Yr 12 Modern

History Change in the Modern World: US

Civil Rights: 1945 - 1968
Set 4: 1961 -1963
 Mug shots of Freedom Riders arrested on May 24, 1961, in
Jackson, Mississippi, after arriving from Montgomery, Alabama.
They were arrested after going into a whites-only waiting room
and refusing to move on when asked to do so by police.

Courtesy Mississippi Department of

Archives and History
Contents

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam 5

The Freedom Rides 7

First Freedom Ride: The Journey 9

Significance of the Freedom Rides. 15

The Road to Washington 17

The Birmingham Campaign 20

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 26

President John F Kennedy and civil rights 30

Bibliography 34

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Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam
In this set we will focus on the Freedom Rides, Birmingham, the
March on Washington and President Kennedy’s civil rights record.
But first we will look at the growing influence of the Nation of Islam
and at its leader Malcolm X.

Nation of Islam (NOI)

Nation of Islam is a religious black nationalist group founded in
Detroit Michigan in 1930. Followers of NOI are also known as Black
Muslims.
When, in 1934, Elijah Muhammad became leader, he clarified the basic
beliefs of NOI. These beliefs combined traditional Islamic teachings with
black nationalist ideas.
Members followed traditional Islamic practices; they were devout
and they did not gamble, smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs.
In terms of black nationalism, NOI rejected integration and wanted a
separate and economically self-sufficient black community. To this end
the group began a program of becoming economically and politically
self-sufficient. It set up its own schools, acquired property and
developed black-owned businesses. NOI called also for the creation of an
all-black state within the USA.
Those who joined NOI were encouraged to abandon their (slave)
names and take new ones. Thus, when world heavyweight boxing
champion Cassius Clay embraced NOI in 1964 he became Muhammad
Ali.
NOI was based in northern cities, notably in Detroit, Chicago and New
York. Membership was small in the early 1950s but by the late 1950s the
numbers surged to tens of thousands. A part of the reason for the growing
membership was the emergence of a charismatic leader, Malcolm X.
When the civil rights movement was gaining momentum in the 1950s,
Elijah Muhammad forbade all members from participating in Civil Rights
organizations, marches or any political activity in general. This, together
with The NOI rejection of non-violence, and support of black supremacy
alienated it from mainstream civil rights groups. In 1959 Martin Luther
King warned of a hate group arising in our midst that would preach the
doctrine of black supremacy.
Exercise 1
In what ways was the Nation of Islam different from the mainstream
civil rights groups of the late 1950s?

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Malcolm X: 1925 -1965
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, a Baptist
preacher and an active member of a black nationalist group, was killed in
1931 (possible murdered in a white hate attack). In 1939 when his mother
was institutionalised he became a ward of the state and lived with foster
families and in institutions during his teen years.
Malcolm excelled in school but dropped out early and became involved in petty
crime. While in prison for robbery from 1946 to 1952 he joined the Nation of
Islam. He gave up smoking and gambling, spent many hours reading in the
prison library and joined the prison debating group. As a rejection of his slave
name he replaced his surname, “Little”, with an “X”.
Released in 1952, Malcolm X helped expand the numbers and influence of NOI.
From a membership of about 400 in 1952, NOI by 1960 had a membership of
somewhere between 40,000 and 500,000. He became the minister of Temple
No. 7 in Harlem and founded new temples in Hartford and Philadelphia. In
1960 he established a national newspaper, Muhammad Speaks.
In 1963, tension grew between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad. Things
came to a head in November when Malcolm X declared that the assassination
of President John F Kennedy was chickens coming home to
roost. The leaders split over this and Malcolm X
left NOI in March 1964. A month later he
founded Muslim Mosque Incorporated. On a
pilgrimage to Mecca he converted to Sunni
Islam and took a new name, el-Hajj Malik el-
Shabazz.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was
assassinated while delivering a lecture in
Harlem; three members of the Nation of Islam
were convicted of his murder.
Malcolm X was a gifted orator with a
charismatic personality. In contrast to Martin
Luther King’s strategy of nonviolence and civil
disobedience, Malcolm X urged his followers to
defend themselves by any means necessary. In a
1963 speech he said: You don’t have a peaceful
revolution. You don’t have a turn the cheek
revolution. There’s no such thing as a non-
violent revolution.

We will look in more detail at Malcolm X’s philosophy and influence in a following
set.

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If you would like to get a sense of his power as an orator go to e-learning and
click on Malcolm X

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The Freedom Rides
In 1946 the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on interstate
transport was unconstitutional. To test the ruling, the civil rights group
CORE, in 1947 undertook the Journey of Reconciliation where 18 male
activists, black and white, travelled by interstate bus in the states of
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, all of which had
segregated bus systems. During the trip blacks sat in front, whites in the
back, and sometimes blacks and whites sat side by side, so violating the
segregated seating laws of each of the states.
The protestors, warned of a high risk of violence, decided not to travel in the
Deep South states.
The US Supreme Court’s 1960 Boynton v. Virginia decision extended
the 1946 ruling to include bus terminals, restrooms, and other facilities
associated with interstate travel.
In 1961 CORE leaders decided to again test the implementation of the
Supreme Court decision by ‘replaying’ the Journey of Reconciliation
with two buses to travel from Washington DC to New Orleans. This time
the activists included women, and the buses would travel through Deep
South states. These 1961 journeys became known as the Freedom
Rides.
CORE leader James Farmer explained the reasoning:
Federal law said that there should be no segregation in interstate travel.
The Supreme Court had decided that. But still state laws in the Southern
states … ordered segregation … on those buses. So why didn’t the
federal government enforce its laws? We decided it was because of
politics...
If we were right in assuming that the federal government did not
enforce federal law because of its fear of reprisals from the South, then
what we had to do was to make it more dangerous politically for the
federal government not to enforce federal law.
And how would we do that? We decided the way to do it was to have an
interracial group ride through the South. …. At every rest stop, the
whites would go into the waiting room for blacks, and the blacks into the
waiting room for whites, and would seek to use all the facilities, refusing
to leave.
...[W]e felt that we could then count upon the racists of the South to
create a crisis, so that the federal government would be compelled to
enforce federal laws. That was the rationale for the Freedom Ride ....
Exercise 2: From James Farmer’s explanation: what was the
rationale behind the Freedom Rides?

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Preparations
For the journey, CORE recruited 13 carefully screened and
experienced activists. The group included both blacks and whites and
ages ranged from 18 to 61. Before setting out the group trained in
how to remain non-violent, even in self-defence.
Tactics for the journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in
adjoining seats and at least one black rider sitting up front (in the seats
usually reserved for white customers only). One rider would abide by the
South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE
and arrange bail for those who were arrested.
On May 4 the 13 freedom riders left Washington DC for New Orleans.
They travelled in two buses, one from the Greyhound company, the
other a Trailways bus. Three journalists accompanied the group.

Planned route of first Freedom Ride

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First Freedom Ride: The Journey
The plan was to travel through Virginia, North and South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and reach New Orleans on May 17
1961, in time for a rally celebrating the seventh anniversary of the
1954 Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
May 4 – 8: Upper South
The trip through Virginia and into North Carolina was largely
uneventful. On May 8 African American rider Joseph Perkins
was arrested for trespassing - he tried to have his shoes shined
at a whites only shoeshine. He spent two nights in gaol and on
May 10 was found innocent of trespassing.

May 10: Rock Hill, South Carolina.

White men attacked John Lewis, Al Bigelow and Genevieve
Hughes at the Greyhound bus terminal as they attempted to
enter the whites-only waiting room.

14 May: Anniston Alabama

At Anniston bus terminal a group of some 50 Ku Klux
Klansmen attacked the bus with crowbars and rocks,
smashing bus windows and slashing bus tyres. Police arrived
and signalled for the bus to pull out of the terminal. A long
line of cars and trucks followed.
Six miles out of town, flat tyres forced the bus driver to pull
over. The bus was quickly surrounded. Some rocked the bus
attempting to overturn it.. Two highway patrolmen arrived and
did nothing. A fire bomb thrown through a smashed window
caused two fuel tanks to explode. This drove back the attackers
and allowed the riders time to get out.
After about 20
minutes, shots
fired into the
air by a
patrolman
signalled that
the attack was
over and the
Klan people left
the scene.
Injured
passengers were
taken to hospital
but when a
crowd gathered
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 outside, the
hospital asked
the riders to
leave. Fred
Shuttleworth, a
Birmingham
Baptist minister,
sent a
convoy of cars to rescue the riders.

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14 May: Anniston/Birmingham Alabama
In Atlanta, eight Alabaman Ku Klux Klansmen boarded the 2nd bus.
When the bus reached Alabama the Klansmen assaulted the freedom
riders and forced them to the back of the bus
The violence continued at the
Birmingham bus terminal. By
agreement, the Klan had 15
minutes to attack the riders
without police intervention. On a
given signal the attackers
dispersed and the police arrived.
Unable to find a bus driver to carry
the freedom riders, CORE decided
to abandon the ride and, on the
advice of John Seigenthaler,1 fly to
New Orleans.

16-19 May: Nashville Tennessee

Diana Nash, an SNCC organiser
and Nashville Tennessee student,
contacted James Farmer and told
him the Tennessee student
movement wanted to resume the
ride immediately. The
[Nashville] students have decided Freedom rider James Peck on plane to New
Orleans
that we can’t let violence
overcome. We are coming into
Birmingham to continue the
Freedom Ride.

20 May: Montgomery
Pressured by the Federal Government, Greyhound provided a driver, and
Alabama Governor
John Patterson agreed to protect the
bus from KKK attackers on the road to
Montgomery. The Freedom Ride, now
with Nashville riders, resumed under
police escort, but when the bus reached
the Montgomery city limits the Highway
Patrol withdrew but local police failed
to replace them.
At the Montgomery bus terminal, a
white mob brutally attacked the
disembarking freedom riders. The

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James Zwerg recovering in
hospital
 local police did nothing to stop the
beatings. A number of the Freedom
Riders were hospitalized. One of the
riders, Jim Zwerg, was nearly beaten
to death.

1US Attorney General, Robert Kennedy had sent an aide, John Seigenthaler, to
Birmingham to ensure the safe departure of the riders.

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21 May: Montgomery
In the evening, at the First Baptist Church, Martin Luther King
addressed a mass rally in support of the Freedom Rides. Outside a
crowd of some 3,000 whites gathered and attacked the building
throwing stones and fire bombs. Attorney-General Robert Kennedy
deployed 300 Federal Marshals armed with tear gas, and police
reinforcements baton-charged the crowd which finally broke up.

24 May: Jackson Mississippi

Protected by National Guards the Freedom Riders travelled in two
buses to Jackson Mississippi. In Jackson 27 Freedom Riders were
arrested on their arrival at the bus station. They were charged with
breach of peace rather than breaking the segregation laws. Riders
adopted the strategy of jail – no bail in an effort to fill the jails.
Within a few months, police arrested more than 400 Freedom
Riders. Many served their 40/50 day sentence in Parchman
Penitentiary, reputedly Mississippi’s worst prison. The NAACP
appealed the convictions and they were reversed by the Supreme
Court.

26 May
Representatives of SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and other related
organizations gathered in Atlanta to form the Freedom Ride
Coordinating Committee. Its immediate objective was to intensify the
Freedom Ride so that national public attention can be brought to
examine the denial of legal rights of interstate travellers

Freedom Rides: Resolution

On May 29 Robert Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) – the regulatory body for interstate transport - to ban
segregation in interstate travel. In September the ICC ruled that
segregation on interstate buses and facilities was illegal with the ruling
to take effect from November 1.
The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee continued to organise
Freedom Rides through the remaining months of 1961. In this time more
than 60 different Freedom Rides crossed the South. Most ended in
Jackson, Mississippi where every rider was arrested, more than 300 in
total.
It is estimated that almost 450 riders took part in one or more
Freedom Rides. About 75% of Freedom Riders were male, 75% were
aged under 30 and the numbers were just about evenly divided
between black and white.
After the ICC ruling took effect the white and colored signs in bus
stations across the South began to come down, separate wash rooms
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and waiting rooms were consolidated and lunch counters began
serving people regardless of race. Not all states complied
immediately, Mississippi (unsuccessfully) challenged the ruling all the
way to the Supreme Court.

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Exercise 3
Read these ‘voices’ of the Freedom Rides and answer the
question that follows. Source 1
Janie Miller recalls the Anniston bus fire bombing. Aged 12, she brought
water to the bleeding and choking riders.
It was the worst suffering I’d ever heard, …I walked right out into the middle of
that crowd. I picked me out one person. I washed her face. I held her, I gave her
water to drink, and soon as I thought she was gonna be okay, I got up and
picked out somebody else. I don’t know why they [the Klansmen] let me live. I
figured, well, maybe they won’t kill me because I’m not grown up yet.

Source 2
CORE founder and leader, James Farmer:
I was scared all the time in the 60s and anyone who wasn’t, was a liar or totally without
imagination.

Source 3
Diane Nash
The students have decided that we can't let violence overcome. We are
coming into Birmingham to continue the Freedom Ride.

Source 4
Description of Klansmen on arrival in Montgomery of Freedom bus:
Klansmen swarm over them, screaming Get the niggers!

Source 5
Hattye Gatson, a teenager from Holmes County Mississippi:
And, but, what really god me interested: I was watching the television and seeing how
people were being treated in Alabama
… I just couldn't wait to involved. … that's what I wanted to do. And that's what I said I
wanted to be: freedom rider.

Source 6
Bus driver refusing to drive the Freedom bus any further:
I have only one life to give, and I'm not going to give it to NAACP or CORE

Source 7
Freedom riders hospitalised in Montgomery attack:
William Barbee: As soon as we've recovered from this, we'll start again
James Zwerg from the white side of the segregated hospital: We are prepared to die

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Source 8
Mississippi Governor, Ross Barnett
The Negro is different because God made him different to punish him.

Source 9
Stokely Carmichael recalled his experience in Parchman Penitentiary, Mississippi:
When [the electric cattle prod] touched your skin, the pain was sharp and
excruciating, at once a jolting shock and a burn. You could actually see (puffs
of smoke) and smell (the odor of roasting flesh) your skin burning.

Source 10
Joan Mulholland, Activist
Segregation was unfair. It was wrong, morally, religiously. As a Southerner –a
white Southerner –I felt that we should do what we could to make the South
better and to rid ourselves of this evil.

Source 11
James Farmer responding to Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s suggestion
that there be a ‘cooling off’ period:
Tell the Attorney General that we have been cooling off for 350 years. If we
cool off any more, we will be in a deep freeze. The Freedom Ride will go on.

a. In what ways do these voices strengthen/clarify your

understanding of the Freedom Rides?

b. Choose three of the sources. For each one, briefly explain its
context and the perspective it presents of the Freedom Rides.

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 James Farmer: founder of CORE

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Significance of the Freedom Rides.
The Freedom Rides attracted national and international attention. By
early June they were front page news in the USA – they were cover
stories for Time and Newsweek and in June, Life’s ‘story of the week’
covered the unrest in Montgomery.
The rides attracted a lot of negative press. Editorial condemnation was
almost universal in the white South where Riders were portrayed as
Northerners invading the South, but the view of the Freedom Rides as
foolhardy and unnecessarily confrontational was also common in the
national press. The New York Times criticised the Freedom Riders’
incitement and provocation. And a Gallup Poll conducted in late May and
early June 1961 showed 66% of Americans agreed with the Supreme
Court ruling that racial segregation on trains, buses, and in public
waiting rooms must end, but only 24% approved of what the freedom
riders are doing.
At the same time, the courage and idealism of the Riders helped change
minds and strengthen opposition to Jim Crow laws as Americans watched
white racial violence on television and compared it with the stoic non-
violence of the Riders.
The national and international publicity of the white supremacist
responses to the Freedom Rides put pressure on the US Federal
Government. International media coverage highlighted once again the
hypocrisy of the US promoting freedom abroad while there was
discrimination at home. For the new US President John F Kennedy, and
his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, there was tension
between the morality of the civil rights movement and the political
reality of losing white votes in the South, in 1961 a Democratic
stronghold.
The Freedom rides
again evidenced
the role of women.
Twenty five
percent of the
Riders were
women and it was
a woman, Diana
Nash, a founding
member of the
SNCC, who
proposed and
organised the
continuation of the
first Freedom

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Ride.
The Freedom Rides
and the volunteers
who rode the buses
inspired further
civil rights
activities such as
the March on
Washington in Diane Nash
1963 and the
Freedom Summer
of
1964. More young people became involved in the movement and
northerners were more aware of the realities/impacts of Jim Crow laws
and in the South. At a community or grassroots level, African Americans
were more prepared to practise civil disobedience as a strategy for
regaining their rights.

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 The Freedom Rides also had an impact on civil rights groups, on their
strategies and on their relationships. They gave new prominence to
CORE and SNCC and saw an expanded role for youth activists. They
marked a beginning of tensions amongst different civil rights groups,
for example between Martin Luther King and more militant student
activists within SNCC.
The outcome of the Freedom Rides campaign was a reminder that
ultimately it was the intervention of the courts and/or the Federal
Government that was essential to success and, linked to this, the
value of provoking white violence to attract national attention and
force Federal action.
Exercise 4: What was the significance of the Freedom
Rides in the civil rights movement?

The Freedom Rides and the volunteers who rode the

buses inspired further civil rights activities such as
the March on Washington in 1963 and the Freedom
Summer of 1964. They also had an impact on civil
rights groups, on the strategies, on their
relationships, and on the formation and foundation
for the groups themselves.

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 The Road to Washington
After the Freedom Rides, the years 1961 – 1963 saw more activism, more
violence, some failures and a major civil rights victory in Birmingham. It
saw the U.S President, John F Kennedy make a commitment to civil
rights legislation and it saw increased tension and disagreement within
the civil rights movement over the best strategies to follow. We will look
now at some of the events and developments leading up to the August
1963 March on Washington.

Albany
In November 1961, African Americans in Albany Georgia, with local
SNCC and NAACP activists, started a campaign to rid Albany of
segregation. In December local leaders invited Martin Luther King, Jr.
to join the protest. By August 1962 little had been achieved by King’s
involvement,2 and SNC members and other activists were questioning
his leadership and strategies. King acknowledged his failure but said
he learnt important lessons from it.
The mistake I made there was to protest against segregation generally …. Our
protest was so vague that we got nothing …. It would have been much better
to have concentrated upon integrating the buses or the lunch counters. One
victory of this kind would have been symbolic, would have galvanized support
and boosted morale...
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr: Chapter 16: The Albany Movement

Exercise 5: From the source: What tactical error does Martin Luther King
identify?

His mistake was ‘protesting against segregation

generally’, rather than protesting a specific section
of segregation.

James Meredith and Ole Miss

In 1961, schools and universities in Mississippi remained segregated
despite the US Supreme Court Brown v Board of Education ruling 0f
1954.
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In January, 1961 African American James Meredith applied for
admission to the University of Mississippi (colloquially known as Ole
Miss). Meredith had previously served for nine years in the US Air
Force and had studied for 2 years at Jackson State College.
After the University twice rejected his application, Meredith contacted
the NAACP. After a protracted court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled on Sept. 10, 1962, that Meredith was to be admitted to the
university.

2Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett responded to the demonstrations with mass
arrests, but refrained from public brutality and thereby minimized negative publicity.

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Mississippi Governor, Ross Barnett, responded by announcing that all
public schools and universities in Mississippi would uphold state law.
Barnett was strongly supported by the head of the Citizens’ Council,
William Simmons.
President Kennedy sent Chief US Marshal, J.P. McShane, to escort
Meredith as he enrolled. Three times Meredith attempted to enrol,
three times he was blocked.
On September 30 President Kennedy decided to act. James
Meredith was flown to the Mississippi University town of Oxford
and taken on campus, supported by 500 Federal Marshals.
That evening, as President Kennedy addressed the Nation on the
importance of a peaceful settlement, a riot broke out on the Ole
Miss campus. When Kennedy heard of the riot he despatched 30,000
troops to Oxford.
A mob of angry whites confronted U.S. marshals stationed on campus to
protect Meredith. The crowd assaulted the marshals with bricks and
bullets outside the Lyceum, the university’s administration building, until
the arrival of federal troops quelled the violence in the early morning
hours. Two bystanders died in the confrontation, 206 marshals and
soldiers were wounded, and 200 individuals were arrested.
[Link]
meredith/

James Meredith enrolled the next day. In his time at Ole Miss he was
ostracised by most of his fellow-students. A flyer, Rebel Resistance,
created by students in collaboration with the Citizens’ Council, urged
students to avoid any association with him. Meredith described himself
as the most segregated Negro in America.
Federal marshals protected Meredith 24 hours a day and troops
remained on campus until he completed his course. He graduated with
a bachelor’s degree in August 1963.

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 US Army trucks at Uni. of Mississippi campus in the wake of the Ole Miss riot of 1962

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Importance
The enrolment of James Meredith was the first step in the
desegregation of education in Mississippi. Although the US Supreme
Court had ruled for desegregation of schools eight years before, the law
had not been implemented in Mississippi.
Meredith’s enforced enrolment asserted the authority of Federal over
state law. It also demonstrated the willingness of the President to
intervene when that authority was challenged. As with Eisenhower and
the Little Rock crisis, Kennedy was hesitant about sending federal troops
to the South. Kennedy’s experience with the Ole Miss crisis led him to
act more decisively a year on in a dispute with Alabama governor,
George Wallace, over the integration of the University of Alabama.
In Mississippi itself, the Ole Miss crisis led some moderate
segregationists to start speaking out against extremism Historian
Joseph Crespino notes that a significant number of white business
leaders in the state worried that events like Oxford threatened the
state’s economic future.
Despite these cracks, white supremacists remained
dominant in Mississippi. Kennedy’s actions met with
general approval from the world press.
- The world press Monday played up the Meredith case as the worst United
States constitutional crisis since the Civil War. There were banner headlines
from London to Tokyo. The Soviet Government newspaper Izvestia called the
shooting of French correspondent Paul Gulhard the crime of the racists. The
Tass news agency described the University of Mississippi as a stronghold of
bigotry and racism and said it has become an armed camp.
West European newspapers generally condemned the racist policies of
Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett and praised President Kennedy's firm stand.
… The Oxford riots overshadowed all other news in Latin American
newspapers. … Kennedy generally was presented as a champion of equal
rights. In Mexico City … the headline in Excelsior was: Kennedy Inflexible and
Blood Flows in Mississippi. … In Singapore, the Straits Times bannered the
crisis and said editorially "... no matter at what cost, this is a battle which
President Kennedy and Washington must win. …

Reaction of the world's press Oct. 1, 1962 (UPI)

[Link] Oxford-reaction-of-the-
worlds-press/3088548514232/

Exercise 6:
a. What issues were raised by James Meredith’s decision to
seek enrolment at Ole Miss?

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b. How did the world press react to the events at Ol Miss? Why was this
important?

The Birmingham Campaign

With a strong Ku Klux Klan presence, Birmingham Alabama was one of
the most segregated and violent cities in the South. Martin Luther King
Jr. had described it as a symbol of hard-core resistance to integration.
Activists had nicknamed it Bombingham, because of the frequency of
violent attacks against those fighting the system of segregation.
In April 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC, allied with local
Pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights (ACMHR) to launch a civil rights campaign in
Birmingham.
The campaign was called Project C (for confrontation) and its aim was
to use economic pressure and large-scale direct action to undermine
the city’s system of racial segregation.
The campaign was launched on April 3 with the release of the
Birmingham Manifesto which called for desegregation and promised
ongoing non-violent protest if calls were not met. What followed were
mass meetings, sit-ins at downtown lunch counters, marches on City
Hall and a boycott of downtown merchants. At mass meetings, King
spoke of non-violence and its methods and appealed for volunteers.
Initially there was some reluctance amongst Birmingham African
Americans, (they knew they could face retaliation for taking part) but as
the numbers of volunteers increased actions extended to kneel-ins at
churches, sit-ins at the library, and a march on the county building to
register voters.
Hundreds were arrested.
On 10 April the city government
obtained court order against the
protests. After strong debate,
campaign leaders decided to
disobey the court order. On
Good Friday, 12 April, King and

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SCLC co-founder Ralph
Abernathy were arrested after
violating the anti-protest court
order. King was kept in solitary
confinement. He and Abernathy
were released on April 20 after
bail was posted. Fred Shuttleworth, Ralph
Abernathy, Martin Luther King
march on Good Friday 1963

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The Children’s Crusade
After a month of protest had won no concessions, organiser James
Bezel proposed using children in protest marches. On May 2 more
than 1,000 Birmingham students attempted to march into downtown
Birmingham. Hundreds
were arrested. When
hundreds more
gathered the following
day, Commissioner
Eugene Connor
directed local police
and fire departments to
use force to halt the
demonstrations.
During the next few
days images of children
being blasted by high-
pressure fire hoses,
clubbed by police
officers, and attacked
by police dogs
appeared on television
and in newspapers,
triggering international
outrage.
Responding to pressure, Attorney-General Robert Kennedy sent an aide
to mediate a compromise. Birmingham business leaders, starting to feel
the economic impact of the protests, asked for the protests to be
suspended while they negotiated. Against the wishes of the local leader,
Fred Shuttlesworth, King agreed.
On May 10 a compromise was announced: the removal of Whites Only and
Blacks Only signs in restrooms and on drinking fountains, a plan to
desegregate lunch counters, an ongoing program of upgrading Negro
employment, the formation of a biracial committee to monitor the
progress of the agreement, and the release of jailed protesters on bond.
Birmingham white supremacists responded with a series of violent
attacks. That night a bomb went off near the Gaston Motel room where
King and SCLC leaders had
previously stayed, and the next day
the home of King’s brother Alfred
Daniel King was bombed. President
John F. Kennedy responded by
ordering 3,000 federal troops into
position near Birmingham.

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And four months later, on 15
September, in a response to the
August 28 March on Washington,
Ku Klux Klan members bombed
Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church. The blast killed
four young girls, 11 year old
Denise McNair, and 14 year olds
Carole
Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie May Collins. On September
18 Martin Luther King delivered the eulogy at the joint funeral of
three of the girls.
This section adapted from: [Link]

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Results of Birmingham
The immediate outcome of the Birmingham campaign was the
implementation of the May 10 agreement and the desegregation of
libraries, public golf courses and (eventually) schools.
Events in Birmingham were transformative. The New York Times
published more stories about civil rights in those two weeks than in the
previous two years. Televised scenes of children campaigning against
segregation, being bitten by Alsatians and knocked off their feet by water
caused international outrage. The percentage of Americans who saw civil
rights as the country's most pressing issue rose from 4% to 52%. The
campaign led directly to similar protests against segregation of public
spaces spread across the South, and to large sympathy demonstrations
being held in cities across America.
For Martin Luther King, the campaign showed that non-violent direct
action could work. The success of the campaign cemented King’s status
as the top black leader and showed that he and his organisation could
mobilise and direct large numbers.
The Birmingham protests contributed to the Kennedy government
adopting a more dedicated and focussed approach to civil rights.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

When Martin Luther King was in jail in Birmingham (April1963) eight white
Birmingham clergymen wrote an open letter to a local newspaper criticising
King for unwise and untimely demonstrations. King responded in an open letter
to the clergymen (written on margins of newspapers and scraps of paper and
smuggled out of the jail). King responded point by point to the criticisms and
rebuked white moderates and the clergymen themselves for their lack of action
in the cause of equality.
The letter is now recognized as an iconic statement of the principles underlying
the civil rights movement. Here are some quotations from the Letter from
Birmingham Jail.
On being criticised as an outsider: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. … Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
Defending his use of non-violent direct action: We know through painful
experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it
must be demanded by the oppressed
Defending the timing of direct action: justice too long delayed is justice denied
and, Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of
segregation to say, ‘Wait’. and We have waited for 340 years for our
constitutional and God-given rights.

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On civil disobedience: one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I
would agree with Augustine that ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’

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Exercise 7
a. Identify the tactics used by SCLC and ACMHR in the Birmingham
Campaign. Why was the campaign successful?

During the next few days images of children

being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses,
clubbed by police officers, and attacked by police
dogs appeared on television and in newspapers,
triggering international outrage.
Responding to pressure, Attorney-General Robert
Kennedy sent an aide to mediate a compromise.
Birmingham business leaders, starting to feel the
economic impact of the protests, asked for the
protests to be suspended while they negotiated.
Against the wishes of the local leader, Fred
Shuttlesworth, King agreed.
On May 10 a compromise was announced: the
removal of Whites Only and Blacks Only signs in
restrooms and on drinking fountains, a plan to
desegregate lunch counters, an ongoing program
of upgrading Negro employment, the formation of
a biracial committee to monitor the progress of
the agreement, and the release of jailed
protesters on bond.

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b. After Birmingham, President Kennedy commented: The Civil
Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He’s helped
it as much as Abraham Lincoln
What did he mean? How did television help change attitudes?

Events in Birmingham were transformative. The

New York Times published more stories about
civil rights in those two weeks than in the
previous two years. Televised scenes of children
campaigning against segregation, being bitten by
Alsatians and knocked off their feet by water
caused international outrage. The percentage of
Americans who saw civil rights as the country's
most pressing issue rose from 4 percent to 52
percent. The campaign led directly to similar
protests against segregation of public spaces
spread across the South, and to large sympathy
demonstrations being held in cities across
America.

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Yr 12 Modern History: Pt 4: Change in the Modern World: Civil rights Page
in the USA 1945-1968 39
b. What was the wider significance of the Birmingham
Campaign for the civil rights movement?

The campaign led directly to similar protests

against segregation of public spaces spread
across the South, and to large sympathy
demonstrations being held in cities across
America.
For Martin Luther King, the campaign showed
that non-violent direct action could work. The
success of the campaign cemented King’s status
as the top black leader and showed that he and
his organisation could mobilise and direct large
numbers.
The Birmingham protests contributed to the
Kennedy government adopting a more
dedicated and focussed approach to civil rights.

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Crisis in Alabama
In 1963 George Wallace, an avowed segregationist (segregation now,
segregation tomorrow, segregation forever), was sworn in as
Governor of Alabama. In his campaign he avowed he would, if
necessary, stand in the schoolhouse door
rather than allow Alabaman schools to integrate.
When, on June 11, two African
American students attempted to
enrol at the University of Alabama,
the governor literally stood in the
doorway3 of the enrolment office to
stop the students entering. When he
refused to move, President Kennedy
was notified and issued Executive
Order 11111 which put the Alabama
National Guard under Federal
command. Four hours later, when
asked, Wallace stood aside and
the students enrolled. George Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door

Kennedy addresses the

Nation
After Wallace’s backdown President Kennedy decided to go on national
television that same evening to talk to the American people about race
and to call for the passage of a civil rights bill.
In his address Kennedy spoke of a “moral
crisis” facing the nation. “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?”
Among those impressed with Kennedy’s words
that night was Martin Luther King Jr., who
turned to the Rev. Walter Fauntroy when the
president finished and said, “Walter, can
you believe that white man not only stepped up to the plate, he hit it
over the fence!” adapted from: [Link]
world-092517?paginate=false

A little over a week later Kennedy submitted strong civil rights legislation to
Congress

Assassination of Medgar Evers

Just hours after Kennedy’s address to
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the nation, Medgar Evers, World War 2
veteran, civil rights activist and NAACP
field secretary in Mississippi, was shot in
the back outside his house in Jackson
Mississippi. He died an hour later.
His killer was Byron Beckwith, a Ku
Klux Klansman and member of the
Mississippi Citizens’ Council.
After two trials had hung juries in 1964,
he was finally convicted of the crime in
1994.

3 Wallace’s stand in the doorway is referenced in Bob Dylan’s song The times they are a changin

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March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
On August 28, 1963, an estimated 250,000 people took part in the March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. They travelled
from all across the country, young and old, black and white, celebrities
and ordinary citizens. The March focussed on the economic and political
injustices faced by African Americans; such things as high levels of black
unemployment, work that offered most African Americans only minimal
wages and poor job mobility, the disenfranchisement of many African
Americans, and the ongoing racial segregation in the South.

Background
The idea for the march had its roots in a 1941 March on Washington,
planned by A. Philip Randolph, an African American union leader and
civil rights activist. The 1941 March was to protest the exclusion of
blacks from defence jobs. Facing a march of 75,000+ protestors,
President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order forbidding
discrimination in the defence industry.
The initiative for the 1963 March also came from Randolph who in early
1963 began planning a march for Negro jobs rights. By early June it had
become a collaborative effort with the leaders of the four major civil
rights groups (SCLC, CORE, NAACP, SNCC) and a number of smaller
groups joining Randolph as sponsors of the march. August 28 was
chosen as the march day.
President Kennedy was unenthusiastic about the march. He feared it
could end in violence and weaken the chances of his Civil Rights
legislation succeeding. On June 22 he suggested that the march was
perhaps ‘ill-timed’. King and the other leaders insisted that the march go
ahead. King noted that he had never engaged in any direct-action
movement which did not seem ill-timed.
The March, was also not supported by the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X
called it a picnic and a circus and the Farce on Washington.

Organising the March

Organising the march was a massive task. The march organiser was
Bayard Rustin, a Journey of Recognition veteran who had advised King
during the Montgomery bus boycott. Rustin had 8 weeks to prepare.
This excerpt from a Washington Post article illustrates the immensity
and diversity of the task:
In the weeks before the march, planners were checking off
details by the thousand: buses booked, speeches vetted,
slogans written, portable toilets rented. At the Harlem
headquarters, Rustin toggled between the political (brokering
podium time for dozens of competing groups) and the practical

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 (determining
whether peanut butter or sandwiches with
mayonnaise would stand up better in a
Washington August).
Between phone calls, he drilled the hundreds of
off-duty police officers and firefighters who had
volunteered to serve as marshals. He made them
take off their guns and coached them in the
techniques of nonviolent crowd control.
Washington Post, August 21, 2011

Bayard Rustin

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I have a dream …
The march began at 11:30 and arrived at the Lincoln Memorial by 1 pm.
The rally opened with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner and was
followed by speeches from civil rights leaders, clergymen and others,
interspersed with performances by artists including Mahalia Jackson,
Joan Baez, Marion Anderson and Bob Dylan.
The final speaker was Martin Luther King. King partway through, in
response to a call by Mahalia Jackson, (tell ‘em about the dream,
Martin, tell ‘em about the dream) King diverted from his prepared text
and delivered what became the most famous part of his speech. It
began:
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties
of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
And ended with:
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let
it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and
every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s
children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants
and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the
old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we
are free at last!
King’s I have a dream speech was, in 1999, voted the best political speech
of the 20th Century. On August 27, 2013, Michiko Kakutani wrote in the
New York Times
Dr. King's speech was not only the heart and emotional cornerstone of the
March on Washington, but also a testament to the transformative powers of one
man and the magic of his words. Fifty years later, it is a speech that can still
move people to tears. Fifty years later, its most famous lines are recited by
schoolchildren and sampled by musicians. Fifty years later, the four words I
have a dream have become shorthand for Dr. King's commitment to freedom,
social justice, and nonviolence, inspiring activists from Tiananmen Square to
Soweto, Eastern Europe to the West Bank.

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March on Washington: responses/importance

Aug. 28, 1963, was a symbolic moment, if not a turning point. While racial
bigotry was not dead, it was no longer respectable, was not something that
could be openly proclaimed by Cabinet officers, corporate leaders, even
presidents of the United States. Its true shamefulness and cruelty became part
of the national consciousness that day, expressed by King in forceful
declarations and demands for equality, in biblical imagery and oratory, but also
in simple images, none perhaps more enduring and meaningful to the great
audience he sought to reach than that vision of children someday playing
together with not a thought to the color of their skin. Editorial, Washington Post
August 27 2013

While the March was a peaceful occasion, the words spoken that day at the
Lincoln Memorial were not just uplifting and inspirational such as Martin
Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, they were … also penetrating and
pointed. There was a list of Ten Demands from the sponsors, insisting on a fair
living wage, fair employment policies, and desegregation of school districts.
John Lewis (chairman of
SNCC) said that we do not want our freedom gradually but we want to be free
now and that Congress needed to pass meaningful legislation or people would
march through the South. …. [Link] [Link]

[King’s speech] was a message to the nation and the world, but its most
immediate targets were the lawmakers nearby who would vote on the civil
rights bill being worked on the House. …
August 28, 1963, didn't change the minds of Southern Democrats or allied
Republicans, but historians say it helped build popular support, especially
among whites, for a civil rights revolution that transformed America's law and
politics. Tom Brune, Newsday August 27, 2013

Clearly, the march was a key factor in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. And
although it doesn’t get sufficient credit for other legislation, the momentum it
created was at least partially responsible for immigration reform, the war on
poverty, and Medicare and Medicaid.
But to judge the impact of the March only in terms of tangible accomplishments
such as these pieces of legislation misses, I believe, the most important
consequence of the march — it empowered and inspired people at a deeper
emotional level than ever before at a moment when anger and frustration
threatened both the sense of hope and the courageous non-violence that had
characterized the Civil Rights Movement to that point.

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… the speeches … were uplifting and inspiring. Dr. King’s line that this is no
time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of
gradualism was a direct response to the white clergy of Birmingham and to
many other white people who were urging black people to go slow. It drew an
enthusiastic response from the crowd. And he spoke to the growing anger when
he warned that we should not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking
from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
Michael Wenger: Senior Fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic
[Link]. in Huffington Post August 26 2013

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Exercise 8: The above responses were written on the 50th anniversary of
the March. The
Washington Post editorial called it a symbolic moment, if not a turning point.
From the sources, in what ways was the March on Washington an
important moment in the struggle for civil rights? What is your
assessment of the significance of the March on Washington?

The most important consequence of the march

— it empowered and inspired people at a deeper
emotional level than ever before at a moment
when anger and frustration threatened both the
sense of hope and the courageous non-violence
that had characterized the Civil Rights Movement
to that point.

The Assassination of President John F Kennedy

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Shortly after noon on
November 22, 1963,
President John F.
Kennedy was
assassinated as he rode
in a motorcade in Dallas,
Texas.
At 2:38 pm Vice President Lyndon
B. Johnson was sworn
in as 36th President of
the USA.

Lyndon B Johnson is sworn in as President of the USA

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President John F Kennedy and civil rights
In this section we will review the role of President Kennedy in the civil rights
movement.

His election
In 1960 Kennedy was in a tight contest with Richard Nixon to secure the
Presidency. In October, some 4 weeks before the election, Martin Luther
King was arrested after leading a sit-in in Atlanta Georgia. King was
transferred to a state prison and his wife feared for his life. Against the
advice of his aides, Kennedy rang Coretta King and offered help. The
next day, Kennedy’s brother, Robert, helped secure King’s release. The
news spread quickly amongst the African American community. In the
November election Kennedy secured a narrow victory thanks in part to
winning 70% of the African American vote.

Freedom Rides
Kennedy was reluctant to get involved in the Freedom Rides.
Involvement would draw criticism from both sides and could lead to
embarrassing headlines in the lead-up to a June meeting with Soviet
leader Khrushchev. Can't you get your goddamned friends off those
buses? he complained to a Justice Department official with ties to the
movement. Stop them.
The violence at Aniston and Birmingham changed things. Robert
Kennedy sent an aide, John Seigenthaler, to Birmingham to help get the
Freedom Riders safely to New Orleans and he deployed 300 Federal
Marshals during the May 21 siege and firebombing of the First Baptist
Church in Montgomery. But while he sent National Guards to protect
the riders on the next stage to Jackson he did not intervene when the
riders were arrested and jailed on breach of the peace charges. On May
29 he ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to adopt
stringent regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate bus travel.

Further intervention
After protracted attempts to negotiate Kennedy, in1962, deployed
Federal Marshals and Federal troops to Ole Miss to ensure the enrolment
of James Meredith and subdue the riot that broke out. In 1963 the
Birmingham campaign strengthened his commitment to civil rights. An
aide was sent to help negotiate a compromise.
On June 11 1963 Kennedy moved decisively in the University of Alabama
crisis and that same evening addressed the nation where he framed civil
rights as a moral issue and announced a civil rights bill would be taken
to Congress.

Other decisions
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Kennedy initially opposed the March on Washington fearing it could
antagonise Congress and threaten his civil rights bill. He eventually
endorsed the March.
Kennedy endorsed the Voter Education Project (VEP) a project aimed
at increasing voter registration of African Americans in the South. It
was a joint project of philanthropists, the Department of Justice and
the major civil rights groups. From 1962 to 1964 black voter
registration jumped from 29% to 43%

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Constraints
Internationally, the USA was competing with the USSR to win the
allegiance of emerging African and Asian nations. Kennedy feared that
the televised violent responses to direct action by civil rights groups
played into the hands of Russia.
Domestically, polling in 1961 showed that civil rights was not a high
concern for a majority of American citizens.
Kennedy had won a narrow victory over Nixon. Alienating the many
segregationist Democrats in Congress could lessen his chances of
getting legislation passed into law.
Kennedy had to tread a very fine line in the South. Between March
and September 1963 his popularity dropped from 60% to 44%
He was also losing support in the north where it was felt that [Kennedy]
was too concerned with the African Americans and forgetting about the
majority of the people – the whites.
In many senses Kennedy was damned if he did and damned if he did not.
If he helped the African Americans in the South, he lost the support of
the powerful Democrats there. If he did nothing he faced world-wide
condemnation especially after the scenes vividly seen
in Birmingham.
Even civil rights leaders in the South criticised Kennedy for doing too
little. In the north, the majority population was white. This group felt
that its problems were being ignored while the problems of the
African Americans were being addressed.
[Link]
civil-rights/

Exercise 9: What political constraints did Kennedy face in his

attempts to advance the cause of civil rights?

Kennedy had to tread a very fine line in the

South. Between March and September 1963
his popularity dropped from 60 percent to 44
percent.
He was also losing support in the north where it
was felt that Kennedy was too concerned with
the African Americans and forgetting about the
majority of the people – the whites.
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Exercise 10: Evaluate the contribution of John F Kennedy to the civil
rights movement

In 1960 Kennedy was in a tight contest with

Richard Nixon to secure the Presidency. In
October, some 4 weeks before the election,
Martin Luther King was arrested after leading a
sit-in in Atlanta Georgia. King was transferred to
a state prison and his wife feared for his life.
Against the advice of his aides, Kennedy rang
Coretta King and offered help. The next day,
Kennedy’s brother, Robert, helped secure King’s
release. The news spread quickly amongst the
African American community. In the November
election Kennedy secured a narrow victory
thanks in part to winning 70 percent of the
African American vote.

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Bibliography
Carson C et al (eds.) Eyes on the Prize: Civil Rights
Reader Penguin 1991 Francis D: Years of the Dream
Heinemann 1987
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Newell K, Salmond J (eds) The Civil Rights Movement in the American
South La Trobe University 1992
Payne C M: I’ve Got the Light of Freedom Uni. Of
California Press, 1991 S Mirams, Civil Rights in the
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