Unit 8—Chapters 14 - 15The Civil Rights Movement, JFK, and LBJ

CSS 11.10, 11.11

Part TwoThe Movement Gains Ground 11.10.3, 11.10.2, 11.10.4, 11.10.6

How did the civil rights movement gain ground in the 1960’s?

Sit-In Movement, 1960

• 4 black students sat at the counter of a Woolsworth’s in Greensboro, NC

• they refused to leave when they were refused service• followed passive resistance

of Dr. King• spread all across the

country

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• a grass roots organization that tried to involve as many regular people as possible

• the focus was non-violent protest• letters to

newspapers, sit-ins, etc.

Freedom Riders, 1960

• whites and blacks tried to force desegregation on public buses

• one bus torched with Molotov-cocktails and the other attacked by a mob

• JFK sent US Marshals to ride buses• interstate bus travel was

protected by federal law• protest within the states could

still lead to arrest

University of Mississippi, 1962

• James Meredith had to have a federal escort to attend Ole Miss• Gov. Ross Barnett refused to

allow his enrollment• violence led to two civilians

dead and 166 injured• Meredith’s 1966 “March

against Fear” across Mississippi resulted in violence

• Meredith eventually got a law degree at Columbia

Medgar Evers

• activist who led boycotts against racist white merchants in Mississippi• investigated Emmett Till’s

death• helped get James Meredith

into Ole Miss• Bob Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in

His Game” is about Evers’ murder

• assassinated just hours after JFK’s civil rights address

Civil Rights Speech, 1963

“If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him; if in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?”

—John F. Kennedy, 1963

“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 1963

• King went on voter registration drive to the most segregated city in South• Gov. George Wallace had

pledged “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”

• Wallace ran for president twice in 1968 and 1972

• attack dogs, cattle-prods, high-pressure water hoses were used to stop the march

• King was arrested• TV and newspaper coverage

led to more support for King

“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 1963

• We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

• "An unjust law is no law at all.“

• Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

March on Washington, 1963

• King led 200,000 demonstrators to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial• 100th anniversary of the

Gettysburg address• wanted to pressure on

Congress to pass the legislation that JFK promised

“I Have a Dream Speech” 1963

• “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.”

16th Street Church Bombing, 1963

• a bomb killed four young girls at their church in Birmingham, AL• Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole

Robertson and Addie Mae Collins

• the FBI withheld information at the time of the murders

• there were no convictions• Robert Chambliss convicted in

1978, died in prison in 1985• Thomas Blanton, Jr. convicted in

2001• Bobby Cherry convicted in 2002,

died in prison in 2004• Bragged to his friends about his

involvement• Herman Cash died in 1994

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• JFK died in November 1963• LBJ pushed for the law in his

memory• banned discrimination in

most public facilities• hospitals, schools,

theaters, restaurants• gave federal government

authority to make schools follow the law

• est. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which eliminated discrimination in hiring

EQ #2

• How did the civil rights movement gain ground in the 1960’s?