Challenging Segregation

Challenges• 1959-Sit-ins started with just 4 students• 4 months 54 cities and 9 states– Take matters into their own hands– Worried NAACP & SCLC– Ella Baker

“Students had the right to direct their own affairs and even make their own mistakes.”

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)-Key role in desegregating public facilities-Getting people to vote-Very Dangerous

Freedom RidersGoal Integrate bus terminals

Kennedy & Civil Rights

• Promised to support movement– Helped him win key states

• Bobby got MLK out of jail• Cautious• Created the Committee on Equal Employment

Opportunity • Appointed several African-Americans

Kennedy’s Support for Civil Rights• Bobby publically took care of things• Freedom Rider support• Kennedy wanted nonviolent action– Meeting with Khrushchev

• Made a deal with a Mississippi Senator• Thurgood Marshal recommended NAACP’s legal

defense fund• After all this, Kennedy tightened regulations• 1962- segregation in interstate travel had come

to an end

More Challenges

• James Meredith• 1962- University of Mississippi denied his

entry• Governor physically blocked his way

“Never! We will never surrender to the evil and illegal forces of tyranny.”

Governor Barnett

• 500 troops sent in• SEVERAL THOUSAND• Graduated

Birmingham

• Distractions for Kennedy• Demonstrations• King arrested (Bull Connor)• “Letter from Birmingham Jail”– Eloquent defense of nonviolent protests– Higher moral law– Page 936– All played out TV – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0lD37bq8YI

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Announced on June 11, 1963“…then who among us would be content to have his skin changed and stand in his place?” JFK

• March on Washington –August 28th 200, 000 demonstrators–“I have a dream…”–Build dignity –Momentum

Civil Rights Bill Becomes Law• An issue for the Senate• Filibuster• Cloture (forces the vote)• Kennedy assassinated• LBJ pushed it through• 87 days of filibuster (4 votes over)• July 2, 1964 Civil Rights Bill becomes law– Segregation illegal– Equal access to facilities– Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Voting Rights• 24th Amendment • Selma March• Majority of population- 3% registered to vote• Sheriff Clark terrorized African-Americans• “march for freedom” (Selma to Washington)• “Bloody Sunday”• Voting Rights Act 1965Segregation was outlawedand federal laws againstdiscrimination