Access to History for the IB Diploma Civil rights and social movements in the Americas post-1945 seconp evimion Vivienne Sandersaria “This chapter traces the history of African American oppression [Link] and then segregation. It looks at the long- and short-term origins of the Civil Rights Movement and the debates as to when exactly that movement began. It explores ‘what tactics African Americans used to try to gain equality and which were the most. effective. The relative importance of the reasons for improvement is also discussed. ‘You need to consider the following questions throughout this chapter: © What were the long-term causes of the Civil Rights Movement? (What was the main reason for the mass activism that began in 1955? ‘When did the Civil Rights Movement begin? ‘How and why was de jure segregation ended? © African Americans to 1945 } Key question: What were the long-term causes ofthe Ci Rights Movement? ‘The Civil Rights Movement originated long before the famous period in which Martin Luther King Jr led African American protests against discrimination. African Americans before 1900 Sneed Inthe seventeenth century, Europeans conquered and colonized North saves ae nt America. They considered importing and enslaving Africans acceptable = because they needed cheap and plentiful labour and because Africans, with their non-Christian culture, were perceived as uncivilized. African Americans in the Constitution Serna) ‘The Constitution of the newly independent United States of America said Civil Rights Movement black slaves were worth’ only three-fifths of a white person. The vast Movement for legal soca, majority of slaves were in the Southern states (see the map on page 68).The _poltial and economic Constitution gave states great power over education, transportation, voting and law enforcement, making jurisdictional clashes with the federal government likely. equality for African Amesicans,rr KEY TERM Confederacy The |! Souther states that left the Union became the Confederate States of America, ‘Amendment The US ‘Congress could amend the Constitution 75 per cent of the states approves. Reconstruction When the II ex-Confederate states were rebuit, formed and restored to the Union, Jim Crow A popular 1830s comic, black-faced, minstrel character developed by white performing artists. Post- Reconstruction Southern state laws that legalized segregation were called Jim Crow laws’. De jure segregation The legal segregation ofthe races, set down in laws in the South unt 1964 De facto segregation Segregation ofthe races in fact rather than in the law. Lynching Uniawiul ing (usualy by hanging) What factors and tactics brought about improvement to the conditions of African Americans? The Civil War 1861-5 and Reconstruction Relations between blacks and whites were usually tense. Blacks resented enslavernent, while whites feared revolt, the loss of unpaid labour, competition from freed slaves, and threats to white domination and racial purity. There were also tensions between Northern and Southern whites over slavery when the USA expanded westward: Northerners who no longer owned slaves clashed with Southerners over whether slavery should be allowed within the new territories. Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) opposed the extension of slavery to the western territories, so his election prompted the Southern states to secede from the Union of the United States and to establish the Confederate States of America. Lincoln was determined not to allow the South to leave the Union, and in the Civil War (1861-5) Lincoln's North defeated the Confederacy. It | was primarily military necessity that made Lincoln begin the ptocess of | ending slavery with the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. After the defeat of the South, the black population was given theoretical ‘equality in three very important constitutional amendments. The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment (1868) said black people were citizens, and the 15th Amendment (1870) said black males should be allowed to vote. During the Reconstruction of the South (1865- 177), black people voted and had more access to education, but their sudden release from slavery meant most struggled economically, Segregation ; ‘The federal government soon tired of the South’s race’ problem and left the region to its own devices, Souther whites quickly restored their supremacy over state governments, and in the late nineteenth century introduced Jim ‘Crow laws that discriminated against black people, legally enforcing their segregation from whites in schools, houses and public facilities such as transportation and education. In Plessy v, Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that’ separate but equal’ facilities were not against the 14th Amendment. The black population was certainly in separate facilities, but they were not equal. Segregation in the South was enshrined in state law (de jure segregation) Segregation in the North, evidenced in schools, housing and some public facilities, was segregation in fact rather than in law (de facto segregation), Even in the North, African Americans had little protection from the law and Iynching was not uncommon, — African Americans 1900-45 In the first half of the twentieth century, the origins of the Civil Rights Movement were to be found in black inequality, individual activists, greater black consciousness, the labour movement, the New Deal, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and two world wars CChopter 2; Afican Americans and the Civil Rights Movemen idual activists Be mencane did not always passively accept their inferior political, social, economic and legal status, but in the early twentieth century they disagreed over tactics for improvement. Many black Southerners went North after 1910 in search of a better life in the Great Migration. A few began to organize protests, although the historian Adam Fairclough (2001) described them as'sporadic and uncoordinated’ Black Southern educationalist Booker T Washington (1856-1915) advocated accommodationism, which - concentrated on economic improvement, while black Northern academic WEB. Du Bois (1868-1963) waged a propaganda war against the status quo ancl helped to establish the NAACP in 1909 (see below). @ Key TERM Great migration Early twentieth-century northward movement of lack Southerners, Accommodationism Booker T, Washington's philosophy, which advocated inital black concentration on economic improvement rather than on socal, politcal and legal equality. Greater black consciousness In the first half of the twentieth century, black consciousness greatly increased, through labour unions, newspapers such as the Baltimore Afro- ‘America, the flowering of black culture in NewYork City’s Harlem ghetto (the Harlem Renaissance) and organizations. The two most significant organizations in the first half of the twentieth century were the integrationist NAACE with its predominantly middle-class membership and litigation tactic Gee below), and flamboyant West Indian-born Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which favoured armed self-defence and the separation of the races. UNIA was the first black mass moverrent in the USA, boasting around half a million members by 1925. The labour movement In 1935, left-wing African American A. Philip Randolph set up and led an all-black labour union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. ‘Membership reached 15,000 by the 1940s, giving Randolph a great deal of influence, He successfully put pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1993-45) to decrease discrimination in federal employment during the ‘Second World War (see page 56). The New Deal Following the Wall Street crash (1929), the USA was plunged into the Great Depression. In 1933, President Roosevelt introduced his New Deal, a hitherto unprecedented programme of government intervention to stimulate the economy and help the poor. As the majority of African Americans were pocr, many benefited, even though New Deal officials frequently practised discrimination. The programme helped to awaken African Americans to the power and potential of federal government aid, and black voters began to turn from the’Great Emancipator’ Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party to Roosevelt's Democratic Patty. NAACP NAACP litigation tactic aimed to bring about a slow but steady erosion of the Jim Crow laws, NAACP-inttiated cases brought about a Supreme CourtGrandfather clause Souther state laws allowed the iterate to vote they could prove an ancestor had voted before Reconstruction, hich no African American could do. @ Key TERM Primaries Elections to choose a party's candidate for elective offce. Poll tax Tax levied on ‘would-be voters that made it harder for blacks (who were Usually poo) to vote, ruling that ended the grandfather clause (1915). In the 1930s, the ‘organization focused on obtaining a ruling that unequal expenditure on black and white education was against the 1dth Amendment. Star black lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued successfully for equal salaries for black teachers in Maryland and Virginia in 1935~40. He focused first on equality in ‘graduate schools, where fewer whites would be affected, and there would be fewer complaints. In Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada (1938), the Supreme Court decreed that all races had the right to the same quality of graduate eclucation. As a result of NAACP's Texas campaign against all-white primaries, the Supreme Court declared the exclusion of Aftican Americans from the primaries unconstitutional under the 15th Amendment in Smith & Allwright in 1944. The NAACP also lobbied Congress for anti-Iynching legislation (the House of Representatives passed the bill in 1937 and 1940 but the Senate rejected it) and arranged protests, for example, against segregated lunch counters in Topeka, Kansas. US involvement in two world wars When the USA fought in two world wars (1917-18 and 1941-45), black soldiers noticed the disparity between US government rhetoric about freedom and democracy and their own reality. The Second World War in particular raised black consciousness and promoted black activism: © In 1941, Adam Clayton Fowell led a bus boycott in Harlem, which led to the employment of more black bus drivers @ In 1941, A. Philip Randolph threatened to bring Washington to a standstill unless there was equality in the segregated armed forces and in the ‘workplace, so President Roosevelt reluctantly established the Commission on Fair Employment Practices (FEPC), which promoted equality in the defence industries in which two million black people were employed © In 1942, Christian socialist James Farmer set up the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which organized sit-ins (see page 73) at de facto segregated Chicago restaurants and demanded the desegregation of interstate transport © In New Orleans in 1943, a bus driver ordered a black soldier to sit at the back of the bus, in accordance with state and city laws. All 24 black passengers ended up in jail for demonstrating solidarity with him. @ NAACP membership rose during the war ftom 50,000 to 450,000. For example, in 1942, Rosa Parks (see pages 62-5) joined the NAACP, which she said‘was about empowerment through the ballot box. With a vote ‘would come economic improvements.’She‘failed’ the literacy test in 1943 bbut successfully registered to vote in 1945, although paying the $16.50 poll tax was expensive for a part-time seamstress. She resented her brother being drafted by a democracy in which he could not vote. Sia Chapter 2: Afcan Americans ond the Gl Rights Movement ‘De jure segregation in the South e facto segregation in the North ‘Accammodationism USA in Fst World War ae Great Migration New Deal NAACP USA in Second World War UNA Harem Renaissance ‘Atican Amerlean newspapers t Labour unions SUMMARY DIAGRAM Aitican Americans to 1945 Short-term causes of the Civil Rights Movement 1945-55 > Key question: What was the main reason for the mass activism that began in 1955? Underlying the Civil Rights Movernent was the long-standing inequality of, the Southern black population, but it could be argued that the trigger for the mass activism that began in 1955 was the sympathy demonstrated by President Truman and the Supreme Court, Asympathetic president: Harry Truman 1945-53 Although a self-confessed racist, President Truman did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln. How did Truman help African Americans? Attacks on black soldiers Like many contemporaries, Truman was horrified by attacks on black servicemen returning from the Second World War. The worst attacks were in the Deep South and Truman gave US citizens a moral lead, saying that legal equality was the black man’s basic right,’because he is a human being and a natural born American’.Look at Source A and at Source Hi on page 69. Suggest why eeturning black solders received particularly bad treatment in Mississippi and South Carolina Extracts from two letters written by President Truman in 1948, quoted in ‘Truman by David McCullough, published by Simon & Schuster, New York, USA, 1992, pages 721-2. ‘My very stomach turned over when I learned that Negro soldiers, just back from verseas, were being dumped out of army trucks in Mississippi and beaten. Whatever my inclinations as a native of Missouri might have been, as President Tknow this is bad. I shall fight to end evils lik this ... Lam not asking for social equality, because no such things exist, but am asking for equality of opportunity {for all uonar beings ... When a mayor and a City Marshal can take a Negro Sergeant offa bus in South Carolina, beat him up and put out one of his eyes, ‘and nothing is done about it by the State Authorities, something is radically ‘wrong with the system “To Secure These Rights’ In 1946, Truman established a liberal civil rights committee to investigate racist violence. Their report,"To Secure These Rights’ (1947), said the USA. could not claim to lead the free world while black people were not equal. It called on the federal government for anti-lynching legislation, abolition of the poll tax, voting rights laws, a permanent FEPC, and an end to discrimination in interstate travel and in the armed forces. In his 1947 and 1948 State of the Union addresses, Truman urged Congress to pass the civil rights legislation suggested by the committee. In 1948, under the threat of mass protest organized by A. Philip Randolph, he set an example by issuing executive orders to end discrimination in the armed forces and to guarantee fair employment in the civil service. He set up the Fair Employment Board (1948) to try to give minorities equal treatment in federal hiring, and established a Committee on Government Contract Compliance (CGC) that threatened to withhold federal government contracts from employers who discriminated against black workers. He made some significant appointments, such as an African American governor of the US Virgin Islands. Most importantly of all, he put the full moral weight of the presidency behind the struggle for civil rights. Truman’s lead encouraged further black activism, ‘Sympathetic state and city governments By 1952, 11 states and 20 cities had fair employment laws, 19 states had | legislation against some form of racial discrimination, and only five states retained the poll tax a — Chopter 2: Nficon Americans and the Ci Rigs Movemen How and why aid che Supreme Court catalyse change? NAACP and a sympathetic Supreme Court 1945-55 NAACPS legal challenges to segregation, especially in education (see ‘page 56), were vital in eroding Jim Crow laws and inspiring further black Supreme Court rulings 1950 - Jn response to the work of NAACP lawyers against'separate but equal'in the lave cousts, the Supreme Court made three civil rights decisions in 1950 that almost overturned Plessyo, Ferguson (see page 54). It held that ‘© Sogregation on railway dining cars was illegal under the Interstate ‘Commerce Act (Henderson v. US), @ Ablack student could not be physically separated from white students in the University of Oklahoma (McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents) @ A separate black Texan law school was not equal to the University of Texas Law School to which the black petitioner had therefore to be admitted (Sweatt 2. Painter), Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Kansas was one of 17 states that had legally segregated schools. Oliver Brown, a Church minister in Topeka, Kansas, could not send his daughter to a whites-only school five blocks away. In order to get to the all-black school 20 blocks away, she had to walk across railroad tracks. He decided to challenge the segregated school system. The NAACP supported Brown's litigation, believing there was a good chance of success as Kansas was not a Southern stat. Thurgood Marshall argued before the Supreme Court that segregation was against the Mdth Amendment. In Brown v, The Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (1954) Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Supreme Court adjudged that even if facilities were equal (they never were), separate education was psychologically harmful to black children Results and significance of Brown The Brown ruling was highly significant: ‘© A great triumph for the NAACP's long legal campaign against segregated education, Brown seemed to remove all constitutional sanctions for racial segregation by overturning Plessy v, Ferguson. «@ The victory was not total: the Supreme Court gave no date by which desegregation had to be achieved and said nothing about de facto segregation. © The NAACP returned to the Supreme Court and obtained the Brown II (1955) ruling that integration be accomplished’with all deliberate speed’, * but there was still no date for compliance. Warren believed that schools and administrators needed time to adjust. The white reaction suggests that he was rightWhat can you infer from Source 8 about the ‘educational opportunites for Black chidren in Mississippi in 19502 Qe KEY TERM ku Klux Klan Violent, white supremacist ‘orgarization, SOURCE B Williams school in Ruleville, Sunflower County, Mississippi, in 195 ‘separate’ but clearly not ‘equal. ‘© White Citizens Councils were quickly formed throughout the South to defend segregation. By 1956, they boasted around a quarter of a million members. The Councils challenged desegregation plans in the law courts and Southern politicians, all of whom were white, were supportive. The Ku Klux Klan was revitalized once more. ‘© Acceptance of the Broom ruling varied. In the peripheral and urban South desegregation was introduced quite quickly: 70 per cent of school districts in Washington, DC and in the border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia desegregated schools within a year. However, in the Deep South, in Georgia, South Carolina, ‘Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, schools remained segregated. Some school boards maintained white-only schools by manipulating entry iteria, From 1956 to 1959, there was a’massive resistance’ campaign in Virginia: whites closed some schools rather than desegregate. Virginia labour unions financed segregated schools when the public schools were closed. ‘© Brown inspired further activism. Rosa Parks recalled, You can't imagine the rejoicing among black people, and some white people. Chapter 2: Aftican Americar and the Chil Rights Movement Emmett Till Either unsure or defiant of Souther conventions, he wolE-whistled at a ‘white woman, Several days later, his mutilated body was dragged out of a Mississippi river. For the fist time white men were charged with murdering, ablack male in Mississippi. Their defence argued that Til was really alive and well in Chicago and that this was all an NAACP plot! After the all-white jury's verdict was ‘not guilty’ journalist William Bradford Huie paid the Killers of Emmett Til to describe how and why they murdered him), more black people became civil rights activists ‘An extract from an article in Look magazine by journalist William Bradford Huie, published in 1956. He paid Emmett Till’s killers to describe how and why they murdered him. Quoted at [Link]/ wgbh/amexitillsfeature/sf_look_confession.htm! ‘Milam: ‘Well, what else could we do? He was hopeless. 'm no bully: I never hurt « nigger in my life. like niggers in their place ~ [know how to work ‘em. But I just decced it was time a few people got put on notice. As fong as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place, Niggers ain't gorina vote where I lve. If they did, they'd control the government. They ain’t gonna go to school with my kids. And when a rigger gets close to mentioning sex with a white woman, he's tired o' livin’. Tra likely to kill him, Me and my folks fought for this country, and toe got some rights. I stood there in that shed and listened to that nigger throw that poison at me, and Tjust made up my mind, Chicago boy; I said, ‘Tm tired of ‘em sending your kind down hereto str up trouble. Goddam you, Tim going fo make an example of you — just so everybody cars know how ‘me and my folks stand. SOURCE D ‘The coffin of Emmete Till. ir] Judging rom Source C, what motivated the murder of Emmett Til? Look at Source D. Why do you suppose Emmett i's mother wanted an open coffin funeral service?Why was the ‘Montgomery bus boycott important? rey TERM Mobilization Being inspirediroused into activism. —+ The Montgomery bus boycott 1956 Many see the Montgomery bus boycott as the real start of the Civil Rights Movement. ‘The arrest of Rosa Parks In December 1955, Mrs Rosa Parks returned home by bus after a hard day’s ‘work as a seamstress in a department store in Montgomery, Alabama. The bus soon filled up. A white man was left standing. The bus driver ordered four black passengers to move, Mrs Parks refused. She was arrested and, charged with a violation of the Montgomery city bus segregation ordinance that forbade black passengers sitting parallel with whites. Rosa Parks and the NAACP Many writers portray 42. year-old Rosa Parks as a tired old lady who had been exhausted by the day at work and could not take any more, but her defiance was premeditated. She had joined the NAACP in 1943 and became Montgomery branch secretary, working very closely with the branch leader ED. Nixon, a raltoad porter inspired by and close to A. Philip Randolph (see page 55). The branch had been looking to challenge Montgomery's bus segregation laws. They had contemplated using Claudette Colvin, arrested in March 1955 for refusing to give up a seat to a white passenger, but Colvin ‘was a pregnant, unmarried teenager accused of assault. As Parks said, the white press would have depicted her asa bad gir!’.As the challenge would cost the NAACP half a million dollars, Nixon decided that ‘respectable’ Rosa Patks was a safer test case. The mobilization of Montgomery's black community ‘Weeks before the Rosa Parks incident, a black mother had boarded a Montgomery bus, two babies in her arms. She placed the babies on the front ‘white’ seats in order to free her hands to pay her fare. The driver yelled, Take the black dirty brats off the seats, then hit the accelerator. The babies fell into the aisle, Many of the Montgomery black community had had enough. ‘After Rosa Parks’ arrest, the NAACP and the black teachers and students of, Alabama State College mobilized for a bus boycott in protest. Students copied and distributed propaganda leaflets to elicit total support from the black community. Believing that Church involvement would increase ‘working-class black participation and decrease the possiblity of disorder, NAACP worked with local Church leaders, especially Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The 26-year old Baptist minister had already rejected an offer to lead the local NAACP branch, but he let his church be used as a meeting place to plan the boycott. The church would provide organization, location, inspiration and some financial aid. The boycott Boycotts hit white pockets and were a traditional and effective mass weapon Black passengers boycotted streetcars throughout the South between 1900 Chopter 2: Afican Aumericons and the Chil Rigs Movernent and 1906 and used their economic power (most bus passengers were black) to gain bus seating on a first-come, first-served basis in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1953. These Baton Rouge tactics were now adopted in ‘Montgomery. Montgomery's black community successfully boycotted buses on the day of Rosa Parks’ trial, demanding first-come, first-served, courteous iivers and the employment of black drivers. No one as yet demanded an end (o segregation on the buses. When the city commissioners rejected the proposed changes, the one-day boycott became a year-long one. The Choice of Leader: Martin Luther King Jr The community agreed that King would be a good leader of the boycott Some historians say he was a compromise candidate, others that there was xo better alternative: the national NAACP did not want to get involved and also lacked the influence of the Church, while Alabama State College employees risked dismissal. King therefore headed the new umbrella organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Black unanimity A successful long-term boycott required unanimity and sacrifice among Mentgomery’s 50,000 black population. For the most part, it was achieved. none oceasion during the boycott, an Aftican American used the bus. AS he got off, an elderly black woman with a stick raced toward the bus. You dow’ have to rush, auntie’, said the white driver.‘Tl wait for you. ‘In the first place, I ain’t your auntie’, she said, ‘In the second place, I ain't rushing to get on your bus. I'm jus’ trying to catch up with that [man] who just got off, so I canhit him with this here stick.’ SOURCE E ‘An extract from an interview with Rosa Parks ir [Link]/rosa/[Link]#brave (Q] What was it like walking all those miles when the bus boycott was going on? (A]We were fortunate enough to have a carpool organized to pick people up and ive them rides. Of course, many people walked and sometimes I did too. Iwas illing to walk rather than go back tothe buses under those unfair conditions, 1997 on hetpu//teacher. Black vs white The Montgomery White Citizens Council organized the opposition. Its membership doubled from 6000 in February 1956 to 12,000 by March. The council was dominated by leading city officials who ordered harassment of blacks, In January 1956, King was arrested for the frst time for driving at mph (48 kriv/h) in a.25 mph (40 km/h) zone, His house was bombed. His family urged him to quit, He said later he was tempted but fet called by God to continue. King’s speeches were inspirational and even appealed to some whites (see Source F, page 64). He stressed this was’non-violent protest, but it was not passive resistance, it was’active non-violent resistance to evil’ @> Key TERM First-come, first-served Southern buses were divided into black and white sections Sometimes black people ‘would be standing while the white section was empty They therefore sought seating ona first-come, first-served basis, Passive resistance Non-violent refusal to comply with a particular policy Using Source E ane your ‘own knowledge, suggest reasons why the black community in Montgomery was able to sustain the bus bboycost for one year.What appeal might Source F have to white people in 19567 sOURCK ‘An extract from a Martin Luther King Jr speech to the MIA, December 1955, quoted in The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr, Il, edited by Clayborne Carson, published by University of California Press, Berkeley, USA, 1997, page 73. Ifwe are wrong, the Supreme Court ofthis nation is wrong. Ifwe are wrong, the Constitution of the United State is woromg,Ifwe are wrong Jesus of Nazareth twas merely a. dreamer ‘When Montgomery whites used the state of Alabama's law against boycotts against the black community, their mass indictments attracted national media coverage, inspiting Northerners to make collections for the MIA. King was the first boycott leader to be tried. Found guilty, he chose a fine rather than 368 days in jai. ‘This white hostility made the MIA up the stakes. After litigation partly funded by the NAACP. a federal district court said segregation on buses was ‘unconstitutional, citing Brown, Montgomery city commissioners appealed to the Supreme Court but it backed the federal district court in Browder v. Gayle (1956). When desegregated buses began operating, (December 1956), the boycott was called off Results and significance of the Montgomery bus boycott © Rosa Parks is the best remembered female participant in the Civil Rights Movement, but it could be argued that her defiance and the boycott were very much a product of the whole black community of Montgomery. As she sai, Every day in the early 1950s we were looking for ways to challenge Jim Crow laws.’ @ The boycott did not just come out of the blue: a boycott had long been discussed and planned by the Montgomery NAACP and the Women’s Political Council at Alabama State College. Bus boycotts were not new. ‘Montgomery blacks used tacties used at Baton Rouge in 1953. However, there had never been a boycott as long, well organized, well supported and well publicized as the Montgomery one. © Itdemonstrated the power of a whole black community using direct but non-violent action. Montgomery whites could not believe local blacks had started and sustained the movement:‘We know the niggers are not that smart’. ‘Our leaders’, responded Claudette Colvin, ‘is just we ourselves’ This was what was new. Here was an alternative to NAACP litigation tactic. © It demonstrated the importance of the Churches in the fight for equality. © It showed the importance and potential of black economic power. Black shoppers could not get downtown without the buses, so businesses lost $1 million. White businessmen began to work against segregation, @ It demonstrated how white extremism frequently helped to increase black unity and determination, CChopter 2: Afican Americans and the Cl Rights Movement It revealed the hatred and determined racism of many white Southerners, but also the idealism of a handful of Southern whites like Reverend Robert Graetz, minister at a black Lutheran church in Montgomery, who supported the boycott, His house was bombed. It brought King, with all his inspirational rhetorical gifts to the forefront of the movement, In 1957 he helped to establish a new organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (see pages 72-3).This proved particularly important as the NAACP had been persecuted in the ~ Deep South since Brown, although it also aroused jealousy among other black leaders and organizations. King claimed the Montgomery bus boycott signalled the emergence of ‘the New Negro’, although Roy Wilkins bitterly disagreed (see Source G, page 66). It showed the continuing effectiveness of the NAACP strategy of working through the law courts (it took the Brotuder decision to finally get the buses desegregated) and the importance of dedicated individuals such as Rosa Parks. In Montgomery itself, the boycott was a limited victory. Apart from the buses, the ity remained segregated. Some whites retaliated violently, but when the Ku Klux Klan responded to Browder v. Gayle by sending 40 carloads of robed and hooded members through Montgomery's black community, the residents did not retreat behind closed doors as usual, but came out and waved at the motorcade, showing how black morale had been boosted, It inspired similar successful bus boycotts in 20 Southern cities, individuals such as Melba Patillo (ee page 68), more Northern white support and ‘more co-operation between Northern and Souther blacks. Martin Luther King Jr and controversy in 1955 As soon as he gained fame during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King became involved in great controversies. First, a friend noted that King’s colleagues felt that he was taking too many bows and enjoying them ... he tons forgetting that victory .. had been the result of collective thought and collective action. King felt the need to reassure people: {is hppoed to be here. MLL King hd newer ben bor ths ovenet | ‘would have taken place .. there comes a time when time itself is ready for change. That ime has come in Montgomery, and Thad nothing to do with it One local activist agreed: it was’a protest of the people... not a one-man. show... the leaders couldnt stop it if they wanted to. | Second, when King claimed the boycott signalled the emergence of ‘the new ‘Negro’, NAACP leader Roy Wilkins disagreed (sce Source G, page66).source & NAACP leader Roy Wilkins, talking in 1956 about the ‘New Negro’, ‘quoted in Sweet Land of Liberty by Robert Cook, published by Longman, Harlow, UK, 1998, page 39. The Negro of 1956 who stands on his oun two feet is nota new Negro; he isthe ‘grandson or the great grandson ofthe men who hated slavery. By his own hands, through his oun struggles, in his own organized groups ~ of churches, fraternal societies, the NAACP and others ~ he has fought his toay tothe place where he now stands Study the content of Source G and give reasons that help to explain Wikis Viewpoint, Do you think there was a ‘New Negro’? ‘Attacks on back soldiors NAROP and a sympathetic p> Rulings — 1950 ‘Supreme Court + OS ate oor Sympathetic state ‘and cy governments > wor, oe J President Truman << White Montgomery a mistreatment, reistance .[Link] in Montgomery Montgomery churches Womeris Political Rosa Parks Council in Montgomery Made King famous New organization - SCLC ese caned here stats \ Some hl Southern whites Be ge hele ack acm resco eran tea <¢— “"coonamie poner { Be Buses desegregated Shit fom NAACP ilgation facie active —— ?ron-volent resistance but Montgomery sil segregated in ther ways Black community empowered Inspired other Southerners ‘and Nortnern donations Showed importance ‘of NAAGP and chureh SUMMARY DIAGRAM Short-term causes ofthe Civ Rights Movement 1945-55 Chapter 2: Afica e Key debate > Key question: When did the Civil Rights Movement begin? imercans an the Chil Rights Meverent Was the Second World War a great turning point? Historians disagree over the extent and impact of black militancy during the_ Second World War. In the 1970s, historian Harvard Sitkoff contended that new black militancy during the war (see page 56) Ied to violence in 47 cities in 1943, but in 1997, he emphasized that patriotism led blacks to decrease the direct action that had grown up in the 1930s. While Sitkoff later saw no cirect ling of continuity between wartime civil rights activism and 1960s! activism, historian Mark Newman (2004) disagreed, pointing out that the foundations for the 1960s were laid during the Second World Wat. Historian Dr Stephen Tuck (2001) described the Second World War as‘absolutely key’in transforming the black situation (see pages 57-8). Did the Civil Rights Movement begin before 1955? After Martin Luther King J’s death in 1968, most historians took the classic phase of civil rights activity to be the years of King’s ascendancy, from 1955 to 1965. However, subsequent studies of local community action emphasized that the Civil Rights Movement had its origins in the 1930s and 1940s, owing much to the impact of the New Deal, the Second World War and the continuing work of NAACP. Historian Adam Fairclough’s study of Louisiana (1995) emphasized the importance of pre-King labour unions, schools, teachers, businessmen and organizations such as NAACP. Studies of individual states by historians such as John Kirk (Arkansas, 1996) and John Dittmer (Mississippi, 1994) confitmed that at the very least there was a ‘civil rights struggle’if not civil rights movement long before 1955. However, Fairclough admitted the ‘earlier challenges did not seem to have the force of post-1955 protests’: the“undercurrent of discontent’ was unstructured and ineffective; the countless instances of individual defiance did not add up to collective resistance’. For example, when A. Philip Randolph called for a one-day boycott of segregated transport in 1943, Southern blacks ignored him, E.D. Nixon's biographer, John White, confirmed that the’classic’period had its roots in preceding decades, Probably the main, if subsequently unheralded, force behind the Montgomery bus boycott, Nixon was inspired by and participated in Randolph’s black labour movement in the 1920s and NAACP activities in the 1930s and 1940s. Nixon's actions in 1955-6 clearly did not‘come out of the blue’. While many historians date the start of the Civil Rights Movement to the 1950s, they disagree over the crucial events. Sociologist Aldon Morris (1984) dated it to the Baton Rouge bus boycott (1953). Harvard Sitkoff (1993) sawGiven tat history a continuum, Biever posible to determine Geely wena process began? ison, Loge, Language.) ‘What were the causes —> NAACP and and consequences of the Little Rock Crisis? Qe KEY TERM National Guard State- based US armed forces the Browon decision (1954) as the start of the struggle, but law Professor Michael Klarman (1992) concluded that Brown ‘was a relatively unimportant ‘motivating factor for the Civil Rights Movement’, and that its real significance was to generate a vicious white backlash, Historian David Garrow (1994) disagreed, saying that Brown inspired the Montgomery bus boycott. Studies of Georgia and Louisiana suggest Brown did not generate civil rights activism immediately, although many activists attested its inspirational importance. While Garrow thought the Montgomery bus boycott signalled the start of the Civil Rights Movement, historian Mark Newman (2004) said it‘did not spark a mass movement’, and cited SCLC’s early ineffectiveness as proof. Charles Payne (1998) argued that the sit-ins (see pages 73~4)’were a definitive break with the past, the beginning of a period of sustained mass activism’. William Chafe (1980) saw the Greensboro sit-ins as spontaneous, owing little to existing civil rights organizations, and as a great tuning point, while Morris (1984) linked them to a pre-existing network of churches, colleges and civil rights groups. The end of segregation in the South 1955-65 P Key question: How and why was de jure segregation ended? De jure segregation in the South was ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Organizations such as NAACP and. individuals such as Mastin Luther King Jr played a vital part in this, as did the federal government and changing white opinion. ittle Rock 1957 Causes of the crisis ‘The city of Little Rock planned full compliance with Brown by 1963. Central High School was to be the first integrated school and nine black students reported there in September 1957. Struggling to get re-elected, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus decided to exploit white racism to ensure victory. He declared it his duty to prevent the disorder that would arise from integration and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround the school and to keep black students out. Melba Pattillo ‘One of the nine students, Melba Pattillo, wrote about her experiences years later. She had volunteered to be a guinea-pig when asked by the NAACP and church leaders. Her father was against it, saying it endangered her and his job. A white man violently assaulted her crying, ‘ll show you niggers the SOURCE H Amap showing racial tensions in the USA. ‘OThe cores onthe East CANADA, What can you infer from Source H about the location (of peaceful Airican American . acivism and African American rioting in the [960s? WxguinictonSupreme Court cannot run my life’ Others cried’Two, four, six eight, we ain't gonna integrate’ Keep away from our school’, ‘Go back to the jungle’Lynch the niggers’. Pattillo was inspired by the’self-assured air‘of Thurgood Marshall, and had the backing of her mother and grandmother, many blacks and a fev whites. A white boy, whom she trusted despite the warnings of her family, befriended her at school, where she was pushed down the stairs and had burning paper and chemicals thrown at her. Subsequently though, she wondered’ what possessed my parents and the adults of the NAACP to allow us to go to schoo! in the face of such violence’. Eisenhower’s intervention President Eisenhower (1953-61) said before the crisis that he could never envisage sending in federal troops to enforce the federal court ruling, which doubtless encouraged Faubus. Eisenhower did not believe in federal government activism, but was forced to intervene. Little Rock’s mayor told him the mob was out of hand and begged him to act, and the Constitution and federal law seemed threatened. Eisenhower said he had an‘inescapable’ responsibility for enforcing the law against’ disorderly mobs’ and‘demagogic extremists’, and that Soviet propaganda about Little Rock damaged the ‘USA's international prestige and influence’. So, to Southern cries of invasion’, black children. isenhower sent in troops to protect the Results and significance of Little Rock ¢ Little Rock showed that Supreme Court rulings like Brown met tremendous grassroots resistance in practice. Although the NAACP tried to push desegregation along faster at Little Rock, there was still no dramatic immediate improvement. Faubus got re-elected four times. © Neither local nor national authorities were keen to enforce Brow, Faubus did what Eisenhower had always feared and closed the schools rather than integrate. Eisenhower did not respond. It was not until 1960 that Central High School was integrated. Little Rock's schools were only fully integrated in 1972. However, some cities, such as Atlanta, desegregated to avoid Little Rock-style violence and publicity. ‘© The image of black children being harassed and spat at by aggressive white adults in Little Rock (see Source I) influenced moderate white opinion throughout the USA. On-site television reporting was pioneered at Little Rock, which drew national television crews, The Supreme Court ploughed ahead. In Cooper v, Aaron (1958) it said any law that sought to keep public schools segregated was unconstitutional Finally, and perhaps most significantly, African Americans realized that they needed to do more than rely on court decisions. They needed to create a crisis that would demand federal intervention. ui Elizabeth Eckford, one ofthe ‘Little Rock nine’ trying to enter Central School in Little Rock, Arkansas source President Eisenhower's defence of Southerners to Chet Justice Earl Warren, quoted in Eisenhower by Stephen Ambrose, published by Simon & Schuster, London, UK, 2003, page 380. All they are concerned about is to see that those sweet little girls are not required to sit in schools alongside some big overgrowon Negroes. Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Acts Eisenhower told his speechwriter that although he might call for equality, that did not mean that blacks and whites had’to mingle socially or that a Negro could court my daughter’. He explained his unease about Brown by referring to the’great emotional strains’ and the likely violence against blacks that would arise from the desegregation of schools, As a Republican, he was ideologically averse to large-scale federal government intervention in any great issue, which was why he made no comment on the fate of Emmett Til or the Montgomery bus boycott, and why he was reluctant to use federal power to enforce Brown until Little Rock forced his hand. Nevertheless, he called for an end to racial discrimination, worked against it in federal ‘employment and hiring, and was behind the first Civil Rights Acts since the Civil War era, ‘The 1957 Civil Rights Act Hoping to win black votes in the 1956 elections, the Eisenhower ~ administration drew up a civil rights bill that aimed to ensure all citizens could exercise the right to vote (only 20 per cent of Southern blacks were What can you infer from Source | about race reations in ile Rock? Read Source J. Confusingly, some books quate Esenhower assaying ‘bucks rather than ‘Negroes.. Why do other books use ‘Negroes? If Eisenhower actualy said ‘bucks’ should tht be reprinted in books such as ths one? ‘<— Why were the acts passed and how Important were they?registered to vote). In his State of the Union address in January 1957, Eisenhower praised the bil, expressing’shock’ that only 7000 of Mississippi's 900,000 blacks were allowed to vote, and that registrars were setting impossible questions (such as‘How many bubbles are there in a bar of soap) for those trying to register. Democratic senators worked to weaken the bill, believing it would damage national and party unity. They claimed it sought to use federal power'to force 1 co-mingling of white and Negro children’. Eisenhower then cravenly claimed he did not really know what was in the bill (there were certain SESREVETERD) phases I did not completely understand’) and did not fight to keep it intact. Filibuster Use cftacicto Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina filibustered for 24 hours to try deky congressional vtirgon to kill the bill It passed as a much-weakened act that did little to help blacks abil exercise the vote (any public official indicted for obstructing a black voter Justice Department ‘would be tried by an all-white jury). However, it established a Civil Rights Branch of the federal Division in the Justice Department to prosecute violations of civil rights goverment in Washington, and a federal Civil Rights Commission to monitor race relations. As the first OC with special responsibility such act since Reconstruction, it pleased some black leaders. Others felt it forenforcingthe lav and was a nauseating sham, administering justice. The 1960 Civil Rights Act In late 1958, Eisenhower introduced another bill because he was concerned. about a recent spate of bombings of black schools and churches. While Eisenhower considered the bill to be moderate, Southern Democrats again diluted its provisions. It finally became law because both parties sought black votes in the presidential election year. The act made it a federal crime to obstruct court-ordered school desegregation and established penalties for obstructing black voting, These Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 added few black voters to the electoral rolls (70 per cent of Southern blacks remained disenfranchised in 1960), but constituted an acknowledgement of federal responsibilities and encouraged civil rights activists to work for more legislation. What tactics did black —> Organizations organizations use, and eteas the NAACP had focused on litigation, organizations established eres Whereas the NAACP had focused on litigation, organizati after the Montgomery bus boycott emphasized different tactics. SCLC 1957-60 ‘The SCLC was established because King felt that a specifically Southern and Christian organization was needed at a time when the NAACP, a national ‘organization, was persecuted in the South because of Brown, and CORE lacked dynamism. King hoped that a Church-based organization would be less likely to be persecuted. He also felt that new tactics were needed, Although the NAACP legal challenges had demolished’ separate but equal’ in the law courts, de jure segregation continued in the South. CORE had attempted direct non-violent action to effect change in the past (see (Chapter 2: Afcon Americans athe Cui Rights Mevemen page 56), but had failed to mobilize large numbers of people and to make headlines. However, the Montgomery bus boycott had shown that now such tactics could be successful Drawing attention to abuses was King's favourite tactic, and the easiest method was to organize a march, Hlis 1957 march in Washington, DC attracted around 20,000 people, but even King admitted that the SCLC achieved litle else in its first three years of existence. Poorly organized and without a salaried staff or mass support, SCLC’s Crusade for Citizenship, a grassroots campaign designed to encourage blacks to vote, failed. NAACP leader Roy Wilkins disliked King and SCLC (see pages 65-6). Jealousy among black leaders is so thick it can be cut with a knife’, said the African American Pittsburgh Courier. Wilkins was jealous of King and the SCLC, and they disagreed over tactics. Wilkins and the NAACP favoured litigation; King preferred mass action. A new organization, SNC, preferred empowerment of local communities. Sit-ins and the birth of the SNCC 1960 In 1960, four black college students spontaneously ignored a request to leave all-white Woolworth’s cafeteria in Greensboro, North Carolina. Other students took up and retained the seats, day after day, forcing the lunch counter to close. These’sit-ins’across the South were joined by 70,000 students, better educated than their parents and more impatient with the slow progress towards equality. Responsibility for this mass action can be attributed to the original four, or the students who joined them, or the other black protesters who had pioneered the same technique in Chicago in the Second World War and in Oklahoma and Kansas in 1957-8, or the press, ich covered Greensboro extensively. When a Greensboro SCLC member contacted him, King quickly arrived to encourage the students and assure them of full SCLC support, saying, ‘What isnew in your fight is the fact that it was initiated, fed, and sustained by students.‘Atlanta students persuaded King to join them in sit-ins. Although critics such as disgruntled SCLC employee Ella Baker implied that King always had to be in the forefront, King’s leadership was characterized by a willingness to be led by others when their methods were effective. The significance of the sit-ins ‘The sit-ins confirmed that the focus of black activism had switched from legal challenges to direct action. They helped to erode Jim Crow. Loss of business made Woolworth’s desegregate all its lunch counters by the end of 1961 and 150 cities soon desegregated various public places. Black students had been mobilized, although when they set up the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNC, pronounced SNICK), inter-organizational fe increased. SNC accused SCLC of keeping donations intended for NCC, NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall refused to represent’a bunch of crazy colored students’, while King’s public acknowledgement ofWhat can you infer about the sSitins from Source K? SOURCE K | Asit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson, Missisi in May 1963. NAACPISCLC divisions infuriated Roy Wilkins. Blacks desperately needed a single leader who could unite all activists. King never managed to fulfil that role, for which others such as the prickly Wilkins were probably far more to blame than he was. Encouraged by Ella Baker, the students felt their actions had rendered King's cautious programme and’top-down’ leadership obsolete. SNCC worked to empower ordinary African Americans and from 1961 to 1964, mobilized ‘many in places like Danville (Virginia), Lowndes County (Alabama), Albany (Georgia), Pine Bluff (Arkansas) and the Mississippi Delta. CORE and the Freedom Rides 1961 CORE’s ‘Freedom Rides’ electrified the Civil Rights Movement. A small, integrated group (see Source L) travelled the South testing Supreme Court rulings against segregation on interstate transport (Morgan v, Virginia, 1946) and on interstate bus facilities (Boynton v. Virginia, 1960). CORE had used the tactic in 1947 without success, Now CORE’s director James Farmer explained that: We plarined the Freedom Ride with the specific intention of creating a crisis. We ‘were counting on the bigots in the South to do our work for us. We figured that the {government would have to respond if we created a situation that was headline news all over the world, and affected the nation’s image abroad. ‘As expected, racists attacked black passengers. In Alabama, they used clubs and chains and burned the buses. SNCC sent in reinforcement riders. Chapter 2: African mercans ad the Cul Rights Movement wa ‘The Freedom Rides publicized white racism and lawlessness in the South and led Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the Interstate Commerce Commission to try to enforce the Supreme Court rulings on desegregated jntestate travel in November 1967, demonstrating yet again the importance cof exposing Southern white lawlessness and provoking federal intervention. However, black divisfons remained. CORE insisted SCLC announce that CORE had originated the Freedom Ride! [Extracts from transcripts of interviews with Freedom Riders (no date ven), quoted on hetp:/[Link]/cdm/search/collection/freeriders 1. Charles Person, African American Wht can you infer about the Freedom Ridersas.a group and about their motives from grew up in Atlanta ... ata time when America needed scientists Source L cores and my [grades] were good enough to get me accepted at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology], but Georgia Tech was also the number conte engineering school in the South, so applied to Georgia Tech, and of course rejected my application. So I could not understand, here we were competing with the Russians, because the Russians had launched Sputnik, and we say we needed scientists, yet I was being denied an opportunity to go to a school tohich I was eminently qualified to goto, so that gave me the impetus to get involved in all the citil rights activities that were happening on campus .. So this was a great time, the energy on campus with all the kids being invotved in all those kind of activities, it just snowballed. Once I got involved, it was infectious. 2 Sandra Nixon, African American grew up in New Orleans ... was ... in college at Southern University in New Orleans and met some ... members of the Congress on Racial Equality. After listening to them talking about the social injustices that were going om in the city of New Orleans, I decided to become a member of ... CORE. 3, Joan Trumpowver Mulholland, white ‘My [est] Tras born in Washington DC ... My involvement came about from my religious conviction, and the contradiction between life in America with what was being taught in Sunday School. oas at Duke University in Durham [North Carolina, which was the second city to have sit-ins, and the Presbyterian chaplain arranged for the students... to come over and talk with us about what the sit-ins were about and the philosophical and religious underpinnings ... At the end, they inotted us to joon them on sit-ins in the next week or so, and that started a snowball effect 4. Albert Gordon, white: Why some of us have been ready to do things, and others not? In my own past, T ‘was bor in Europe, and I did see the Nazis, and most of my family zoas killed by the Nazis during World War IT in the concentration camp, because Itoas Jewish So those things cam explain in part my social conscience, but by no means all together ... When Isazo the young people first in the frst sit-ins and the courage that they had to have, and then saw a couple of years later the bus in Anniston, cand Jim Peck being so brutally beaten, [thought I just had to do something, and simply volunteered and proceeded.The Albany Movement 1961-2 In late 1961, SNCC organized black students from Albany State College, Georgia, in sit-ins in Albany's bus station, which had ignored the Interstate Commerce Commission's order to desegregate. Hundreds were arrested. White businesses were boycotted but the city authorities still refused to desegregate, despite pressure from Attorney General Kennedy, Older leaders of the’Albany Movement invited King to join them, which angered SNCC leaders who stressed that the Albany Movement was“by and for local Negroes’. King led a march and came to a promising agreement with the city authorities, but after he left, the authorities reneged on the agreement. How and why had the Albany Movement failed? The Albany Movement petered out in a series of decreasingly supported protests. King considered Albany a major defeat: Although the interstate terminal facilities were desegregated, and more black voters were allowed to register, the city closed the parks, sold the swimming pool, integrated the library only after removing all the seats, and refused to desegregate the schools, The Albany Movement had failed to generate helpful publicity (when blacks became violent, the local police chief was careful not to respond in kind). Black divisions had been damaging: some were paid informants of the white city leadership, local black leaders resented outsiders’, and the NAACP, SNC and SCLC failed to co-operate, On the other hand, the entire black community of Albany had been mobilized and local leaders claimed that fear of white power had greatly decreased. SNC demonstrated that its‘jail not bail’ strategy could fill the jails with protesters and bring the courts and jails to a standstill. King learned that SCLC intervention in an area without a strong SCLC presence was inadvisable and that it was probably more effective to focus on one particular aspect of segregation. He said that as blacks had litle political power, it was unwise to concentrate on talks with the white authorities; it made more sense to boycott white businesses so businessmen would advocate negotiations. All these lessons suggested tactics for Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham, April to May 1963 In 1963, King concentrated on segregation and unequal opportunities in Birmingham, Alabama. King chose Birmingham for several reasons: ¢ Faced with competing civil rights organizations and the increasing attractiveness of black nationalism (see Chapter 3), the SCLC had to demonstrate that it could be dynamic and successful The SNCC and NAACP were relatively inactive in Birmingham, where the local black leader was affiliated to the SCLC and King’s own brother was a pastor. CChopter 2: Afcon Americans and the Chi Rights Mavement ‘© White divisions looked promising, While white businessman felt racism held the city back, white extremists had recently castrated a Negro, prohibited the sale of a book that featured black and white rabbits, and campaigned to stop’Negro music’ being played on white radio stations. © King described Birmingham as’by far the USA‘s’worst big city’for racism. It was likely to produce the kind of violent white opposition that won, national sympathy. Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner‘Bull’ Connor was a hot-tempered, determined segregationist who had ensured- that Freedom Riders under attack from a racist Birmingham mob were unprotected by his police, to whom he gave the day off for Mother’s Day. Bull and Birmingham would show the media segregation at its worst.’To cure injustices, said King,'you must expose them before the light of human conscience and the bar of public opinion’ King was impatient with the Kennedy administration's inactivty:’The key to everything is federal commitment’, he said. He hoped Connor would elicit a response from Kennedy. Events in Birmingham In Birmingham, King was leading rather than led, He made miscalculations. ‘The SCLC failed to recruit enough local demonstrators, because many felt that the recent electoral defeat and imminent retirement of Connor made action unnecessary. King admitted that there was ‘tremendous resistance’ in the black community to his planned demonstrations. The SCLC had to use demonstrators in crowded areas to give the impression of mass action and to encourage onlookers to participate. Then, as expected, Connor attracted national attention. His police and their dogs tured on black demonstrators. King defied an injunction and marched, knowing his arrest would gain national attention and pethaps inspire others. Kept in solitary confinement and nat allowed private meetings with his lawyer, he wrote the inspirational'Letter from Birmingham Jail’ in which he eloquently defended direct action. His wife Coretta’s phone call to President Kennedy obtained his release, It remained difficult to mobilize sufficient demonstrators.’You know, we've got to get something going’, said King.’The press is leaving.’ Despite considerable local opposition and King’s doubts about the morality of the policy (the black nationalist Malcolm X said, ‘Real men don't put their children on the firing line), the SCLC enlisted black school children, some as young as six. This proved successful, Soon, 500 young marchers were in custody and Birmingham was creating headlines again. Connors high- pressure water hoses tore clothes off students’ backs and SCLC succeeded in its aim of ‘filling the jails’. A leading SCLC official'thanked’ Bull Connor for his violent response, without which there would have been no publicity ‘An agreement was teached to improve the situation of Birmingham blacks, but the Klan tried to sabotage it, bombing King’s brother's house and King’s motel room. Blacks began to riot, a policeman was stabbed, andBirmingham degenerated into chaos, which President Kennedy sald was ‘damaging the reputation’ of Birmingham and the USA. Robert Kennedy feared this could trigger off national violence, and urged his brother to protect the Birmingham agreement‘ King loses, worse leaders ate going to take his place,’ Results and significance of Birmingham Birmingham was the first time King really led the movement. He had correctly assessed how Connor would react and how the media would depict his reactions. There never was any more skilful manipulation of the news media than there was in Birmingham, said a leading SCLC staffer. King had shown that he could lead from the front and force desegregation, if through rather artificially engineered violence. He recognized that non-violent demonstrations’ make people inflict violence on you, so you precipitate violence’. However, he excused it We are merely bringing to the surface the tension that has always been at the heart of the problem.’ Critics accused : hhim of hypocrisy. One saicFe marches for peace on one day, and then the very next day threatens actions we think are coldly calculated to bring violent Fesponses from otherwise peaceful neighborhoods.’ While little changed in Birmingham itself, SCLC’s campaign immediately inspired protests throughout the South and showed the USA and the world Southern segregation at its worst. The Kennedy administration admitted that Birmingham was crucial in persuading President Kennedy to push the bill that eventually became the 1964 Civil Rights Act.“We are on the threshold of a significant breakthrough’, said King, ‘and the greatest weapon is the mass demonstration’ The March on Washington, August 1963 Marches were a favourite tactic of civil rights activists, and the nation’s capital Was a favourite location. Masterminded by A. Philip Randolph, the March on Washington of August 1963 aimed to encourage passage ofthe civil rights bill and executive action to increase black employment. Initially, NAACP leader Roy Wilkins was not supportive, which worried King, who felt the march would maintain black morale and advertise the effectiveness of non-violent protest. He feared that non-violence was decreasingly popular among blacks, many of whom were embittered by the slow pace of change. The march proved a great success. The predominantly middle-class crowd was around a quarter of a million, roughly 25 per cent of whom were white. King’s memorable speech (see Source M) made a powerful appeal to white USA, with its references to the Declaration of Independence and the Bible, and emphasis on the Old Testament God who freed his enslaved people. ‘This was King the leader at his best, involved in an action the morality of which could not be doubted, and the effectiveness of which he immeasurably increased by helping to persuade Wilkins to patticipate and by making a superb speech. (Chopter 2: Afican Americans and the Cl Rights Movement | An extract from Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream’ speech, 1963, {quated on [Link] doaimentsentry/doc_august_28_1963_i_have_a_dream/ I hiwe a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, have a dream that one-day this nation will rise up and lve out the true meaning of ts creat ~ we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal [have a dream that my four litle children will one-day live in a nation where ‘hey will not be judged by the color oftheir skin but by the content of their Jnaracter. Ihave a dream today! Lat freedom ring ... When we allow freedom to ring, when we le it ring from ccery village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to ced up that day when all of God's children ~ black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics ~ wl! be able to join hands and sing in Using the extract in Source M and your own research into the speech, give reasons why this speech has become so the words ofthe old Negro spiritual, Free at las, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free atlas.” The significance of the march ‘The March on Washington was the first time the major civil rights leaders collaborated on a national undertaking (the unity did not last). It impressed television audiences across the world. Historians disagree over the extent to which its emotional impact helped the passage of civil rights legislation: while many contemporaries were thrilled by the march, the New York Times described Congress as unmoved by it, and Malcolm X was unimpressed (see Source N). SOURCE N_ Entracts from Malcolm X on the March on Washington (I. Told to an ‘Amsterdam News reporter, 1963. 2. Speech, 4 December 1963, quoted on hetpil/[Link]/[Link]. 3. From ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published by Penguin, London, UK, 1965, pages 278-81). 1, The Negroes spent a lot of money, had a good time, and enjoyed a real circus cor cartival type atmosphere. 2, Now that the show is over, the black masses are still without land, without Jobs, and without houses. Their Christian churches are still being bombed, their innocent little girls murdered. So what did the March on Washingion ‘accomplish? Nothing. 3. How was a one-day ‘integrated picnic going to counter-influence those representatives of prejudice rooted deep in the psyche of the American white ‘man for 400 years? Read Source N. Why and how fairy did Malcolm X criticize the March on Washington?@rr key TERM Freedom Summer SNCC voter registration campaign in Mississippi in 1964. National Convention Before the presidential election, the Republicans and Democrats hold conferences in which each party selects or confirms its candidate forthe presidency SNCC and Mississippi The SNCC’s finest hour was the Black Freedom Movement in Mississippi, ‘where in 1960, only 5.2 per cent of black aclults could vote (the Southern average was over 30 per cent). White voter registrars set impossible questions and opened offices at inconvenient hours to stop black voter registration. Although half of Mississippians were black, there had been no elected black official since 1877. With black people politically powerless, Mississippi whites spent three times more on white students and 70 per cent of Mississippi's black population were illiterate, With only six black doctors in Mississippi, black babies were twice as likely to die as white babies, Half a million black Mississippians had migrated north to escape to a better life. King’s close associate Andrew Young confessed that the SCLC’knew better than to try to take on Mississippi’. In 1961, NAACP activists, increasingly victimized, called for help from the SNC, knowing that SNCC’s white volunteers would attract media attention to Mississippi’ racist horrors. SNCC activities and achievements in Mississippi Unprotected by the federal government and in fear of white extremists, SNCC worked at the local community level, establishing Freedom Schools to educate would-be voters and get them registered. It was the local, poorer black people such as sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer, not the black middle class, who responded when the SNCC organized the’Freedom Vote’ (a mock election for disenfranchised blacks) in 1963, and promoted another voter registration drive (the Mississippi Summer Project, or Freedom Summer), in 1964, Predominantly white Northern volunteers poured into Mississippi to help, All of the USA took notice of Mississippi Freedom Summer’ after three young activists (two were white) were murdered by segregationists SNCC also helped to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City in 1964, The MFDP delegates pointed out that while half of Mississippi's population was black, the Mississippi delegation for the Democratic Party was ‘liy-white’. Although the MFDP delegation was not welcomed in Atlantic City, MFDP successfully politicized many poor black Mississippians (especially women), developed new grassroots leaders, and brought black Mississippi suffering to national attention. Disillusioned with the lack of federal protection, the SNC became far more militant, which contributed to the disintegration of the civil rights coalition. The | 964 Civil Rights Act During 1963, the Kennedy administration finally introduced a civil rights bill to Congress, where it remained stuck when Kennedy was assassinated and Vice President Lyndon Johnson became president, Johnson's motivation Johnson was determined to get Kennedy's civil rights bill through Congress. He envisioned a’Great Society for America, with’an end to poverty and CChopter 2: Aficon Americans and the Cv Rights Movement i racial injustice’. He believed that discrimination was morally wrong, and described how, when his black cook drove to Texas, she could not use the whites-only facilites in a petrol station: When they had to goto the bathroom, they would ... pull off ona side road, and Zephyr Wright, the cook of the vice-president ofthe United Stats, would squat in the road to pee. That's wrong. And there ought fo be something to change that. Johnson remained convinced that reform would help the economic, political _ and spititual reintegration of the South within the nation. He felt duty- bound to see the late president's bill through, his sense of obligation increased by the tragic circumstances of Kennedy's death. When Johnson told Roy Wilkins he was‘free atlas’ from his Texas constituency and as president could help blacks, Wilkins considered him’absolutely sincere’ How and why the bill passed ‘The evil rights bill faced considerable opposition in Congress, including the longest filbuster in Senate history, but finally became an act because: «Black activists had drawn the attention of the nation and its legislators to injustices.’The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro’, said Johnson, ¢ NAACP, trade unionists and the Churches had lobbied Congress incessantly Kennedy had won over the Republican minority leader Everett Dirksen before his death, @ The nation was saddened by Kennedy's death. Passing his bill seemed an appropriate tribute. Johnson made emotive appeals to Kennedy’s memory and to national traditions and ideals. @ Important congressional leaders such as Hubert Humphrey worked hard on the bill. ‘@ AJohnson aide gave the credit for the passage of the bill to the president himself, who devoted a staggering amount of his time, energy and political capital to breaking the Senate filibuster and ensuring the passage of the act. @ Johnson won over a few Southerners by appealing to their self-interest, as when he emphasized how the bill would help to get blacks and Hispanics working (see pages 129-30) © The bill had increasing national support: by January 1964, 68 per cent of US citizens favoured it. After Birmingham, national religious organizations increasingly supported the measure. Congress could not afford to ignore this marked swing in public opinion. (@ KEY TERM. the party wit fewer members in Congress. Hispanics Spanish-speaking People in the USA, usualy of Latin American origin. The significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ‘The 1964 Civil Rights Act gave the federal government the legal tools to end de jure segregation in the South, prohibited discrimination in public places, furthered school desegregation and established an Equal Employment Commission,