2. CH 18 SEC 3 Voting Rights

3. I. Gaining Voting Rights The Kennedy administration was worried about the non- violent protests by blacks and their supporters because of the violent response to them. Robert Kennedy wanted the groups to shift their focus onto voter registration. But the reaction to registration was just as violent as the reaction to desegregation.

4. I. Gaining Voting Rights The most difficult state to register voters was Mississippi. The people registering voters lived in fear. One person was killed by a state legislator, who was acquitted of murder. The registration drive did increase the number of voters throughout the South, except for Mississippi.

5. I. Gaining Voting Rights In 1962 Congress passed the 24 th amendment, which eliminated the poll tax as a requirement to vote in presidential or congressional elections. It was ratified in 1964. When it was ratified, there was a drive to register voters in Mississippi again. The volunteers were trained during the summer at a college campus in Ohio.

6. I. Gaining Voting Rights The project was called Freedom Summer, and they trained the volunteers either to register voters or teach summer school. Black schools were only given about 25% of the budget that white schools received, and the black schools always closed during the cotton harvest to provide cheap labor.

7. I. Gaining Voting Rights The first volunteers arrived in June, and the next day one went missing. He was with two workers from CORE, and they were arrested for speeding. They paid the fine and left the police station, then disappeared. The FBI was called in, and their bodies were found 2 months later. Two thirds of the volunteers left after that, and the ones that stayed were persecuted.

8. I. Gaining Voting Rights The FBI arrested 21 people in connection to the murders, most were in the KKK. The state dropped all charges against them. The federal government then charged them with violating civil rights laws, and seven were convicted and sent to jail. It was the first convictions ever for killing civil rights workers in Mississippi.

9. II. Political Organizing The Freedom Summer occurred during the 1964 presidential campaign and threatened to derail Johnson’s reelection. Some of the civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, agreed to stop their protests until after the election. Others did not.

10. II. Political Organizing The SNCC did not, and they helped form the MFDP, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which tried to have its representatives be a part of the Democratic National Convention. They wanted to represent the state of Mississippi instead of the delegates sent by the state’s Democratic party.

11. II. Political Organizing A compromise was made to seat 2 of the delegates, but the MFDP rejected the compromise and their challenge to represent Mississippi failed.

12. III. The Voting Rights Act After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, the focus of the civil rights movement was on voting rights. The place that started the movement was Selma, Alabama. Marches were organized to go and register to vote, knowing that the police would stop the marchers.

13. III. The Voting Rights Act Martin Luther King also marched, and he was looking for violent confrontations to show the federal government the need to step in and fix the problem. The police did not use much violence, so King forced the police to put him in jail, with many others including children.

14. III. The Voting Rights Act His arrest had the desired effect, as the media coverage showed children being led to jail for participating in the march. At another march two months later, police shot and killed a marcher. King announced a march on the state capital to protest police brutality, and the governor issued an order to prohibit the march.

15. III. The Voting Rights Act The march crossed a bridge and the police were there to meet them. They beat them and shot tear gas, used cattle prods and chains, all while news cameras were rolling.rolling Two days later they marched again, this time under federal guards, and made it to the capital.

16. III. The Voting Rights Act After the march, president Johnson pushed for a new law that would guarantee voting rights to all citizens. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed by a large majority in Congress. This allowed for more blacks to register to vote, as well as run for office.

17. In your notebooks Half page summary of the lecture.