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The Triumphs
of a Crusade
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names

Civil rights activists broke Activism pushed the federal gov- •freedom riders •Freedom Summer
through racial barriers. Their ernment to end segregation and •James Meredith •Fannie Lou Hamer
activism prompted landmark ensure voting rights for African •Civil Rights Act •Voting Rights Act
legislation. Americans. of 1964 of 1965

One American's Story

In 1961, James Peck, a white civil rights activist, joined other CORE
members on a historic bus trip across the South. The two-bus trip would
test the Supreme Court decisions banning segregated seating on interstate
bus routes and segregated facilities in bus terminals. Peck and other
freedom riders hoped to provoke a violent reaction that would
convince the Kennedy administration to enforce the law. The
violence was not long in coming.
At the Alabama state line, white racists got on Bus One car-
rying chains, brass knuckles, and pistols. They brutally beat
African-American riders and white activists who tried to
intervene. Still the riders managed to go on. Then on May 4,
1961—Mother’s Day—the bus pulled into the Birmingham
bus terminal. James Peck saw a hostile mob waiting, some
holding iron bars.

A PERSONAL VOICE JAMES PECK

“ I looked at them and then I looked at Charles Person, who ▼
had been designated as my team mate. . . . When I looked at him, he
responded by saying simply, ‘Let’s go.’ As we entered the white waiting Three days after being
beaten unconscious in
room, . . . we were grabbed bodily and pushed toward the alleyway . . . and
Birmingham, freedom
out of sight of onlookers in the waiting room, six of them started swinging
rider James Peck demon-
at me with fists and pipes. Five others attacked Person a few feet ahead.” strates in New York City
—Freedom Ride to pressure national bus
companies to support
The ride of Bus One had ended, but Bus Two continued southward on desegregation.
a journey that would shock the Kennedy administration into action.

Riding for Freedom

In Anniston, Alabama, about 200 angry whites attacked Bus Two. The mob followed
the activists out of town. When one of the tires blew, they smashed a window and
tossed in a fire bomb. The freedom riders spilled out just before the bus exploded.

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NEW VOLUNTEERS The bus com-

panies refused to carry the CORE
freedom riders any farther. Even
though the determined volunteers
did not want to give up, they
ended their ride. However, CORE
director James Farmer announced
that a group of SNCC volunteers in
Nashville were ready to pick up
where the others had left off.
When a new band of freedom
riders rode into Birmingham,
policemen pulled them from the ▼
bus, beat them, and drove them into Tennessee. Defiantly, they returned to the
In May 1967, a
Birmingham bus terminal. Their bus driver, however, feared for his life and refused
mob firebombed
to transport them. In protest, they occupied the whites-only waiting room at the ter- this bus of free-
minal for eighteen hours until a solution was reached. After an angry phone call dom riders out-
from U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, bus company officials convinced the side Anniston,
driver to proceed. The riders set out for Montgomery on May 20. Alabama, and
attacked passen-
ARRIVAL OF FEDERAL MARSHALS Although Alabama officials had promised gers as they tried
Kennedy that the riders would be protected, a mob of whites—many carrying bats to escape.
and lead pipes—fell upon the riders when they arrived in Montgomery. John
Doer, a Justice Department official on the scene, called the attorney general to
report what was happening. “A bunch of men led by a guy with a bleeding face
are beating [the passengers]. There are no cops. It’s terrible. There’s
not a cop in sight. People are yelling. ‘Get ‘em, get ‘em.’ It’s awful.” “ We will continue
The violence provoked exactly the response the freedom riders our journey one way
wanted. Newspapers throughout the nation and abroad denounced or another. . . . We
the beatings. are prepared to die.”
MAIN IDEA
President Kennedy arranged to give the freedom riders direct sup-
Analyzing
JIM ZWERG, FREEDOM RIDER
port. The Justice Department sent 400 U.S. marshals to protect the rid-
Issues
A What did the
ers on the last part of their journey to Jackson, Mississippi. In addition, the attorney
freedom riders general and the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in all inter-
hope to achieve? state travel facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters. A
A. Answer
They hoped to
call attention to Standing Firm
the South’s
refusal to aban- With the integration of interstate travel facilities under way, some civil rights
don segregation workers turned their attention to integrating some Southern schools and pushing
so as to pres- the movement into additional Southern towns. At each turn they encountered
sure the federal
government to opposition and often violence.
enforce the INTEGRATING OLE MISS In September 1962, Air Force veteran James Meredith
Supreme Court’s
desegregation won a federal court case that allowed him to enroll in the all-white University of
rulings. Mississippi, nicknamed Ole Miss. But when Meredith arrived on campus, he faced
Governor Ross Barnett, who refused to let him register as a student.
President Kennedy ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to the regis-
trar’s office. Barnett responded with a heated radio appeal: “I call on every
Mississippian to keep his faith and courage. We will never surrender.” The broad-
cast turned out white demonstrators by the thousands.
On the night of September 30, riots broke out on campus, resulting in two
deaths. It took thousands of soldiers, 200 arrests, and 15 hours to stop the rioters.
In the months that followed, federal officials accompanied Meredith to class and
protected his parents from nightriders who shot up their house.

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News photos and

television cover-
age of police dogs
in Birmingham
attacking African
Americans
shocked the
nation.

HEADING INTO BIRMINGHAM The trouble continued in Alabama. Birmingham, a

city known for its strict enforcement of total segregation in public life, also had a
reputation for racial violence, including 18 bombings from 1957 to 1963.
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights and secretary of the SCLC, decided something had to be done
about Birmingham and that it would be the ideal place to test the power of non-
violence. He invited Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC to help desegregate
the city. On April 3, 1963, King flew into Birmingham to hold a planning meet-
ing with members of the African-American community. “This is the most segre-
gated city in America,” he said. “We have to stick together if we ever want to
change its ways.”
After days of demonstrations led by Shuttlesworth and others, King and a
small band of marchers were finally arrested during a demonstration on Good
Friday, April 12th. While in jail, King wrote an open letter to white religious lead-
ers who felt he was pushing too fast.

A PERSONAL VOICE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“ I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation
to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and
fathers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize
and even kill your black brothers and sisters; . . . when you see the vast majority
of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in the air-tight cage of poverty; B. Answer
. . . when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking: . . . Days of demon-
‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’ . . . then you will strations; arrest
understand why we find it difficult to wait.” of King and oth-
ers; King’s
—“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
“Letter from a
Birmingham
On April 20, King posted bail and began planning more demonstrations. On Jail”; more
May 2, more than a thousand African-American children marched in Birmingham; demonstrations
Police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s men arrested 959 of them. On May 3, a met by arrests
second “children’s crusade” came face to face with a helmeted police force. Police and police vio-
lence; economic
swept the marchers off their feet with high-pressure fire hoses, set attack dogs on boycott.
them, and clubbed those who fell. TV cameras captured all of it, and millions of
viewers heard the children screaming. MAIN IDEA

Continued protests, an economic boycott, and negative media coverage finally Chronological
convinced Birmingham officials to end segregation. This stunning civil rights vic- Order
B What events
tory inspired African Americans across the nation. It also convinced President
led to desegrega-
Kennedy that only a new civil rights act could end racial violence and satisfy the tion in
demands of African Americans—and many whites—for racial justice. B Birmingham?

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History Through

ERNEST WITHERS
Born in Memphis in 1922, photographer Ernest Withers believed
that if the struggle for equality could be shown to people, things
would change. Armed with only a camera, he braved violent
crowds to capture the heated racism during the Montgomery
bus boycott, the desegregation of Central High in Little Rock,
and the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike (below) led by
Martin Luther King, Jr. The night before the Memphis march,
Withers had helped make some of the signs he photographed.

“ G. C. Brown printed those ‘I AM A MAN’ signs right

over there. . . . I had a car and it was snowing, so we
went and rented the saw and came back that night and
cut the sticks.”
▼
Withers in 1950

Withers had to be careful about his involvement in groups like the NAACP and COME
(Community On the Move for Equality), for he had a wife and children to support. He
went to several meetings a night, sometimes taking pictures, other times offering a
suggestion. “I always had FBI agents looking over my shoulder and wanting to ques-
tion me. I never tried to learn any high-powered secrets.”
▼

Withers in 1992

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Visual Sources

1. What do the signs tell you about African Americans’ struggle
for civil rights?
2. What kind of treatment do you suppose these men had
experienced? Why do you think so?
SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

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“ I say, Segregation now! KENNEDY TAKES A STAND On June 11, 1963, the president sent
Segregation tomorrow! troops to force Governor George Wallace to honor a court order
Segregation forever!” desegregating the University of Alabama. That evening, Kennedy
asked the nation: “Are we to say to the world—and much more
GEORGE WALLACE,
ALABAMA GOVERNOR, 1963 importantly, to each other—that this is the land of the free, except
for the Negroes?” He demanded that Congress pass a civil rights bill.
A tragic event just hours after Kennedy’s speech highlighted the racial tension Background
in much of the South. Shortly after midnight, a sniper murdered Medgar Evers, Beckwith was final-
NAACP field secretary and World War II veteran. Police soon arrested a white ly convicted in
1994, after the
supremacist, Byron de la Beckwith, but he was released after two trials resulted in
case was
hung juries. His release brought a new militancy to African Americans. Many reopened based
demanded, “Freedom now!” on new evidence.

Marching to Washington
The civil rights bill that President Kennedy sent to Congress guaranteed equal access
to all public accommodations and gave the U.S. attorney general the power to file
school desegregation suits. To persuade Congress to pass the bill, two veteran orga-
nizers—labor leader A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin of the SCLC—summoned
Americans to a march on Washington, D.C.
THE DREAM OF EQUALITY On August 28, 1963, more than
Civll Rights Acts of 250,000 people—including about 75,000 whites—converged on
the 1950s and 1960s the nation’s capital. They assembled on the grassy lawn of the MAIN IDEA
Washington Monument and marched to the Lincoln Memorial. Analyzing
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957 There, people listened to speakers demand the immediate pas- Events
• Established federal Commission on sage of the civil rights bill. C c Why did civil
Civil Rights When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared, the crowd rights organizers
• Established a Civil Rights Division in ask their support-
exploded in applause. In his now famous speech, “I Have a ers to march on
the Justice Department to enforce
civil rights laws
Dream,” he appealed for peace and racial harmony. Washington?
• Enlarged federal power to protect C. Answer
voting rights A PERSONAL VOICE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. To spur passage
of the civil rights
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 “ I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live bill.
• Banned most discrimination in out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be
employment and in public accommo- self-evident; that all men are created equal.’ . . . I have a dream
dations that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
• Enlarged federal power to protect
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the con-
voting rights and speed up school
desegregation tent of their character. . . . I have a dream that one day the
• Established Equal Employment state of Alabama . . . will be transformed into a situation where
Opportunity Commission to ensure little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
fair treatment in employment little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 and brothers.”
• Eliminated voter literacy tests —“I Have a Dream”
• Enabled federal examiners to
register voters MORE VIOLENCE Two weeks after King’s historic speech, four
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968 young Birmingham girls were killed when a rider in a car hurled a
• Prohibited discrimination in the sale
bomb through their church window. Two more African Americans
or rental of most housing died in the unrest that followed.
• Strengthened antilynching laws Two months later, an assassin shot and killed John F.
• Made it a crime to harm civil rights Kennedy. His successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, pledged to
workers
carry on Kennedy’s work. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the
SKILLBUILDER Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination
Interpreting Charts because of race, religion, national origin, and gender. It gave all cit-
Which law do you think benefited the izens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms, restaurants,
most people? Explain your choice. theaters, and other public accommodations.

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In the summer
of 1964, college
students volun-
teered to go to
Mississippi to
help register that
state’s African-

▼
American voters.

Fighting for Voting Rights

D. Answer Meanwhile, the right of all African Americans to vote remained elusive. In 1964,
They hoped to
CORE and SNCC workers in the South began registering as many African
call attention to
the lack of vot- Americans as they could to vote. They hoped their campaign would receive nation-
ing rights in seg- al publicity, which would in turn influence Congress to pass a voting rights act.
regationist Focused in Mississippi, the project became known as Freedom Summer.
strongholds and
to promote pas- FREEDOM SUMMER To fortify the project, civil rights groups recruited college
sage of a feder- students and trained them in nonviolent resistance. Thousands of student volun-
al voting rights teers—mostly white, about one-third female—went into Mississippi to help register
act.
voters. For some, the job proved deadly. In June of 1964, three civil rights workers
MAIN IDEA disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Investigators later learned that
Analyzing Klansmen and local police had murdered the men, two of whom were white.
Motives Through the summer, the racial beatings and murders continued, along with the
D Why did civil burning of businesses, homes, and churches. D
rights groups orga-
nize Freedom A NEW POLITICAL PARTY African Americans needed a voice in the political
Summer? arena if sweeping change was to occur. In order to gain a seat in Mississippi’s all-
white Democratic Party, SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party (MFDP). Fannie Lou Hamer, the daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers,
would be their voice at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. In a televised
speech that shocked the convention and viewers nationwide, Hamer described
how she was jailed for registering to vote in 1962, and how police forced other
prisoners to beat her.
E. Answer
Because the
leaders agreed A PERSONAL VOICE FANNIE LOU HAMER
to a compromise “ The first [prisoner] began to beat [me], and I was beat by the first until he was
with the
exhausted. . . . The second [prisoner] began to beat. . . . I began to scream and
Johnson admin-
istration that one white man got up and began to beat me in my head and tell me to ‘hush.’ . . .
kept most MFDP All of this on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if
delegates from the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America.”
the Democratic —quoted in The Civil Rights Movement: An Eyewitness History
convention.

MAIN IDEA
In response to Hamer’s speech, telegrams and telephone calls poured in to the
convention in support of seating the MFDP delegates. President Johnson feared
Developing
losing the Southern white vote if the Democrats sided with the MFDP, so his
Historical
Perspective administration pressured civil rights leaders to convince the MFDP to accept a
E Why did young compromise. The Democrats would give 2 of Mississippi’s 68 seats to the MFDP,
people in SNCC with a promise to ban discrimination at the 1968 convention.
and the MFDP feel
When Hamer learned of the compromise, she said, “We didn’t come all this way
betrayed by some
civil rights lead- for no two seats.” The MFDP and supporters in SNCC felt that the leaders had
ers? betrayed them. E

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THE SELMA CAMPAIGN At the start of 1965, the SCLC

HISTORICAL conducted a major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama,
where SNCC had been working for two years to register voters.
S P O TLIG H T By the end of 1965, more than 2,000 African Americans had
been arrested in SCLC demonstrations. After a demonstrator
TWENTY-FOURTH named Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot and killed, King respond-
AMENDMENT—BARRING
POLL TAXES ed by announcing a 50-mile protest march from Selma to
On January 24, 1964, South Montgomery, the state capital. On March 7, 1965, about 600
Dakota became the 38th state protesters set out for Montgomery.
to ratify the Twenty-fourth That night, mayhem broke out. Television cameras cap-
Amendment to the Constitution. tured the scene. The rest of the nation watched in horror as
The key clause in the amendment
police swung whips and clubs, and clouds of tear gas swirled
reads: “The right of citizens of
the United States to vote in any around fallen marchers. Demonstrators poured into Selma by
primary or other election . . . the hundreds. Ten days later, President Johnson presented MAIN IDEA
shall not be denied or abridged Congress with a new voting rights act and asked for its swift Comparing
by the United States or any State passage. F F In what ways
by reason of failure to pay any On March 21, 3,000 marchers again set out for was the civil rights
poll tax or other tax.” campaign in
Poll taxes were often used to
Montgomery, this time with federal protection. Soon the
Selma similar to
keep poor African Americans from number grew to an army of 25,000. the one in
voting. Although most states had VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 That summer, Congress Birmingham?
already abolished their poll taxes
finally passed Johnson’s Voting Rights Act of 1965. The
by 1964, five Southern states—
Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, act eliminated the so-called literacy tests that had disquali-
Texas, and Virginia—still had such fied many voters. It also stated that federal examiners could F. Answer
In Both cam-
laws on the books. By making enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials.
these laws unconstitutional, the
paigns, civil
In Selma, the proportion of African Americans registered to rights workers
Twenty-fourth Amendment gave
vote rose from 10 percent in 1964 to 60 percent in 1968. encountered a
the vote to millions who had been
Overall the percentage of registered African-American voters violent
disqualified because of poverty. response, and in
in the South tripled.
both cases, TV
Although the Voting Rights Act marked a major civil coverage of that
rights victory, some felt that the law did not go far enough. violence helped
Centuries of discrimination had produced social and eco- force the federal
government to
nomic inequalities. Anger over these inequalities led to a
intervene.
series of violent disturbances in the cities of the North.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
•freedom riders •Civil Rights Act of 1964 •Fannie Lou Hamer
•James Meredith •Freedom Summer •Voting Rights Act of 1965

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES 3. ANALYZING ISSUES 4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
In a graphic like the one shown, list What assumptions and beliefs do you Just after the Civil Rights Act of
the steps that African Americans think guided the fierce opposition to 1964 was passed, white Alabama
took to desegregate buses and the civil rights movement in the governor George Wallace said,
schools from 1962 to 1965. South? Support your answer with
evidence from the text. Think About:
“ It is ironical that this event
occurs as we approach the cele-
1965 • the social and political structure bration of Independence Day. On
of the South that day we won our freedom. On
1964
• Mississippi governor Ross this day we have largely lost it.”
1963 Barnett’s comment during his
radio address What do you think Wallace meant by
1962 his statement?
• the actions of police and some
white Southerners

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