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Chapter 27, Section 3. New Successes and Challenges. The Push for Voting Rights. SNCC Stages Freedom Summer South states used literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation to keep African Americans from voting
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Chapter 27, Section 3 New Successes and Challenges
The Push for Voting Rights • SNCC Stages Freedom Summer • South states used literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation to keep African Americans from voting • 1964, SNCC staged massive campaign, known as Freedom Summer – included voter education and registration projects • 1,000 volunteered went to Mississippi, mostly black and white students - Formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) • At the beginning of the summer, 3 civil rights workers went missing – Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman • President Johnson ordered a massive search – ended when their bodies were discovered, all three had been murdered
The Push for Voting Rights • SNCC Stages Freedom Summer (Continued) • Despite the danger, students continued to Mississippi for the campaign • At the end of the summer, MFDP traveled to the Democratic National Convention and asked to be recognized as the only Democratic Party for Mississippi • Party offered to give them two delegation seats at the party and to reform the nomination rules to give minorities more of a say • They rejected the offer • The regular delegation walked out over the offer
The Push for Voting Rights • March on Selma • MLK and SCLC planned a march on Selma to pressure the federal government to enact voting rights legislation • Protesters were attacked by state troopers and other authorities on the Edmund Pettus Bridge • National news picked up the event, became known as “Bloody Sunday” (March 7th, 1965) • March 15th, President Johnson made a televised speech calling for a federal voting rights bill to be passed
The Push for Voting Rights • New Legislation Guarantees Voting Rights • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – banned literacy tests and allowed the federal government to oversee voting registration and elections • 24th Amendment – ratified in 1964, it banned the poll tax • Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Simms – limited racial gerrymandering and established the legal principle “one man, one vote” • African American participation in politics increased dramatically
African American Voter Registration(Percentage of voting-age African Americans)
Frustration Explodes Into Violence • Racial Violence Plagues Cities • Frustration with continued discrimination and poverty caused rioting in cities across the US – including Detroit, Newark, LA • 1965, race riots broke out in Watts in LA – one of the worst the country had ever seen • Violence, looting, and arson continued for days before the National Guard stopped it
Frustration Explodes Into Violence • The Kerner Commission Seeks the Cause • Kerner Commission investigated the cause of the rioting • Concluded it was the long-term racial discrimination was the cause • Recommended establishing programs to overcome the problems of urban ghettos • Some backlash from the report, thought it would reward rioters • Johnson never followed through with the recommendations because the Vietnam War was taking up so much of the budget
New Voices for African Americans • Malcolm X Offers a Different Vision • Abandoned his given last name, Little, because he said it was his slave name • Converted to the Nation of Islam while in prison, became a prominent minster after his release from jail • Branched off in 1964, and became the face of the more militant part of the movement • Was assassinated in 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam
New Voices for African Americans • Young Leaders Call for Black Power • Some of the younger generation began to question nonviolence and even integration • Stokely Carmichael, leader of SNCC, began to advocate for “black power” – using their economic and political muscle to gain equality • Whites were threatened by the new turn of the movement
New Voices for African Americans • Militants Form the Black Panthers • Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panthers in 1966in California • Organized patrols to protect urban neighborhoods from police abuse and created antipoverty programs • Began to embrace the “Black is Beautiful” movement
Martin Luther King’s Final Days • Martin Luther King is Assassinated • Understood the frustration but continued to call for nonviolent protests • Began a massive “Poor People’s Campaign” to pressure the government to do more to address poverty in the US • Was in Memphis, Tennessee for the campaign – on April 4th, on the balcony of his motel room, he was shot and died shortly after at the hospital • Riots broke out across the US in response to his death
“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are more difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” – Robert F. Kennedy
Significant Gains and Controversial Issues • Civil Rights Are Advanced • Ended de jure segregation • Increased African American voting and political participation • Poverty rates for African Americans fell, graduation rates and income rose • Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967 • Fair Housing Act – banned discrimination in housing
Significant Gains and Controversial Issues • Controversial Issues Remain • To integrate schools, Johnson ordered forced busing • Nixon enacted Affirmative Action to close economic gap between blacks and whites • Was controversial – whites claimed it was reverse discrimination