THE STRUGGLE INTENSIFIES

“There comes a time my friends when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation…We had no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”

• Bus boycott continues for over a year• 1956 Supreme Court ruling:– Bus segregation unconstitutional

Sit-Ins

• Perfected by CORE• Sit in a public place and wait to be served– Forced business owners to decide between

disruption or potential loss of business– By 1960 70,000 people had participated and 3,600

had served jail time

Freedom Rides

• CORE and SNCC test whether businesses were upholding Boynton v. the State of Virginia– Interstate buses and all according services

desegregate

Violence Against Freedom Riders

• First left D.C. on May 4, 1961• Minor problems until Anniston, AL: – Mob surrounded one bus– Slashed the bus tires– Held the door shut

• Threw a firebomb into the bus

• All escaped – Brutally beaten

• Public horrified by photographs – Attorney General Robert Kennedy pledged federal

support to the protestors

Integration of the University of Mississippi “Ole Miss”

• 1961 James Meredith applied to transfer from a state college to Ole Miss and was denied

• NAACP helped him file lawsuit Ole Miss• Grounds: denied admission based on his race

• The Supreme Court upheld his position• Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett refused to

comply with the Supreme Court’s decision

• President JFK sent Federal Marshalls– Two student deaths

• JFK ordered soldiers in to restore order• Meredith ultimately admitted to Ole Miss – Required assistance of Federal Marshalls to ensure

his safety

Protests in Birmingham, Alabama

• Birmingham 40% African American • MLK: Most segregated city in

America• Spring of 1963 he planned a

series of nonviolent protests in the city

• Birmingham’s police commissioner “Bull” Connor determined that the city remain segregated

• Protest marches and sit-ins began• City officials obtained court injunction – Protestors cease actions b/c parading without a

permit• King risked civil disobedience by continuing the

protests – MLK arrested

• Criticized by fellow white clergymen for actions– King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

• King disputed claims that his actions were ill timed claiming that African Americans had been told for too long to wait for justice and equality

• 1963 youths joined protest marches in Birmingham

• Bull Connor directed the arrest of more than 900 youths using:– High pressure hoses– Attack dogs– Police beatings

• Public shocked by images from the march• Eventually an interracial committee was

established to help desegregate the city