The Struggle ContinuesChapter 29, Section 3

Pgs. 848-853

Sit-Ins

• Definition: the act of protesting by sitting down.• In 1960, four freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural

and Technical College in Greensboro strolled into the F. W. Woolworth store and quietly sat down at the “white” lunch counter. They were not served, but they stayed until closing time.

• The next morning they came with twenty-five more students. Two weeks later similar demonstrations had spread to several cities.

• At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, the students formed their own organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "Snick").

Ella Baker and “Snick”

• One of the organizers of “Snick” (SNCC).

• She had also been a former civil rights activist in the NAACP and the SCLC.

• Women played just as large a role as men in the Civil Rights movement.

Struggles at

• In 1962, a federal court ordered the University of Mississippi to enroll their first African-American student, James Meredith.

• The governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, refused and called in the state police to prevent Meredith from registering.

• President Kennedy had to send federal troops to Ole Miss to escort James Meredith.

• Riots, violence, and protests erupted on campus. Two people were killed.

Newspaper article from the Birmingham newspaper discussing the events at Ole Miss.

Struggles at

• Autherine Lucy was the first African-American to enroll at the all-white University of Alabama in 1956.

• Students, adults and even groups from outside of Alabama shouted racial epithets, threw eggs, sticks and rocks, and generally attempted to block her way.

• Lucy was eventually allowed to enter the school, but was expelled for her own safety three days later.

Governor George Wallace did not want to integrate the University of Alabama. He vowed to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block the entry of African-American students.

President Kennedy eventually sent the National Guard to protect the students and Wallace was forced to back down.

Here is a picture of students at the University of Alabama doing a protest.

They are burning any books or literature promoting desegregation.

Scenes like this were very common around the South during the Civil Rights Movement.

Birmingham, Alabama

• In the spring of 1963, Dr. King and the SCLC began protesting in Birmingham.

• Dr. King, along with several other protestors, were thrown in jail.

• Dr. King spent two weeks in jail. It is here where King wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

“Letter from Birmingham Jail”

April 16, 1963 MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

“While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

In Birmingham, national television captured real-life images of police setting police dogs on unarmed protestors.

Police in Birmingham also used the powerful impact of water hoses on small children and numerous adult protestors.

Medgar Evers and the NAACP

• Medgar Evers was the state field secretary for the NAACP.

• He was killed while protesting in Jackson, Mississippi on June 11, 1963.

• The death of Medgar Evers forced President Kennedy to try to persuade Congress to pass a new civil rights bill.

• Unfortunately, President Kennedy was assassinated only five months later.

Dr. King and the SCLC decided to start a huge march to push the civil rights bill proposed by President

Kennedy in June.

More than 200 people of ALL races took part in the march.

March on Washington – August 28, 1963

“There was this sense of hope for the future – the belief that this march was the big step in the right direction. It could be heard in the voices of the people singing and seen in the way they walked. It poured out into smiles.”

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act

Selma, Alabama

• By 1965, segregation had been outlawed in most public places throughout the South.

• However, in many states, African-Americans were still denied the right to vote.

• The SNCC, “Snick”, organized a major demonstration in Selma, Alabama to protest the denial of a right to vote.

• There were severe police attacks on the march.

“Bloody Sunday”

• Marchers were beaten back by state troopers as they marched from Selma to Montgomery in support of opening polls to blacks

across the South. • The marches led to the

passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

More images from the Selma March

Malcolm X

• Leader of the nation of Islam.• In the beginning, he was very

different than Martin Luther King.

• He believed that the best way for African-Americans to get ahead was to separate themselves from whites.

• By 1965, he had changed his ideas.

• He was assassinated by a rival within the Black Muslims.

Stokely Carmichael and

the Black Panthers• A more radical approach to

the Civil Rights Movement.• Carmichael later became

the leader of the SNCC. • He came up with the idea of

BLACK POWER. • What was Black Power? - the philosophy of racial

pride that said African-Americans should create their own culture and political institutions – separate from Whites.

More images of the

Black Panthers.

Who do you agree with?

The black panthers or MLK.

Riots break out

• Many urban (city) riots broke out due to the radical ideas of the Black Panther party.

• The first major urban riot took place in the WATTS section of Los Angeles in the summer of 1965.

• Between the years of 1965-1967, rioting broke out in more than 40 cities.

Dr. Martin Luther KingJanuary 15, 1929 until April 4, 1968