28.3 voting rights. focus your thoughts... which constitutional amendment gave african- americans...
TRANSCRIPT
Focus Your Thoughts . . . Which constitutional amendment gave
African-Americans the right to vote?
When did this occur?
In what ways did they continue to struggle to exercise this right?
Registered VotersThe nonviolent methods of the civil rights
movement troubled Kennedy, primarily because they provoked such violent reactions
Worried about continued and prolonged violence, they urged African-Americans to switch their focus:
Protests Voter Registration
The Voter Education Project
In 1962, the SNCC (Student Non-violence Coordinating Committee) and CORE founded the Voter Education Project This project sought to allow African-Americans
the right to register to vote in the SouthIt was met with just as much resistance as de-
segregation, and the struggle became very violent
A Problem StateMississippi
VEP workers lived under daily fear and threats
A local farmer helping one voter registration drive was killed
The state legislator who shot him was acquitted, and the lone witness – an African-American – was later found dead as well
Despite This . . . The Voter Education Project was a success!!
In 1962, fewer than 1.4 million of the South’s five million African-American adults were registered to vote . . .
By 1964, 500,000 more were registered, but Mississippi remained a struggle
The 24th Amendment
The twenty-fourth amendment was passed by Congress in 1962 and then turned over to the states to ratify . . .
What do you think it did? How many states do you think had to ratify it?
The Poll Tax
The 24th Amendment banned states and/or the national government from including a poll tax as a condition to take part in elections . . .
36/50 states needed to pass it . . . would they?? In 1964, it became part of the Constitution
The Poll Tax – at least in writing – did not discriminate against any minority group, but how was it used to continue
disenfranchising African-American voters?
Freedom SummerCollege students were asked to spend their
summer in Mississippi registering African-Americans to vote
When school let out for the summer, hundreds of students showed up for training, most of them were white students from the northern states
Freedom SummerIn addition to registering voters, college volunteers also
planned to educate young black children, who were receiving inadequate educations
The state of Mississippi was spending an average of $82 per year on white students and only $22 per year on black students
In addition, Mississippi was forcing black children to forego school and work during the summersThe college volunteers hoped to tutor the children to compensate
for this
How do you think Mississippi will respond?
Crisis in MississippiThe first two hundred volunteers arrived in
Mississippi June 20, 1964
Three young men, one a college volunteer and two CORE workers, were arrested for “speeding” that same night, and were jailed until evening
The boys paid their fine, left the jail, and were never heard from again
Johnson RespondsPresident Johnson ordered a massive hunt for the
three young men; their bodies were discovered in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi
Two-thirds of the volunteers went home after this, but those who stayed considered “Freedom Summer” a success:The Freedom Schools taught 3,000 students17,000 African-Americans in Mississippi registered
to vote, although the state only accepted about 1,600 of these applications
The Selma CampaignIn January of 1965, MLK Jr. began a campaign to gain
voting rights for African Americans in Selma, Alabama.
By the end of January, more than 2,000 marchers had been arrestedKing refused to give up, he used the same tactic he did in
Birmingham – forcing the police to arrest him and several others
Just as King hoped, his arrest drew national attention and the national media swarmed Selma, releasing pictures of children being sent off to jail
Tensions RiseBy mid-February, police were using force, and
even violence, to try and control the marches
A few days after a marcher had been killed by state troopers, King announced a four-day march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital, to protest police brutality
Governor George Wallace issued an order prohibiting the march“It will not be tolerated,” he warned
The Selma MarchSunday March 7, 1965, six hundred African-
Americans began the fifty-four mile march
Police forces waited, and when they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they began firing tear gas, and attacking people with clubs, chains, and cow prods
TV networks showed footage of the savage violence, and the march continued with federal protection . . . They finally reached Montgomery on March 25th
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed in Congress by large majorities
MLK, Rosa Parks, and many other civil rights leaders were present when Johnsons signed it into law on August 6th
Within three weeks, 27,000 African-Americans in the South had registered to vote, and African-Americans candidates soon began running for and winning local and state elections
“At times history and fate meet to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was last week in
Selma, Alabama.” - Lyndon Johnson
Analyzing InformationReview your notes of the African-American’s struggle for political equity in this section of the book. Then copy the graphic organizer below and use it to list the events in the
struggle, what injustice each event targeted, and the effects of those actions.
Event Injustice Effects