Section 4: Disappointed Hopes Chapter 20, Section 4 Notes

New Directions in Civil Rights “Black Power” burst on the scene after the 1966 arrest of SNCC worker Stokely Carmichael, who first used the phrase. The militant words of “Black Power” had been coming to SNCC for a long time. One martyr after another had raised serious questions about the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance.

SNCC efforts to work within the system had left members disillusioned SNCC efforts to work within the system had left members disillusioned. In 1964 the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), a grassroots organization supported by SNCC, was denied a voice at the Democratic Party convention. Black separatism was the antithesis of the civil rights movement’s goal of racial integration. It was a view promoted by, among others, the Nation of Islam, more commonly known as the Black Muslims.

New Directions in Civil Rights The most vocal Black Muslim leader was Malcolm X, a brilliant and bold orator. After he was ousted from the Nation of Islam in a power struggle, Malcolm X went on a pilgrimage to Makkah. There he was exposed to more traditional Islamic teachings, which do not include racial separatism. He returned home with softened views about the separation of blacks and whites, but was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam before his new views could become known. The rhetoric of Malcolm X—and his rejection of nonviolence in favor of self-defense—lived on long after his death. His words influenced members of the SNCC and founders of the Black Panthers.

The Long, Hot Summers The civil rights movement began in the South but moved to Northern cities where prejudice had turned hopes of equality into simmering rage. Frustration over poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination exploded in the Los Angeles ghetto of Watts when a police office arrested a young African American for a traffic violation. For whatever reason, the simple arrest triggered a riot that lasted 6 days.

The Long, Hot Summers In the summers of 1965, 1966, and 1967, rioting hit cities throughout the nation. Looting was directed against white-owned businesses, but the rage often fell on African American business too. To identify and address the causes of the riots, Johnson appointed a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, headed by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois.

The Long, Hot Summers The so-called Kerner Report identified racial discrimination and prejudice as the main causes. It cited three triggers for the racial violence: (1) frustrated hopes of African Americans,(2) the approval and encouragement of violence, both by white terrorists and by some African American protest groups; and (3) the sense many African Americans had of being powerless in a society dominated by whites.

One More Assassination The Kerner Report did not end race riots in the United States. One more outburst of rage swept through nearly 130 ghettoes following the April 4, 1968, death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the hands of a white assassin.

The Movement Appraised After King’s death, the civil rights movement floundered as it became overshadowed by the Vietnam War and crime in the streets. In retrospect, the 14 years between the Brown decision and King’s death saw great progress. Not since the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments had so many civil rights gains been made. For this reason, these years are sometimes called the Second Reconstruction.

The Movement Appraised In 1977, nearly a decade after his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It read in part, “Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of this generation. A Southerner, a black man, he gazed on the greatwall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down.”

Questions Why did some African Americans adopt more radical forms of protest? What led the Kerner Report to conclude that “the nation is rapidly moving toward two increasingly separate societies”? Why do you think King was shifting his vision toward the poor? How did the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s differ from Reconstruction after the Civil War in terms of leadership?