Slide 1

Chapter 21 Section 2 The Triumphs of a Crusade The Freedom Riders = civil rights activists who rode buses through the South in the early 1960s to challenge segregation Slide 2 Result: Attorney General Bobby Kennedy AND the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission issued an order banning segregation in all interstate travel facilities, including waiting rooms, restrooms and lunch counters. Slide 3 Integrating Ole Miss Sept 1962 James Meredith, an Air Force vet Won federal case allowing him to enroll in all-white U. of Miss, but the Mississippi governor refused to let him register JFK (like Eisenhower and Little Rock in 1957) ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith to the registrars office Sept 30- riots (2 died, 200 arrests, 5,000 soldiers called up 15 hours to stop the riot) Slide 4 Birmingham The most segregated city in America Martin Luther King and the SCLC led demonstrators in the streets of Birmingham April 12, 1963 (Good Friday) Sheriff Bull Connor arrested them. MLK wrote the famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail where he openly addressed white religious leader who felt he was pushing too hard, too fast. Slide 5 Childrens Crusade May 1963 Children were put out front of demonstration and faced the helmeted police force Economic boycott Negative media coverage Birmingham officials gave in Result: BIG CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY - JFK REALIZED A NEW CIVIL RIGHTS ACT WOULD BE NEEDED TO END THE CIVIL UNREST Slide 6 Integrating the University of Alabama JFK used federal troops to force Alabama Governor George Wallace to force him to honor the court order to desegregate the university. (June 1963) Slide 7 That night on TV, JFK addressed the nation on civil rights for African-Americans: Are we to say to the world and much more importantly to each other that this is the land of the free, except for the Negroes? Slide 8 Medgar Evers -Civil rights worker NAACP field secretary (and WWII vet) - Killed June 11, 1963 hours after JFK made the civil rights speech to the nation. Slide 9 JFK demanded Congress to pass a sweeping civil rights bill. JFKs civil rights bill: 1.Guaranteed equal access to all public accommodations. 2.Gave US Attorney power to file school desegregation suits In order to put pressure on Congress to pass the bill a massive March on Washington was organized by A. Philip Randolph and the SCLC. Slide 10 March on Washington August 28, 1963 250, 000 people marched on Washington, DC. (about 75,000 - whites included) 3 hours of speeches MLK I Have a Dream speech Slide 11 16 th St. Baptist Church Bombing Birmingham Sept 15, 1963 (TWO WEEKS AFTER THE MARCH) Bomb 4 young girls killed (plus 2 other people in the unrest that followed) Slide 12 Selma What: SCLC (early 1965) major campaign Why: 1. African-Americans were of population, but only 3% were registered to vote 2. SCLC hoped to provoke a hostile white response so LBJ would sponsor a federal voting-rights law. Slide 13 In Selma by end of 1965, 2000 African-Americans had been arrested in demonstrations Nexta demonstrator was killed, and MLK organized a 50 mile protest march from Selma to the state capitol (Montgomery) Sunday March 7, 1965 600 protestors started. People from all over went to join them. Slide 14 News bulletins covered it and showed tear gas, police riding around with whips and clubs it looked like a war scene. Result: Public horrified and 10 weeks later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. Slide 15 Voting Rights Act of 1965 1.Eliminated the literacy test 2.Federal examiners could enroll voters Result of law: By 1968 the percentage of African-Americans voting in the South tripled