Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945

Black men come back with new ideas of freedom and equality

First type of Freedom Ride. Organized by CORE, seven white and 8 black men.

Signed by Truman, desegregated army and civilian government

Courts cannot enforce racial covenants on real estate

Abolished segregation in railroad dining cars.

Reversed a lower court decision upholding the efforts of the state-supported U of Oklahoma to adhere to the state law requiring A-A to be provided grad or prof ed on a segregated basis.

Successfully challenged separate but equal doctrine of racial segregation. Influential in Brown.

Begin in summer of 1954 in Indianola, MS. Direct response to the Brown decision. Because of economic pressure they seek distance from KKK, but include many city leaders as members.

Desegregates schools at "all deliberate speed."

Body found in the Tallahatchie River after being murdered for supposedly making advances toward a white woman in Mississipi.
From Chicago, IL. Killed by Roy Bryant and JW Milam.

--> Spark many activists

Started with Rosa Parks. Elaborate organizing of bus boycott to desegregate seating on buses.

Galvanizes boycotters
Home bombed several days later

Terror tactic
Jim Crow, old law
100 members indicted

Created by the state to "do and perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states..." from perceived "encroachment thereon by the Federal Government or any branch, department, or agency thereof." (Spied on citizens)

Started before the movement, but was used heavily to spy on groups like the Panthers.

After Montgomery, ruled bus segregation unconstitutional.

Comes from the Birmingham movement. Choose King largely because he does not have a reputation/new to the town and the movement. Young.

The first Civil Rights legislation enacted by congress since reconstruction. Came after Brown and Eisenhower having to protect the Little Rock 9.

Charged for not supplying city clerk with NAACP information

Supreme court decision which held that the states were bound by the courts decisions and had to enforce them even if the states disagreed

4 Students

Ella Baker (had worked for NAACP and SCLC in the past). Comes out of student conference at Shaw University.

Council of Federated Organizations. Cover organization for the NAACP in order to meet Gov. Ross Barnett. Work on voter ed programs, distributing clothes and food to the poor, record civil rights violations.

Interracial group of students travel through the south trying to integrate bus terminals. Met violence in Anniston and Birmingham, AL. Also met violence in Montgomery, AL.

Supported by Kennedys because it turns civil rights efforts toward causes that will likely end in less violence.

64 page, King's forgotten manifesto

Integrates Ole Miss. RFK has to send in the National Guard to protect him as white backlash is huge.

Gov. Barnett rallies segregationists at Ole Miss football game in Jackson.

Riots on campus. White backlash. JFK delivers televised speech to the state. 2 killed.

Up against Eugene "Bull" Connor. He uses police dogs and fire hoses against protestors on May 3, during Children's Crusade.

C for "confrontation."

Ban marches in the city. King won't break federal ruling.

Is arrested.

Over 3,000 demonstrators arrested. Connor uses police dogs and hoses starting May 3 and continuing for several days--> leads to a lot of bad press for him and also gains much attention and sympathy for the MLK and the cause.

Demands faster desegregation of schools where the original Brown decision only demanded "all deliberate speed."

"America was founded "on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened."

"The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be accorded equal rights and equal opportunities."

King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Event of "Four Little Girls" film. "Bombingham."

Students came from Yale and Stanford to help. Aaron Henry ran for Gov., Rev. Edwin King for Lt. Gov.
80k-93k voted in Freedom Vote.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Challenged seating of the delegation at the DNC in Atlantic City in August 1964.

Many civil rights workers from the North come into the South to register Blacks to vote. An interracial project headed by SNCC. Successful in registering voters, but also gains national attention and organizes throughout the deep south.

Goals: to realize potential by getting folks registered to vote for the POTUS elections of Nov. 1964. To expand black voter reg. To organize a legally constituted "Freedom Democratic Party." To establish freedom schools to teach reading and math. To open community centers where local blacks could obtain legal and med assistance.

At University of Michigan

Prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin of public facilities, government, and employment.

Signed by LBJ. Central to the Great Society Campaign and War on Poverty.

Lowndes County Freedom Organization. Stokely Carmichael's baby. Used the symbol of a Black Panther.

March in 1967-68
Resurrection City 1968

This march (which ended in extreme violence from police) is considered by many the last great march of the civil rights movement. Edmund Pettus Bridge.

--> Followed by March 9th symbolic march to the bridge only
--> And then March 21st march to Montgomery led by King.

"Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote..."

Puts federal registrars throughout the South to make sure that Blacks were able to register to vote. Passed under LBJ's administration.

California. 5 days after VRA signed. Greatest example of racial tension America had ever seen. (six days, 35 dead, over one thousand injured, 4000 arrested, hundreds of buildings destroyed.)

--> Grew into the long hot summer that was.

As an attempt to connect more with the people of Chicago, King moves into the slums to fully understand the struggle of the North.

James Meredith's march from Memphis to Jackson. He is shot on the second day of the march, but it continues and he eventually rejoins. After he is shot, King and Carmichael (as well as others) join the march--> from this it gains more press. Also during this march Carmichael declares Black Power in Greenwood, MS.

During a stop of James Meredith's March Against Fear.

With Mayor Daley. Promises to resolve many of the issues king was fighting for in Chicago, but really doesn't do anything. Most promises were just to get King out of Chicago.

Founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton (Minister of Defense) and Bobby Seale (Chairman)
Advocate black nationalism.
1967- Armed contingent to Sacramento to assert right to bear arms
1968- recruitment centers across nation open
Nov. 1968- COINTELPRO targets panthers

Ends relationship with LBJ because King's strong anti-Vietnam stance

Famous "I am a man" signs. Sanitation workers strike.

Infiltrated by violent set-up marchers, the Memphis march ends in violence, demoralizing King and others committed to nonviolent methods.

Famously seems to predict his death. "I may not get there with you..."

Memphis, Tennessee

Passed by 1 vote under LBJ. Provided for equal housing, signed during the King riots. Expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

In DC as part of the Poor People's Campaign.

Town of shacks set up in Washington, DC as part of the Poor People's Campaign is torn down.

Flash Black Power fist at the Olympics and are then stripped of their titles. Still pretty badass.

Police raid of Black Panthers headquarter in Chicago, IL, which killed two leaders. One of many police/FBI raids on Black Panther homes during this period.

Garrity declares Boston Public Schools are intentionally maintaining two separate school systems and suggests bussing as a remedy.

As black students are bussed to South Boston High School they face a great deal of violence. White resistance to the bussing persists until Hicks is replaced on the committee by a black committee member in 1977.