1. New Successes and Challenges

2. Why It Matters Racial injustice was not fully eradicated
Some African Americans moved to violence
Some were left with a bitter legacy

3. SNCC Stages Freedom Summer
SNCC spent time on voter education in Mississippi
Had little success
1964 led Freedom Summer
1,000 volunteers to register African Americans to vote
Created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Alternative to the all-white Democratic Party

4. SNCC Continued
Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman came up missing
Found dead in a earthen dam
Shot at point blank range
MFDP was not seated at first at Democratic Convention in New Jersey
Eventually allowed 2 seats
Regular Democratic Party left in protest

5. Marching on Selma
1965 MLK and the SCLC organized a campaign in Selma, Alabama
To pressure the government to enact voting rights legislation
Confrontation took place on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
March 7, 1965 “Bloody Sunday”
TV exposure outraged Americans
LBJ called for strong voting laws

6. New Legislation Guarantees Voting Rights
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Banned literacy test
Federal government to oversee voter registration and elections
1975 expanded to Hispanic voters in the Southwest
Twenty-fourth Amendment 1964, banned the poll tax

7. New Legislation Continued
Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Simms
Limited the practice of redrawing districts
Dilute African American votes
“one man, one vote”
Voter participation rose
1964 = 7%
1986 = 70%
Elected officials rose from 100-6,000 by mid 1980s

8. Racial Violence Plagues Cities
After Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act
Rioting broke out in Watts in Los Angeles
Violence, looting, and arson
Also happened in Newark, NJ and Detroit, Michigan
Violence no longer kept the African Americans down

9. The Kerner Commission Seeks the Cause
Kerner Commission created to find the reason for riots
Found that long-term discrimination was the cause
Said to established and expanded federal programs to help those in the ghetto
Some felt they were rewarding the rioters
Vietnam War consumed money, leading to changes being overlooked