16.2 Challenging Segregation

1. 16.2Challenging Segregation Chapter Notes April 30, 2014

2. The Sit-In Movement • BackgroundSit-in Movement • In January 1960, four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, held a sit-in at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter. • They refused to leave the store until given the same counter service as whites, and they promised to return the next day. • The next day, 29 students participated in the sit-in. Within two months, sit-ins had spread to segregated stores, restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters in 54 cities in nine states. • The sit-in movement attracted idealistic college students who were discouraged by the slow pace of integration and were looking for a way to take matters into their own hands.

3. The Sit-In Movement • BackgroundSNCC • Leaders of the NAACP and the SCLC leaders worried that the students would become violent. • Most students endured harassment without retribution. • The students formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to focus on desegregation, voter education, and voter registration. • They used sit-ins and other nonviolent tactics to achieve their goals.

4. The Freedom Riders • Freedom Riders • 1961 CORE leader James Farmer asked black and white volunteers, called Freedom Riders, to travel south to protest the continued segregation of interstate bus terminals. • The riders were met with violence from citizens and officials in several cities. • Early Promise • President Kennedy campaigned as a civil rights supporter but backed away from attempts to push through new civil rights legislation when faced with opposition from Congress. • Robert Kennedy, the president’s brother and U.S. attorney general, filed lawsuits across the South in support of voting rights.

5. The Freedom Riders • President Takes Action • In response to the violence against the Freedom Riders, President Kennedy struck a deal with a senator from Mississippi to have Freedom Riders arrested to protect them from mob violence. • CORE and the NAACP paid the bail for the arrested riders and kept the movement alive. • Breakthrough • President Kennedy finally ordered tighter regulations against segregated terminals, and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, took legal action against those who resisted. • By late 1962, segregation in interstate bus terminals had ended.

6. The Freedom Riders • Acts of Equality • Kennedy named a large number of African Americans, including Thurgood Marshall, to prominent government positions. • He also created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to prevent discrimination in federal hiring. • Confrontation • 1962 James Meredith, an African American student, received a court order allowing him to transfer to the University of Mississippi. • The governor blocked his enrollment. President Kennedy ordered 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to the university, but the group was attacked by a mob. • Kennedy responded by ordering thousands of troops to the campus, where they remained until Meredith graduated the next year.

7. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • A Calculated Risk • Dr. King launched protests in volatile Birmingham, hoping to get President Kennedy’s attention. • Soon after the protests began, King was arrested. In jail, he explained that his actions were justified under a moral law based on divine justice. • Retaliation and Reaction • After King’s release, protests grew again. Birmingham police responded with violence, which was broadcast nationwide. • Kennedy responded by preparing a new civil rights bill. The law outlawed segregation in most places of public accommodation and provided equal access to public facilities. • It gave the attorney general more power to end job discrimination and made permanent a federal commission ensuring compliance with federal law.

8. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • The Bill Becomes Law  • Opponents blocked passage of the bill, and setbacks continued after Kennedy was assassinated. • His successor, Lyndon Johnson, pushed Congress hard for approval, which finally came on July 2, 1964. • Voting Rights  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did little to address voting rights. • Intimidation and violence continued against African Americans registering to vote.

9. The Struggle for Voting Rights • Selma • The Alabama town’s majority black population comprised only three percent of registered voters because of intimidation by local authorities. • Dr. King led demonstrations in Selma. Activists were beaten and arrested, and the events drew national attention. • The President Intervenes  • In response to the violence in Selma and pressure within his party, President Johnson called for a new voting rights law. • Federal examiners were sent to register voters. • Discriminatory criteria, such as literacy tests, were outlawed. • Results  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to hundreds of thousands of African Americans registering to vote. • The number of African Americans elected to office grew nationwide.