Civil Rights Movement 11/19

A nation watches Birm. Protests running out of steam Turn to children ,000 Afr. Am youths march; most arrested The following day, youths met in a church, preparing to march again. Bull Connor has them barricaded and police use dogs and hoses to keep them contained

Connor’s plan backfires Images on newspapers and Tv’s across the country Shock swept nation concerning South’s actions Civil Rights leaders meet w/city, 90 day limit on segregation to come

Racism still looms Ku Klux Klan holds rallies Bombing would later occur at hotel of Afr. Am leaders Kennedy threatens intervention Sept. 15, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 4 girls killed in bombing

For ‘jobs and freedom’ 1963 shows us another protest March on Washington Throwback to A. Philip Randolph in ’41 Aug. 28, over 250,000 people marched Contained 60,000 whites, clergymen, union workers, students, celebs like Rosa and Jackie

“I Have A Dream” Martin Luther King delivers his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal…” When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Government at work Civil rights bill (cautiously supported by JFK) going through Congress After assassination of JFK, LBJ continues to push for bill Filibustered in Senate- speaking to prevent legislative action Finally passed on July 2, 1964-banned discrimination on basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin

Voting Freedom Summer Campaign to register black voters by CORE and SNCC Focused effort in Mississippi Most volunteers were white college students from the North Violence followed  James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered while visiting the site of a burned church

Selma march to Montgomery over voting rights ends in violence World once again witnesses images and follows with outrage Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes Registered voters rose from 7 to 59 % in Mississippi in 4 years

What assumptions and beliefs do you think guided the opposition in the South to the civil rights movement? Social/political structure in south Actions of police and some white southerners

1964- Alabama Gov. George Wallace: “It is ironicial that this event occurs as we approach the celebration of Independence Day. On that day we won our freedom. On this day we have largely lost it.” What do you think Wallace meant by that? Why would he say that?