir of American race relations," and while it was most intense in the South to a lesser degree it affected the entire nation. The nadir of American race relations refers to the period in United States history from the end of Reconstruction to the beginning of the 20th Century,
The system of overt, state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression that emerged out of the post-Reconstruction South and spread nation-wide became known as the "Jim Crow" system, and it remained virtually intact into the early 1950s. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Systematic disfranchisement of African Americans took place in Southern states at the turn of the century and lasted until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s. For more than 60 years, they were not able to elect one person in the South to represent their interests. Because they could not vote, they could not sit on juries limited to voters. They had no part in the justice system or law enforcement, although in the 1880s, they had held many local offices, including that of sheriff.
Characteristics:
- Racial segregation. By law, public facilities and government services such as education were divided into separate and unequal "white" and "colored" domains.
- Disenfranchisement. Disenfranchisement or disfranchisement is the revocation of the right of Suffrage (the right to vote to a person or group of people or rendering a person's vote When white Democrats regained power, they passed laws that made voter registration more complicated. Black voters were forced off the voting rolls, and the number of African-Americans elected to office decreased. From 1890 to 1908, Southern states of the former Confederacy created constitutions with provisions that disfranchised most African Americans and, in many cases, poor whites.
- Exploitation. The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose Increased economic oppression of blacks, Latinos, and Asians, denial of economic opportunities, and widespread employment discrimination.
- Violence. Violence is the exertion of force so as to injure or abuse The word is used broadly to describe the destructive action of natural phenomena like Storms and Earthquakes Individual, police, organizational, and mass racial violence against blacks (and Latinos in the Southwest and Asians in California). Mass racial violence in the United States, often described using the term " Race riots " includes such disparate
African-Americans and other racial minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political redress, and labor organizing (see the American Civil Rights Movement 1896-1954). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909 and it struggled to end race discrimination through litigation, education, and lobbying efforts. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations In law a lawsuit is a civil action brought before a Court in which the party commencing the action the Plaintiff, seeks a legal or equitable remedy Lobbying includes all attempts to influence Legislators and officials whether by other legislators constituents or organized groups Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that rejected separate white and colored school systems and by implication overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954 was a Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier Separate But Equal is a 1991 American Television movie depicting the landmark Supreme Court Desegregation case
Since 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), from 1910-1970, African Americans sought better lives by migrating north and west in the millions, a huge population movement collectively known as the Great Migration. See also Second Great Migration (African American The Great Migration was the movement of approximately seven million African-Americans out of the
Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by its lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation in the face of "massive resistance" by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression. Desegregation is the process of ending Racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. Massive Resistance was a policy declared by US Senator Harry F Disenfranchisement or disfranchisement is the revocation of the right of Suffrage (the right to vote to a person or group of people or rendering a person's vote In defiance, they adopted a combined strategy of direct action with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of 1955-1968. Direct action is political action which happens outside normal political channels via indirect actions such as electing representatives. Nonviolent resistance (or nonviolent action) is the practice of achieving socio-political goals through Symbolic Protests Civil disobedience, Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain Laws demands and commands of a Government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical
During the period 1955-1968, acts of civil disobedience produced crisis situations between protesters and government authorities. The authorities of federal, state, and local governments often had to respond immediately to crisis situations which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of civil disobedience included boycotts, beginning with the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-in (1960) in North Carolina; and marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama. A boycott is a form of Consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using buying or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, intended to oppose A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area for a Protest, often to promote political social The Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, leading to increased national sentiment at a crucial period in American history Mark from the Old English mearc and march (or various plural forms of these words derived from the Frankish word marka ("boundary" The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the Political and emotional peak of the American civil rights
Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U. Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ( Hart-Celler Act, INS Act of 1965,) abolished the national-origin Quotas that had been in place in the S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Types of banned discrimination The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited the following forms of discrimination 1
Mass action replacing litigation
The strategy of mass action within the court system shifted after Brown to "direct action"—primarily bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience—from 1955 to 1965. Freedom Rider is also a song by Traffic and later Rascal Flatts Civil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode in interstate buses In part this was the unintended result of the local authorities' attempt to outlaw and harass the mainstream.
Churches, the centers of their communities, and local grassroots organizations mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions. This was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges.
The Montgomery Improvement Association—created to lead the boycott—managed to keep the boycott going for over a year until a federal court order required Montgomery to desegregate its buses. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA was formed on December 5 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery Alabama. The success in Montgomery made its leader Dr. Martin Luther King a nationally known figure. It also inspired other bus boycotts, such as the highly successful Tallahassee, Florida, boycott of 1956-1957. [1]
In 1957 Dr. King and Rev. John Duffy, the leaders of the Montgomery Improvement Association, joined with other church leaders who had led similar boycott efforts, such as Rev. Most Rev John Aloysius Duffy ( October 29, 1884 - September 27, 1944) was the 7th Bishop of Buffalo, New York C. K. Steele of Tallahassee and Rev. T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge; and other activists such as Rev. Theodore Judson Jemison (b 1918 better known as TJ Jemison, was President of the National Baptist Convention from 1982 to 1994 Fred Shuttlesworth, Ella Baker, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison, to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Fred Shuttlesworth (born Freddie Lee Robinson on March 18, 1922) is a civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other Ella Josephine Baker ( December 13, 1903 &ndash December 13, 1986) was a leading African American civil rights and human rights Asa Philip Randolph ( April 15 1889 &ndash May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader Rustin redirects here for the unrelated film see Rustin (film Bayard Rustin ( March 17, 1912 – August 24 Stanley David Levison (1912 - 1979 was a Jewish businessman from New York, who had also attained a law degree from St The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization The SCLC, with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, did not attempt to create 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 non-violence both its central tenet and its primary method of confronting racism.
In 1959, Septima Clarke, Bernice Robinson, and Esau Jenkins, with the help of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, began the first Citizenship Schools in South Carolina's Sea Islands. " We Shall Overcome " is a Protest song that became a key Anthem of the US civil rights movement. The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a leadership training school and cultural center located in New Market Tennessee South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and Barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. They taught literacy to enable blacks to pass voting tests. The program was an enormous success and tripled the number of black voters on St. John Island. SCLC took over the program and duplicated its results elsewhere.
Mainstream exposure
Some of the success of the Civil Rights Movement can be attributed to television coverage. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic The taping and broadcasting of the images of civil rights workers, sit-ins, marches and clashes demonstrated as never before the severe and inhumane treatment of African Americans by authorities in the South. Such coverage wakened the conscience of mainstream or middle America as to conditions in the South. In "Television News and the Civil Rights Struggle" Prof. William Thomas argues that even "in the American South, local television news coverage had immediate and significant effects" on perceptions of social equality and segregation. [2]
One of Martin Luther King's strategies was to challenge mainstream America on moral grounds to end the racial abuse and segregation in the South. The medium of television was particularly effective at conveying the news about the conditions of the quality of life for African Americans in the South. The news broadcasts and documentary film making were the first forms for presenting these stories. Later in the 1970s, the film "Roots" by Alex Haley was said to be a turning point in mainstream America's ability to relate to the stresses and particularities of African American history.
Key events
Brown v. This is a timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Board of Education, 1954
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding the case called Brown v. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954 was a Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier Events 1521 - Edward Stafford 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for Treason. Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in which the plaintiffs charged that the education of black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional. The opinion of the Court stated that the "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 Court ruled that both Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had established the segregationist, "separate but equal" standard in general, and Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899), which had applied that standard to schools, were unconstitutional. The following year, in the case known as Brown v. Board of Education, the Court ordered segregation to be phased out over time, "with all deliberate speed". [2]
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks (the "mother of the Civil Rights Movement") refused to get up out of her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4 1913 – October 24 2005 was an African American Civil rights activist whom the U The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, intended to oppose Events 800 - Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4 1913 – October 24 2005 was an African American Civil rights activist whom the U She was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and had recently returned from a meeting at the Highlander Center in Tennessee where nonviolent civil disobedience as a strategy had been discussed. The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a leadership training school and cultural center located in New Market Tennessee Parks was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. After word of this incident reached the black community, 50 African-American leaders gathered and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to protest the segregation of blacks and whites on public buses. With the support of most of Montgomery's 50,000 blacks, the boycott lasted for 381 days until the local ordinance segregating African-Americans and whites on public buses was lifted. Ninety percent of African Americans in Montgomery took part in the boycotts, which reduced bus revenue by 80%. A federal court ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated in November 1956, and the boycott ended in triumph. (W. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey, 2nd edition, 1992). [3]
A young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., was president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that directed the boycott. Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader The protest made King a national figure. His eloquent appeals to Christian brotherhood and American idealism created a positive impression on people both inside and outside the South.
Desegregating Little Rock, 1957
Little Rock, Arkansas, was in a relatively progressive southern state. The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 During World War II, the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment was a gliderborne Regiment of the U Little Rock is the Capital and the most populous city of the U A crisis erupted, however, when Governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus called out the National Guard on September 4 to prevent the nine African-American students who had sued for the right to attend an integrated school, Little Rock Central High School. The Governor of the State of Arkansas is the chief executive of the state and Commander-in-chief of its military forces. Orville Eugene Faubus ( January 7 1910 December 14 1994) was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas, having served from For the National Guard of a State and other countries' National Guard see National Guard. Events 476 - Romulus Augustus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 Little Rock Central High School is a secondary school Central is located at the intersection of Daisy L [4] The nine students had been chosen to attend Central High because of their excellent grades. On the first day of school, only one of the nine students showed up because she did not receive the phone call about the danger of going to school. She was harassed by whites outside the school, and the police had to take her away in a patrol car to protect her. Afterwards, the nine students had to carpool to school and be escorted by military personnel in jeeps. Jeep is an Automobile Marque (and registered trademark of Chrysler.
Faubus was not a proclaimed segregationist. The Arkansas Democratic Party, which then controlled politics in the state, put significant pressure on Faubus after he had indicated he would investigate bringing Arkansas into compliance with the Brown decision. Faubus then took his stand against integration and against the Federal court order that required it.
Faubus' order received the attention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was determined to enforce the orders of the Federal courts. Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14 1890 – March 28 1969 was President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a five-star general Critics had charged he was lukewarm, at best, on the goal of desegregation of public schools. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and ordered them to return to their barracks. For the National Guard of a State and other countries' National Guard see National Guard. Eisenhower then deployed elements of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect the students.
The students were able to attend high school. They had to pass through a gauntlet of spitting, jeering whites to arrive at school on their first day, and to put up with harassment from fellow students for the rest of the year. Although federal troops escorted the students between classes, the students were still teased and even attacked by white students when the soldiers weren't around. One of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was expelled for spilling a bowl of chili on the head of a white student who was allegedly harassing her in the school lunch line. Minnijean Brown-Trickey (born September 11, 1941) was one of a group of African-American teenagers known as the " Little Rock Nine.
Only one of the Little Rock Nine, Ernest Green, got the chance to graduate; after the 1957-58 school year was over, the Little Rock school system decided to shut public schools completely rather than continue to integrate. Ernest G Green (born September 22, 1941) was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who in 1957 were the first Other school systems across the South followed suit.
Sit-ins, 1960
The Civil Rights Movement received an infusion of energy with a student sit-in at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, leading to increased national sentiment at a crucial period in American history The F W Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's) was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores [5] On February 1, 1960, four students Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College, an all-black college, sat down at the segregated lunch counter to protest Woolworth's policy of excluding African Americans. Ezell A Blair Jr is an African American Civil rights activist who was one of the Greensboro Four. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University ( NC A&T) is a HBCU historically black college/university and is a constituent institution of the University [6] These protesters were encouraged to dress professionally, to sit quietly, and to occupy every other stool so that potential white sympathizers could join in. The sit-in soon inspired other sit-ins in Richmond, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia. As students across the south began to "sit-in" at the lunch counters of a few of their local stores, local authority figures sometimes used brute force to physically escort the demonstrators from the lunch facilities.
The "sit-in" technique was not new— as far back as 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality sponsored sit-ins in Chicago, St. Louis in 1949 and Baltimore in 1952. In 1960 the technique succeeded in bringing national attention to the movement. [7] The success of the Greensboro sit-in led to a rash of student campaigns throughout the South. Probably the best organized, most highly disciplined, the most immediately effective of these was in Nashville, Tennessee. [8] By the end of 1960, the sit-ins had spread to every southern and border state and even to Nevada, Illinois, and Ohio. In a European context the term Border states policy, and Border states in a specific sense refer to attempts during the Interbellum to unite the countries that Nevada ( is a state located in the western region of the United States of America. The State of Illinois ( roughly ill-i-NOY is a state of the United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union. Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads
Demonstrators focused not only on lunch counters but also on parks, beaches, libraries, theaters, museums, and other public places. Upon being arrested, student demonstrators made "jail-no-bail" pledges, to call attention to their cause and to reverse the cost of protest, thereby saddling their jailers with the financial burden of prison space and food.
In 1960 activists who had led these sit-ins formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to take these tactics of nonviolent confrontation further. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Founded ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
Freedom Rides, 1961
Freedom Rides were journeys by Civil Rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Freedom Rider is also a song by Traffic and later Rascal Flatts Civil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode in interstate buses Virginia, (1960) 364 U. S. that ended segregation for passengers engaged in inter-state travel. Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D. C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. [9]
During the first and subsequent Freedom Rides, activists traveled through the Deep South to integrate seating patterns and desegregate bus terminals, including restrooms and water fountains. The Deep South is a descriptive category of cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. That proved to be a dangerous mission. In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed, forcing its passengers to flee for their lives. Anniston is a city in Calhoun County in the state of Alabama, United States. In Birmingham, Alabama, an FBI informant reported that Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor gave Ku Klux Klan members 15 minutes to attack an incoming group of freedom riders before having police "protect" them. Birmingham (ˈbɝmɪŋhæm is the largest City in the US state of Alabama and is the County seat of Jefferson County. Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are The riders were severely beaten "until it looked like a bulldog had got a hold of them. "
Mob violence in Anniston and Birmingham temporarily halted the rides until SNCC activists arrived in Birmingham to resume them. In Montgomery, Alabama a mob charged another bus load of riders, knocking John Lewis unconscious with a crate and smashing Life photographer Don Urbrock in the face with his own camera. Montgomery (məntˈgəmɜriː is the Capital, second most populous city and the 4th most populous metropolitan area in the Southern U John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. A dozen men surrounded Jim Zwerg, a white student from Fisk University, and beat him in the face with a suitcase, knocking out his teeth. Fisk University is a historically-black university in Nashville, Tennessee, U
The freedom riders continued their rides into Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested for "breaching the peace" by using "white only" facilities. New freedom rides were organized by many different organizations. As riders arrived in Jackson, they were arrested. By the end of summer, more than 300 had been jailed in Mississippi.
The jailed freedom riders were treated harshly, crammed into tiny, filthy cells and sporadically beaten. In Jackson, Mississippi, some male prisoners were forced to do hard labor in 100-degree heat. Others were transferred to Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where their food was deliberately oversalted and their mattresses were removed. Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest Prison and the only maximum security prison in the state of Mississippi, Parchman is a small unincorporated town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region Sometimes the men were suspended by "wrist breakers" from the walls. Typically, the windows of their cells were shut tight on hot days, making it hard for them to breathe.
Eventually, public sympathy and support for the freedom riders forced the Kennedy administration to order the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue a new desegregation order. The Interstate Commerce Commission (or ICC) was a Regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 which was signed When the new ICC rule took effect on November 1st, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they chose on the bus; "white" and "colored" signs came down in the terminals; separate drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms were consolidated; and lunch counters began serving people regardless of skin color.
The student movement involved such celebrated figures as John Lewis, the single-minded activist who "kept on" despite many beatings and harassments; James Lawson, the revered "guru" of nonviolent theory and tactics; Diane Nash, an articulate and intrepid public champion of justice; Bob Moses, pioneer of voting registration in Mississippi—the most rural and most dangerous part of the South; and James Bevel, a fiery preacher and charismatic organizer and facilitator. For details on the English Football (soccer player see James Lawson (footballer James Diane Judith Nash (born May 15 1938 in Chicago) was a leader of the Nashville Student Movement a founder of the now defunct SNCC, and a key Robert Parris Moses (born Harlem, New York, January 23, 1935, usually known as Bob Moses) is an American Harvard James Bevel (b October 19, 1936) is a Civil rights activist who as the Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Other prominent student activists included Charles McDew; Bernard Lafayette; Charles Jones; Lonnie King; Julian Bond (associated with Atlanta University); Hosea Williams; and Stokely Carmichael (who later changed his name to Kwame Ture). Horace Julian Bonds (born January 14 1940) is an American leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. Clark Atlanta University (CAU is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. Hosea Lorenzo Williams ( January 5, 1926 &ndash November 16, 2000) was a United States civil rights leader, Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael ( June 29, 1941 November 15, 1998) also known as Kwame Ture, was a Trinidadian
Voter Registration Organizing
After the Freedom Rides, local black leaders in Mississippi such as Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, Medgar Evers, and others asked SNCC to help register black voters and build community organizations that could win a share of political power in the state. Amzie Moore ( September 23, 1911 — February 1, 1982) was an African American, civil rights leader, and Entrepreneur Aaron Henry (July 2 1922 - May 19 1997 was a civil rights leader Politician, and head of the NAACP. Medgar Willy Evers ( July 2, 1925 June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi Since Mississippi ratified its constitution in 1890, with provisions such as poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy tests, it made registration more complicated and stripped blacks from the rolls. After so many years, the intent to stop blacks from voting had become part of the culture of white supremacy. In the fall of 1961, SNCC organizer Robert Moses began the first such project in McComb and the surrounding counties in the Southwest corner of the state. Robert Parris Moses (born Harlem, New York, January 23, 1935, usually known as Bob Moses) is an American Harvard McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about 80 miles south of Jackson, just off of I-55. Their efforts were met with violent repression from state and local lawmen, White Citizens' Council, and Ku Klux Klan resulting in beatings, hundreds of arrests and the murder of voting activist Herbert Lee. The White Citizens' Council ( WCC) was an American white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are [10]
White opposition to black voter registration was so intense in Mississippi that Freedom Movement activists concluded that all of the state's civil rights organizations had to unite in a coordinated effort to have any chance of success. In February of 1962, representatives of SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP formed the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO was formed in Mississippi in 1962 At a subsequent meeting in August, SCLC became part of COFO. [11]
In the Spring of 1962, with funds from the Voter Education Project, SNCC/COFO began voter registration organizing in the Mississippi Delta area around Greenwood, and the areas surrounding Hattiesburg, Laurel, and Holly Springs. From 1962 to 1968 the Voter Education Project (VEP raised and distributed foundation funds to civil rights organizations for voter education and registration work in the American South Starting Greenwood is the County seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately Hattiesburg, known as "The Hub City" is a city in Forrest and Lamar Counties in the U Laurel is a city located in Jones County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. Holly Springs homejpg||right|250px|thumbnail|Montrose a Holly Springs home As in McComb, their efforts were met with fierce opposition — arrests, beatings, shootings, arson, and murder. Registrars used the literacy test to keep blacks off the voting roles by creating standards that highly educated people could not meet. Literacy Test refers to the government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level and potential voters at the state level In addition, employers fired blacks who tried to register and landlords evicted them from their homes. [12] Over the following years, the black voter registration campaign spread across the state.
Similar voter registration campaigns — with similar responses — were begun by SNCC, CORE, and SCLC in Louisiana, Alabama, southwest Georgia, and South Carolina. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. By 1963, voter registration campaigns in the South were as integral to the Freedom Movement as desegregation efforts. After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protecting and facilitating voter registration despite state barriers became the main effort of the movement. Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving It resulted in passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited
Integration of Mississippi Universities, 1956-1965
In 1956, Clyde Kennard made his first of three attempts to enter The University of Southern Mississippi, then known as Mississippi Southern College. Clyde Kennard (1927&ndash July 4 1963) was an African-American student born in Hattiesburg Mississippi who attempted several times to enroll at Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi ( USM, but frequently referred to as Southern Miss) is a four-year public University located primarily His efforts were rebuffed. At the behest of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, Kennard was falsely accused and convicted of burglary in 1960. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency directed by the governor of Mississippi, that existed from 1956 to 1977. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but he was freed after serving three years, after being diagnosed with colon cancer. [13] Following persistent efforts by local civil rights activists, in 1965 Raylawni Young Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong became the first African-American students to attend the University of Southern Mississippi.
James Meredith won a lawsuit that allowed him admission to the University of Mississippi in September 1962. James H Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational Research University located in Oxford He attempted to enter campus on September 20, on September 25, and again on September 26, only to be blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett, who proclaimed that "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your Governor. Events 451 - The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France. Events 303 - On a voyage preaching the Gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a This is a list of the Governors of the State of Mississippi. Prior to 1804 parts of Mississippi were part of the state of Georgia; see Ross Robert Barnett ( January 22, 1898 November 6, 1987) was the Democratic governor of the U "
After the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held both Barnett and Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson, Jr. in contempt, with fines of more than $10,000 for each day they refused to allow Meredith to enroll, Meredith, escorted by a force of U.S. Marshals, entered the campus on September 30, 1962. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with Appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following Paul Burney Johnson Jr (January 23 1916 October 14 1985 was a United States Democratic Mississippi Politician and son of former Mississippi Contempt of court is a court ruling which in the context of a court trial or hearing deems an individual as having been disrespectful of the court its process and its invested White students and other whites began rioting that evening, throwing rocks at the U. S. Marshals guarding Meredith at Lyceum Hall, then firing on the marshals. Two people, including a French journalist, were killed; 28 marshals suffered gunshot wounds; and 160 others were injured. After the Mississippi Highway Patrol withdrew from the campus, President Kennedy sent the regular Army to the campus to quell the uprising. Meredith was able to begin classes the following day, after the troops arrived. [14]
Albany Movement, 1961-1962
The SCLC, which had been criticized by some student activists for its failure to participate more fully in the freedom rides, committed much of its prestige and resources to a desegregation campaign in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. The Albany Movement was a Desegregation coalition formed in Albany Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Albany is a city in and the County seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state King, who had been criticized personally by some SNCC activists for his distance from the dangers that local organizers faced—and given the derisive nickname "De Lawd" as a result—intervened personally to assist the campaign led by both SNCC organizers and local leaders.
The campaign was a failure because of the canny tactics of Laurie Pritchett, the local police chief, and divisions within the black community. The goals may not have been specific enough. Pritchett contained the marchers without violent attacks on demonstrators that inflamed national opinion. He also arranged for arrested demonstrators to be taken to jails in surrounding communities, allowing plenty of room to remain in his jail. Prichett also foresaw King's presence as a danger and forced his release to avoid King's rallying the black community. King left in 1962 without having achieved any dramatic victories. The local movement, however, continued the struggle, and it obtained significant gains in the next few years. [15]
Birmingham campaign, 1963-1964
The Albany movement proved to be an important education for the SCLC, however, when it undertook the Birmingham campaign in 1963. The Birmingham campaign was a strategic effort by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC to promote Civil rights for black Americans. The campaign focused on one goal—the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants, rather than total desegregation, as in Albany. It was also helped by the brutal response of local authorities, in particular Eugene "Bull" Connor, the Commissioner of Public Safety. Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor ( July 11 1897, Selma Alabama &ndash March 10 1973) was He had long held much political power, but had lost a recent election for mayor to a less rabidly segregationist candidate. Refusing to accept the new mayor's authority, Connor intended to stay in office.
The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including sit-ins, kneel-ins at local churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a drive to register voters. The city, however, obtained an injunction barring all such protests. An injunction is an Equitable remedy in the form of a Court order, whereby a party is required to do or interact with in certain ways all right or to refrain from Convinced that the order was unconstitutional, the campaign defied it and prepared for mass arrests of its supporters. King elected to be among those arrested on April 12, 1963. Events 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [16]
While in jail, King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail[17] on the margins of a newspaper, since he had not been allowed any writing paper while held in solitary confinement by jail authorities. The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, is an Open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther [18] Supporters pressured the Kennedy Administration to intervene to obtain King's release or better conditions. King eventually was allowed to call his wife, who was recuperating at home after the birth of their fourth child, and was released on April 19. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer
The campaign, however, was faltering because the movement was running out of demonstrators willing to risk arrest. SCLC organizers came up with a bold and controversial alternative, calling on high school students to take part in the demonstrations. More than one thousand students skipped school on May 2 to join the demonstrations, in what would come to be called the Children's Crusade. Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. This page refers to the events in Birmingham Alabama in 1963 for other uses see Children's Crusade (disambiguation. More than six hundred ended up in jail. This was newsworthy, but in this first encounter, the police acted with restraint. On the next day, however, another one thousand students gathered at the church. When they started marching, Bull Connor unleashed police dogs on them, then turned the city's fire hoses water streams on the children. Television cameras broadcast to the nation the scenes of water from fire hoses knocking down schoolchildren and dogs attacking individual demonstrators.
Widespread public outrage forced the Kennedy Administration to intervene more forcefully in the negotiations between the white business community and the SCLC. On May 10, the parties announced an agreement to desegregate the lunch counters and other public accommodations downtown, to create a committee to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices, to arrange for the release of jailed protesters, and to establish regular means of communication between black and white leaders. Events 1291 - Scottish Nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.
Not everyone in the black community approved of the agreement— the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was particularly critical, since he had accumulated a great deal of skepticism about the good faith of Birmingham's power structure from his experience in dealing with them. The reaction from parts of the white community was even more violent. The Gaston Motel, which housed the SCLC's unofficial headquarters, was bombed, as was the home of King's brother, the Reverend A. Arthur George Gaston ( July 4, 1892 &ndash January 19, 1996) was an African American businessman who established a number of businesses in D. King. Kennedy prepared to federalize the Alabama National Guard but did not follow through. The Alabama National Guards consists of the Alabama Army National Guard Alabama Air National Guard Four months later, on September 15, Ku Klux Klan members bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four young girls. Events 668 - Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse Italy.
Other events of the summer of 1963:
On June 11, 1963, George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, tried to block[19] the integration of the University of Alabama. Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. George Corley Wallace Jr (August 25 1919 September 13 1998 was a Democratic Governor of Alabama for four terms (1963-1967 1971-1979 and 1983-1987 and ran for President John F. Kennedy sent enough force to make Governor Wallace step aside, allowing the enrollment of two black students. That evening, JFK addressed the nation on TV and radio with a historic civil rights speech. [20] The next day Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi. [21][22] The next week as promised, on June 19, 1963, JFK submitted his Civil Rights bill to Congress. Events 1179 - The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [23]
March on Washington, 1963
A. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a large political rally that took place in Washington D The National Mall is an open-area National park in Downtown Washington D The Washington Monument is a large tall sand-colored Obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington D The Lincoln Memorial is a United States Presidential memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 in support of demands for elimination of employment discrimination in defense industries; he called off the march when the Roosevelt Administration met the demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 barring racial discrimination and creating an agency to oversee compliance with the order. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Employment discrimination refers to discriminatory employment practices such as bias in hiring promotion job assignment termination and compensation and various types of Executive Order 8802 (also known as the Fair Employment Act) was signed by President Franklin D
Randolph and Bayard Rustin were the chief planners of the second march, which they proposed in 1962. The Kennedy Administration applied great pressure on Randolph and King to call it off but without success. The march was held on August 28, 1963. Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Unlike the planned 1941 march, for which Randolph included only black-led organizations in the planning, the 1963 march was a collaborative effort of all of the major civil rights organizations, the more progressive wing of the labor movement, and other liberal organizations. The march had six official goals: "meaningful civil rights laws, a massive federal works program, full and fair employment, decent housing, the right to vote, and adequate integrated education. " Of these, the march's real focus was on passage of the civil rights law that the Kennedy Administration had proposed after the upheavals in Birmingham.
National media attention also greatly contributed to the march's national exposure and probable impact. In his section "The March on Washington and Television News," William Thomas notes: "Over five hundred cameramen, technicians, and correspondents from the major networks were set to cover the event. More cameras would be set up than had filmed the last Presidential inauguration. One camera was positioned high in the Washington Monument, to give dramatic vistas of the marchers". By carrying the organizers' speeches and offering their own commentary, television stations literally framed the way their local audiences saw and understood the event. [3]
The march was a success, although not without controversy. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The Lincoln Memorial is a United States Presidential memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. " I Have A Dream " is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King Jr While many speakers applauded the Kennedy Administration for the efforts it had made toward obtaining new, more effective civil rights legislation protecting the right to vote and outlawing segregation, John Lewis of SNCC took the Administration to task for how little it had done to protect southern blacks and civil rights workers under attack in the Deep South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement
After the march, King and other civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy at the White House. See also Executive Office of the President of the United States The White House, formerly known as the Executive Mansion, is the Official residence While the Kennedy Administration appeared to be sincerely committed to passing the bill, it was not clear that it had the votes to do it. But when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963,[23] the new President Lyndon Johnson decided to use his influence in Congress to bring about much of Kennedy's legislative agenda. The assassination of John F Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday November 22 1963 in Dallas Texas Events 498 - Kofi Aseidu- After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses
Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964
In the summer of 1964, COFO brought nearly 1,000 activists to Mississippi — most of them white college students — to join with local black activists to register voters, teach in "Freedom Schools," and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO was formed in Mississippi in 1962 The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP was an American Political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the [24]
Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and attempts to change their society. State and local governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used arrests, beatings, arson, murder, spying, firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieving social equality. The White Citizens' Council ( WCC) was an American white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are [25]
Three civil rights workers, James Chaney, a young black Mississippian and plasterer's apprentice; and two Jewish activists, Andrew Goodman, a Queens College anthropology student; and Michael Schwerner, a CORE organizer from Manhattan's Lower East Side, were murdered by members of the Klan, some of them members of the Neshoba County sheriff's department, on June 21, 1964 (see Mississippi civil rights workers murders for details). Mississippi civil rights workers murders James Earl "JE" Chaney ( May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was one of three American PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Mississippi civil rights workers murders Andrew Goodman ( November 23, 1943 &ndash June 21, 1964) was one of three American Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior Colleges of the City University of New York. Mississippi civil rights workers murders Michael Henry Schwerner ( November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964) was one of three CORE field Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York The Lower East Side is a Neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Neshoba County is a County located in the US state of Mississippi. Events 524 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. The Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders involved the 1964 slayings of three political activists during the American Civil Rights Movement.
From June to August, Freedom Summer activists worked in 38 local projects scattered across the state, with the largest number concentrated in the Mississippi Delta region. The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers Technically At least 30 Freedom Schools with close to 3,500 students were established, and 28 community centers set up. [26]
Over the course of the Summer Project, some 17,000 Mississippi blacks attempted to become registered voters in defiance of all the forces of white supremacy arrayed against them — only 1,600 (less than 10%) succeeded. White supremacy is a racist ideology based on the assertion that White people are superior to other racial groups. But more than 80,000 joined the MFDP. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP was an American Political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the [27]
Though Freedom Summer failed to register many voters, it had a significant effect on the course of the Civil Rights Movement. It helped break down the decades of isolation and repression that were the foundation of the Jim Crow system. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Before Freedom Summer, the national news media had paid little attention to the persecution of black voters in the Deep South and the dangers endured by black civil rights workers. When the lives of affluent northern white students were threatened and taken, the full attention of the media spotlight turned on the state. The apparent disparity between the value which the media placed on the lives of whites and blacks embittered many black activists. Perhaps the most significant effect of Freedom Summer was on the volunteers themselves, almost all of whom — black and white — still consider it one of the defining periods of their lives. [28]
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964
Blacks in Mississippi had been disfranchised by statutory and constitutional changes since the late 1800s. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP was an American Political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader Whitney Moore Young Jr ( July 31, 1921 – March 11, 1971) was an African-American Civil rights leader James Leonard Farmer Jr ( January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was a Black civil rights activist who was one of the "big 4" leaders In 1963 COFO held a Freedom Vote in Mississippi to demonstrate the desire of black Mississippians to vote. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. More than 80,000 people registered and voted in the mock election which pitted an integrated slate of candidates from the "Freedom Party" against the official state Democratic Party candidates. [29]
In 1964, organizers launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to challenge the all-white official party. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. When Mississippi voting registrars refused to recognize their candidates, they held their own primary. They selected Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray to run for Congress and a slate of delegates to represent Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Fannie Lou Hamer (born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American Voting rights The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses [30]
The presence of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was inconvenient, however, for the convention organizers. They had planned a triumphant celebration of the Johnson Administration’s achievements in civil rights, rather than a fight over racism within the Democratic Party. All-white delegations from other Southern states threatened to walk out if the official slate from Mississippi was not seated. Johnson was worried about the inroads that Republican Barry Goldwater’s campaign was making in what previously had been the white Democratic stronghold of the "Solid South", as well as support which George Wallace had received in the North during the Democratic primaries. George Corley Wallace Jr (August 25 1919 September 13 1998 was a Democratic Governor of Alabama for four terms (1963-1967 1971-1979 and 1983-1987 and ran for
Johnson could not, however, prevent the MFDP from taking its case to the Credentials Committee. There Fannie Lou Hamer testified eloquently about the beatings that she and others endured and the threats they faced for trying to register to vote. Fannie Lou Hamer (born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American Voting rights Turning to the television cameras, Hamer asked, "Is this America?"
Johnson offered the MFDP a "compromise" under which it would receive two non-voting, at-large seats, while the white delegation sent by the official Democratic Party would retain its seats. The MFDP angrily rejected the "compromise. "
The MFDP kept up its agitation within the convention, even after it was denied official recognition. When all but three of the "regular" Mississippi delegates left because they refused to pledge allegiance to the party, the MFDP delegates borrowed passes from sympathetic delegates and took the seats vacated by the official Mississippi delegates. They were then removed by the national party. When they returned the next day to find that convention organizers had removed the empty seats that had been there the day before, they stayed to sing freedom songs.
The 1964 Democratic Party convention disillusioned many within the MFDP and the Civil Rights Movement, but it did not destroy the MFDP itself. The MFDP became more radical after Atlantic City. It invited Malcolm X, of the Nation of Islam, to speak at one of its conventions and opposed the war in Vietnam. Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American The Nation of Islam ( NOI) (أمة الإسلام Ummah al-Islāmu) is a group founded in Detroit, Michigan, The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
Dr. King Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
On December 10, 1964, Dr. Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest man to receive the award; he was 35 years of age. The Nobel Peace Prize ( Swedish, Danish and Nobels fredspris is one of five Nobel Prizes Bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor [31]
Boycott of New Orleans by American Football League players, January 1965
After the 1964 professional American Football League season, the AFL All-Star Game had been scheduled for early 1965 in New Orleans' Tulane Stadium. The 1964 American Football League season was the fifth regular season of the American Football League Note There were three earlier and unrelated major American professional football leagues of the same name One in 1926, one in 1936-1937 and one in 1940-1941 All-League Teams The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Tulane Stadium was an outdoor football stadium located in New Orleans Louisiana from 1926 to 1980. After numerous black players were refused service by a number of New Orleans hotels and businesses, and white cabdrivers refused to carry black passengers, black and white players alike lobbied for a boycott of New Orleans. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana A boycott is a form of Consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using buying or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of Under the leadership of Buffalo Bills' players including Cookie Gilchrist, the players put up a unified front. The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo New York Metropolitan area, playing seven of their home games in the suburb Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist (born May 25, 1935 in Brackenridge Pennsylvania) was an American football player in the American The game was moved to Houston and its Jeppesen Stadium. John O'Quinn Field at Corbin J Robertson Stadium, often referred to as simply Robertson Stadium, is a sports stadium in Houston Texas located on the campus
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been signed in July 1964, which likely encouraged the AFL players in their cause. Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving It was the first boycott by a professional sports event of an entire city. A boycott is a form of Consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using buying or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of
Selma and the Voting Rights Act, 1965
SNCC had undertaken an ambitious voter registration program in Selma, Alabama, in 1963, but by 1965 had made little headway in the face of opposition from Selma's sheriff, Jim Clark. The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the Political and emotional peak of the American civil rights Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement Selma is a city in and the County seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. After local residents asked the SCLC for assistance, King came to Selma to lead several marches, at which he was arrested along with 250 other demonstrators. The marchers continued to meet violent resistance from police. Jimmie Lee Jackson, a resident of nearby Marion, was killed by police at a later march in February. Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 1938 – February 26, 1965) was a young unarmed civil rights protestor who was shot by an Alabama State Trooper in 1965
On March 7,1965, Hosea Williams of the SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC led a march of 600 people to walk the 54 miles (87 km) from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery. Events 161 - Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus Hosea Lorenzo Williams ( January 5, 1926 &ndash November 16, 2000) was a United States civil rights leader, Only six blocks into the march, however, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers and local law enforcement, some mounted on horseback, attacked the peaceful demonstrators with billy clubs, tear gas, rubber tubes wrapped in barbed wire and bull whips. Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate Brigadier general, and eventual U A lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (from lacrima meaning "a tear " in Latin) (commonly referred to as tear gas) is a They drove the marchers back into Selma. John Lewis was knocked unconscious and dragged to safety. At least 16 other marchers were hospitalized. Among those gassed and beaten was Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was at the center of civil rights activity at the time. Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson (born August 18, 1911) was a figure in the American Civil Rights Movement and later became a leader in the Schiller
The national broadcast of the footage of lawmen attacking unresisting marchers seeking the right to vote provoked a national response as had scenes from Birmingham two years earlier. The marchers were able to obtain a court order permitting them to make the march without incident two weeks later.
After a second march to the site of Bloody Sunday on March 9, however, local whites murdered another voting rights supporter, Rev. Events 590 - Bahram Chobin is crowned as king Barham VI of Persia. James Reeb. James Reeb ( January 1 1927 — March 11 1965) was an American white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston He died in a Birmingham hospital March 11. Events 1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty On March 25, four Klansmen shot and killed Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo as she drove marchers back to Selma at night after the successfully completed march to Montgomery. Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo ( April 11, 1925 &ndash March 25, 1965) was a Civil rights activist from the U
Eight days after the first march, Johnson delivered a televised address to support of the voting rights bill he had sent to Congress. In it he stated:
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.
Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.
Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6. Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited Events 1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. The 1965 act suspended poll taxes, literacy tests and other subjective voter tests. A poll tax, head tax, or capitation is a Tax of a uniform fixed amount per individual (as opposed to a percentage of income It authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such tests were being used. African Americans who had been barred from registering to vote finally had an alternative to taking suits to local or state courts. If voting discrimination occurred, the 1965 act authorized the Attorney General of the United States to send Federal examiners to replace local registrars. The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice (see) concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement Johnson reportedly told his concern to associates that signing the bill had lost the white South for the Democratic Party for the foreseeable future.
The act had an immediate and positive impact for African Americans. Within months of its passage, 250,000, one quarter of a million, new black voters had been registered, one third of them by federal examiners. Within four years, voter registration in the South had more than doubled. In 1965, Mississippi had the highest black voter turnout—74%—and led the nation in the number of black public officials elected. In 1969, Tennessee had a 92. 1% turnout; Arkansas, 77. 9%; and Texas, 73. 1%.
Several whites who had opposed the Voting Rights Act paid a quick price. In 1966 Sheriff Jim Clark of Alabama, infamous for using cattle prods against civil rights marchers, was up for reelection. James Gardner Clark Jr ( September 17, 1922, Elba Coffee County Alabama - June 4 2007 of Selma Alabama, was the Sheriff of Although he took off the notorious "Never" pin on his uniform, he was defeated. At the election, Clark lost as Blacks voted to get him out of office.
Blacks' regaining the power to vote changed the political landscape of the South. When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, only about 100 African Americans held elective office, all in northern states of the U. S. By 1989, there were more than 7,200 African Americans in office, including more than 4,800 in the South. Nearly every Black Belt county (where populations were majority black) in Alabama had a black sheriff. The Black Belt is a region of the United States. Although the term originally describes the prairies and dark Soil of central Alabama and northeast Southern blacks held top positions within city, county, and state governments.
Atlanta elected a black mayor, Andrew Young, as did Jackson, Mississippi—Harvey Johnson—and New Orleans, with Ernest Morial. This page is about Congressman and Ambassador Andrew Young For other men with the same name see Andrew Young (disambiguation. Harvey Johnson can refer to Harvey E Johnson Jr, retired US Vice Admiral and C New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Ernest Nathan Morial (known as Dutch) ( October 9, 1929 - December 24, 1989) was a U Black politicians on the national level included Barbara Jordan, who represented Texas in Congress, and Andrew Young was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations during the Carter administration. Barbara Charline Jordan ( February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American politician from Texas The United States Ambassador to the United Nations (full title Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr (born October 1 1924 was the thirty-ninth President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981 and the recipient of the 2002 Julian Bond was elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1965, although political reaction to his public opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam prevented him from taking his seat until 1967. Horace Julian Bonds (born January 14 1940) is an American leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U Opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War is significant because domestic protest in the U John Lewis represents Georgia's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, where he has served since 1987. The 5th Congressional District of Georgia is currently represented by John Lewis. The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate.
Memphis, King assassination and the Poor People's March, 1968
Rev. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC organized the Poor People's Campaign to address issues of Economic justice James Lawson invited King to Memphis, Tennessee, in March 1968 to support a strike by sanitation workers. Memphis is a City in the southwest corner of Tennessee, and the County seat of Shelby County. Sanitation is the hygienic means of preventing human contact from the hazards of wastes to promote health They had launched a campaign for union representation after two workers were accidentally killed on the job. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming
A day after delivering his famous "Mountaintop" sermon at Lawson's church, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Riots broke out in more than 110 cities across the United States in the days that followed, notably in Chicago, Baltimore, and in Washington, D.C. The damage done in many cities destroyed black businesses. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The Washington DC riots of April 4 – 8, 1968 erupted with the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement leader It would take more than a generation for those areas to recover. Some still have not.
Rev. Ralph Abernathy succeeded King as the head of the SCLC and attempted to carry forth King's plan for a Poor People's March. It was to unite blacks and whites to campaign for fundamental changes in American society and economic structure. The march went forward under Abernathy's plainspoken leadership but did not achieve its goals.
- See also: Orangeburg massacre
Other issues
Kennedy Administration, 1960-63
During the years preceding his election to the presidency, John F. Kennedy's record of voting on issues of racial discrimination had been scant. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Kennedy openly confessed to his closest advisors that during the first months of his presidency, his knowledge of the civil rights movement was "lacking".
For the first two years of the Kennedy Administration, attitudes to both the President and Attorney-General, Robert F. Kennedy, were mixed. In most Common law jurisdictions the Attorney General, or Attorney-General, is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20 1925 – June 6 1968 also called RFK, was the United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a Many viewed the Administration with suspicion. A well of historical cynicism toward white liberal politics had left a sense of uneasy disdain by African-Americans toward any white politician who claimed to share their concerns for freedom. Still, many had a strong sense that in the Kennedys there was a new age of political dialogue beginning.
The naiveté of the Kennedy brothers was demonstrated in Robert Kennedy's declaration in 1962 that, "[T]he Irish were not wanted here. Now an Irish Catholic is President of the United States. There is no question about it, in the next forty years a Negro can achieve the same position. "[32]
Although observers frequently assert the phrase "The Kennedy Administration" or even, "President Kennedy" when discussing the legislative and executive support of the Civil Rights movement, between 1960 and 1963, many of the initiatives were actually the result of Robert Kennedy's passion. Through his rapid education in the realities of racism, Robert Kennedy underwent a thorough conversion of purpose as Attorney-General. Asked in an interview in May 1962, "What do you see as the big problem ahead for you, is it Crime or Internal Security?" Robert Kennedy replied, "Civil Rights. "[33] The President came to share his brother's sense of urgency on the matters to such an extent that it was at the Attorney-General's insistence that he made his famous address to the nation. [34].
When a white mob attacked and burned the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where King held out with protestors, the Attorney-General telephoned King to ask him not to leave the building until the U. S. Marshalls and National Guard could secure the area. King proceeded to berate Kennedy for "allowing the situation to continue". King later publicly thanked Robert Kennedy's commanding the force to break up an attack which might otherwise have ended King's life.
The relationship between the two men underwent change from mutual suspicion to one of shared aspirations. For Dr King, Robert Kennedy initially represented the 'softly softly' approach that in former years had disabled the movement of blacks against oppression in the U. S. For Robert Kennedy, King initially represented what he then considered an unrealistic militancy. Some white liberals regarded the militancy itself as the cause of so little governmental progress.
King regarded much of the efforts of the Kennedys as an attempt to control the movement and siphon off its energies. Yet he came to find the efforts of the brothers to be crucial. It was at Robert Kennedy's constant insistence, through conversations with King and others, that King came to recognize the fundamental nature of electoral reform and suffrage—the need for black Americans to actively engage not only protest but political dialogue at the highest levels. In time the President gained King's respect and trust, via the frank dialogue and efforts of the Attorney-General. Robert Kennedy became very much his brother's key advisor on matters of racial equality. The President regarded the issue of civil rights to be a function of the Attorney-General's office.
With a very slim majority in Congress, the President's ability to press ahead with legislation relied considerably on a balancing game with the Senators and Congressmen of the South. Indeed, without the support of Vice-President Johnson, who had years of experience in Congress and longstanding relations there, many of the Attorney-General's programs would not have progressed at all.
By late 1962, frustration at the slow pace of political change was balanced by the movement's strong support for legislative initiatives: housing rights, administrative representation across all US Government departments, safe conditions at the ballot box, pressure on the courts to prosecute racist criminals. King remarked by the end of the year, "This administration has reached out more creatively than its predecessors to blaze new trails [in voting rights and government appointments]. Its vigorous young men have launched imaginative and bold forays and displayed a certain élan in the attention they give to civil rights issues. "[35]
From squaring off against Governor George Wallace, to "tearing into" Vice-President Johnson (for failing to desegregate areas of the administration), to threatening corrupt white Southern judges with disbarment, to desegregating interstate transport, Robert Kennedy came to be consumed by the Civil Rights movement. George Corley Wallace Jr (August 25 1919 September 13 1998 was a Democratic Governor of Alabama for four terms (1963-1967 1971-1979 and 1983-1987 and ran for He carried it forward into his own bid for the presidency in 1968. On the night of Governor Wallace's capitulation, President Kennedy gave an address to the nation which marked the changing tide, an address which was to become a landmark for the change in political policy which ensued. In it President Kennedy spoke of the need to act decisively and to act now:
"We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes? Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. " [4].
Assassination cut short the life and careers of both the Kennedy brothers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The essential groundwork of the Civil Rights Act 1964 had been initiated before John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The dire need for political and administrative reform had been driven home on Capitol Hill by the combined efforts of the Kennedy administration, Dr. Capitol Hill, aside from being a Metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential Neighborhood in Washington D King and other leaders, and President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1966, Robert Kennedy undertook a tour of South Africa in which he championed the cause of the anti-Apartheid movement. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa His tour gained international praise at a time when few politicians dared to entangle themselves in the politics of South Africa. Kennedy spoke out against the oppression of the native population. He was welcomed by the black population as though a visiting head of state. In an interview with LOOK Magazine he said:
"At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. "But suppose God is black", I replied. "What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?" There was no answer. Only silence. "[36]
American Jewish community and the Civil Rights movement
Many in the Jewish-American community supported the Civil Rights Movement and Jews were more actively involved in the civil rights movement than any other white group in America. American Jews, or Jewish Americans Many Jewish students worked in concert with African Americans for CORE, SCLC, and SNCC as full-time organizers and summer volunteers during the Civil Rights era. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Jews made up roughly half of the white northern volunteers involved in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project and approximately half of the civil rights attorneys active in the South during the 1960s. Freedom Summer (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register to vote as [37]
Jewish leaders were arrested with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964 after a challenge to racial segregation in public accommodations. St Augustine is the County seat of St Johns County, Florida, in the United States. Abraham Joshua Heschel, a writer, rabbi and professor of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York was outspoken on the subject of civil rights. Abraham Joshua Heschel ( January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Warsaw-born American Rabbi and one of the leading He marched arm-in-arm with Dr. King in the 1965 March on Selma.
Brandeis University, the only nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored college university in the world, created the Transitional Year Program (TYP)in 1968, in part response to Rev. Brandeis University is a private research University with a Liberal arts focus located in Waltham Massachusetts, United States. Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. The faculty created it to renew the University's commitment to social justice. Recognizing Brandeis as a university with a commitment to academic excellence, these faculty members created a chance to disadvantaged students to participate in an empowering educational experience.
The program began by admitting 20 black males. As it developed, two groups have been given chances. The first group consists of students whose secondary schooling experiences and/or home communities may have lacked the resources to foster adequate preparation for success at elite colleges like Brandeis. For example, their high schools do not offer AP or honors courses nor high quality laboratory experiences. Students selected had to have excelled in the curricula offered by their schools.
The second group of students includes those whose life circumstances have created formidable challenges that required focus, energy, and skills that otherwise would have been devoted to academic pursuits. Some have served as heads of their households, others have worked full-time while attending high school full-time, and others have shown leadership in other ways.
The American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, and Anti-Defamation League actively promoted civil rights. The American Jewish Committee ( AJC) was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy using diplomacy The Anti-Defamation League ( ADL) is an Interest group founded in 1913 by B'nai B'rith in the United States whose stated aim is "to stop
Fraying of alliances
King reached the height of popular acclaim during his life in 1964, when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize ( Swedish, Danish and Nobels fredspris is one of five Nobel Prizes Bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor His career after that point was filled with frustrating challenges. The liberal coalition that had gained passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 began to fray.
King was becoming more estranged from the Johnson Administration. In 1965 he broke with it by calling for peace negotiations and a halt to the bombing of Vietnam. He moved further left in the following years, speaking of the need for economic justice and thoroughgoing changes in American society. He believed change was needed beyond the civil rights gained by the movement.
King's attempts to broaden the scope of the Civil Rights Movement were halting and largely unsuccessful, however. King made several efforts in 1965 to take the Movement north to address issues of employment and housing discrimination. His campaign in Chicago failed, as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley marginalized King's campaign by promising to "study" the city's problems. Richard Joseph Daley ( May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) served for 21 years as the undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago In 1966, white demonstrators holding "white power" signs in notoriously racist Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, threw stones at King and other marchers demonstrating against housing segregation. Cicero is an Incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, United States. King was injured in this attack.
Race riots, 1963-1970
After World War II, more than half of the country's black population lived in Northern and Western cities rather than Southern rural areas. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Migrating to those cities for better job opportunities, education and to escape legal segregation, African Americans found segregation that existed in fact rather than in law.
While the Ku Klux Klan was not as prevalent as it was in the South, other problems prevailed in northern cities. Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are Urban black neighborhoods were among the poorest in most major cities. Unemployment was much higher than in white neighborhoods, and crime was frequent. Blacks rarely owned the stores or businesses where they lived and mostly worked menial or blue-collar jobs for a fraction of the pay that white co-workers received. Blacks often made only enough money to live in dilapidated tenements that were privately owned or poorly maintained public housing. Blacks attended schools that were often the worst academically in the city and that had very few white students. Worst of all, black neighborhoods were subject to police problems that white neighborhoods were not at all accustomed to dealing with.
The police forces in America were set up with the motto "To Protect and Serve. " Rarely did this occur in any black neighborhoods. Rather, many blacks felt police only existed to "Patrol and Control. " The racial makeup of the police departments, usually largely white, was a large factor. In black neighborhoods such as Harlem, the ratio was only one black officer for every six white officers,[38] and in majority black cities such as Newark, New Jersey only 145 of the 1322 police officers were black. Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, United States and the County seat of Essex County. [39] Police forces in Northern cities were largely composed of white ethnics, mainly Irish, Italian, and Eastern European officers who would routinely harass blacks with or without provocation. [40]
One of the first major race riots took place in Harlem, New York, in the summer of 1964. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African American cultural and business center The City of New York A white Irish-American police officer, Thomas Gilligan, shot a 15-year-old black named James Powell for allegedly charging at him with a knife. In fact, Powell was unarmed. A group of black citizens demanded Gilligan's suspension. Hundreds of young demonstrators marched peacefully to the 67th Street police station on July 17, 1964, the day after Powell's death. Events 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. [5]
Gilligan was not suspended. Although this precinct had promoted the NYPD's first black station commander, neighborhood residents were tired of the inequalities. They looted and burned anything that was not black-owned in the neighborhood. This unrest spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant, a major black neighborhood in Brooklyn. Bedford-Stuyvesant (pron \ˈstī-və-sənt\ (also known as Bed-Stuy) is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City, USA, borough Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. That summer, rioting also broke out in Philadelphia, for similar reasons. The Philadelphia race riot took place in the predominantly black neighborhoods of North Philadelphia from August 28 to August 30, 1964
In the aftermath of the riots of July 1964, the federal government funded a pilot program called Project Uplift, in which thousands of young people in Harlem were given jobs during the summer of 1965. Project Uplift was a major short-term program of the Great Society. The project was inspired by a report generated by HARYOU called Youth in the Ghetto. Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, more commonly called HARYOU was a social activism organization founded by Dr [41] HARYOU was given a major role in organizing the project, together with the National Urban League and nearly 100 smaller community organizations. The National Urban League ( NUL) formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a Civil rights organization based in New York City [42] Permanent jobs at living wages, however, were still out of reach of many young black men.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, but the new law had no immediate effect on living conditions for blacks. A few days after the act became law, a riot broke out in the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Watts is a residential district in southern Los Angeles California (more specifically part of South Los Angeles) Like Harlem, Watts was an impoverished neighborhood with very high unemployment. Its residents had to endure patrols by a largely white police department. While arresting a young man for drunk driving, police officers argued with the suspect's mother before onlookers. The conflict triggered a massive destruction of property through six days of rioting. Thirty-four people were killed and property valued at about $30 million was destroyed, making the Watts riot one of the worst in American history. The term Watts Riots refers to a large-scale Race riot which lasted six days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles California, in August
With black militancy on the rise, increased acts of anger were now directed at the police. Black residents growing tired of police brutality continued to rebel. Some young people joined groups such as the Black Panthers, whose popularity was based in part on their reputation for confronting abusive police officers. The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist / Maoist African-American organization established
Riots occurred in 1966 and 1967 in cities such as Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, Baltimore, Seattle, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Newark, Chicago, New York City (specifically in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx), and worst of all in Detroit. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Oakland (ˈoʊklənd founded in 1852 is the eighth-largest city in the U The Hough Riots were Race riots in the predominantly African American community of Hough in Cleveland Ohio that took place over a six-night period Columbus is the Capital and the largest city of the US state of Ohio. The 1967 Newark Riots were a major Civil disturbance that occurred in the city of Newark New Jersey between July 12 and July 17 1967 Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City.
In Detroit, a comfortable black middle class had begun to develop among families of blacks who worked at well-paying jobs in the automotive industry. The black middle class, sometimes referred to as Buppie, refers to African Americans who occupy a middle class status within the American class structure The automotive industry is the industry involved in the design development manufacture marketing and sale of Motor vehicles In 2007 more than 73 million motor vehicles Blacks who had not moved upward were living in much worse conditions, subject to the same problems as blacks in Watts and Harlem. When white police officers shut down an illegal bar on a liquor raid and arrested a large group of patrons, furious residents rioted.
One significant effect of the Detroit riot was the acceleration of "white flight," the trend of white residents moving from inner-city neighborhoods to predominantly white suburbs. White flight is a term for the demographic trend in which working and Middle-class White people move away from Suburbs Detroit experienced "middle class black flight" as well. Cities such as Detroit, Newark, and Baltimore now have less than 40% white population as a result of these riots and other social changes. Changes in industry caused continued job losses, depopulation of middle classes, and concentrated poverty in such cities. They contain some of the worst living conditions for blacks anywhere in America.
As a result of the riots, President Johnson created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in 1967. The Kerner Commission was the popular name given to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, chaired by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner The commission's final report called for major reforms in employment and public assistance for black communities. It warned that the United States was moving toward separate white and black societies.
Fresh rioting broke out in April 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Riots erupted in many major cities at once, including Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., where damage was especially severe. The Baltimore Riot of 1968 began two days after the murder of Dr The Washington DC riots of April 4 – 8, 1968 erupted with the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement leader
Affirmative Action altered the hiring process of more black police officers in every major city. Affirmative action in the United States|Employment equity (Canada|Reservation in India|Numerus clausus The term affirmative action describes many policies aimed at a historically Blacks make up a proportional majority of the police departments in cities such as Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans, Atlanta, Newark, and Detroit. Civil rights laws have reduced employment discrimination. The conditions that led to frequent rioting in the late 1960s have receded, but not all the problems have been solved.
With industrial and economic restructuring, tens of thousands of industrial jobs disappeared since the later 1950s from the old industrial cities. Some moved South, as has much population, and others out of the US altogether. Civil unrest broke out in Miami in 1980, in Los Angeles in 1992, and in Cincinnati in 2001. Arthur McDuffie (c 1946 - 1979 whose death at the hands of Miami-Dade police and the officers' subsequent acquittals caused one of the worst riots in United States The Los Angeles riots of 1992, also known as the Rodney King uprising or the Rodney King riots, were sparked on April 29, 1992 when a jury The 2001 Cincinnati riots were a reaction to the fatal shooting in Cincinnati of Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old black male by Steven Roach a white police officer
Black power, 1966
At the same time King was finding himself at odds with factions of the Democratic Party, he was facing challenges from within the Civil Rights Movement to the two key tenets upon which the movement had been based: integration and non-violence. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies San José State University, commonly shortened to San José State and SJSU, is the founding campus of what became the California State University system Black activists within SNCC and CORE had chafed for some time at the influence wielded by white advisors to civil rights organizations and the disproportionate attention that was given to the deaths of white civil rights workers while black workers' deaths often went virtually unnoticed. Stokely Carmichael, who became the leader of SNCC in 1966, was one of the earliest and most articulate spokespersons for what became known as the "Black Power" movement after he used that slogan, coined by activist and organizer Willie Ricks, in Greenwood, Mississippi on June 17, 1966. Greenwood is the County seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar.
In 1966 SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael began urging African American communities to confront the Ku Klux Klan armed and ready for battle. He felt it was the only way to ever rid the communities of the terror caused by the Klan.
Several people engaging in the Black Power movement started to gain more of a sense in black pride and identity as well. In gaining more of a sense of a cultural identity, several blacks demanded that whites no longer refer to them as "Negroes" but as "Afro-Americans. " Up until the mid-1960s, blacks had dressed similarly to whites and combed their hair straight. As a part of gaining a unique identity, blacks started to wear loosely fit dashikis and had started to grow their hair out as a natural afro. The dashiki is a colorful men's garment widely worn in West Africa that covers the top half of the body An afro, sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro", is a Hairstyle in which the Hair extends out from the Head The afro, sometimes nicknamed the "'fro," remained a popular black hairstyle until the late 1970s.
Black Power was made most public however by the Black Panther Party which founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist / Maoist African-American organization established Oakland (ˈoʊklənd founded in 1852 is the eighth-largest city in the U This group followed ideology stated by Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam using a "by-any-means necessary" approach to stopping inequality. Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American The Nation of Islam ( NOI) (أمة الإسلام Ummah al-Islāmu) is a group founded in Detroit, Michigan, They sought to rid African American neighborhoods of Police Brutality and had a ten-point plan amongst other things. Police brutality is the world wide use of excessive force usually physical but potentially also in the form verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by Their dress code consisted of leather jackets, berets, light blue shirts, and an afro hairstyle. They are best remembered for setting up free breakfast programs, referring to white police officers as "pigs", displaying shotguns and a black power fist, and often using the statement of "Power to the people. "Power to the people" is a Political slogan that has been used in a wide variety of contexts "
Black Power was taken to another level inside of prison walls. In 1966, George Jackson formed the Black Guerilla Family in the California prison of San Quentin. George Jackson ( September 23, 1941 &ndash August 21, 1971) was a Black American militant who became a member of the Black Panther The Black Guerrilla Family (also known as the Black Family or the Black Vanguard) is a Prison Gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson San Quentin State Prison is located on 432 acres (17 km² on Point San Quentin in Marin County, California, United States, north of San Francisco The goal of this group was to overthrow the white-run government in America and the prison system in general. This group also preaches the general hatred of Whites and Jews everywhere. In 1970, this group displayed their ruthlessness after a white prison guard was found not guilty for shooting three black prisoners from the prison tower. The guard was found cut to pieces, and a message was sent throughout the whole prison of how serious the group was.
Also in 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, while being awarded the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the 1968 Summer Olympics, donned human rights badges and each raised a black-gloved Black Power salute during their podium ceremony. For others with a similar name see Tommy Smith. Tommie Smith (born June 5, 1944) is an African American former John Wesley Carlos (born June 5, 1945 in Harlem New York) is an African American former Track and field athlete and professional The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an International Multi-sport event held in Mexico City Incidentally, it was the suggestion of white silver medalist, Peter Norman of Australia, for Smith and Carlos to each wear one black glove. Peter George Norman ( June 15, 1942 – October 3, 2006) was an Australian track athlete best known for winning the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Smith and Carlos were immediately ejected from the games by the USOC, and later the IOC issued a permanent lifetime ban for the two. However, the Black Power movement had been given a stage on live, international television.
King was not comfortable with the "Black Power" slogan, which sounded too much like black nationalism to him. SNCC activists, in the meantime, began embracing the "right to self-defense" in response to attacks from white authorities, and booed King for continuing to advocate non-violence. When King was murdered in 1968, Stokely Carmichael stated that whites murdered the one person who would prevent rampant rioting and burning of major cities down and that blacks would burn every major city to the ground. In every major city from Boston to San Francisco, racial riots broke out in the black community following King's death and as a result, "White Flight" occurred from several cities leaving Blacks in a dilapidated and nearly unrepairable city. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city
Prison reform
Gates v. Collier
Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, then known as Parchman Farm, is also known for the part it played in the United States Civil Rights Movement. Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest Prison and the only maximum security prison in the state of Mississippi, Parchman is a small unincorporated town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region See also Protests of 1968 Historically the civil rights movement was a concentrated period of time around the world of approximately twenty years (1960-1980 in In the spring of 1961, Freedom Riders came to the South to test the desegregation of public facilities. Desegregation is the process of ending Racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. By the end of June, 163 Freedom Riders had been convicted in Jackson, Mississippi. [43] Many were jailed in Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, is the oldest Prison and the only maximum security prison in the state of Mississippi, Parchman is a small unincorporated town in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region Mississippi employed the trusty system, a hierarchical order of inmates that used some inmates to control and enforce punishment of other inmates. The " Trusty system " was a strict system of discipline and security made compulsory under Mississippi state law as the method of controlling and working inmates at [44]
In 1970 Civil Rights lawyer Roy Haber began taking statements from inmates, which eventually totalled fifty pages of details of murders, rapes, beatings and other abuses suffered by the inmates from 1969 to 1971 at Mississippi State Penitentiary. In a landmark case known as Gates v. Collier (1972) four inmates represented by Haber sued the superintendent of Parchman Farm for violating their rights under the United States Constitution. A landmark decision is the outcome of a legal case (often thus referred to as a landmark case) that establishes a Precedent that either substantially changes the interpretation Gates v Collier, 501 F2d 1291 (5th cir 1972 was a Landmark case decided in federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. Federal Judge William C. Keady found in favor of the inmates, writing that Parchman Farm violated the civil rights of the inmates by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. He ordered an immediate end to all unconstitutional conditions and practices. Racial segregation of inmates was abolished. And the trustee system, which allow certain inmates to have power and control over others, was also abolished. [45]
The prison was renovated in 1972 after the scathing ruling by Judge Keady in which he wrote that the prison was an affront to "modern standards of decency. " Among other reforms, the accommodations were made fit for human habitation and the system of "trusties" (in which lifers were armed with rifles and set to guard other inmates) was abolished. Life imprisonment or life incarceration is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime often for most [46]
In integrated correctional facilities in northern and western states, blacks represented a disproportionate amount of the prisoners and were often treated as second class citizens at the hands of white correctional officers. Blacks also represented a disproportionate number of death row inmates. As a result, Black Power found a ready constituency inside prison walls where gangs such as the Black Guerilla Family were formed as a way to redress the disproportionalities, organizing Black inmates to take militant action. The Black Guerrilla Family (also known as the Black Family or the Black Vanguard) is a Prison Gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson Eldridge Cleaver's book Soul on Ice was written from his experiences in the California correctional system and further fueled black militancy. Eldridge Cleaver ( August 31, 1935 &ndash May 1, 1998) was an Author, a prominent American Civil rights leader [47]
Cold War
There was an international context for the actions of the U. S. Federal government during these years. It had stature to maintain in Europe and a need to appeal to the people in Third World. Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically [48] In Cold War Civil Rights:Race and the Image of American Democracy, historian Mary L. Dudziak showed how, in the ideological battle of the Cold War, Communist critics could easily point out the hypocrisy of the United States's portrayal of itself as the "leader of the free world" when so many of its citizens were the object of racial discrimination. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based She argued that this was a major factor in pushing the government to support civil rights legislation.
Further reading
- Arsenault, Raymond Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford, 2006.
- Branch, Taylor. At Canaans Edge: America In the King Years, 1965-1968. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 0-684-85712-X
- Branch, Taylor. Parting the waters : America in the King years, 1954-1963. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. ISBN 0-671-46097-8
- Branch, Taylor. Pillar of fire : America in the King years, 1963-1965. : Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-80819-6
- Breitman, George The Assassination of Malcolm X. New York: Pathfinder Press. 1976.
- Eric Foner and Joshua Brown, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Eric Foner (born February 7, 1943 in New York City) is an American historian Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2005, 225-238.
- Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1980. ISBN 0-374-52356-8.
- Carson, Clayborne; Garrow, David J. ; Kovach, Bill; Polsgrove, Carol, eds. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941-1963 and Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963-1973. New York: Library of America, 2003. The Library of America (LoA is a Nonprofit Publisher of classic American literature. ISBN 1-931082-28-6 and ISBN 1-931082-29-4.
- Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 800 pages. New York: William Morrow, 1986. ISBN 0-688-04794-7.
- Garrow, David J. The FBI and Martin Luther King. New York: W. W. Norton. 1981. Viking Press Reprint edition. February 1, 1983. ISBN 0-14-006486-9. Yale University Press; Revised & Expanded edition. August 1, 2006. ISBN 0-300-08731-4.
- Greene, Christina, Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
- Horne, Gerald The Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. 1995. Da Capo Press; 1st Da Capo Press ed edition. October 1, 1997. ISBN 0-306-80792-0
- Kirk, John A, Martin Luther King, Jr. London: Longman, 2005. ISBN 0-582-41431-8
- Kirk, John A, Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970 Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8130-2496-X
- Kousser, J. Morgan, "The Supreme Court And The Undoing of the Second Reconstruction," National Forum, (Spring 2000).
- Malcolm X (with the assistance of Alex Haley). The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Random House, 1965. Paperback ISBN 0-345-35068-5. Hardcover ISBN 0-345-37975-6.
- Marable, Manning. Race, Reform and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1982. 249 pages. University Press of Mississippi, 1984. ISBN 0-87805-225-9.
- McAdam, Doug. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1982
- Minchin, Timothy J. Hiring the Black Worker: The Racial Integration of the Southern Textile Industry, 1960-1980. 342 pages. University of North Carolina Press. May 1, 1999. ISBN 0-8078-2470-4.
- Morris, Aldon D. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York: The Free Press, 1984. ISBN 0-02-922130-7
- Sokol, Jason. There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975. Jason Sokol is an American Historian and a visiting professor at Cornell University 's Department of History. For the song of this name see There Goes My Everything There Goes My Everything White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights 1945-1975 New York: Knopf, August 22, 2006.
- Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. ISBN 0-14-009653-1
- Westheider, James Edward. "My Fear is for You": African Americans, Racism, and the Vietnam War. University of Cincinnati. 1993.
Documentary films
- Freedom on my Mind, 110 minutes, 1994, Producer/Directors: Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford, 1994 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Feature
- Eyes on the Prize, PBS television series. Eyes on the Prize is a 14-hour documentary series about the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
See also
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General
- American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
- American Civil Rights Movement Timeline
- Civil rights movement veterans
- Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
- Photographers of the American Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska
- Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association - inspired by the African-American Civil Rights Movement. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa African American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World The word Maafa (also known as the African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement) is derived from a Swahili word meaning disaster terrible occurrence or Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia in 1607 and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth The Military history of African Americans spans from the arrival of the first black slaves during the colonial history of the United The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is a World view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture philosophy and history Reparations for Slavery is a proposal by some in the United States that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of African ethnic groups to the culture of the United States either as part of or distinct from African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. African American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of Ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Historically black colleges and universities ( HBCUs) are institutions of Higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African-American heritage African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community This is an incomplete list of museums which can or may never satisfy any objective standard for completeness African American dances in the vernacular tradition (academically known as "African American vernacular dance" are those dances which have developed within African African American literature is the body of Literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent African American music (also called black music) is an umbrella term given to a range of Music and Musical genres emerging from or influenced by the The term black church or African American church refers to predominantly African-American Christian churches that minister to predominantly black congregations This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — social political economic and religious Black theology refers to a variety of Christian theologies which has as its base in the The Doctrine of Father Divine is the teachings of the late Father Divine (d The Nation of Islam ( NOI) (أمة الإسلام Ummah al-Islāmu) is a group founded in Detroit, Michigan, Black Hebrew Israelites (also Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of people of Black African ancestry Vodou ( Anglicized: Voodoo) or Vaudoo is a family of New World syncretistic religions primarily based on the faiths of the Hoodoo is a form of predominantly African-American traditional folk magic. Santería, also known as La Regla de Lukumi (Lukumi's Rule and The Way of the Saints is an Afro-Cuban religious tradition derived from traditional beliefs Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of Black nationalism (BN advocates a racial definition (or redefinition of black national identity as opposed to Multiculturalism. Black Power is a racially based Political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies Black Capitalism is a movement among African Americans to build wealth through the ownership and development of businesses Black conservatism is an international political and social movement rooted in communities of African descent that aligns largely with the conservative movement Following the collapse of Reconstruction, African Americans created a broad-based independent political movement in the South black populism that influence all The African American left tends to support leftist positions on social issues and an expansive state that aims at bringing about equality of outcome between the African The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist / Maoist African-American organization established Garveyism is an aspect of Black Nationalism which takes its source from the works words and deeds of UNIA-ACL founder Marcus Garvey. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement The National Urban League ( NUL) formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a Civil rights organization based in New York City The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, The United Negro College Fund ( UNCF) is a Fairfax, Virginia -based American philanthropic organization that fundraises College tuition The National Black Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in 1993 by Harry Alford who in 2007 continues as CEO History The National Pan-Hellenic Council was established in an age when Racial segregation and disenfranchisement plagued African Americans, the rise of each The Links Incorporated is an exclusive non-profit organization based upon the ideals of combining friendship and community service The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW is a Non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women their Part of the History of baseball in the United States series The Negro leagues were American professional Baseball leagues History The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, founded on the campus of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1912 is the oldest African-American Conference sports Conference member schools Current members Former members Conference Stadia Championships The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC is a Collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs in the Southeastern "Southwestern Conference" redirects here For the former major conference in Texas and Arkansas see Southwest Conference; for the Ohio High School Conference English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English Geechee is a Creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" an African Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the mixed Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Notable African-Americans or Black Americans For people from current African countries see lists for individual countries List of first African-American mayors for most mayor listings African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. This is a list of landmark legislation, court decisions, executive orders and proclamations in the United States significantly affecting African Americans This is an alphabetical list of African-American-related topics: A African American African American culture This is a list of articles that are related to African and black people This is a timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Civil Rights Movement Veterans (CRMVets is a loose on-line association of people who were active in the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s with organizations such as NAACP Mission The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project of the Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights History Projectsis dedicated to social movements and labor history Beginning with the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, Photography and photographers played an important role in advancing the American Civil Rights Movement See also Racial tension in Omaha Nebraska The Civil rights movement in Omaha Nebraska has roots that extend back until at least 1912 The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( Cumann Chearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation which campaigned for Civil rights in Northern
- Protests of 1968
Activist organizations
National/regional civil rights organizations:
- Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF)
- National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
- Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR)
- Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR)
- Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC)
National economic empowerment organizations:
Local civil rights organizations:
- Council of Federated Organizations (Mississippi)
- Women's Political Council (Montgomery, AL)
- Montgomery Improvement Association (Montgomery, AL)
- Albany Movement (Albany, GA)
Activists
- Ralph Abernathy
- Victoria Gray Adams
- Ella Baker
- Elaine Brown
- Mary Fair Burks
- Stokely Carmichael
- Annie Devine
- Doris Derby
- Marian Wright Edelman
- Medgar Evers
- James L. Farmer, Jr.
- Karl Fleming
- James Forman
- Frankie Muse Freeman
- Fannie Lou Hamer
- T.R.M. Howard
- Winson Hudson
- Jesse Jackson
- Gloria Johnson-Powell
- Clyde Kennard
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- John Lewis
- Viola Liuzzo
- Thurgood Marshall
- Loren Miller
- Anne Moody
- Robert Parris Moses
- Denise Nicholas
- Rosa Parks
- John M. Perkins
- Gloria Richardson
- Jo Ann Robinson
- Cleveland Sellers
- Modjeska Monteith Simkins
- Malcolm X
- C. T. Vivian
- Maya Angelou
- W. E. B. Du Bois
External links
- The Civil Rights Era Library of Congress
- Civil Rights Movement Veterans ~ Movement history, personal stories, documents, and photos. The Protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests largely led by students and workers The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW is a Non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women their The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights ( LCCR) is an umbrella group of American liberal Interest groups Organizational The National Urban League ( NUL) formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a Civil rights organization based in New York City Operation Breadbasket was an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of black communities across the United States of America. The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO was formed in Mississippi in 1962 The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA was formed on December 5 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery Alabama. The Albany Movement was a Desegregation coalition formed in Albany Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Ralph David Abernathy ( March 11 1926 – April 17 1990) was an American Civil rights activist and leader and a close associate of Victoria Jackson Gray Adams ( November 5 1926 - August 12 2006) was an American Civil rights activist from Hattiesburg Ella Josephine Baker ( December 13, 1903 &ndash December 13, 1986) was a leading African American civil rights and human rights Elaine Brown (born March 2, 1943 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania) is an American prison activist writer and singer she is a former Chairperson Mary Fair Burks (b c 1920s - d July 21 1991 was an educator scholar and civil rights activist from Montgomery Alabama. Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael ( June 29, 1941 November 15, 1998) also known as Kwame Ture, was a Trinidadian Annie Bell Robinson Devine (1912-2000 was an activist in the American Civil Rights Movement. Doris Derby is an educator and artist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement. Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville South Carolina) is an American Activist for the rights of children Medgar Willy Evers ( July 2, 1925 June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi James Leonard Farmer Jr ( January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was a Black civil rights activist who was one of the "big 4" leaders Karl Fleming (born August 30, 1927) is an American Journalist who made a significant contribution to the American Civil Rights Movement James Forman ( October 4, 1928 - January 10, 2005) was an African-American Civil Rights leader active in both the Student Nonviolent The Honorable Frankie Muse Freeman (born Marie Frankie Muse November 24, 1916 in Danville Virginia) is an American civil rights Fannie Lou Hamer (born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American Voting rights Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (b March 4 1908, Murray Kentucky - d Winson Hudson (1916-2004 was a Civil rights activist born and raised in Harmony, Mississippi. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr (born October 8 1941 is an American Civil rights activist and Baptist minister. Gloria Johnson-Powell MD (born Gloria Johnson c 1937 is a child psychiatrist who is also an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968 and was one Clyde Kennard (1927&ndash July 4 1963) was an African-American student born in Hattiesburg Mississippi who attempted several times to enroll at Mississippi Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo ( April 11, 1925 &ndash March 25, 1965) was a Civil rights activist from the U Thurgood Marshall ( July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American Jurist and the first African American Loren Miller (January 20 1903 - July 14 1967 was an American, California Superior Court Justice County of Los Angeles, appointed by former governor Anne Moody (born September 15 1940) is an African-American author who has written about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi Robert Parris Moses (born Harlem, New York, January 23, 1935, usually known as Bob Moses) is an American Harvard Denise Nicholas (born Donna Denise Nicholas; July 12, 1944 or 1945 is an American actress Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4 1913 – October 24 2005 was an African American Civil rights activist whom the U John M Perkins is an American Civil rights activist He has worked extensively in the realm of reconciliation and development centered around the Christian Gloria St Clair Hayes Richardson (born May 6 1922) is best-known as the leader of the Cambridge Movement, a Civil rights struggle in Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (1912-1992 was a civil rights activist and educator in Montgomery Alabama. Cleveland Sellers Jr was born in 1944 in Denmark South Carolina to Cleveland and Pauline Sellers Modjeska Monteith Simkins (born 5 December 1899 in Columbia South Carolina - 5 April 1992 was a Civil rights leader Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American Reverend C T Vivian (born July 28, 1924 in Boonville, Missouri) is a minister and was a close friend and lieutenant of Reverend Martin Maya Angelou (ˈmaɪə ˈændʒəloʊ (born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928) is an American Poet, Memoirist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist
- Civil Rights Movement 1955-1965
- Civil Rights as a People's Movement American University Course Syllabus
- Let Justice Roll Down: The Civil Rights Movement Through Film Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute
- University of Southern Mississippi's Civil Rights Documentation Project, includes an extensive Timeline
- President Kennedy's Address to the nation on Civil Rights
- Watch Documentary: FBI War on Black Americans
- What Was Jim Crow? (The racial caste system that precipitated the Civil Rights Movement)
- History and images of the sit-in movement
- WDAS Radio's Enduring Impact on the Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights Movement in Georgia (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- Black Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement
- Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
- The Albany Movement (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- "You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow!" PBS documentary on first Freedom Ride, in 1947
- Materials relating to the desegregation of Ole Miss in 1962
- Images of the Civil Rights Movement in Florida from the State Archives of Florida
- At the River I Stand California Newsreel documentary on Civil Rights and labor rights in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation workers' strike. 56 minutes, 1993
- The Georgia Movement
- Snapshots in Time: The Public in the Civil Rights Era Examines how public attitudes about civil rights evolved based on opinion surveys taken at the time, from Public Agenda Online
- "The Tallahassee Bus Boycott--Fifty Years Later," The Tallahassee Democrat, May 21, 2006
- Integrating with All Deliberate Speed--contains video history interviews with African American Civil Rights pioneers, a timeline of the Civil Rights Movement and primary source materials (photographs, speeches, historical documents). Events 878 - Syracuse Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
- Rising Up: A film documenting the students who challenged segregated spaces in 1960 Richmond, Virginia. (Produced by the Community Ideas Stations in partnership with University of Virginia, 2005. )
- ”The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
- ”From Canterbury to Little Rock: The Struggle for Educational Equality for African Americans”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
Jewish community and civil rights
- Civil Rights - Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
- Blacks and Jews Entangled, Edward S. Shapiro, First Things
- 50 years after integration case, Jews remember their crucial role, Chicago Jewish Community
- What Went Wrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance
- Jews, Religion, and the Movement, — A Discussion ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
References
- ^ "The Tallahassee Bus Boycott--Fifty Years Later," The Tallahassee Democrat, May 21, 2006
- ^ Brown v Board of Education Decision ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Montgomery Bus Boycott ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ The Little Rock Nine ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ First Southern Sit-in, Greensboro NC ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Chafe, William Henry (1980). Events 878 - Syracuse Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Civilities and civil rights : Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black struggle for freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 81. ISBN 019502625X.
- ^ Davis, Townsend (1998). Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 311. ISBN 0393045927.
- ^ Nashville Student Movemen ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Freedom Rides ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Voter Registration & Direct-action in McComb MS ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Council of Federated Organizations Formed in Mississippi ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Mississippi Voter Registration — Greenwood ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ In 2006, Judge Robert Helfrich ruled that Kennard was factually innocent of all charges. Carrying the burden: the story of Clyde Kennard. From: district125. k12. il. us. Retrieved November 5, 2007.
- ^ James Meredith Integrates Ole Miss ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Albany GA, Movement ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ The Birmingham Campaign ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Letter from a Birmingham Jail ~ King Research & Education Institute at Stanford Univ.
- ^ Bass, S. Jonathan (2001) Blessed Are The Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr. , Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 0807126551
- ^ Standing In the Schoolhouse Door ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ "Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights," June 11, 1963, transcript from the JFK library.
- ^ Medgar Evers, a worthwhile article, on The Mississippi Writers Page, a website of the University of Mississippi English Department. Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ Medgar Evers Assassination ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ a b Civil Rights bill submitted, and date of JFK murder, plus graphic events of the March on Washington. This is an Abbeville Press website, a large informative article apparently from their book The Civil Rights Movement (ISBN 0-7892-0123-2).
- ^ The Mississippi Movement & the MFDP ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Mississippi: Subversion of the Right to Vote ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ McAdam, Doug (1988). Freedom Summer. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504367-7.
- ^ Carson, Clayborne (1981). In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Harvard University Press.
- ^ Veterans Roll Call ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ Freedom Ballot in MS ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ The Mississippi Movement & the MFDP ~ Civil Rights Movement Veterans
- ^ MLK's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10, 1964. Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar.
- ^ Guthman, We Band of Brothers 1971
- ^ Bob Spivack, Interview of the Attorney General, May 12 1962
- ^ Schlesinger, Arthur Jr, Robert Kennedy And His Times (2002)
- ^ Martin Luther King, Jr. Nation March 3rd 1962
- ^ Ripple of Hope in the Land of Apartheid: Robert Kennedy in South Africa, June 1966
- ^ From Swastika to Jim Crow -- PBS Documentary
- ^ No Place Like Home Time Magazine.
- ^ Dr. Max Herman. [1] Ethnic Succession and Urban Unrest in Newark and Detroit During the Summer of 1967.
- ^ Max A. Herman, ed. The Detroit and Newark Riots of 1967. Rutgers-Newark Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
- ^ Youth in the Ghetto: A Study of the Consequences of Powerlessness, Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Inc. , 1964
- ^ Poverty and Politics in Harlem, Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc. , 1970
- ^ "Riding On", Time, Time Inc. , 2007-07-07. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death Retrieved on 2007-10-23. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 4004 BC - Creation of the world begins according to the calculations of Archbishop James Ussher 42 BC -
- ^ ACLU Parchman Prison. Retrieved on 2007-11-29. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1777 - San Jose California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe
- ^ Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. Retrieved on 2006-08-28. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital
- ^ Goldman, Robert M. Goldman (April 1997). "Worse Than Slavery": Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice - book review. Hnet-online. Retrieved on 2006-08-29. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 708 - Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708)
- ^ Cleaver, Eldridge (1967). Soul on Ice. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
- ^ Dudziak, M.L.: Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy
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