Chapter 28 Section 4 The Civil Rights Movement Riddlebarger Changes & Challenges Angela Davis Chapter 28 Section 4 The Civil Rights Movement Riddlebarger
March Against Fear James Meredith shot & wounded in Mississippi
Expanding the Movement March Against Fear turning point Movement Is nonviolence the best strategy to bring genuine & permanent change? Change in laws but…
Conditions Outside the South Similarities/differences for blacks inside/outside South De facto segregation Why more difficult? Discrimination in housing & employment Voting an answer to poverty? 1963: Unemployment whites: 4.8%; blacks: 12.1% Poverty whites: 1/5 of population; blacks: ½ of population
Urban Unrest From 1964 to 1967, unrest exploded in most major U.S. cities Watts Detroit Ohio Kerner Commission poverty & discrimination racial divide
Watts Riots
Civilians have in common vs. authorities?
The Movement Moves North MLK decides to take movement to northern cities Chicago 1966 8-month campaign is one of King’s biggest failures
Fractures in the Movement SCLC, SNCC, CORE & NAACP among others all have goal of ending racial discrimination By mid-1960’s, conflicts develop within groups. As harassment of members grows, some begin to reject nonviolence as philosophy.
Black Power Stokely Carmichael and SNCC (1966) “We Shall Overcome” vs. “We Shall Overrun”
Stokely Carmichael June 17, 1966 “ This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested- and I ain’t going to jail no more. The only way we’re going to stop them white men from whippin’ us is to take over. We been saying freedom for six years- and we ain’t got nothin’. What we gonna start now is ‘Black Power!’
Black Power Movement Black Power slogan makes headlines Many see it as a call to violence Self reliance CORE
Tommie Smith and John Carlos at 1968 Summer Olympics Tommie Smith and John Carlos at 1968 Summer Olympics. White guy from Australia wore a human rights badge in support of their protest.
Black Panthers Black Power appeals to many young African-Americans. Black Panther Party (1966) Bobby Seale & Huey Newton. Reject nonviolence Violent Revolution Seale on left and Newton
Black Panther Party Controversial Confrontation
Black Muslims One of largest & most influential groups expressing black power is the Nation of Islam Based upon Islamic religion Black Muslims. Honorable Elijah Muhammad Had about 65,000 members by 1960’s.
Malcolm X Biggest name in Nation of Islam is Malcolm X. Offered message of hope, defiance & black pride. By Any Means Necessary “Revolutions are never based upon … begging a corrupt system to accept us into it. Revolutions overturn systems.”
Martin vs. Malcolm “[N]ow you’re facing a situation where the young Negro’s coming up. They don’t want to hear that ‘turn-the-other-cheek’ stuff, no…There’s new thinking coming in. There’s new strategy coming in…It’ll be ballots, or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death.” -Malcolm X, 1964 “Violence …seeks to annihilate rather than convert…Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon…which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.” Martin Luther King, 1964
Malcolm X White response Critical of King 1964: Leaves Nation of Islam Mecca Change in views Feb. 1965: Assassinated by Black Muslims
Assassination of Martin Luther King Focus more on economic issues. Memphis “I Have Seen the Promised Land” April 4th
Robert F. Kennedy, speaking in an African-American neighborhood in Indianapolis just after announcing the death of Martin Luther King “You can be filled with bitterness and with hatred and desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization, black people amongst blacks and white people amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, like Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across the land, with…compassion and love.”
End of Movement The Movement after King Impact of Vietnam Backlash- “Get tough with blacks” Impact upon other movements Bakke and quotas