Civil Rights in the 1960s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjhzhK2zryg

Restaurant segregation

• Sit-ins– Begin with protests at

Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960 by college students from NC A&T

– Spread throughout the south

– Effective in many locations

• SNCC: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee– Founded in fall of 1960 by students that had

participated in sit-ins– Provided outlet for student participation in

following campaigns

Bus segregation• Freedom Rides

(1961):– Attempts to

desegregate southern bus stations through interstate trips

– Organized by CORE (Congress on Racial Equality)

– Met by violence at some locations, president sends in federal marshals to keep the peace

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=3zNaTk8s6fo&feature=fvsr

City Campaigns• Albany, GA (1961-1962)

– Protest movement organized by SNCC as broad attempt at mass desegregation

– Martin Luther King, Jr. comes in during the middle of movement

– Police chief Laurie Pritchett breaks protests through non-violent mass arrests

– Albany movement is essentially a failure with few concessions and little national attention

Birmingham, AL

• Mass attempt by SCLC to desegregate facilities

• Project C: Use of sit-ins and marches with attempts to generate public pressure and arrests

• Martin Luther King, Jr. describes purpose of protests and non-violent action in Letter from a Birmingham Jail

• Children’s Crusade: use of children and teens for public protests, allowing adults to keep working

• Birmingham sheriff “Bull” Connor uses fire hoses, police dogs, and other tactics to attempt to break protests

• Violent tactics are shown nationally on TV, gaining national sympathy and public pressure

• Helps provide impetus for March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joc3CRL6x4E

Government action

• March on Washington (August 1963)

– Organized to create popular support and political pressure for a new civil rights act

– Over 200,000 marchers attend

– Delivery of the “I have a Dream Speech” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

– Legislation stalls in the Senate and will not be passed until 1964

–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcbpGK9_aw&feature=related

Voter registration

• Freedom Summer (1964):– Massive attempt to

increase black voter registration by NAACP, CORE, SNCC, and SCLC in Mississippi

– Work done by large numbers of northern college students and volunteers

– Operation of Freedom Schools to promote education, literacy, and political activism

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner:• Three civil rights volunteers

murdered during Freedom Summer in June, 1964

• Goodman and Schwerner were white college students from New York and Chaney was black volunteer from Mississippi

• Disappearance becomes national news, bodies discovered in August

• 18 men put on trial by federal government for violating the murdered men’s civil rights (7 found guilty)– Edgar Ray Killen, a preacher, had a

hung jury in 1967, but was convicted of murder by the state of Mississippi in 2005

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Signed on July 2nd by President Johnson

• Contributing Factors:– March on Washington in August 1963– Search for Chaney, Goodman, and

Schwerner entering its second week– LBJ’s tactics (experience and use of JFK

death)– http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ZaRUca7FyAc

Provisions:

• Barred segregation in public accommodations

• Ended federal aid to segregated institutions

• Outlawed racial discrimination in employment

• Sought to strengthen black voting rights

24th Amendment

• Ratified on January 23, 1964

• Outlawed poll taxes in general and primary elections for federal office (president/Congress)

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Signed on August 6th by President Johnson• Contributing Factor:

– Events in Selma and Montgomery

• Provisions:– Authorized the U.S. Attorney General to send

federal examiners to supersede the locals wherever discrimination occurred

– Directed the U.S. Attorney General to challenge state and local poll taxes in the courts

• Changes in Focus• Civil rights movement focused on problems in

the South in early 1960s• Majority of African-Americans (70%) lived in

urban cities, many in North and West– Often faced racism in these areas: unable to live in

white neighborhoods, difficulty finding employment, higher poverty levels

– Frustrations rise with lack of focus on these issues

Race Riots

– Watts Riots (August 1965 in Los Angeles)• Accusations of police

brutality start riot that will last 5 days

• 14,000 members of National Guard deployed

• 34 people died, 900 injuries, $45 million damages to property

Additional race riots

• Riots take place in Philadelphia and New York previous to Watts and will also occur in Washington DC, Baltimore, Detroit

• Detroit riot in 1967 was worst in scope with 43 deaths and $250 million in damages

• Over 100 riots in April 1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMCTQSVReM

Black Power

• Origin of Black Power– Failures of inner-city efforts

and Chicago Movement by MLK led many African-Americans to search for new approach

– Stokely Carmichael, leader of SNCC, puts forward idea of “black power”• Mobilization and pride in

black community, Afro-centric beliefs, physical self-defense, possible use of violence

Malcolm X– Born Malcolm Little in

Omaha, he drifted into crime and sent to prison

– Joins Nation of Islam or “Black Muslims”, which preached black nationalism and separation from white community

– Changes name to Malcolm X for symbolic reasons

– Becomes charismatic speaker for Nation of Islam and self-defense

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSgUTWffMQ

– Breaks away from Nation of Islam and goes on pilgrimage to Mecca

– Changes message after returns and criticizes Nation of Islam

– Assassinated while giving a speech in New York in February 1965

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSm1t3Uv9QI

Black Panther Party

– Advocated black power, black nationalism, and economic self-sufficiency

– “Ten-Point Program” calls for increased services among and for African-Americans

– Called for arming for self-defense and confrontation with white society

– Investigated by US government and begins decline after conflicts over focus on Black Panthers and trials involving leadership

Black nationalism in public view

– Kwanzaa created in 1966 by black nationalist Ron Karenga

– 1968 Olympics in Mexico City: Tommie Smith & John Carlos

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAHsYmaodkA

Other Civil Rights groups

• New civil rights groups with nationalist elements emerged among other minority population

– Hispanics: La Raza and Brown Berets

– Native Americans: American Indian Movement and Indians of all Nations (occupation of Alcatraz)

– Chinese: Red Guard and I Wor Kuen

– Gay Liberation Front forms after Stonewall riots in June 1969 in New York City

Immigration act 1965

• Got rid of old quota system

• Now immigration would depend on Family in the US and Skills offered.