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Shifting Violence. White backlash and black riots. Violence. Successful protest action leads to white backlash such as the murders, bombings and protest.
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Shifting Violence White backlash and black riots.
Violence • Successful protest action leads to white backlash such as the murders, bombings and protest. • Despite black success politically, the non-violent way has not addressed the poverty for blacks. Riots such as Watts are the result of this and ushers in a new period of black activism.
White Backlash: Long, Hot Summer 1963 • The activities of the civil rights movement peaked in the ‘long, hot summer’ of 1963. Inevitably, they sparked of more white backlash. Many leaders of the movement became targets for white retaliation.
Medgar Evers Killed • The NAACP’s only full-time worker. He led a campaign of sit-ins, picketing of shops, and mass demonstrations in Jackson, Mississippi in May 1963. • 12 June – Evers was shot in the back at his home. • In the following days the streets were filled with demonstrators with violence breaking out several times. • A riot broke out after Evers’ funeral too. Police were able to clear the streets after an hour with rifles, dogs, teargas and barricades.
The Sunday School Bombing • 15 September 1963, Birmingham – 400 negroes were gathered at the 16th Street Baptist Church. • Four black girls were changing into their choir robes at the back of the church when a bomb blast occurred. • The four girls were crushed by falling debris from the blast. • The Negro crowd rioted. Six were dead and 17 injured. • Three men, all Klansmen, were arrested. However due to Governor Wallace making early arrests and not allowing federal agents to do it the chance to convict the three men was gone. Instead they were found guilty of illegally possessing dynamite as there was not enough evidence to convict them of the bombing.
Political Results • 1963 – Over 1600 marches, mass meetings and protests nationwide. Many more whites are involved. • Political candidates were forced to either show support for, or opposition against civil rights for negroes. • In the South, Alabama Governor George Wallace became a focal point fro white opposition when he stood in front of the main doors of the University of Alabama to prevent negroes desegregating the university. Wallace believed state legislation should not be overturned by the Federal Government. He was unsuccessful.
