The image above shows Nettie Hunt

and her daughter Nickie celebrating

the Brown decision in May of 1954.

The African American Story Part 6: The Civil

Rights Movement (The 1st Phase)
This work outlines stories, and other facts
about the heroic Civil Rights Movement from
1954 to 1965. It also gives an overview of the
diverse black culture during that timeframe.
Black people not only protested. Our
forebears also used multifaceted forms of
political activism and social activism in order
for them to fight for freedom in our
communities. The sacrifice of civil rights
heroes is irreplaceable. We honor heroes and
we forever remember their heroism.

We Shall Overcome.
 Once again, black people have shown courage and
heroism throughout the ages of human history. The
Civil Rights Movement impacts us today. The more
that I have researched about the Civil Rights
movement, the more respect that I have for the
heroes who sacrificed for our freedom. Back then,
black people were bombed, lynched, raped, and
suffered other unspeakable atrocities. Yet, our
ancestors never gave up. They continued to fight for
justice. The time from 1954 to 1968 changed
America and the world forever too. This movement
was large as it encompassed a diversity of peoples. It
was made up of black people and non-black people.
It included the poor, the working class, the middle
class, and the wealthy. The Civil Rights Movement was invented by black people like Ella Baker and Septima Clark
including others. Human beings involved in the Civil Rights Movement not only wanted to end racial segregation
and discrimination, which was unjustly used against African Americans. They wanted total freedom, justice, and
equality.

Back then, hospitals, schools, transportation services, restaurants, cemeteries, and beaches were segregated in the
South and even in parts of the Midwest. Many places of the North had de facto segregation (or segregation by
unwritten custom and tradition not necessarily by legal policy. Hispanic Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans experienced de facto segregation in the West and Southwest too).
Unfortunately, racism and discrimination still exist in our generation. The overall Civil Rights Movement was a
movement that consisted of sacrifice, courage, and total determination. Innocent people were brutalized with
weapons, dogs, false imprisonment, and water hoses, but they persisted. From the successful Montgomery Bus
Boycott (1955-1956) to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968), a transformation of America
developed. More people traveled into where they wanted to and segregated signs came down. The historic Civil
Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment
practices, in public accommodations, etc.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights to black people and all Americans. The
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 ended racial and national barriers to immigration (it banned the
racist quota policies of the early 20th century). This grew opportunities for immigrants to come into America from
regions beyond just Europe. That glorious law allowed more Africans, Latinos, Asians, etc. to immigrate into
America. Immigrant rights are human rights. Rebellions happened in a vast scale during this era from 1963-1970.
These rebellions were expressions of pain, grief plus anger over racism, housing discrimination, poverty, and police
brutality. Leaders from Dr. King, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Medgar Ever, and Fannie Lou Hamer promoted the
movement for social change. The movement was carried by grassroots (on many cases unsung) human beings.
Black Americans headed the Civil Rights Movement. The Black Power movement (which is about promoting
autonomous, independent black political, social, and economic power) flourished during this time and the glorious
Black is Beautiful ideology spread worldwide as well. Since the Civil Rights Movement is so extensive and so
important, I divided my coverage of this movement into 2 parts. This first part will show information about the Civil
Rights Movement from 1954 to 1965. The second part will be released into the future and it will show facts from
1966 to 1968 (along with other aspects of civil rights history). Ordinary men, women, and children were involved in
the movement for social change. Therefore, our eyes are on the prize.
 We Still Rise.

The Brown V. Board of Education

After World War II ended in 1945, justice for African Americans still didn’t exist. After World War II, more African
Americans traveled into the North. Also, black people wanted rights that were owed to them by birthright. By the
1950's, the evil McCarthyite witch-hunts harmed civil liberties. Even some trade union leadership members and
some black politicians were complicit in those witch-hunts. Many black people rejected McCarthyite as against
human freedom. Still, black people fought back against Jim Crow. The NAACP (which had a heavily middle-class
leadership back then) became the strongest and largest civil rights organization of America. The ending of
interstate travel segregation existed in the Supreme Court decision of Morgan v. Virginia in June 3, 1946. Black
police officers first have jobs in Daytona Beach, DeLand, Sanford, Fort Myers, Tampa, and Gainesville. These cities
are in Florida. Also, African American police officers back in 1946 existed in Little Rock (Arkansas), Louisville
(Kentucky), Charlotte (North Carolina), Austin (Texas), Houston (Texas), Dallas (Texas), San Antonio (Texas),
Richmond (Virginia), and in Knoxville (Tennessee). Back then, Paul Robeson continued to speak out for justice. In
fact, he founded the American Crusade against Lynching.

One of the most important parts of the early Civil Rights Movement was the Congress of Racial Equality’s Journey
of Reconciliation. This was about using 16 men to integrate interstate travel on buses back on April 9, 1947. They
traveled into the South, and many them were arrested and assaulted. This was a prelude to the Freedom Rides of
May 1961. Those in the April 9-23, 1947 Journey of Reconciliation included George Houser, James Peck (who also
took part in the Freedom Rides of 1961), Bayard Rustin, Dennis Banks, Andrew Johnson, Conrad Lynn, etc. CORE,
the American Friends and Service Committee (AFSC), and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) were involved in
the journey. The movement was using direct action, which was a legitimate form of activism. Some in the NAACP
had reservations about direct action, but no revolution was successful by legal means alone. That’s history and
that’s real talk. Change came by both legal action and by direct action. The Civil War and ending slavery didn’t
exist by using the courts alone. It was caused by men and women using direct action to end the oppressive
Confederate states. The Journey of Reconciliation and unsung heroes contributed to the decision of 1954 by the
Supreme Court to call segregated schools unconstitutional. Before Brown vs. Board, cases on education constantly
came out. Many state cases voted in favor of ending segregation involving education. Yet, these cases came into
the Supreme Court for a federal decision. The Brown v. Board of Education involved multiple black students and
their families who wanted not only desegregation, but fair resources in black schools. Black people never wanted
to have lax resources, but still integrated. We wanted to go to any school that we wanted (without segregation)
and have the fair, adequate resources to give students a great education.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision that overturned the evil Plessy v. Ferguson decision of
1896. It changed America permanently. The decision was handed down in May 17, 1954. The Warren Court ruled
unanimously in a 9-0 decision. It declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." De jure
racial segregation violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. It took great
sacrifice in order for the Brown decision to be a success. Charles Hamilton worked his life to fight against Jim Crow.
He used the courts as a lawyer to defeat Plessy. Lawyers in the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund including Thurgood
Marshall (who was a lawyer from Baltimore, Maryland) also took part in ending the segregation of public schools.
Linda Brown was a student in Topeka, Kansas who wanted to attend a school. Her parents fought to end
segregation. Her parents wanted to go to a school closer to home. They were denied an application, because Linda
Brown was a black youth.

The NAACP fought on the behalf of Linda Brown and

her parents. The NAACP also combined other school
cases into one. Vicki Henderson, Donald Henderson,
James Emanuel, Nancy Todd, and Katherine Carper
were some of the students involved in the Brown
case too. The Supreme Court decision cited
examples, other facts, and crucial information that
forced racial segregation is not part of legitimate
morality. The Court used the sociological studies
from scholars E. Franklin Frazier (which documented
how racial segregation damaged black school
children socially and psychologically) and Gunnar
This picture shows an integrated classroom of both black Myrdal to promote its decision. It was a victory for
and white students in Baltimore from 1955. Baltimore had to black people and for freedom loving people in
fight to eliminate segregation also. These are first grade kids. general. The victory was celebrated by the lawyers
George W. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall (whose
mentor was the great lawyer Charles Hamilton), and
James M. Nabritt. The lawyers helped the black parents from Virginia, Kansas, Washington, D.C., South Carolina,
and Delaware to get the victory.

The Brown decision ended one era of change and started the new era of the modern civil rights movement. Later,
the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mexican-Americans in the Hernandez v. Texas decision. That decision ended
the exclusion of Mexican Americans from being in trail juries. In 1955, The Supreme Court tiled in Brown II that
desegregation in public school should proceed with "all deliberate speed." White racists reacted with violence,
closing schools, restricting funds, and creating the Southern Manifesto (which was drafted by North Carolina
Senator Sam Ervin Jr.) to attack the federal court decisions, especially the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
White racists formed White Citizen Councils to oppose justice. They were many white southerners and
businessmen who were part of the White Citizens Council too. The Klan assaulted people, murdered people, blew
up homes and churches, and raped black people as well during this time. Hundreds of schools in the South were
segregated by 1956-1957. By the 1960’s, the white racist backlash caused desegregation in the South to be in a
standstill. Yet, black people continued to fight for freedom.
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis Till lived from July 25, 1941 to August 28, 1955. The tragic death of Emmett Till was one of the most
brutal murders in American history. It galvanized even more people to be in favor of the Civil Rights Movement.
Countless people were involved in the movement, because they were shocked and horrified at the murder of the
late Brother Emmett Till. He was brutally murdered by a group of cowardly racists. He was born in Chicago (in the
South side). His mother Mamie Carthan Till-Mobley was a hero who stood up for human rights for decades. In
1955, Emmett Till visited Money, Mississippi to visit relatives during the summer. His parents were from Mississippi
and many black people in the Delta were sharecroppers and regularly couldn’t vote. He was only 14 when he came
into Mississippi and he was 5 feet 4 inches. Mose Wright was Mamie Till Bradley’s uncle. Mose told Emmett about
living in the Mississippi Delta. Emmett Till came into Money in August 21, 1955. His cousin was Curtis Jones. Till
went into a market where he saw the 21 year old white woman named Carolyn Bryant. The store was owned by
her husband, Roy Bryant. There is no evidence that Emmett Louis flirted with Carolyn Bryant. In fact, the FBI report
completed in 2006 notes "...Jones recanted his statements prior to his death and apologized to Mamie Till-
Mobley." Till may have whistled in the store since he whistled to alleviate his stuttering. Carolyn Bryant falsely
accused Emmett Till of sexually harassing her. According to historian Timothy Tyson, Bryant admitted to him in a
2008 interview that her testimony at the trial that Till had made verbal and physical advances on her was false. So
Carolyn Bryant is a stone cold liar.

Emmett Till left the store. Later, Roy Bryant was told about Till. In the early morning hours—between 2:00 am and
3:30 am—on August 28, 1955, Bryant, Milam, and Bryant's wife drove to Mose Wright's house. Milam was armed
with a pistol and a flashlight. He asked Wright if he had three boys in the house from Chicago. Till’ great aunt
wanted to give the men money to prevent the kidnapping of Emmett Till. They refused. They kidnapped Till and
threatened Mose Wright with death if he told anybody about it. They tied Emmett Till up. They pistol whipped him
and knocked him unconscious. Milan was one of the white murderers. Emmett Till was shot in the head, tied to a
75 pound weight, and they threw him in the Tallahatchie River. His body was found decomposed 3 days later by a
white boy while he was fishing. Emmitt Till’s body was found nude. Medgar Evers and Amzie Moore fought for
justice back then too. Mose Wright was called to the river to identify Till. The silver ring that Till was wearing was
removed and returned to Wright and next passed on to the district attorney as evidence. Roy Bryant and Milam
were guilty and they were still acquitted by an all-white jury. The murder of Emmett Till made nation headlines.
People were outraged. Mamie Till allowed the photo of Till’s mutilated body to be showed in public in order for
America to witness the brutality of racism and injustice. Till’s mother fought against the violence in the South.

“Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When
something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, ‘That’s their business, not mine.’ Now I
know how wrong I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us,
anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all!”

-Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley

Emmett Till’s funeral was in Chicago. Both whites and black people condemned the murder of Emmett Till. Roy
Wilkins of the NAACP was right to call the murder a lynching. Thousands of people attended the funeral. The image
of Till’s dead body was shown in the Chicago Defender and Jet magazine, which are African American-oriented
media sources. Till was buried on September 6, 1955 in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Mose Wright identified
J. W. Milam as one of the murderers. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem titled "A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in
Mississippi. The death of Emmett Till brought new motivation to fight for civil rights. Journalist Louis Lomax
acknowledges Till's death to be the start of what he terms the "Negro revolt," and scholar Clenora Hudson-Weems
characterizes Till as a "sacrificial lamb" for civil rights. NAACP operative Amzie Moore considered the Till tragedy as
the start of the Civil Rights Movement, at the very least, in Mississippi. Myrlie Evers, widow of Medgar Evers, said in
1985 that Till's case resonated so strongly because it "shook the foundations of Mississippi—both black and white,
because...with the white community...it had become nationally publicized...with us as blacks...it said, even a child
was not safe from racism and bigotry and death."

Rest in Power Brother Emmett Till.

 Many of the unsung heroes of the boycott movement are Inez Baskin, Aurelia Shines Browder Coleman,
Samuel Gadson, Thelma Glass, Urelee Gordon, Thomas Gray, Vera Harris, Bob Ingram, Gwen Patton,
Idessa Redden, John F. Sawyer Jr., Rev. Donnie Williams, Lillie Mae Bradford, Johnnie Carr, Fred Gray
Sr., Annie B. Giles, Rev. Robert Graetz, Ameilia Scott Green, Charlie Hardy, Sarah Herbert, Dorothy
Posey Jones, Dorothy Posey, Inell Johnson, Mary Jo Smiley, E.D. Nixon, and Lucille Times.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

The unjust death of Emmett Till certainly brought the modern day Civil Rights Movement into a new era. The
Montgomery Bus Boycott was a success, because it involved consistency, courage, unity, collective power, and a
powerful will of the black community. Before 1955, many black women and black girls refused to seat at the back
of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Their names should be acknowledged. One woman was a black professor
named Jo Ann Robinson (who was an active proponent of civil rights in her own right). Claudette Colvin did the
same thing when she was a 15 year old high school student on March 2, 1955. Vernon Johns in the early 1950’s
wanted a boycott too involving bus transportation. Vernon Johns was a great pastor and a huge influence on Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s activism. The Montgomery Bus Boycott started in December 1, 1955. On this date, Rosa
Parks (who was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist long before 1955) boarded a bus in
Montgomery Alabama. She sat down in an empty seat. Stops came about. Later, the bus driver wanted her to give
up her seat to a white person. She refused. Later, the bus driver called the police and arrested her. She being in jail
prompted the boycott movement. Days later, civil rights activists came into the South to join the movement. They
organized a one day boycott. They wanted the black community to not ride the bus in order for them to oppose
Parks’ arrest and Jim Crow in general.

It was so successful that the boycott extended beyond just one day. The NAACP used the courts to legally challenge
the segregated buses. Civil rights leaders took the opportunity to fight back. One attorney Fred Gray represented
both Parks and Colvin. Colvin was part of Parks’ Youth Council in the NAACP. Edgar Daniel Nixon and others were
involved in the boycott as well. E.D. Nixon was involved in labor activism, he was part of the NAACP, and he fought
for justice for African Americans. The Montgomery Improvement Association or the MIA was created in
Montgomery on December 1955. The MIA guided the boycott. The MIA used carpools, meetings, music, and
sermons to mobilize black Americans to oppose injustice. A very young Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came into
Montgomery to preach the Gospel. He was a Baptist minister with his wife Coretta Scott King being an activist too.
Dr. King addressed the MIA in a meeting.

He gave an eloquent, inspirational speech to protest oppression and discrimination. It was held in the Holt Street
Baptist Church in December 5, 1955. Back then, he has shown an amazing speaking ability and the crowd
applauded him greatly. He prepared his speech for a few minutes and it galvanized the crowd. He was voted to be
the leader of the MIA. Dr. King wanted nonviolent action to make the boycott successful. Montgomery black
residents continued. Racists like the Klan issued threats and Dr. King’s family survived the bombing of their home.
Black women took a leadership role in the movement too. Black women were leaders of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott movement too. Women leaders of the Civil Rights Movement include Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark,
Rosa Parks, Gloria Richardson, Dorothy Cotton, Unita Blackwell, Ella Baker, and others who fought for gender
equality and racial justice. A lot of this history has been omitted, because some want to promote the myth that the
Civil Rights movement was a solely male-dominated movement. The Civil Rights Movement historically was a very
grassroots, spontaneous movement that was made up of men, women, and children who desired a change to end
the oppressive white supremacist system. Eliminating patriarchy, sexism, imperialism (including any war
mongering), and any oppression is the wise course to take. It is important to have self-reflection in life and to make
action. Faith is dead without works, so we have work to do in our generation.

In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery city law that segregated law was unconstitutional. After
more than a year, the bus boycott was successful. African Americans rode the bus in a non-segregated basis in
Montgomery. Other bus boycotts grew in other cities of the South. This victory proved that boycotts and
nonviolent resistance can work to improve the lives of African Americans. After the boycott, the civil rights
movement grew in power and influence. Dr. King and Montgomery minister Ralph Abernathy formed the SCLC or
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC existed to fight for civil rights and used nonviolent
resistance as a tool to get justice in the world. Dr. King was influenced to follow nonviolence by Henry Thoreau
(who believed in civil disobedience against unjust laws), Gandhi (back then, few people knew of his anti-black
racism), Jesus Christ, Bayard Rustin, etc. The SCLC organized protests like a Prayer Pilgrimage in Washington, D.C. in
1957. This helped convince Congress to pass civil rights legislation in 1957.

She was Sister Lillie Mae Bradford. She was an

More than 40,000 black people refused to ride
a bus for about 381 days in order for the
boycott to be victorious.
This is a young
Sister trying to
hitch a ride than
ride a bus.
active member of the Montgomery Civil rights
movement and the bus boycott. She refused to
sit on the black of the bus back in May of 1951
(when she was 23 years old). She was a lifelong
civil rights activist. She recently passed away in
March 14, 2017 in her sleep. Rest in Power
Sister Lillie Mae Bradford.
He is the lawyer named
Thomas Gray. He is the brother
of Fred Gray Sr. He drove
people to work during the bus
boycott.
Late 1950's Events
The crisis in Central High School (in Little Rock) was about debates in dealing with education. State and local
governments in the South promoted segregated schools and the federal government had little involvement. Many
schools refused to enforce the Brown decision back then during the late 1950’s. So, conflicts arose. The 1957 Little
Rock crisis in Arkansas changed America forever. The situation started when the Little Rock school board had
formed a plan to gradually desegregate its schools. It wanted to start with the Central High School. Nine African
American schools volunteered to enroll. They were supported by Daisy Bates (who was the Arkansas NAACP
President) and these students had excellent grades. Later, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus said that he opposed
integration and called out the state National Guard from Arkansas on September 4, 1957. When the nine students
came at Central High, the soldiers from the state National Guard blocked their way. One of the nine was Elizabeth
Eckford. She said that white racists wanted to lynch her in screaming. Eckford was spat upon by a white racist
woman. On the first day, the Little Rock Nine didn’t go into the school.

Elizabeth Eckford was a brave human being and this story was shown in the London Times, the Times of India, and
the South China Morning Post. Television coverage was shown of these events too. President Eisenhower before
this time didn’t provide great leadership on the civil rights movement. He wanted the status quo. He didn’t urge
rapid enforcement of the Brown decision. In private, he criticized the Brown decision. It was when the Governor
Faubus resisted the will of the federal courts is when he acted. Eisenhower sent federal troops (from the 101st
Airborne Division) to Little Rock to protect the students and to enforce the Court’s decision.

This was the first time since Reconstruction that a President of the United States sent federal troops to the South
to protect the rights of black citizens. He gave his federal address on TV to mention that he wanted to enforce
federal law. For the whole school year, federal troops stayed in Little Rock. They escorted the nine black students
to and from Central High. They protected them on the school ground. Many of the students still experienced
harassment and violence from racist students. They had to pass through a gauntlet of spitting, jeering whites to
arrive at school on their first day, and to put up with harassment from other students for the rest of the year.
Although federal troops escorted the students between classes, the students were teased and even attacked by
white students when the soldiers were not around. One of the Little Rock Nine, Minnijean Brown, was suspended
for six days in December 1957 for dropping her tray, on which she had a bowl of chili, on the floor and splashing
two white boys, after several chairs had been pushed in her way, withdrawn, and then pushed in her way again, in
the cafeteria. Later, in February 1958, a group of girls threw a purse filled with combination locks at Minniejean.
She responded by calling the girls "white trash" and she was immediately expelled. That expulsion was unjust.
Minnijean Brown-Trickey
continues to fight for civil rights
and human rights to this very
day. In September 16, 1958,
Johnny Gray was 15 years old. 2
white boys were harassing
them. Johnny Gray pointed a
finger at one of the
white racists and defended
himself and his sister. An
argument led into a fight and
Johnny chased the white boys
down the block. This act of
courage and self-defense This image showed New York mayor Robert Wagner greeting teenagers from
inspired black communities in the Little Rock Nine. First row, from left to right: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth
Little Rock and all over America. Eckford, Carlotta Walls, Mayor Robert Wagner, Thelma Mothershed, and Gloria
We have every right to stand up Ray. The second row, from left to right: Terrence Roberts, Ernest Green, Melba
for our human rights. Ernest Pattilo, and Jefferson Thomas.
Green was a senior and was the
first African American to graduate from Central High School. Southern politicians still found slick ways to not
comply with the Brown decision. The journey for freedom continued.

One of the most important developments of the Civil Rights movement was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1957. It was signed by President Eisenhower. It was not a strong bill, but it was the first serious bill relating to civil
rights passed since the days of Reconstruction. The law formed the United States Civil Rights Commission. This
group had the power to investigate violations of civil rights. It gave the U.S. Attorney General more power to
protect the voting rights of African Americans. It lacked an enforcement mechanism. The late 1950’s saw many
developments involving civil rights.

By the late 1950’s, the Civil Rights movement continued to promote programs to promote nonviolence and training
for social justice. Many civil rights activists where trained physically and psychologically for nonviolence. Bruce
Hartford was a part of this training. For many, the concept of nonviolent protest was a way of life, a culture.
However, not everyone agreed with this notion. James Forman, former SNCC (and later Black Panther) member
and nonviolence trainer, was among those who did not. In his autobiography, The Making of Black Revolutionaries,
Forman revealed his perspective on the method of nonviolence as "strictly a tactic, not a way of life without
limitations." Similarly, Robert Moses, who was also an active member of SNCC, felt that the method of nonviolence
was practical. When interviewed by author Robert Penn Warren, Moses said "There's no question that he [Martin
Luther King, Jr.] had a great deal of influence with the masses. But I don't think it's in the direction of love. It's in a
practical direction . . ." (“Who Speaks for the Negro?” by Robert Penn Warren). Citizenship Schools from 1953 to
1961 promoted education and literacy for black Americans.

The Highlander Folk School organized this plan and this school promoted labor rights, civil rights, and social justice.
Septima Poinsette Clark was one leader of the Citizenship Schools (John Lewis, James Bevel, and Rosa Parks came
into the inspirational Highlander school). On February 12, 1958, the SCLC or the Southern Christian Leadership
Council started its Crusade for Citizenship. This was about activists meeting in 22 southern states in order to double
the number of black voters by 1960. In May of 1958, one junior high school in Osage, West Virginia was dynamited.
African American students in West Virginia just wanted to learn. Many white teachers in that school were known to
paddle black students.
President Eisenhower would discuss civil rights issues with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, A Philip
Randolph, and Lester Granger in the West House (on June 28, 1958). The Supreme Court in the 1958 NAACP v.
Alabama validated the right of the NAACP to conceal its lists of members. Members of the NAACP Youth Council
successfully desegregate dozens of lunch counters in Wichita and Oklahoma City. They used sit-ins in 1958. Dr.
Martin Luther King was stabbed by a mentally disturbed woman named Izola Curry in Harlem on September 20,
1958. Dr. King was signing autograph copies of his first book, “Stride Toward Freedom.” He survived by a miracle.
By the end of 1958, the District of Columbia Bar Association voted to accept black lawyers as members. By 1959,
public schools in Arlington, Virginia and Norfolk, Virginia (which is my hometown) were desegregated. In the same
year, Dr. King traveled into India with his wife Coretta Scott King in order for him to study the Gandhian principles
of nonviolent resistance. In 1959, CORE organized sit-ins in Miami. Throughout 1959, the civil rights movement
grew into a new level. The Nashville Christian Leadership Conference started sit-ins in downtown department
stores in November of 1959. Restrictive covenants and block busting discriminated against black potential home
buyers and against black people in general. By the year of 1960, a new era of the Civil Rights movement would
start.

These are young people from Janice Jackson, Evelyn Pierce, and Ethel
Morgan State University who were Sawyer of the Tougaloo Nine, under arrest for
arrested for protested the the crime of reading in a "white only" library.
segregated Northwood Theater in Jackson, MS, 1961.
Baltimore, Maryland.
Robert F. Williams
Robert F. Williams was a heroic Brother who not only stood up for self-defense in the South. He inspired many
movements from the Black Panthers to SNCC. Back then (during the late 1950’s), Jim Crow was not only harsh, but
murderous. Many people were murdered, raped, homes bombed, etc. as a product of the acts from pro-Jim Crow
white racist terrorists. In many cases, the Klan worked with the local police in open collaborations to oppress black
citizens. The violence of the Klan harmed many efforts of Civil Rights activists. Therefore, many black organizations
(in the South) started to use armed self-defense to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. Self-
defense is a human right. Robert F. Williams of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP started to promote self-
defense during the late 1950’s. He rebuilt the NAACP chapter after the Klan terrorized black people in North
Carolina. He wanted a newer, working class membership to be armed and defend themselves against attackers.
When Klan nightriders attacked the home of NAACP member Dr. Albert Perry in October, Williams’ militia
exchanged gunfire with the stunned Klansmen. The Klansmen retreated. During the next day, the city council held
an emergency session. They passed an ordinance banning KKK motorcades. Later, the Lumbee Native Americans in
1958 successful led an armed standoff against the Klan (i.e. the Battle of Hayes Pond). This caused Klan leader
James W. “Catfish” Cole to be convicted of incitement to riot. Many white men sexually raped black women in
Monroe, NC. The white men were acquitted. This caused Williams to say in the United Press International that he
would “meet violence with violence" as a policy.

Williams' declaration was quoted on the front page of The New York Times, and The Carolina Times considered it
"the biggest civil rights story of 1959." NAACP National chairman Roy Wilkins immediately suspended Williams
from his position, but the Monroe organizer won support from numerous NAACP chapters across the country.
Later, Wilkins was so wrong that he caused a campaign to fight against Williams. The suspension was upheld. The
NAACP convention nonetheless passed a resolution which stated: "We do not deny, but reaffirm the right of
individual and collective self-defense against unlawful assaults." Martin Luther King Jr. argued for Williams'
removal, but Ella Baker and WEB Dubois both publicly praise the Monroe leader's position. Robert F. Williams and
his wife Mabel Williams continued to fight for justice in the Monroe movement. They became national heroes.
Both Williamses published “The Crusader” which was a nationally circulated newsletter starting in 1960. Robert F.
Williams wrote the influential book entitled, “Negroes With Guns” in 1962. In that book, he called for “flexibility in
the freedom struggle” and self-defense. He knew of legal tactics. He worked to defend a black child in the Kissing
Case of 1958 and he supported lunch counter sit-ins in Monroe back in the day too. He believed in self-defense as a
complementary tactics along with nonviolence. He supported the Freedom Rides.

SNCC leaders Ella Baker and James Forman invited him to participate. He campaigned for peace with Cuba. The FBI
targeted him and falsely accused him of kidnapping as he was cleared of all charges in 1976. Meanwhile, armed
self-defense continued discreetly in the Southern movement with such figures as SNCC's Amzie Moore, Hartman
Turnbow, and Fannie Lou Hamer all willing to use arms to defend their lives from nightriders. Taking refuge from
the FBI in Cuba, the Williamses broadcast the radio show "Radio Free Dixie" throughout the eastern United States
via Radio Progresso beginning in 1962. During this period, Williams advocated guerilla warfare against racist
institutions, and saw the large ghetto rebellions of the era as a manifestation of his strategy. University of North
Carolina historian Walter Rucker has written that "the emergence of Robert F Williams contributed to the marked
decline in anti-black racial violence in the US…After centuries of anti-black violence, African-Americans across the
country began to defend their communities aggressively – employing overt force when necessary. This in turn
evoked in whites real fear of black vengeance…" This (or the usage of legitimate self-defense by black people)
ironically opened up space for African-Americans to use nonviolent demonstration with less fear of deadly reprisal.
Of the many civil rights activists who share this view, the most prominent was Rosa Parks. Parks gave the eulogy at
Williams' funeral in 1996, praising him for "his courage and for his commitment to freedom," and concluding that
"The sacrifices he made, and what he did, should go down in history and never be forgotten."

Rest in Power Brother Robert F. Williams.

Rest in Power Sister Mabel Williams (who recently passed away in 2014).
The Sit-in Movement
There were sit-ins long before 1960, but the modern sit-in movement existed in North Carolina in 1960 (as CORE
organized sit-ins in the 1940’s. The NAACP had successful sit-ins in Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma in 1958). Sit-ins
were forms of protests where protesters would go into segregated locations. They would sit in the white section of
that location and refuse to leave. Many
would have to be forced to leave by the
police. Some went to jail and some were
assaulted by racists. This was the time of
more youth activism beyond just legal
methods alone. Young African Americans
used more militant means to fight for
change as change was slow by 1960. So, on
February 1, 1960, four African American
college students ordered doughnuts and
coffee at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in
Greensboro, North Carolina. Their names
are Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph
McNeil, and Franklin McCain. They These human beings were part of the Friendship Nine or the
restaurant refused to serve them. They sat Rock Hill Nine. There were a group of young African
in their seats, opened their textbooks, and American men who staged a sit-in in a segregated McCrory’s
began to read their lessons. Back then, in lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina in January 1961.
the South, almost all restaurants that They followed the jail, no bail strategy to decrease the financial
served whites refused to serve black
burden among the civil rights movement in general.
people. The word of the Greensboro sit-in
Afterwards, more people were involved in sit-ins and marches
spread quickly. It caused more sit-ins in
in Rock Hill into the spring and summer of 1961. Their names
cities and towns from across the nation.
are Robert McCullough (he passed away on August 7, 2006),
One sit-in took place in Nashville,
John Gaines, Thomas Gaither, Clarence Graham (he passed
Tennessee. It was led by students and by
away on March 25, 2016), Willie Thomas, Willie McCleod,
Reverend James Lawson. Marchers came
James Wells, Davis Williamson Jr., and Mack Workman.
about in Nashville to protest racial
injustice. There were wade-ins in beaches, read-ins in public libraries, and other protests.

Nashville students embraced a code of conduct which embraced nonviolence in 1960. Nashville soon became
integrated of its restaurants. Downtown Nashville businesses desegregated. The sit-in movement grew the
militancy of the Civil Rights Movement and SNCC was born. SNCC was created in Raleigh, North Carolina in Shaw
University on Easter weekend in 1960. Ella Baker would organize the meeting that created SNCC or the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was
She was Fisk University made up of a multi-class group of African
Americans to promote equality by active
student Jean Wynona protests. Ella Baker was a granddaughter of
Fleming behind bars in slaves and promoted freedom. By the end
the Nashville jail. The of 1960, thousands of students would have
been arrested or expelled from colleges
Nashville anti- plus universities for participating in sit-ins.
segregation movement Members of the Congress of Racial Equality
was key in our fight for (CORE) and nine students are arrested in
Rock Hill, South Carolina for a sit-in at a
freedom.
McCrory's lunch counter (on January 31,
1961). Three high school students from
Chatmon’s Youth Council arrested after using “positive actions” by walking
into white sections of the Albany bus station, This happened on November
22, 1961. On the same day, Albany State College students Bertha Gober and
Blanton Hall arrested after entering the white waiting room of the Albany
Trailways station. By the end of 1961, Whitney Young is appointed executive director of the National Urban League
and begins expanding its size and mission. Demonstrations continued against white racism.

Direct action became a priority of the Civil Rights Movement including the masses of black people having their
interests promoted beyond just middle class/upper class interests.

The Freedom Rides existed as far as Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois.

The Freedom Rides

The Freedom Rides took place in 1961. They represented a transitional phrase of the Civil Rights Movement. These
rides wanted to enforce existing law that stated that it was legal to integrate interstate buses into the segregated
Southern United States. The Supreme Court in 1960 from Boynton v. Virginia made it clear that segregation was
unconstitutional for passengers engaged in interstate travel. It was organized by CORE. Also, many CORE members
did something similar back during the 1940’s. The first Freedom Ride of the 1960’s existed on May 4, 1961. They
left Washington, D.C. and were scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. This was an execution of social
activism beyond using the court system to fight for justice. The Freedom Rides were made up of black and white
people who wanted to travel into the Deep South to also integrate seating patterns on buses and desegregate bus
terminals. They wanted to desegregate restrooms and water fountains. This was a dangerous journey, but the
Freedom Riders were courageous in their deeds. When the Freedom Riders came into Anniston, Alabama, one bus
was firebombed. Passengers escaped the bus to save their lives. In Birmingham, Alabama, an FBI informant
reported that Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor gave Ku Klux Klan members fifteen minutes to
attack an incoming group of freedom riders before having police "protect" them. The riders were severely beaten
and it was a totally horrible experience. James Peck, a white activist, was beaten so badly that he required fifty
stitches to his head. White racists executed violence against Freedom Riders again in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Freedom Riders followed in the footsteps of Rosa Parks and rode in an integrated Greyhound bus from
Birmingham. They were protesting interstate bus segregation in peace. Still, they experienced violence by a white
mob in Montgomery. The large, white mob attacked them since they used activism to fight for justice. They caused
an enormous, 2-hour long riot which resulted in 22 injuries, five of whom were hospitalized. This violence in
Anniston and Birmingham temporarily stopped the rides. Yet, SNCC activists from Nashville like Diane Nash brought
in new riders to continue the journey from Birmingham to New Orleans. In Montgomery, Alabama, at the
Greyhound Bus Station, a mob charged another bus load of riders, knocking John Lewis unconscious with a crate
and smashing Life photographer Don Urbrock in the face with his own camera. A dozen men surrounded James
Zwerg, a white student from Fisk University, and beat him in the face with a suitcase, knocking out his teeth. By
May 24, 1961, the Freedom Rides rode into Jackson, Mississippi. They were arrested for “breaching the peace" by
using "white only" facilities. New freedom rides were organized by many different organizations and continued to
flow into the South. As riders arrived in Jackson, they were arrested.

By the end of summer, more than 300 had been jailed in Mississippi. Many of the Freedom Rides suffered harsh
conditions in jail. Some male prisoners were forced to do hard labor in 100 degree heat. The cells were filthy. Some
were transferred to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Some of the men were beaten. Some were
suspended by wrist breakers from the walls. Many of them couldn’t breathe by the cells shut tight on hot days. The
Kennedy administration was so disgraceful during this time that some of them were openly hostile to the Freedom
Rides. They compromised with the racist Southerners by saying that the Freedom Rides would travel and do
nothing when the Riders were arrested. Support for the Freedom Riders grew. Pressure caused the Kennedy
administration to order the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue a new desegregation order. When the
new ICC rule took effect on November 1, 1961, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they chose on the bus;
"white" and "colored" signs came down in the terminals; separate drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms
were consolidated; and lunch counters began serving people regardless of skin color.

The student movement involved such celebrated figures as John Lewis, a single-minded activist; James Lawson, the
revered "guru" of nonviolent theory and tactics; Diane Nash, an articulate and intrepid public champion of justice;
Bob Moses, pioneer of voting registration in Mississippi; and James Bevel, a fiery preacher and charismatic
organizer, strategist, and facilitator. Other prominent student activists included Charles McDew, Bernard Lafayette,
Charles Jones, Lonnie King, Julian Bond, Hosea Williams, and Kwame Ture.

After the Freedom Rides, the young people of the Civil Rights Movement developed their own independence and
their own unique personalities politically. Ella Baker would promote group centered decision making and a
collective response in solving problems.
The Early 1960's
By 1960, the Civil Rights movement exploded nationwide. Many Southern governors tried to withhold state funding
from any school that attempts segregation like Georgia Governor S. Ernest Vandiver Jr. Later, Vandiver Jr. changed
his views and rejected segregation later in his life. On February 17, 1960, Dr. King was arrested and jailed for
falsifying Alabama state income tax returns. He would be acquitted by an all-white jury. In Orangeburg, South
Carolina, officials assault hundreds of black demonstrators with tear gas and water hoses. The police arrest more
than 300 people. Many students protested discrimination at the Alabama state capitol. They were opposed by
Alabama Governor John Patterson. On March 2, 1960, about 170 black people and about 106 white people tried to
register to vote. Many were prevented from doing so. During the next day, Vanderbilt University expelled Rev.
James Lawson for sit-in participation. Alexander Looby’s home was bombed in April 19, 1960. He wasn’t injured. He
was a known Nashville civil rights lawyer. He fought for desegregation in the public areas of Nashville. Bayard
Rustin resigned from the SCLC in June, because of the condemnation from Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. On the
date of April 26, 1960, Rev. Theodore Roosevelt Thompson (who was 66 at that time) used a sit in in a Dallas lunch
counter. Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston soon desegregated their restaurants.

Many black people protested Woolworths in the North like Harry Belafonte protesting in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. 1960 saw the increase of the Nation of Islam between 50,000 to 100,000 human beings. Elijah
Muhammad, back then, was its leader and in July 31, he called for an all-black state. Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker
replaces Ella Baker as SCLC’s Executive Director in August of 1960. Also, in 1960, there were demonstrations
against Rich’s or the largest department store in Atlanta, Georgia. The protests were led by young black activists.
The old guard of Atlanta black leaders wanted to quell the picketers, but the young people continued in their
actions. It would be later until Rich’s would be integrated. By September of 1961, Atlanta would be desegregated
of its schools. President John F. Kennedy won the election against Richard Nixon in November 8, 1960. The vast
majority of African Americans voted for Kennedy especially since he promised strong action on civil rights issues.
1960 also dealt with the historical story of Ruby Bridges. In November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges became the first
African American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South (i.e. William Frantz Elementary
School). The school is found in New Orleans. Ruby was escorted to and from the school by U.S. deputy marshals.
She was a first grader back then. Ruby Bridges experienced many forms of racism, but she continued to fight and
graduated from high school. To this very day, she is an advocate for tolerance and civil rights. Norman Rockwell’s
1964 painting called “The Problem We All Live with” shows the viciousness of racism against black Americans.
 Both pictures show Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault
In January 11, 1961, the University of Georgia admitted Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault into the
University. They are African American students. Racists rioted over the admission, but both students continue to
stand up for their human rights. The Freedom Rides would continue in 1961. By February 11, 1961, Robert Clifton
Weaver was sworn in as the director of the U.S. Housing and Home Finance Agency. He had the highest federal
position of an African American up to that point. James Forman would be the Executive Secretary of James Forman
by September of 1961. Voter registration activist and NAACP member Herbert Lee is shot and killed by a white
state legislator in McComb, Mississippi on September 25, 1961. In the same year, progressive whites (who are Tom
Hayden and Paul Potter. Hayden was a leader of the SDS or of the Students for a Democratic Society) were
assaulted by Carl Hayes (a racist) in McComb, Mississippi. On November 1, 1961, SNCC workers Charles Sherrod
and Cordell Reagon and nine Chatmon Youth Council members test new ICC rules at Trailways bus station in
Albany, Georgia.

SNCC would work in Albany, Georgia in black activism, which would found the Albany Movement. The Albany
Movement lasted from 1961 to 1962. It was historic since it showed the divisions among SNCC and the SCLC. Dr.
King came into November 1961 to be part of the movement. Dr. King was criticized for not being involved more in
Freedom Rides. The campaign failed, because of the slick acts of the local police chief Laurie Pritchett. The goals
may not have been specific enough. Pritchett contained the marchers without violent attacks on demonstrators
that inflamed national opinion. He also arranged for arrested demonstrators to be taken to jails in surrounding
communities, allowing plenty of room to remain in his jail. Prichett (who studied Dr. King and his methods) also
foresaw King's presence as a danger to the status quo and forced his release to avoid King's rallying the black
community. King left in 1962 without having achieved any dramatic victories. The local movement, however,
continued the struggle, and it obtained significant gains in the next few years. By 1962, the civil rights movement is
organized more. People fight for justice in Baton Rouge. By February of 1962, representatives of SNCC, CORE, and
the NAACP form the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). A grant request to fund COFO voter registration
activities is submitted to the Voter Education Project (VEP). On February 26, 1962, segregated transportation
facilities, both interstate and intrastate, are ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. SNCC workers sit-in
at US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's office to protest jailings in Baton Rouge in March of 1962. Also, during
this time, the FBI installed wiretaps on NAACP activist Stanley Levison’s office. Stanely Levison was not a
Communist by 1960, but still Hoover slandered people who opposed his agenda. In 1962, young people fought
against segregation in Atlanta like Elizabeth Hirshfield of Franklin, Michigan and Bertha Gober of Atlanta (who is a
black woman).

By April of 1962, President Kennedy withdrew from the private Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C., because he
wanted to protest the club’s rejection of the African American Carl T. Rowan (the deputy Assistant Secretary of
State). The NAACP fights against de factor segregation in Rochester, New York by suing its school system. Fannie
Lou Hamer attempts to register to vote in Indianola, Mississippi by August 31, 1962. The FBI continues to illegally
monitor the Civil Rights movement too. On November 20, 1962, President Kennedy upholds 1960 presidential
campaign promise to eliminate housing segregation by signing Executive Order 11063 banning segregation in
federally funded housing.

The Integration of Mississippi Universities

The integration of Mississippi Universities had a long history. This period lasted from 1956 to 1965. Clyde Kennard
was a black Korean War veteran. He wanted to enroll at the Mississippi Southern College (which is called the
University of Southern Mississippi) under the GI.I. Bill in Hattiesburg. Dr. William David McCain was the college
president back then. He prevented him from doing so by using the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. He
tried to appeal to the segregationist state political establishment and even some local black leaders. The
commission attacked the Civil Rights Movement by advancing segregation. The commission also collected data on
activists, harassed them illegally, and used economic boycotts against them. They threatened their jobs. Many
black civil rights activists lost their jobs for speaking up for justice. Kennard was arrested twice on tempted up
charges. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years in state prison. He did hard labor for 3 years. He was
paroled by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. Journalists had investigated his case and publicized the state's
mistreatment of his colon cancer. McCain's role in Kennard's arrests and convictions is unknown. While trying to
prevent Kennard's enrollment, McCain made a speech in Chicago, with his travel sponsored by the Mississippi State
Sovereignty Commission. He described the blacks' seeking to desegregate Southern schools as "imports" from the
North. (Kennard was a native and resident of Hattiesburg) McCain is a total liar as black people in the South
promoted an end to injustice and Jim Crow.

Back then, Mississippi had a constitution from 1890 that disfranchised most black people from voting. It deprived
them of constitutional rights authorized under post-Civil War amendments; it survived US Supreme Court
challenges at the time. It was not until after passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that most blacks in Mississippi
and other southern states gained federal protection to enforce the constitutional right of citizens to vote. On
September 1962, James Meredith won a lawsuit to secure admission to the previously segregated University of
Mississippi. He tried to enter campus on September 20, on September 25, and on September 26. He was blocked
by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, who said, "[N]o school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your
Governor."

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Barnett and Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson, Jr. in contempt,
ordering them arrested and fined more than $10,000 for each day they refused to allow Meredith to enroll. Later,
Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in a force of U.S. Marshals. On September 30, 1962, Meredith entered the
campus under their escort. Students and other whites began rioting that evening, throwing rocks and firing on the
U.S. Marshals guarding Meredith at Lyceum Hall. Two people, including a French journalist, were killed; 28
marshals suffered gunshot wounds; and 160 others were injured. President John F. Kennedy sent regular US Army
forces to the campus to quell the riot. Meredith began classes the day after the troops arrived. Kennard and other
activists continued to work on public university desegregation. In 1965, Raylawni Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine
Armstrong became the first African-American students to attend the University of Southern Mississippi. By that
time, McCain helped ensure they had a peaceful entry. In 2006, Judge Robert Helfrich ruled that Kennard was
factually innocent of all charges for which he had been convicted in the 1950's. To understand the Civil Rights
Movement, people must understand the story of Mississippi.

1963
1963 would be one of the most explosive and important years of the Civil Rights Movement. It would be the 100th
year Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was a policy that wanted to free slaves from
Confederate territories. On January 14, Governor Wallace wanted to maintain segregation forever in his January
14, 1963 inaugural address. He wouldn’t get his wish as segregation is not only racist and immoral. Jim Crow
segregation has been involved in the torture and murder of black people. Harvey Gantt was the first black person
to be in Clemson on January 28, 1963 (in the state of South Carolina). In February, about 400 people would be
arrested in Baltimore in seating in a whites only movie theater. Baltimore would soon change the policy. The
Birmingham Campaign would exist in 1963 too. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities of the South. It
was filled with violence, racism, and police brutality. The civil rights leaders learned lessons from the Albany
movement in order for the Birmingham Campaign to be successful. The SCLC, SNCC, and other groups were
involved in the campaign. Wyatt Tee Walker formed a plan to try to desegregate Birmingham downtown
merchants rather than total desegregation as it was in Albany. Eugene “Bull” Connor was a brutal person. He was
the Commissioner of Public Safety. He was especially cruel towards black protesters and he instigated violence
against black people too. Connor had great political power and lost a mayoral election to the less rabidly
segregationist candidate. Connor wanted to stay in office and formed a political clash with the new mayor. The
Birmingham campaign involved many tactics. They included sit-ins, kneel-ins at local churches, etc. People marched
to the county building to mark the beginning of a drive to register voters. Men and women were jailed.

The city issued an injunction barring all such protests. Many people defied it as viewing the injunction as
unconstitutional. The campaign defied it and prepared for mass
arrests of its supporters. Many protesters were arrested including
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 12, 1963. Dr. King wrote his
famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” while he was in jail. He
wrote his words on the margins of a newspaper. He did this,
because he wasn’t allowed any writing paper while he was held in
solitary confinement. He wanted to answer the moderate
clergyman in Birmingham who didn’t want protests, didn’t want
real change, and wanted people to wait for equality (which is
ludicrous). Dr. King refuted them by saying that you don’t wait for
black people’s freedom and resistance against injustice in a radical
way is legitimate. Supporters appealed to the Kennedy
administration, which intervened to obtain King's release. King was
allowed to call his wife, who was recuperating at home after the
birth of their fourth child, and he was released early on April
19. James Bevel or the SCLC’s Director of Direct Action and Director
of Nonviolent Education wanted to train high school students to
Medgar Evers here is speaking to demonstrate.
inspire his people to fight for justice.
This was controversial as many civil rights activists opposed this
plan. This plan was the Children’s Crusade. Dr. King reluctantly
agreed to this action. The children came since it ran out of adult demonstrators to protest. On May 2, 1963, more
than 1,000 students skipped school to meet at the 16th Street Baptist Church to join the demonstrations. More
than six hundred marched out of the church fifty at a time in an attempt to walk to City Hall to speak to
Birmingham's mayor about segregation. They were arrested and put into jail. In this first encounter the police
acted with restraint. On the next day, however, another one thousand students gathered at the church. When
Bevel started them marching fifty at a time, Bull Connor finally unleashed police dogs on them and then turned the
city's fire hoses water streams on the children.
 Nothing will turn us around. We are here and we will still believe in justice forever.
National television networks broadcast the scenes of the dogs attacking demonstrators and the water from the fire
hoses knocking down the schoolchildren. This caused more outrage at how cowardly police officers would use dogs
and water to attack black children. Widespread public outrage led the Kennedy administration to intervene more
forcefully in negotiations between the white business community and the SCLC. White racists and many black
conservatives opposed Dr. King during the Birmingham campaign. White racists didn’t want justice or freedom for
black Americans. Both the racists and many black conservatives viewed Dr. King as a troublemaker and an outsider
who would cause more problems. Racist whites didn’t want desegregation while conservative black people wanted
Dr. King to leave and allow them work behind the scenes to solve the issue. Yet, direct action is necessary to make
a solution beyond the racist intimidation of whites and conservatism of the black middle class. Sacrifices must be
made for freedom. Malcolm X continued to oppose police brutality in Los Angeles in May of 1963 via a speech. On
May 10, the parties announced an agreement to desegregate the lunch counters and other public accommodations
in downtown Birmingham, to create a committee to eliminate discriminatory hiring practices, to arrange for the
release of jailed protesters, and to establish regular means of communication between black and white leaders.

The problem with the agreement was that it was too moderate and lacked a strong enforcement mechanism.
Many in the black community opposed the agreement as being too compromising like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
(whose home was bombed twice and he was beaten by white racists numerous times). He was skeptical about the
good faith of Birmingham's power structure from his experience in dealing with them. Parts of the white
community reacted violently, because they opposed the agreement. They bombed the Gaston Motel, which
housed the SCLC's unofficial headquarters, and the home of King's brother, the Reverend A. D. King on May 11. In
response, thousands of blacks used a rebellion. Some people burnt numerous buildings and one of them stabbed
and wounded a police officer. Many black people used self-defense against white racists too. On May 20, the U.S.
Supreme Court finds Birmingham and any other city segregation ordinance unconstitutional, thus making sit-ins
legal. Kennedy prepared to federalize the Alabama National Guard if the need arose.
Four months later, on September 15, 1963, a conspiracy of Ku Klux Klan members bombed the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four young girls. Described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as "one of the most
vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity", the explosion at the church also injured 22 others.
The killing of 4 innocent girls once again shown the cruelty of white racism. Convictions of people never came until
decades after 1963. The girls' names are: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise
McNair.

The events of Birmingham caused protests in over 100 cities. The March on Washington inspired a nation. In late
May of 1963, in the South side of Chicago, black people rebelled after a white police officer shot a fourteen year
old black child, who was fleeing the scene of a robbery. Violent clashes between black activists and white workers
took place in both Philadelphia and Harlem in successful efforts to integrate state construction projects. On June 6,
over a thousand whites attacked a sit-in in Lexington, North Carolina; blacks fought back and one white man was
killed. Edwin C. Berry of the National Urban League warned of a complete breakdown in race relations: "My
message from the beer gardens and the barbershops all indicate the fact that the Negro is ready for war."

In 1963, black teenage girls were arrested for demonstrating in Americus, Georgia. The teenage
girls are kept in a stockade in the countryside near Leesburg. They have no beds and no working
sanitary facilities. Many girls were held without charges. This was totally unjust and shows the
brutality of the Jim Crow system. Yes, many cops back then had ties to the Klan and other white
racist hate groups.
 “Gloria was a different type of strength. Nobody was going to stop her or her community from
getting her basic human rights,” says Judy Richardson (no relation), a member of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and producer of the documentary Eyes on the Prize.

In Cambridge, Maryland, a working-class city on the Eastern Shore, Gloria Richardson of SNCC led a movement that
pressed for desegregation but also demanded low-rent public housing, job-training, public and private jobs, and an
end to police brutality. I have been to Cambridge, Maryland before. On June 1, 1963, African Americans Charlayne
Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first black students to graduate from the University of Georgia. They
celebrated and people cheered. Hunter would be a doctor and a reporter. On June 11, struggles between blacks
and whites in Cambridge, MD escalated into violent rioting, leading Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes to declare
martial law. When negotiations between Richardson and Maryland officials faltered, Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy directly intervened to negotiate a desegregation agreement. Richardson felt that the increasing
participation of poor and working-class black people was expanding both the power and parameters of the
movement, asserting that "the people as a whole really do have more intelligence than a few of their leaders.″
Gloria Richardson would be involved in protests and sit-ins in order to desegregate schools and hospitals in
Cambridge, Maryland. John F. Kennedy was very moderate in his Presidency on civil rights. He didn’t want militant
demonstrations.

Robert Kennedy on May 24, 1963 had a meeting with black intellectuals from Lorraine Hansberry to James Baldwin
on racial issues. Black people criticized Robert Kennedy and the Kennedy administration for not going far enough
on civil rights. Both sides didn’t compromise. Nonetheless, the Kennedys ultimately decided that new legislation for
equal public accommodations was essential to drive activists "into the courts and out of the streets." The problem
with this assumption is that any successful revolution used both the courts and the streets, not just the courts
alone. Using the streets is a legitimate instrument of social change. To Robert Kennedy’s credit, he would change
by the late 1960’s to be more militant and a powerful voice on issues of race and class. On June 11, 1963, George
Wallace, Governor of Alabama, tried to block the integration of the University of Alabama. President John F.
Kennedy sent a military force to make Governor Wallace step aside, allowing the enrollment of Vivian Malone
Jones and James Hood. That evening, President Kennedy addressed the nation on TV and radio with his historic civil
rights speech, where he lamented "a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety."

He called on Congress to pass new civil rights legislation, and urged the country to embrace civil rights as "a moral
issue...in our daily lives." In the early hours of June 12, 1963 Medgar Evers, field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP,
was assassinated by a member of the Klan. The next week, as promised, on June 19, 1963, President Kennedy
submitted his Civil Rights bill to Congress. James Meredith graduated on August 18, 1963. He graduated from the
University of Mississippi. By the late 1963, Chicago in about 220,000 protested de facto segregation in schools back
in October 22, 1963. Malcolm X gave his famous A Message to the Grassroots speech in Detroit on November 1963.
JFK was assassinated in 1963 and a new chapter began. JFK’s unjust assassination made people aware about the
brutality of murder and Dr. King reflected on his mortality too. The Civil Rights Movement became more militant by
1963.

The March on Washington

The 1963 March on Washington, D.C. was one of the most important parts of the Civil Rights Movement. It was a
march for jobs and freedom. It was a march that had people of many races to fight for civil and economic rights. It
started by a long history. A. Philip Randolph had a dream to march on Washington for black people working in
integrated industrial jobs back in the 1940’s. By 1961, he and Bayard Rustin including others would plan for the
March on Washington during the 1960’s. Both men would form a wide ranging alliance of civil rights, labor, and
religious organizations to come together in order to advance justice. During the 1960’s, Jim Crow laws were very
pervasive in the South and in parts of the Midwest. Discrimination existed. Police brutality and economic
exploitation were in epidemic levels. Black people feared for their lives literally because of racist terrorism in
America. There was a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom March held on May 17, 1957 in the Lincoln Memorial to
promote equality. Now, times have changed. 1963 was the 100th year anniversary of the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. People from the NAACP, the SCLC, SNCC, the Urban League, CORE,
etc. put their differences aside to unite in the March on Washington movement.

Violent confrontations broke out in the South: in Cambridge, Maryland; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Goldsboro, North
Carolina; Somerville, Tennessee; Saint Augustine, Florida; and across Mississippi. Most of these incidents involved
white people retaliating against nonviolent demonstrators. Some people (who supported the March on
Washington) wanted total civil disobedience in D.C., some wanted to focus nationwide on issues, some wanted
speeches, and everyone was interested in the movement. During this time, JFK was criticized by many black leaders
as not going far enough on civil rights. Rustin and Randolph planned for the march as early as December 1961.
Union leaders joined.

By May of 1963, A. Philip Randolph called for the March on Washington officially. In June 1963, six men met in NYC
to get funds and messaging for the movement. They were A. Philip Randolph, Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis,
Whitney Young, and James Farmer. Some didn’t want Rustin to lead the march, because he was a former
Communist (ironically, he would be very anti-Communist before he passed away) and he was a homosexual, but
the Big Six allowed him to lead as a massive organizer. With Randolph concentrating on building the march's
 These are the two political coalition, Rustin built and led the team
major organizers of of two hundred activists and organizers who
the march on publicized the march and recruited the
marchers, coordinated the buses and trains,
Washington in 1963.
provided the marshals, and set up and
They are Bayard administered all of the logistic details of a mass
Rustin and Cleveland march in the nation's capital. President
Robinson (a civil Kennedy met the Big Six in June 22, 1963. JFK
initially didn’t want the March on Washington
rights and labor
for fear of violence and reducing the chance of
rights activist). the Civil Rights bill to be passed. Yet, Dr. King
wouldn’t back down and JFK reluctantly
supported the march. The catch was that Kennedy issued a program to
close liquor stores and do other silly actions in preparation for the March. Rustin and other planners issued a
button, phone, and advertising campaign to get people to go into Washington, D.C. The goals of the March were
clear. They wanted strong civil rights legislation, an end to segregation, a public works job program, a higher
minimum wage, labor rights, ending police brutality, and an end to discrimination. Many of the haters like Hoover
and the hypocrite Strom Thurmond slandered the March as Communist inspired, but people from across political
spectrum were in the movement.

People arrived by the thousands from road, rail, and air to Washington. D.C on August 28, 1963. The March was a
large success. It inspired the Civil Rights Movement. It inspired the Civil Rights Act to be passed by Congress. There
were controversies though. Malcolm X was in D.C. He accused the March of being co-opted by white establishment
figures (especially liberal establishment figures) in order to pacify the black freedom movement. He called it the
“farce on Washington.” John Lewis was censored in some of his speech that was to really criticize the Kennedy
administration. John Lewis refused to do so at first, but A. Philip Randolph told him that he waited his whole life for
this moment. He censored it out of respect that he had for Mr. Randolph. James Baldwin didn’t speak as he was
prevented to do so, because of his political views. Also, the March prevented many women from speaking. Anna
Harold Hedgeman tried to stop this, but even some members of the movement were stone cold sexists. Daisy Bates
and Josephine Baker spoke. Gloria Richardson had her microphone taken away from her when she said “hello.”
Rosa Parks and Lena Horne were prevented to speak too, which is disgraceful. Mahalia Jackson sang music
including Marian Anderson. Celebrities from Sidney Poitier to Jackie Robinson including Bill Russell were there. Roy
Wilkins gave condolences to the recent passing of W.E.B. DuBois.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech outlined his views. It wasn’t just about hope. The "I Have a
Dream" speech was a speech that criticized American society filled with discrimination, racism, voting rights
deprivation, and police brutality. It was a call for progressive change in America. Being a progressive means that
you are in favor civil rights, economic justice, social justice, and human rights for all people. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. said the following words in his historic, eloquent speech:

"...But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is
still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One
hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an
exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition...I have a dream
that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!...And so let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom 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 of 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!"

President Kennedy praised the march and met with the leaders afterwards. The March on Washington gave new
life to the Civil Rights Movement. It was a time of hope. Estimates of the number of participants varied from
200,000 to 300,000 people. The most widely cited estimate of the amount of people in the march is 250,000
people. Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black. The march was one of the largest political
rallies for human rights in United States history.

This image showed a protest to fight economic discrimination. It happened in St. Louis, Missouri on
August 31, 1963. Black activists were against the Jefferson Bank and Trust’s lack of black employees.
The demonstrators later caused business to stop.

The same goals of the March on Washington are the same goals that we are fighting to this very day. Legal
advances since then have been made, but we have a very long way to go in terms of economic issues (from
poverty, lax wages, housing, educational issues, and economic inequality) in our communities. The March is a
reminder of what the future can be.

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed,
its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”
— Malcolm X

Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an icon of the black freedom struggle. His life has been filled with ideological evolution, courage,
and strength. He was born in May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Both of his parents were part of the Garvey
movement which preached self-reliance, independence, and Black Nationalism. The views of Garvey influenced
Malcolm X’s views in his life. He moved into Lansing, Michigan where his parents’ home was burned to the ground
by racists. His father was killed in 1931. He was in school and excelled, but his racist teacher discouraged him from
being a lawyer when he said a racist slur to him. Also, he traveled the nation to work in jobs and explore America.
He had girlfriends; he once was a hustler and a pimp. He was caught in a crime and sentenced to jail. This was
when his life changed forever. In jail, he converted to the Nation of Islam. Back then, the NOI believed that black
people are the first people on Earth and white people are irredeemable devils created (by the scientist Yacub) to
harm black people globally. Malcolm X was desperate for direction and a home to promote his views.

After his experience in prison, he was a minister in the Nation of Islam. By 1953, he was the Assistant Minister of
the Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple. He traveled into NYC by 1959. He also traveled into the Middle East and
Africa by 1959. The Nation of Islam provided him many resources to spread his new views. He spoke out against
racism eloquently. He debated people. He loved to debate. The following source gives a precise reason on why the
Nation of Islam flourished during the 20th century:

"...In fact, the Black Muslims represented one of the few political alternatives to Northern Blacks, at a time
when most Black political organizations concentrated on legal assaults against Jim Crow in the South. At
the same time, trade union leaders effectively sided with employers in keeping Blacks in the lowest-paid
and least-skilled jobs. So while the civil rights struggle against Southern segregation laws captured media
attention, the Black majority in the North encountered conditions almost as brutal. By 1960, the
differential between Black and white unemployment had reached two to one, where it remains to this day.
Throughout the 1950s--a time of general economic expansion--less than half the Black working class held
full-time jobs year round. Although formal segregation laws did not exist in the North, Black workers
nevertheless lived in segregated neighborhoods in declining central cities. In such conditions, the Black
Muslims flourished..." ("The Rise of the Black Muslims" by Lee Sustar on the March 1987 issue of Socialist
Worker).

Malcolm X always loved his wife and his children. He was a total revolutionary
black man.
Even when he was in the NOI, no one could refuted his words in condemning racism, on promoting black beauty,
and opposing police brutality. He believed in self-defense in opposition to using nonviolence as a way of life. He
said that he was nonviolent with anyone nonviolent with him and he would use self-defense if someone was trying
to attack him physically. He worked hard, married Betty Shabazz and had children. Malcolm X made remarks about
JFK that got him suspended from the Nation of Islam. Malcom X left the Nation of Islam in early 1964 since he felt
that the NOI didn’t go far enough to address the social, economic, and political issues that black people were
facing. He wanted to go into politics more not just in theology. He changed by wanting to join any civil rights
organizations genuinely dedicated for results. Malcolm X formed the Muslim Mosque Inc. which promoted
Orthodox Islam and the OAAU or the Organization of Afro-American Unity (which promoted black liberation and
allowed any black person regardless of creed to join) in the year of 1964. He promoted gender equality,
internationalism, he opposed capitalism, and he became more revolutionary after his Hajj. He advanced Black
Nationalism, which is about black people controlling and owning the resources in their own communities in a
national fashion.

He also developed an international perspective where he denounced racism. He condemned the Western
corporate power structure and he also worked in the Selma movement in 1965. His home was firebombed on
February 14, 1965. He was assassinated by NOI members in February 21, 1965. Also, many FBI agents including CIA
agents monitored him globally. Malcolm X traveled the world in order to cause the UN to condemn America for its
human rights abuses against African Americans. He was a revolutionary. We honor Malcolm X forever. El-Hajj Malik
el-Shabazz was ahead of his time. He influenced SNCC and the Black Panther Party including the Black Power
movement in general.
 Rest in Power Brother Malcolm X.

1964
1964 would be a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. It would change Black America. A rare film called
“Nothing, But a Man” showed the real prejudice in the South. It was released in 1964. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
was called “Man of the Year” in TIME magazine on January 3, 1964. The Comedian Dick Gregory in January of 1964
also demonstrated in Atlanta to protest segregation in hotels, restaurants, and other public facilities. By January
23, 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution. This banned any poll tax in
elections for federal officials. Protests in NYC and Cincinnati exist revolving around schools. Cleveland also fought
for the integration of its public schools. Rev. Bruce W. Klunder was killed by a bulldozer after he tried to block the
vehicle in protesting de facto segregation. Austin T. Walden was the first black judge in Georgia in the 20th century
on February 4, 1964. On February 14, 1964, Richard Nixon made the false statement that boycotts, civil
disobedience, demonstrations, etc. won’t work in the long run for the civil rights movement. The truth is that
boycotts and outright rebellion caused the American nation to exist.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on March 5, 1964, led 10,000 people in Frankfurt, Kentucky to promote a public
accommodations law in the state. Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam on March 8, 1964. He later forms Muslim
Mosque Inc. Dr. King and Malcolm X would meet for the one and only time on March 26, 1964. They were watching
the debates on the civil rights bill. One movement during this era was the St. Augustine, Florida movement for
human rights. It lasted from 1963 to 1964. St. Augustine is found in the northeast corner of Florida and it was
founded by the Spanish. It is called the oldest continuous city in America as it was founded in 1565. This movement
contributed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act to be passed. This movement was powerful and local as well. One leader of
it was Dr. Robert B. Hayling. He was a black dentist and an Air Force veteran. He had ties to the NAACP. Dr. Hayling
picketed local establishments which promoted segregation since 1963.

Later, he and 3 other allies were beaten by the Klan in a Klan rally by the fall of 1963. The 3 other men are James
Jackson, Clyde Jenkins, and James Hauser. Nightriders also shot into black people’s homes in St. Augustine too.
Many teenagers were sent to six months into jail and reform school for just sitting in at the local Woolworth’s
lunch counter. Their names are Audrey Nell Edwards, JoeAnn Anderson, Samuel White, and Willie Carl Singleton
(who came to be known as "The St. Augustine Four"). It took a special action of the governor and cabinet of Florida
to release them after national protests from the Pittsburgh Courier, Jackie Robinson, and other people. Also, many
members of the St. Augustine movement used self-defense and nonviolent action. In June 1963, Dr. Hayling
publicly stated that "I and the others have armed. We will shoot first and answer questions later. We are not going
to die like Medgar Evers." The comment made national headlines.

When Klan nightriders terrorized black neighborhoods in St. Augustine, Hayling's NAACP members often drove
them off with gunfire, and in October, a Klansman was killed. In 1964, Dr. Hayling and other activists urged the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference to come into St. Augustine. By spring break, Hayling appealed to
northern college student to come to the Ancient City not the beach. He wanted them to demonstrate. Four
prominent Massachusetts women—Mrs. Mary Parkman Peabody, Mrs. Esther Burgess, Mrs. Hester Campbell (all of
whose husbands were Episcopal bishops), and Mrs. Florence Rowe (whose husband was vice president of John
Hancock Insurance Company) came to lend their support. The arrest of Mrs. Peabody, the 72-year-old mother of
the governor of Massachusetts, for attempting to eat at the segregated Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge in an
integrated group, made front page news across the country, and brought the movement in St. Augustine to the
attention of the world.

After activity continued for months, Congress had the longest filibuster of a civil rights bill in its history. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. preached for justice in St. Augustine. Dr. King was arrested at the Monson Motel in St. Augustine on
June 11, 1964, the only place in Florida he was arrested. He sent a "Letter from the St. Augustine Jail" to a northern
supporter, Rabbi Israel Dresner of New Jersey, urging him to recruit others to participate in the movement. This
resulted, a week later, in the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history—while conducting a pray-in at the
Monson. A well-known photograph taken in St. Augustine shows the manager of the Monson Motel pouring
muriatic acid in the swimming pool while blacks and whites are swimming in it. The horrifying photograph was run
on the front page of the Washington newspaper the day the Senate went to vote on passing the Civil Rights Act of
1964.

St. Augustine soon saw an end to Jim Crow segregation.

In late June 21, 1964 was the day where 3 innocent men were murdered by racists. The names of the victims are
James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. These men were part of the Freedom Summer
movement of 1964. Freedom Summer was about people going into the Deep South, especially in Mississippi in
order to try to register black Americans to vote and to end racial oppression in general in America. The organization
of COFO brought almost 1,000 activists to Mississippi. Many of these people were white college students. They
joined local black activists to register voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and support the MFDP. The MFDP stood for
the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Many people created schools and other programs to give poor people
opportunities. This came in the midst of Klan terrorism which murdered local black people and other activists
desiring justice. Many of the Mississippi’s white residents had hated the visitors and their progressive views. State
and local governments, the police, the Klan, and the White Citizen’s Council used arrests, beatings, arson, murder,
spying, firing, evictions, and other acts of terror to try to end Freedom Summer. They didn’t want black people to
vote in Mississippi. From June to August 1964, Freedom Summer activists worked in 38 local projects scattered
across the state, with the largest number concentrated in the Mississippi Delta region. At least 30 Freedom
Schools, with close to 3,500 students were established, and 28 community centers set up.

Over the course of the Summer Project, some 17,000 Mississippi

blacks attempted to become registered voters in defiance of the red
tape and forces of white supremacy arrayed against them—only 1,600
(less than 10%) succeeded. But more than 80,000 people joined the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), founded as an
alternative political organization, showing their desire to vote and
participate in politics. Freedom Summer didn’t cause many black
people to be registered to vote in Mississippi. Yet, it contributed to the
end of Jim Crow. It caused more people to be part of the process of
change. More media attention came to expose the racism found in
Mississippi. The deaths of affluent northern white students and threats This image shows Jane Adams
to other northerners attracted the full attention of the media spotlight and a young Freedom School
to the state. Many black activists became embittered, believing the
media valued lives of whites and blacks differently. Perhaps the most
student in Mississippi on 1964.
significant effect of Freedom Summer was on the volunteers, almost
all of whom—black and white—still consider it to have been one of the defining periods of their lives.

We know that the 3 civil rights workers were shot dead and then buried. The federal government led a search party
to retrieve the bodies. Back then, the FBI had Hoover, who slandered the Civil Rights Movement and especially Dr.
King. Freedom Summer included the leadership of SNCC youth. Also, the NAACP (which used the courts), the SCLC
(which used nonviolent resistance), and CORE were involved in Freedom Summer as well. The working class and
the poor were leaders in this movement too. Schwerner and Goodman were from NY State. Chaney was from
Mississippi. In that area, many black people were murdered and their bodies found. Taken to the local Neshoba
County jail, the 3 innocent men were held for several hours while Price contacted the gang of racist killers,
including Edgar Ray Killen, a local Klan leader. It was Killen who organized the group that followed the men when
they were released. The outrage over these murders helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
From 1964-1965 represented the end of the first era of the old school Civil Rights Movement. After 1965, more
people saw the class contradictions of American capitalist society. More people recognized that voting rights and
civil rights were great, but you also need to deal with poverty and economic injustice in general. Today, we fight
against racial injustice, against police brutality, against xenophobia, and against poverty. So, I send honor to the 3
men, who sacrificed their lives for us. Their names again are James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew
Goodman.

James Baldwin was one of the greatest writers and social commentators of human history. He lived from 1924 to
1987. He was born in NYC. For decades, he offered honest commentaries of our lives and our experiences as black
people. He lived unashamed and courageous. I watched the documentary "I am Not Your Negro." It showed the
emotions of black people during Jim Crow apartheid. Back then, people were lynched, police brutality was in a
huge level, and racism was explosive. He lived during the times of Dr. King and Malcolm X. He differed from them
on many issues and was similar to them in many ways. The picture in the center is James Baldwin with James
Meredith.

The similarities among all three men are that they were all black, they were illegally monitored by the FBI, they
experienced racism firsthand, they opposed the Vietnam War, and they desired justice for black people. He wrote
about race, sex, and class and how oppression is inter-sectional. He exposed the psychological effects of racism on
black people in eloquent, intimate ways. He wrote Notes from a Native Son in 1955. He couldn't stand racism so
much in America that he lived in France throughout his life. Baldwin's next book-length essay, No Name in the
Street, also discussed his own experience in the context of the later 1960's, specifically the assassinations of three
of his personal friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. He knew courage, because he
experienced some of the most brutal mistreatment, but he didn't bow before oppression. He was a fighter and
stood tall in the midst of a corrupt system. Now, he belongs to the ages.

Rest in Power Brother James Baldwin.

President John F. Kennedy proposed civil rights legislation. Now by 1964, JFK was assassinated many months ago.
The bill had support from Northern Congressmen and Senators from both parties. Yet, Southern Senators blocked
by the bill by threatening filibusters. There was a large parliamentary maneuvering and 54 days of filibuster on the
floor of the United States Senate, but President Johnson got a bill through the Congress. On July 2, 1964, Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national
origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. The bill authorized the Attorney General to file
lawsuits to enforce the new law. The law also nullified state and local laws that required such discrimination. The
rebellions of 1964 came about. They existed in Harlem and Philadelphia during 1964. In July of 1964, a police
officer shot an unarmed black teenager in Harlem. Tensions rose up. Residents were frustrated with racial injustice
and economic inequality. Rebellions happened in Harlem and in Bedford-Stuyvesant or a major black neighborhood
in Brooklyn. Rebellion took place in Philadelphia as well because of similar reason. There were much smaller as
compared to the 1965 Watts rebellion. The federal government responded to these incidents with a pilot program
called Project Uplift. Thousands of young people in Harlem were given jobs during the summer of 1965. The project
was inspired by a report generated by HARYOU called Youth in the Ghetto. HARYOU was given a major role in
organizing the project, together with the National Urban League and nearly 100 smaller community organizations.
Permanent jobs at living wages were still out of reach of many
young black men and young black women.

The activism of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

These are Sisters from Spellman
University (in the great city of Atlanta,
Georgia) in 1964. Many black women
from Spellman were leaders of the civil
rights movement.
slate of delegates to represent Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. The Mississippi Freedom
continued in 1964. The party wanted to give black American
constitutional voting rights. Mississippi has disfranchised people
since the 19th century involving voting rights. As early as 1963,
COFO created a Freedom Vote in the state. It wanted to show the
desire of black people to vote in Mississippi. More than 80,000
people registered and voted in a mock election. It pitted an
integrated state of candidates from the Freedom Party against the
official state Democratic Party candidate. Back then, the
Democratic Party in many places of the South were segregationists.
In 1964, organizers launched the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party (MFDP) to challenge the all-white official party.
When Mississippi voting registrars refused to recognize their
candidates, they held their own primary. They selected Fannie Lou
Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray to run for Congress, and a
Democratic Party came into the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The convention
organizers despised them since they wanted Democratic Party hegemony instead of ending racism from the
Mississippi Democratic Party. The convention organizers wanted a triumphant celebration of the Johnson
administration's achievements in civil rights, rather than a fight over racism within the Democratic Party. All-white
delegations from other Southern states threatened to walk out if the official slate from Mississippi was not seated.
Johnson was worried about the inroads that Republican Barry Goldwater's campaign was making in what
previously had been the white Democratic stronghold of the "Solid South", as well as support that George Wallace
had received in the North during the Democratic primaries.

"...All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the
Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the
free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks
because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?

Thank you."

-Fannie Lou Lamer's testimony to the National Democratic Convention on August 22, 1964.

The MFDP took their case in front of national TV. Fannie Lou Hamer gave her historic speech in the Democratic
Convention. There, Fannie Lou Hamer testified eloquently about the beatings that she and others endured and the
threats they faced for trying to register to vote. Turning to the television cameras, Hamer asked, "Is this America?"
Johnson offered the MFDP a "compromise" under which it would receive two non-voting, at-large seats, while the
white delegation sent by the official Democratic Party would retain its seats. The MFDP angrily rejected the
"compromise." The MFDP kept up its agitation at the convention, after it was denied official recognition. When all
but three of the "regular" Mississippi delegates left because they refused to pledge allegiance to the party, the
MFDP delegates borrowed passes from sympathetic delegates and took the seats vacated by the official Mississippi
delegates. National party organizers removed them. When they returned the next day, they found convention
organizers had removed the empty seats that had been there the day before. They stayed and sang "freedom
songs.” The 1964 Democratic Party convention disillusioned many within the MFDP and the Civil Rights Movement,
but it did not destroy the MFDP.

The MFDP became more radical after Atlantic City. It invited Malcolm X to speak at one of its conventions and
opposed the war in Vietnam. Many MFDP left the Democratic Party altogether and became more independent.
Some turned to Black Nationalism. Some turned to Africa in a pan-African fashion. Robert Moses helped to found
COFO and he was dismayed that the Democrats would promote such a disgraceful compromise. He traveled into
Africa, had a Ph.D. in Harvard, and formed the Algebra Project (which was about teaching urban children
mathematics that many schools have adopted in numerous states to this day). This event represented the truth
that both Republican and Democrats in their leadership represent capitalist interests and didn’t want revolutionary
change (but only reforms).

Barry Goldwater (who was the Republican candidate of 1964. He was one forerunner of the modern conservative
and libertarian movements that we see today) opposed the Civil Rights Act because of federalism reasons. He
appealed to many southern whites because of his virulent anti-communism, promotion of states’ rights, and his
views on advancing limited government. Goldwater only won six states as Johnson won the 1964 election in a
landslide. CORE, the New Left, and other civil rights groups protested in the Republican Convention in San
Francisco. By 1964, Johnson promoted his War on Poverty plans. The Office of Economic Opportunity, which was
created by the Johnson administration promoted welfare, help in education, Job Corps, and other programs. A
black church in Vicksburg, Mississippi was bombed. It helped to register black Americans. Dr. King was continuously
slandered by J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover called Dr. King the most notorious liar in America on November 18, 1964. Dr.
King criticized the FBI for its lax actions in defending civil rights workers. On December 10, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. He contributed the money to civil rights organizations. The money was $54,000.
Dr. King was the youngest person at the time to receive the award at the age of 35 years old. By December 14,
1964, the Supreme Court upheld the power of Congress to prohibit discrimination in privately owned hotels (in
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States). The end of 1964 as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement was an age of
triumphs and tensions. Yet, the movement for change would continue and more victories would exist.

The 1964 United States Presidential Election

Date: November 3, 1964
Turnout 61.9%

This Presidential map has blue which shows the states

won by Johnson/Humphrey. The red color shows the
states won by Goldwater/Miller. The numbers show the
amount of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote 486 52
States carried 44 + D.C. 6
Popular vote 43,127,041 27,175,754
Percentage 61.1% 38.5%
Selma (and 1965)
The Selma movement represented the end of the early era of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. It was the total
peak of unity among many civil rights groups in desiring one major goal (which was the expansion of voting rights
to all people regardless of race or color). Black people in the South historically during that time were deprived the
right to vote via many ways from literary tests, intimidation, threats, assaults, and even murder. The black people
of Selma, Alabama were oppressed by a racist government. Now, the black people of Selma and other civil rights
activists united to stand up for their own rights. SNCC and the DCVL fought for voting rights in 1963. Yet, little
progress was made in the voter registration program. By 1965, SCLC became involved. The sheriff of Selma was the
notorious bigot Jim Clark. Dr. King came into Selma to lead many marches. He was arrested along with 250 other
demonstrators. Activists wanted to fight for federal legislation to defend voting rights. The marchers were opposed
by racists and many police officers. On February 17, 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed by the police in nearby
Marion. This caused James Bevel (a leader of the Selma movement) to plan a March from Selma to Montgomery
(or the state capital of Alabama). Also, it is important cite the black women leaders of the Selma movement like
Amelia Boynton, Prathia Hall (a member of SNCC), Colia Liddel Lafayette, Mrs. Richie Jean Jackson, Diane Nash,
Harriet Richardson, and others. Black women have always been leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.
On March 7, 1965, Hosea Williams of the SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC led a march of 600 people to talk the 54
miles from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery. They
walked just six blocks into the march. When they came at
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers and local law
enforcement caught them. The cops brutally attacked the
peacefully demonstrators with billy clubs, tear gas, rubber
tubes wrapped in barbed wire, and bull whips. Some cops
were on horseback. They drove the marchers back into
Selma. Lewis was knocked unconscious and he was dragged
to safety. At least 16 other marchers were hospitalized.
Bloody Sunday was a brutal display of police
Amelia Boynton Robinson was gassed and beaten too. She
brutality and total terrorism shown by crooked
was a great leader of the Selma movement. National TV
police officers.
recorded the chaos. These protesters just were peacefully
exercising their human right to march and promote voting. Many people were upset at this police brutality. More
national support came for the movement in Selma. The evening of a second march on March 9 to the site of Bloody
Sunday, local whites attacked Rev. James Reeb, a voting rights supporter. He died of his injuries in a Birmingham
hospital March 11. The second march was that they or the protestors would march to the bridge and turn back.
This angered some in SNCC and some viewed it as a compromise by Dr. King. Later, the courts (via Judge Johnson
on Wednesday, March 17, 1965) ruled in favor of the protesters to march from Selma
to Montgomery.

On Sunday, March 21, close to 8,000 people assembled at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church
to commence the trek to Montgomery. Most of the participants were black human
beings, but some were white and some were Asians and Latinos. Spiritual leaders of
multiple races, religions, and creeds marched abreast with Dr. King, including Rev. Fred
Shuttlesworth, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos, Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel
and Maurice Davis, and at least one nun, all of whom were depicted in a photo that has
become famous. On March 25, 1965 (on Thursday), 25,000 people marched from St.
Jude to the state capitol. People spoke and Dr. King gave his famous, “How Long, Not
Long” speech. The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen joined the march on March 24. On

These were young children (back then) who March 25, four Klansmen shot and killed Detroit homemaker
were involved in the Selma movement. Their Viola Liuzzo as she drove marchers back to Selma at night after
the successfully completed march to Montgomery. One of the
names are Sheyann Webb and Rachel West
Klansmen in the car was FBI informant Gary Rowe. The FBI
Nelson (who was 9 years old in 1965. Her COINTELPRO slandered Liuzzo back then. President Johnson
father fought for voting rights too). They were worked to make sure that the Voting Rights Act would be
best friends and they admired Dr. King, who passed by Congress. He would give a speech citing the words
encouraged them. They sang freedom songs “we shall overcome” to advocate for equality.
too. Their stories are shown in their book
entitled, Selma, Lord, Selma. They both President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act
attended the local church, Brown Chapel of 1965 on August 6, 1965. The act was powerful and it ended
poll taxes, literary tests, and other evil voter suppression
AME Church. They fought for freedom and
tests. It authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in
justice for all. Today, these 2 human beings states and individual voting districts where such tests were
are women. The picture above came from the being used. African Americans who had been barred from
University of Alabama Press. registering to vote finally had an alternative to taking suits to
local or state courts, which had seldom prosecuted their cases
to success. If discrimination in voter registration occurred, the 1965 act authorized the Attorney General of the
United States to send Federal examiners to replace local registrars. LBJ knew that the law would cause many whites
in the South to not vote for Democrats ever again, but he signed it anyway.
The Voting Rights Act increased African American voting registration. There was a massive increase of black people
in Congress and black people in public office in general. Within months of its passage, 250,000 new black voters
had been registered, one third of them by federal examiners. Within four years, voter registration in the South had
more than doubled. In 1965, Mississippi had the highest black voter turnout at 74% and led the nation in the
number of black public officials elected. In 1969, Tennessee had a 92.1% turnout among black voters; Arkansas,
77.9%; and Texas, 73.1%. Black people voted Jim Clark out of office in 1966. Black political power increased. The
Selma movement changed everything. Many even white liberals (along with many conservatives) felt that black
people should just be content with the voting rights law. Yet, black people legitimately responded that the job isn’t
finished yet, because economic security, housing, child care, medical care, and other human rights must be
defended not just voting rights. The black poor and the working class still suffered multifaceted forms of
oppression. Also, it is important to mention that it is hypocritical for some to call for black people to be nonviolent
while using violence in the Vietnam War. Black people saw that hypocrisy of the American capitalist system and
desired revolutionary change beyond reform. Selma was an end of an important phase of the Civil Rights
movement. Now, after Selma, a new era would start.

It’s important to outline many of the important moments of 1965 involving the black freedom struggle. By 1965,
CORE and SNCC enacted Freedom Rides in the North. They protested discrimination by companies like Trailways
Bus Co. and Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation. Racist school boards fired black teachers in Florida, Georgia,
Virginia, Texas, and other southern states. The autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965 after Malcolm
X’s assassinated. It was co-written by the liberal Republican Alex Haley. It was one of the greatest books in history.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was totally honest about the experiences of Malcolm X and it sent a message that
people can change and justice for black people is a goal that we all must be a part of. Kenneth Clark’s “Dark Ghetto:
Dilemmas of Social Power” outlined life in American society and compares the white American establishment to
imperialists who abuse colonists. Claude Brown’s novel “Manchild in the Promised Land’ was a portrayal of life in
Harlem. These books were published in 1965. In January of 1965, black football players go into the New Orleans for
the American Football League’s All Star Game. They are denied access to social clubs. They were once denied at
gunpoint. The black players have said that they will boycott the game. AFL Commissioner Joe Foss decided to have
the game to another city. On February 5, 1965, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was appointed to lead the Council
on Equal Opportunity, which will coordinate federal civil rights activities.
The March 1965 Moynihan report is one of the slickest, inaccurate reports in human history. It has been used by
conservatives and Hoteps to not only demonize single black women. It has been used to promote poor-
scapegoating, misogynoir, and patriarchy. Now, it is time to show the truth about the origins of this report. It was
promoted by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He was born in Tulsa, OK. He lived from 1927 to 2003. He worked in the
administrations of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. He was an ambassador to multiple nations as well. The total
name of the report is entitled, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” It promoted the myth that African
Americans lived in a “culture of poverty.” It believed that the legacy of slavery undermined the roles of black men
in the family and causes the growth of single families in the black community. In his mind, this established a cycle
of destruction involving single families. So, he promoted the lie that single families headed by women by definition
will inherently cause family dysfunction, which is a sexist lie. The report wanted more black men to have jobs at the
expense of black women ending some of their jobs. Also, he wanted the federal government to do more to help
black poor people.

Immediately, many civil rights leaders condemned the report as blaming the poor for their own oppression.
Poverty is not caused by black culture. Poverty is caused by the complex factors of capitalist exploitation, by
discrimination, by racism, and by other evils in our world. The
report (which promoted the lie that black culture not white
racism & capitalist oppression caused black poverty) says that
forcing black people to exist in nuclear families will solve poverty
and dysfunction. That is impossible since not all black families
will be nuclear, because some families split, some families have
widows, and other reasons. Some people decide not to marry.
Therefore, a strong single family has the same worth as a strong
nuclear family. There have been extended families which existed
for thousands of years. That refutes the notion that all black
people must be forced to be in nuclear families. The
conservatives talk about welfare, but in the past 40 years, the
social safety net has been depleted in communities nationwide
(via deindustrialization, our civil rights gains being rolled back,
urban renewal of the 50's and the 60's, bad trade deals,
discrimination, and other neo-liberal policies from both major
parties). We want our families to be strengthened without sexist
She is Sister Vivian Malone. She received her rhetoric. Some of the great women scholars who refuted the
doctorate in 1997. She was appointed to a Moynihan report were: Pauli Murray, Mary Dublin Keyserling,
position as the Executive Director of the Voter Martha Griffiths, Merrillee A. Dolan, Joanna Clark, and others.
Education Project and worked towards voter
equality for minorities, thus assisting millions of
There are strong nuclear, single, and extended families. The
African-Americans to register to vote. She lived
Moynihan report (which ignores white racist criminality)
to the year of 2015. She was a faithful member
of From the Heart Church Ministries of Atlanta
advances social Darwinism in believing that differences in social
where she served as an usher. Her brother-in- class among ethnic groups are a product of cultural attributes
law Eric Holder served as U.S. Attorney that are endemic to the groups themselves (which is racist and
General. classist). The truth is that poverty in the African American
community is readily caused by institutional racism, bad housing,
unemployment discrimination, underfunded schools, housing
segregation, etc. (which has existed after almost 3 centuries of North American slavery). Moynihan has gotten
much of his research from Nathan Glazer. Most poor people work and have a great work ethic. Many poor people
work multiple jobs according to the Economic Policy Institute. A strong family doesn’t have to be a nuclear one.
There should be job creation programs in especially poor areas. We have a structural problem of oppression that
must be addressed. In essence, there must be federal, state, and local social policies (along with self-determination
on the part of us as black people) to address racism and economic oppression. We should always be educated on
class and poverty. School resources must be accessible to all families. We reject racial and class bias. We fight for
racial and gender equality. We believe in economic justice. We love a strong social safety net. We stand up for
justice.

In Alabama on March 26, 1965, Kwame Ture from SNCC helped to found the Lowndes County Freedom
Organization. Its job was to register black people to vote, increase political plus economic power for African
Americans in Alabama. This group was a precursor to the Black Panther Party of 1966 since the LCFO used the Black
Panther as its logo and it defined itself as a pro-black empowerment organization. SNCC reached started to reach
into great power by 1965. Julian Bond said the following words on SNCC (He was once a member of the
organization):

"By 1965, SNCC fielded the largest staff of any civil rights organization in the South. It had organized
nonviolent direct action against segregated facilities, as well as voter-registration projects, in Alabama,
Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, North and South
Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi; built two independent political parties and organized labor unions and
agricultural cooperatives; and given the movement for women's liberation new energy. It inspired and
trained the activists who began the "New Left." It helped expand the limits of political debate within Black
America, and broadened the focus of the civil rights movement. Unlike mainstream civil rights groups,
which merely sought integration of Blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in
American society itself." — Julian Bond

School integration comes in Greenville, MS by May 28, 1965. It came without a court order. Vivian Malone was the
first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama by May 30, 1965.

Patricia Roberts Harris was appointed U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. She was the first black woman ambassador
to a foreign nation. During the summer, the SCLC used its Summer Community Organization and Political Education
program to help register black votes in 50 counties all over the South. The Deacons of Defense spreads nationally
by 1965. August 11, 1965 would be the event of the Watts rebellion in Los Angeles California. This happened after
years of police brutality, poverty, discrimination, and economic devastation that black people in Los Angeles
experienced. From the summer and to the winter of 1965, conflicts would arise. Black parents leave substandard
schools in Boston during September 1965 via Operation Exodus. From June to October 1965, Crawfordville, Georgia
fought for the human rights of black people. The Taliaferro County Georgia school system had segregation until the
1964 Civil Rights Act. On Friday May 28, SCLC worker Scruton was abducted by white racists and brutally beaten
with iron pipes. They then turn him over to the local sheriff who takes him into "protective custody" (the
kidnappers are not arrested). After a 48-hour hunger strike, Scruton is finally released from jail on Sunday in time
to attend a mass meeting at Springfield Baptist Church. More than 200 people, mostly adults, then march to the
courthouse. Dr. King and Coretta Scott King came into Crawfordville to support the black demonstrators. The
movement would be successful in the future. 4 homes of civil rights leaders are bombed in Charlotte, North
Carolina in November 22, 1965. Natchez, Mississippi allows the hiring of black police officers and the integration of
the local hospital after boycotts and race-related violence. The Natchez civil rights movement shows the power of
black activism. In Dallas and Houston during this time, its school system desegregates.

The Women of the Civil Rights Movement

It is always important to make known about the heroic, courageous women of the civil rights movement. The truth
is that black women have had a leadership role in every era of the black freedom movement. They have taken care
of families, funded people's livelihoods, and sacrificed a great deal for black people in general. The contributions of
black women from 1954 to 1968 will be shown here. Thousands and millions of women were involved in the Civil
Rights Movement. During the early 1950’s, Gwendolyn Brooks not only wrote great literature. She was active in
promoting the civil rights of black Americans. She allied with the NAACP, progressive activists, and Black Power
activists later on. Charlotta Spears Bass promoted not only progressive politics, but liberation for black people. In
1952, Bass became the first African-American woman nominated for Vice President, as a candidate of the
Progressive Party. Her platform called for civil rights, women's rights, an end to the Korean War, and peace with
the Soviet Union. Bass's slogan during the vice presidential campaign was, "Win or lose, we win by raising the
issues." She lived to be 95 and passed away at the year of 1969. Ella Baker and Septima Clark during the 1950’s and
beyond stood up for our rights. They are the Mothers of the modern Civil Rights Movement. They have fought for
justice since the early 20th century. They have organized programs, inspired the youth, and promoted grassroots
organizing. Ella Baker would work in the SCLC and in SNCC. Septima Clark would work in South Carolina to promote
voter registration, education in various programs, and the fight against Jim Crow.

Ella Baker and Septima Clark are just as important in the movement for social justice as are Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and Malcolm X are. Mamie E. Bradley-Mobley was the mother of Emmett Till. She spoke nationwide and spoke
in favor of racial justice. By the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Claudette Clovin and Rosa Parks were already
activists fighting for change. They refused to sit down in a segregated seat. They worked with lawyers and others in
order to make the boycott successful. Women led that movement too. They were leaders in the carpools who
allowed people to travel without buses. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson was one black woman leader who organized as
well. She wrote a book entitled, “The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It” about the
humiliations that black people faced while riding the buses.

Black people were about 75 to 80 of the total ridership. Black people from the North were arrested, harassed, and
shot dead for refusing to move to the back of the bus. Robinson was part of the Women’s Political Council to stand
up for human rights. Robinson was involved with other to start the MIA newsletter to help people. The MIA (or the
Montgomery Improvement Association) had the President of Dr. King. Thelma McWilliams Glass helped to organize
the boycott too. Georgia Gilmore (February 5, 1920 - March 9, 1990) was a cook and midwife who supported the
Montgomery Bus Boycott by raising hundreds of dollars a week through the "Club From Nowhere" which sold
sandwiches, chicken dinners, and baked goods to boycott supporters. Her home was often a meeting place for the
Montgomery Improvement Association. Tons of black women worked hard in the movement. NAACP southeast
regional secretary Ruby Hurley helped Autherine Lucy to go into the University of Alabama during the late 1950’s.

Daisy Gatson Bates was the President of the Arkansas NAACP and she was involved in helping the Little Rock Nine
children to integrate in Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Daisy Bates worked hard in advancing civil
rights from being a journalist to being involved in numerous demonstrations for justice. Mrs. A. L. Mothershed was
the mother of the Little Rock Nine member Thelma Mothershed. Septima Clark in the late 1950’s organized
Citizenship Schools to give people economic and political opportunities. Coretta Scott King was an activist too who
promoted an end to nuclear weapons, peace, women’s rights, and civil rights. Lorraine Hansberry was an activist
who fought housing discrimination and oppression throughout the 1950’s and the 1960’s. The 1960’s saw the
growth of black activism from women. Ella Baker was the Mother of SNCC. She inspired the youth to go in
independent action not following a centralized leadership. One of the leaders of the sit-in movement was Diana
Nash who worked in Nashville. She was from Chicago and attended Fisk University in Nashville. SNCC was founded
heavily by the youth. It was heavily diverse and spread nationally.
One of the greatest organizers of SNCC was Ruby Doris Robinson who was a secretary and fought for gender and
racial equality. Sexism existed in many sectors of the Civil Rights Movement and that is wrong. Likewise, many in
the Civil Rights Movement rejected sexism as sexism is evil. Black women continued to protest, were involved in
the Freedom Rides (many women involved included Jean Thompson, Doratha 'Dodie' Smith-Simmons, Catherine
Burks Brooks, Carol Silver, and others) ,and supported justice. By the early 1960’s, black women graduated from
previously segregated universities like Charlayne Hunter at the University of Georgia. Vivian Moore also was in the
University of Alabama. Gloria Richardson and Fannie Lou Hamer fought for freedom too. Gloria Richardson wanted
equality and Cambridge, Maryland and Fannie Lou Hamer from Mississippi spoke about the injustices in America
(and she wanted change). Also, singers like folkorist Bernice Johnson Reagon promoted Freedom Songs to promote
cohesiveness, and solidarity in the freedom struggle. Shirley Verrett was a famous opera singer who sang the song,
"Oh Freedom." The Freedom Singers were known for singing the song "Woke up This Morning" to promote
freedom. The Staple singers also performed "Freedom Highway" nationwide back in 1965. One great singer who
expressed black frustration at injustice and love of Blackness was Nina Simone. She was a friend of Lorraine
Hansberry and so many other people too. Nina Simone taught all of us not only about musical talent, but about a
consciousness in favor of justice for our people. Nina Simone loved Blackness as we do too. She influenced both the
Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement.

One of the greatest women of the civil rights movement was Sister Jane Matilda Bolin LL.B. She lived from April 11,
1908 to January 8, 2007. She was the first African American woman to graduate from Yale Law School. She was the
first black woman to join the New York City Bar Association. She was the first black woman to join the New York
City Law Department. She became the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States when she was
sworn into the bench of the New York City Domestic Relations Court in 1939. She was born in Poughkeepsie, New
York. Her father was a lawyer and she admired him. His father was the first African American to attend Williams
College and he was a lawyer. His name was Gauis C. Bolin. She was part of the Smith Metropolitan AME Zion
Church. Shew fought for children’s rights and education. She fought for civil rights. She served on the boards of the
NAACP, the Child Welfare League, and the National Urban League. She received honorary degrees from Tuskegee
Institute, Williams College, Hampton University, Western College for Women and Morgan State University. She
worked in New York City public schools as a reading instructor. She lived to be 98 years old. She was a legend.
 The pictures show Unita Blackwell, Nina Simone, and Nina Simone’s daughter.
Unita Blackwell from SNCC working in Freedom Summer inspired many people worldwide. During the Selma,
movement, Amelia Boynton was a leader who stood up against racism and police brutality. After Selma, thousands
and millions of black people had the right to vote via the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Annie Maude Williams of
Selma, Alabama on August 10, 1965 celebrated her voting eligibility certificate. In Alabama alone, black registration
grew from 66,000 in 1960 to 250,000 by 1966. One of the most intelligent theological experts and civil rights
activists was Pauli Murray. She opposed Jim Crow and fought for civil rights and women’s rights. As a lawyer,
Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray's 1950 book, States' Laws on Race and Color, the "bible"
of the civil rights movement.

Murray served on the 1961–1963 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, being appointed by John F.
Kennedy. In 1966 she was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Another co-founder of NOW was
a black woman named Anna Arnold Hedgeman. She promoted civil rights and she was a friend of the legendary
hero Dorothy Height. Dorothy Height worked for decades involving justice. So, we should stand up for black people
and for black liberation, but not at the expense of depriving someone else of their human rights because of their
background. I would never want oppression to happen to anyone else. Many people in many Black Nationalist
movements were sexists. Many people in the Black Panther Party were sexists too. The serious sexism found in the
SDS, the Black Panthers, and other factions of the Civil Rights Movement should never be minimized. It was evil,
despicable, and totally wrong period. Black women were heavily involved in the Black Panther movement, the
Black Power movement in general, and in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

For example, the National Black Anti-War Anti-Draft Union (NBAWADU) was spearheaded by Gwendolyn Patton.
She opposed the Vietnam War and Western occupation and domination of Third World nations. Patton was born in
Detroit in 1943 and she was involved in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott as being in the MIA or the Montgomery
Improvement Association. She was part of SNCC and the LCFO or the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. She
supported Black Power as a way to transform the black community positively. Black women were involved heavily
in anti-war rallies of the 1960’s. Many black women in the Black Panther party were Assata Shakur, Kathleen
Cleaver, Angela Davis, Elaine Brown, Barbara Easley-Cox, Charlotte Hill O’Neal, Tarika Matilaba, Judy Hart, Chaka
Khan, and tons of black women who wrote articles, organized programs, helped the poor and the elderly, and lived
out their lives in fighting for human liberation. One of the greatest activists from SCLC was a black woman named
Dorothy Cotton. She was one of the greatest leaders of the SCLC too. She was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Dorothy Cotton can sing too. Cotton’s close work with Septima Clark and Esau Jenkins, via both the Highlander Folk
School in Tennessee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, created a grassroots movement in rural
southern areas during the Civil Rights Movement. Dorothy Cotton came into Olso to celebrate Dr. King receiving his
Nobel Peace Prize. She worked in the Birmingham Movement of 1963. She worked in the Memphis sanitation
workers movement in 1968 too.
Cotton currently resides in Ithaca, New York. Black women involved in the 1968 sanitation movement also include
Maxine Smith, Cornelia Crenshaw, Tarlease Mathews, (who is also known as Mrs. Adjua Abi Naantaanbuu later in
her life). New voices of literature and activism were shown by Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni. Sonia was born in
Birmingham, Alabama in 1934. She worked for CORE during the early 1960's when she met Malcolm X. She became
a great advocate of black culture and literature. Nikki Giovanni was born in 1943 at Knoxville, Tennessee. The Civil
Rights Movement and Black Power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black
Talk (1967),which sold over ten thousand copies in its first year, Black Judgement (1968), selling six thousand
copies in three months. So, there are tons of contributions that black women made throughout the black freedom
struggle in general. We honor their service to humanity and we are always inspired by their heroism. Black women
are heroes. Black Women always Rock.

Like always, Bless Black Women Forever.

 Honoring The Little Rock Nine
Part of the Civil Rights Movement
The Little Rock Nine students The Little Rock Nine included:
were escorted inside Little Melba Pattillo Beals,
Rock Central High School by Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth
st
the troops of the 101 Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria
Airborne Division of the Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls
United States Army. LaNier, Thelma Mothershed,
Terrence Roberts, and
Jefferson Thomas.
Daisy Lee Gatson Bates
(1914-1999) was a heroine
who was a civil rights activist,
a publisher, a journalist, and
a lecturer. She was a leader
of the Little Rock integration
movement back in 1957. For
decades, she has helped the
poor, promoted a community
center, and advanced
education.
Black Music, Movies, and the Arts (from the 1950's to 1965)
Black Americans have created dynamic music, art, and culture throughout the 1950’s. Back then, jazz, bebop, and
R&B were very popular. Gospel caravans also performed in churches and even in the Apollo Theater. Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie (he lived from 1917 to 1993 and he was born in Englewood, New Jersey. He loved to use the
trumpet including the piano too. In fact, he was one of the greatest trumpeters of all time) used bebop, which was
very technical and used much improvisation. Miles Davis shown legendary classic during the 1950’s including
Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Around the time of the 1940’s and the 1950’s, African Americans evolved
rhythm and blues into a new genre called rock and roll. Rock and Roll had a strong backbeat. Louis Jordan and
Wynonie Harries were part of this movement. Many white artists influenced by the black-invented rock and roll
included people like Bill Haley and of course Elvis Presley (who used the guitar).

There was rockabilly which used a guitar and it merged rock and roll with country music. Rock music thereafter
became more associated with white people, though some black performers such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
had commercial success. Chuck Berry is also a legend since he is a great innovator. He had many songs like
Maybellene in 1955 and Rock and Roll Music from 1957. He passed away recently ion March 18, 2017. He lived to
be 90 years old. He was a great showman and was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Chuck Berry was the most influential
rock and roll artist in history. He has been praised by tons of people. He was the greatest in what he did. By the
1950’s, Little Richard was very famous. He performed rock and roll with a unique style. He could sing, play the
piano, and entertain crowds. Before Prince, and before Jimi Hendrix, there was Little Richard.
 MOTOWN CHANGED THE WORLD FOREVER.
During the 1950’s, blues became more popular in America and the United Kingdom. The doo wop style with vocal
group harmony increased. Doo-wop used syllables, little to no instrumentation, and simple lyrics. Frankie Lyman
used doo-wop constantly as shown in the film “Why do Fools Fall in Love.” Soul was invented in the mid 1950’s.
Soul was a secularized version of American gospel music. Many pioneers of soul music included Ray Charles, Jackie
Wilson, and Sam Cooke. By 1959, a new era started. In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first
record label to primarily feature African-American artists aimed at achieving crossover success. The label
developed an innovative—and commercially successful—style of soul music with distinctive pop elements.
Motown started a movement and featured some of the greatest artists of all time.

Movies, plays, and the rest of the arts flourished in black America during the 1950’s too. Movies and plays during
the 1950’s have shown many non-stereotypical images and issues that are relevant in the lives of mid-century
America. By May 1, 1950, the legendary writer Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago became the first African American to
win the Pulitzer Prize. She won the prize in Poetry. Today, it has been over 100 years after her birth. She is not only
a great writer. She is also a great teacher and social activist who fought discrimination, apartheid, economic
injustice, and racism throughout her life. Later, a black woman, named Juanita Hall became the first African
American to win a Tony award. She was honored of her role in the Broadway play called, “South Pacific.” Jet came
about in 1951. Ralph Ellison published the Invisible Man in 1952. The work exposed the viciousness of racism and
how many white Americans ignored the plight of black suffering. James Baldwin in 1953 published his first novel. It
was called “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the greatest gospel performers of the
1950’s. She broke down barriers and loved to show music constantly.
One of the greatest movies of the 20th century was Carmen Jones. It came out in 1954 and it had an ensemble cast
of black actors and black actresses. It starred Dorothy Dandridge who plays a woman who works during World War
II, but is monitored by a soldier whose falls in love with her. Later, they break up and tragedy comes to Dandridge’s
character in the end. Otto Preminger directed the film. Nat King Cole was the first African American to host a prime
time variety show on national TV on 1956. Harry Belafonte on 1956 also released “Calypso” from RCA Records. It
was the first album in history to sell more than one million copies. Louis E. Lomas in 1958 was the first African
American newscaster for a major network station. He was hired by WNTA-TV in New York City on 1958. Porgy and
Bess was a filled with a large African American cast. It was based on an opera from the American composer George
Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from
Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of his 1925 novel of the same name. The play was premiere on
September 30, 1935 in Boston. Later, it moved into Broadway in New York City. It featured classically trained black
actors and actresses. Leontyne Price played Bess and she was a great actress. William Warfield played Porgy and
Cab Calloway had a role too.

The movie came about in 1959 and it was directed by Otto Preminger as a musical. Sidney Poitier played Porgy,
Dorothy Dandridge played Bess, Sammy Davis Jr. was Sportin’ Life, Pearl Bailey was Maria, Diahann Carroll was
Clara, Brock Peters was Crown, etc. The film was about black Americans living in Charleston, South Carolina. One of
the greatest plays in America was the “Raisin in the Sun.” It was released by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959. Lorraine
Hansberry wasn’t just a great writer. She was a social activist who believed in equality for all, freedom for black
people, and she was active in the Civil Rights Movement. She was raised in Chicago and saw racism firsthand
literally. Her play made it into Broadway. Her play was about a black family trying to live in an all-white
neighborhood. The play had a husband and a wife plus a grandmother struggling to survive in a racist world. The
movie dealt with issues of race, class, gender, and economic issues. The play ends with the family moving into the
neighborhood, but not being naïve about the forces of discrimination. In real life, black families have gone through
housing issues and discrimination. She was ahead of her time in writing literature on race, sex, abortion, etc. back
in the 1950’s. Lorraine Hansberry was 28 years old in 1959 too. Great black actresses during the 1950’s were
Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters, Juanita Moore, Ruby Dee, Beah Richards, Hazel Scott, Eartha Kitt,
Diahann Carroll, Rosetta LeNoire , Claude McNeil, Louise Beavers, Lena Horne, Carol Channing, and so many other
Sister. Great black actors of the 1950’s include Sidney Poitier, Al Freeman Jr. Brock Peters, Harry Belafonte, Coley
Wallace, Joe Adams, and other Brothers.
 THE CULTURAL GREATNESS OF THE 1960’S

A Raisin in the Sun showed many of the same

debates about race, housing, and economics that
are still debated to this very day. It’s a movie that
showed the genius of Lorraine Hansberry in
action.
The movie Nothing But a Man have Ivan Dixon and
Abbey Lincoln expressing magnificent acting. Ebony
Magazine accurately stated that this movie is among
the top ten greatest black films of all time.

Cicely Tyson worked

in the early 1960’s
show of East Side
West Side. She is a This image shows Marvin Gaye in the year
living legend who of 1964.
The Marvelettes was the first
successful all-women group of broke down barriers
Motown. They have many hit records. and she is a gorgeous
She is Brenda Holloway.
They consisted of schoolmates Gladys black woman.
She was part of Motown
Horton, Katherine Anderson (now for years. She was a
Schaffner), Georgeanna Tillman (later songwriter too. She has
Gordon), Juanita Cowart (now made great songs since
Cowart Motley), and Georgia the early 1960’s. In 1999,
Dobbins, who was replaced by Wanda Brenda Holloway was
Young (now Rogers) prior to the honored with the
group signing their first deal. Rhythm & Blues
Foundation's prestigious
Pioneer Award.
From 1960-1965, everything in society changed. The Civil Rights movement grew into the next level. More movies
have shown black people in a diverse light. Music filled with soul flourished. Motown grew. More and more black
people wanted to tell their own stories. More TV shows have shown non-stereotypical roles. 1961’s Raisin in the
Sun was a great film. It outlined life in working class black America. It had an ensemble cast of Sidney Poitier, Ruby
Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Roy Glenn, Lou Gossett Jr., etc. They payed homage to the genius to the play
from Lorraine Hansberry. Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both
Poitier and MacNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award"
at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. Gone are the Days came out in 1963 (starring Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, etc.). "Lilies
of the Field" was found in the 1960’s too. Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award. One Potato, Two Potato came
about in 1964 and it was about an interracial marriage. One of the greatest films of the 1960’s was the 1964 film
Nothing But a Man. It starred Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln including Yaphet Kotto. It was about an African
American man trying to survive in a racist small town near Birmingham, Alabama. He marries the local preacher’s
daughter. He deals with discrimination and oppression. He deals with his father too. He makes mistakes and
struggles to survive. The movie is ahead of its time because of its realism and honesty.

TV shows showed black actors and actresses as well (from 1950’s to the 1960’s). Some of the greatest black actors
and actresses of this time period were Diahann Carroll, Diana Sands, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Ivan Dixon, Paula
Kelly, Gloria Foster, Beah Richards, Isabel Sanford, Sammy Davis Jr., Cicely Tyson, Eartha Kitt, Estelle Evans, Claudia
McNeil, Leslie Uggams, Yahphet Kotto, Roscoe Lee Browne (During World War II, he served in Italy with the Negro
92nd Infantry Division and organized the Division's track and field team), Don Marshall, Dick Gregory, Esther
Rolle, Greg Morris, and other human beings. In 1965, Bill Cosby was the first black actor to lead in a show called I
Spy. I Spy was about Pentagon spies traveling the world to fight crime and corruption. He won many Emmy Awards.
Obviously, I don't agree with Cosby's adultery and mistreatment of women. I want to make that clear.

Music exploded from 1960 to 1965. Marv Johnson’s “You Got What it Takes” and other music from Barnett Strong
made hits. Jimmy Jones had his record. In 1960, Ike and Tina Turner flourished as well including Fats Domino from
New Orleans (he was a R&B veteran). The Miracles’ “Shop Around” reached number 2 in America by the end of
1960. Sam Cooke expanded soul music. He was an innovator and one of the greatest singers of his generation.
Commercial soul music was very popular among black and non-black audiences. The Temptations, the Supremes,
Martha and the Vandellas, and other singers traveled the world. Aretha Franklin was a star too. The British invasion
was influenced by black music as admitted by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. They loved blues and R&B music.
By 1964, the British invasion grew in the charts. James Brown was popular too. He performed in the South, into the
Apollo Theater (in NYC), and in other places. James Brown was the founder of funk music.
Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and other artists have shown their talents to the world. In 1965, the legendary singer
Curtis Mayfield (from Chicago) and the Impressions sang "People Get Ready." It was inspired by the March on
Washington. The song would be an anthem of the civil rights movement. Curtis Mayfield would make many songs
that inspired civil rights activists for years. John Coltraine's "A Love Supreme" was one of the greatest jazz records
in history as it was released in 1965 too. Judith Jamison is a great dancer of the 1960's who was in the Broadway hit
"Sophisicated Ladies." She worked with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Judith Jamison became one of the
world's greatest dancers and choreographers. Great literature during the early to mid-1960’s was created by
Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and so many
Brothers and Sisters.

This concludes the first era of the Civil Rights Movement. Next,
there will be words on the events from 1966-1968 including other
aspects of Black American history plus culture.

By Timothy