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Birmingham, 1963. A Summer of Jubilation and Despair. The events in Birmingham brought great hope that the fight for justice and equality for African Americans would be forthcoming. However, the struggle would continue throughout the summer.
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The events in Birmingham brought great hope that the fight for justice and equality for African Americans would be forthcoming. However, the struggle would continue throughout the summer.
Two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, applied for admission to the University of Alabama and were admitted . Alabama Governor George Wallace vowed to stand in the schoolhouse door blocking their enrollment to the University. In doing so, he fulfilled a campaign promise to keep Alabama schools segregated.
In order to avoid violence and to allow Wallace to carry out his “stand in the schoolhouse door,” the Kennedy administration and Wallace carefully orchestrated the enrollment of Malone and Hood on June 11, 1963.
Associated Press Photograph “Now, therefore, I, George C. Wallace, as Governor of the State of Alabama…do hereby denounce and forbid this illegal and unwarranted action by the Central Government.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/17/ST2008101701192.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/17/ST2008101701192.html “The drama of the morning - Wallace’s physical refusal to allow Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to register two black students, forcing Kennedy to federalize the Alabama National Guard in order desegregate the University - played out in the bright summer sun as the governor bested the president in the eyes of many Alabamians while acting on the national stage. Both men claimed victory.”
In an address to the American people on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy declared , ”This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro.”
President Kennedy continued, “We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution…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…Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise.”
One day after President Kennedy’s inspiring speech to the American people, yet another tragedy in the civil rights’ struggle occurred in Mississippi. Medgar Evers, Mississippi’s first field officer for the NAACP, was assassinated outside his home. Evers had worked tirelessly to investigate violent crimes against blacks in Mississippi and to seek solutions to this violence. His leadership in a boycott of Jackson businesses and his efforts to get James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi greatly increased the hatred of many white supremacists toward him.
As Evers pulled into his driveway on June 12, 1963, he was struck by an assassin’s bullet. He was returning home from a meeting with NAACP lawyers and was carrying t-shirts printed with “Jim Crow Must Go.” His assassination shocked the nation and led to many advances in the voter registration of African Americans and the integration of schools in Mississippi.
On June 19, 1963, the same day as Medgar Evers’ burial in Arlington Cemetery, President John F. Kennedy sent a proposed civil rights legislation to Congress. The legislation dealt with the following: Title I - Voting rightsTitle II - Public accommodationsTitle III - Desegregation of public schoolsTitle IV - Establishment of a Community Relations ServiceTitle V - Continuation of the Civil Rights CommissionTitle VI - Nondiscrimination in federally assisted programsTitle VII - Establishment of statutory Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity
To put pressure on the United States Congress to pass the proposed civil rights legislation, a march on Washington, D.C., was planned by Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King , Jr. Bayard Rustin Martin Luther King, Jr. Philip Randolph
The goals of the march which was held on August 28, 1963, were: • meaningful civil rights laws • a massive federal works program • full and fair employment • decent housing • the right to vote • adequate integrated education
By the end of the day, over 250,000 people, both black and white, had gathered at the Lincoln Memorial.
In front of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his memorable speech, “I Have a Dream.” This speech resonated throughout the United States and continues to inspire humanity.
Bibliography Padgett, John. "Medgar Evers." Mississippi Writers Page. 11/11/2008. University of Mississippi, Web. 9 Oct 2009. <http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/evers_medgar/index.html>. Library of Congress Exhibitions. 10/05/2004 . Library of Congress, Web. 9 Oct 2009. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/images/br0174as.jpg. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Digital Collections. Web. 28 Sept 2009. http://www.archives.alabama.gov/searchcoll.html. Eskew, Glenn T. But for Birmingham. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Print.
