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18.2 Challenging Segregation. I. The Role of Students. The youth of the generation, mostly college students, played a prominent role in the civil rights movement
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I. The Role of Students • The youth of the generation, mostly college students, played a prominent role in the civil rights movement • They established their own group called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and played a key role in desegregating public facilities Members of the Atlanta SNCC branch.
I. The Role of Students… • They attended workshops where they were trained in nonviolence & participated in role-playing activities • Adopted the slogan “jail, not bail”
II. Kennedy & Civil Rights A. John F. Kennedy won the election of 1960 1. Lyndon Johnson, a white southerner, was his VP Kennedy defeated Nixon by the narrowest margin of popular votes (112,754) in any presidential election.
II. Kennedy & Civil Rights… • Although JFK promised to support civil rights if elected, he was slow to act as President because he didn’t want to lose Southern support for other programs • However, violence against civil rights activists finally forced JFK to support civil rights
II. Kennedy & Civil Rights… 1. He enforced the integration of bus terminals after the Freedom Riders were attacked One of the buses was firebombed in Anniston, Alabama.
II. Kennedy & Civil Rights… 2. He sent federal marshals to escort James Meredith to the University of Mississippi Lt. Gov Paul Johnson blocks James Meredith from attempting to enter University of Mississippi in September 1962. Kennedy sent 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to the campus.
II. Kennedy & Civil Rights… 3. He ordered his aides to prepare a civil rights bill after protestors in Birmingham, Alabama were attacked by police dogs & fire hoses Bull Connor, Birmingham’s Chief of Public Safety, prepared for the Birmingham demonstrations by encouraging whites to avoid violence.
Civil Rights Address It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. This is not the case. The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day; one third as much chance of completing college; one third as much chance of becoming a professional man; twice as much chance of becoming unemployed; about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year; a life expectancy which is seven years shorter; and the prospects of earning only half as much. 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; that we have no second-class citizens, except Negroes; that we no class or caste system, no ghettos, no master race, except with respect to Negroes. -President Kennedy, Civil Rights Address, June11, 1963 http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3375
III. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Civil rights activists held a March on Washington to help build momentum for the civil rights bill 1. This is when King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
III. The Civil Rights Act of 1964… • After JFK’s assassination, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law 1. Ended segregation in public places 2. Called for equal employment opportunities for all 3. Gave the federal govt. broad power to prevent racial discrimination Civil Rights Act 1964
IV. The Struggle for Voting Rights http://www.electionsonthe.net/oh/VRform.pdf http://www.crmvet.org/info/litapp.pdf • African Americans held a protest in Selma, Alabama for voting rights (1965) 1. While attempting to march protestors were beaten by the police
IV. The Struggle for Voting Rights… • Led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 1. Enforced their right to vote under the 15th Amendment 2. Prohibited the use of literacy tests 3. Federal examiners would assist with enrolling African Americans Number of Black Southern Legislators, 1868-1900 and 1960-1992
Bull Connor, Birmingham’s Chief of Public Safety, prepares for the Birmingham demonstrations by encouraging whites to avoid violence.
Freedom Summer 1964 • In the 1960s, Mississippi was the poorest state in the nation. 86% of all non-white families lived below the poverty line. • 45% of Mississippi consisted of African Americans, but only 5% of those eligible to vote were registered. Many wanted to vote, but they worried they would lose their jobs or their lives if they registered. Those who tried to register “failed” the literacy tests. • In June, 1964, SNCC decided to send volunteers into Mississippi to start a voter registration drive. This became known as Freedom Summer.
Freedom Summer 1964 • The goals of the Freedom Summer were: • to expand black voter registration in the state • to organize a legally constituted “Freedom Democratic Party” that would challenge the whites-only Mississippi Democratic Party • to establish “freedom schools” to teach reading and math to black children • to open community centers were indigent blacks could obtain legal and medical assistance
Freedom Summer 1964 • 800 volunteers gathered for a week-long orientation session at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio • On June 21st, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney disappeared. They had been taken to jail for speeding charges but were later released. Their bodies were found on August 4th in a dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Freedom Summer 1964 • Meanwhile, Freedom Summer went on. “Freedom Clinics” provided healthcare; lawyers worked in legal clinics to secure basic constitutional rights; “freedom schools” provided an education to blacks of all ages; African Americans registered to vote. • As a result of Freedom Summer, by 1969, 66.5% of African Americans who were eligible to vote had registered.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing Four members of the KKK placed a bomb under the stairwell at the church which exploded as members were preparing for service. The church was targeted because it was the headquarters of the Birmingham movement where MLK launched protests against segregation.