Free at LastCivil Rights in the USA

1918-1968

Sourcebook 4 – By Any Means Necessary

Lesson 15 – March from Selma to MontgomerySource 1 – from the Intermediate 2 Sourcebook

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In 1964 Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights work. The Nobel prize is an international award only given to very special people. Martin Luther King was world famous and he decided to use that fame to push for more civil rights. A few days after he got the prize Martin Luther King was in prison. He had led demonstrations to protest about the difficulty many blacks faced when they tried to register to vote. Martin Luther King believed that the right to vote without fear or difficulty was vital if civil rights were to be won.

Source 2 – from History.com

In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC decided to make Selma, located in Alabama, the focus of a voter registration campaign. Alabama Governor George Wallace was a notorious opponent of desegregation, and the local county sheriff in Dallas County had led a steadfast opposition to black voter registration drives. As a result, only 2 percent

of Selma’s eligible black voters (300 out of 15,000) had managed to register.

Source 3 – from Stanford.edu

The plan was to march from Selma to the state capital Montgomery. The marchers made their way through Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they faced a blockade of state troopers and local police, who ordered the marchers to disperse. When they did not, the troopers attacked the crowd with clubs and tear gas. Mounted police chased retreating marchers and continued to beat them. Television coverage of ‘‘Bloody Sunday,’’ as the event became known, triggered national outrage. One marcher, who was severely beaten on the head, said: ‘‘I don’t see how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam... and can’t send troops to Selma”.

In response King proceeded to the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the afternoon of 9 March. He led more

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than 2,000 marchers, including hundreds of clergy who had answered King’s call on short notice, to the site of Sunday’s attack, then stopped and asked them to kneel and pray. After prayers they rose and turned the march back to Selma, avoiding another confrontation with state troopers. Soon afterwards, one of white ministers on the march, James J. Reeb, was murdered.

Another march left Selma on 21 March. Protected by hundreds of Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents, the demonstrators covered between 7 to 17 miles per day. During the final rally, held on the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, King proclaimed: ‘‘The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man’’.

Source 4 -from the Intermediate 2 Sourcebook

In 1965 a federal law called the Voting Rights Act was passed which gave the vote to an additional 250,000 black people. Within three years most of the black population were registered to vote.

% OF BLACK POPULATION REGISTERED TO VOTE

State 1964 1968Alabama 14 56Florida 26 62Georgia 22 56

Mississippi 4 59South Carolina 11 56

White politicians now realised they needed black voters if they wanted to stay in power and black people saw an opportunity to become politicians themselves.

Lesson 16 – Black Power

Source 1- from Intermediate 2 Booklet

By 1965 50% of black people in the USA lived in the north. Martin Luther King began to realise that while nearly all the civil rights protests had been aimed at improving civil rights in the south, the problems of black people in the northern and western cities had hardly been touched. In the ghettos the black population had not suffered the Jim Crow laws and segregation of the south but instead they suffered the problems of poverty, disease and unemployment. From the middle of the 1960s black protest groups with new leaders took civil rights protest in a new direction and they used new ways of protesting. They wanted Black Power and they were prepared to use violence.

Source 2- from Spartacus Educational

Stokely Carmichael was born in the Caribbean and moved to the United States in 1952. He attended high school in New York City. At university Carmichael soon joined the Student Non-

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violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

In 1961 Carmichael became a member of the Freedom Riders. In Jackson, Mississippi, Carmichael was arrested and jailed for 49 days. Carmichael also worked on the Freedom Summer project and in 1966 became chairman of SNCC.

In 1966, James Meredith started a solitary March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, to protest against racism. Soon after starting his march he was shot by sniper. When they heard the news, other civil rights campaigners,

including Carmichael and Martin Luther King, decided to continue the march in Meredith's name.When the marchers got to Greenwood, Mississippi, Carmichael and some of the other marchers were arrested by the police. It was the 27th time that Carmichael had been arrested and on his release on 16th June, he made his famous Black Power speech. Carmichael called for "black people in this country to unite, to recognise their heritage, and to build a sense of community". He also said that African Americans should form and lead their own organizations and urged a complete rejection of the values of American society.Some leaders of civil rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) rejected Carmichael's ideas and accused him of black racism.Carmichael also adopted the slogan of "Black is Beautiful" and advocated a mood of black pride and a rejection of white values of style and appearance. This included adopting Afro hairstyles and African forms of dress. Carmichael began to criticize Martin Luther King and his ideology of non-violence.

Source 3- Stokely Carmichael

We are standing here and we have begged the President, we've begged the federal government, that's all we’ve been doing – begging, begging. It's time we stand up and take over.

Source 4 – Stokely Carmichael

The only way we gonna stop them white men from whippin' us is to take over. We been sayin' freedom for six years and we ain't got nothin'. What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power.

Source 5 – H Rapp Brown, Chairman of the SNCC.

The white man won’t get off our backs so we intend to knock him off... If it comes to the point that black people must have guns we will have means and ways to obtain those arms.

Source 6 – from Historylearningsite.co.uk

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The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the 'traditional' civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced.The language of the Black Panthers was violent. They preached for a "revolutionary war" but though they considered themselves an African-American party, they were willing to speak out for all those who were oppressed from whatever minority group. They were willing to use violence to get what they wanted.The Black Panther Party (BPP) had four desires: equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights. It had a 10 Point Plan to get its desired goals.Source 7 – A selection of the Black Panthers’ demands

2) Full Employment; give every person employment or guaranteed income.5) Education for the people; that teaches the true history of Blacks.6) Free health care; health facilities which will develop preventive medical programs.7) End to police brutality and murder of Black people and other people of colour.9) Trials by juries that represent our peers.

Source 8 - Nation of Islam adapted from ‘Free at Last’ by John Kerr

The Nation of Islam, founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1930 was also known as the Black Muslims. Elijah Muhammad the founder wanted nothing to do with the ‘white devils’. It supported the creation of a separate Black Nation in the USA separate from white society in

every way, economically, politically and spiritually.

The Nation of Islam attracted many black Americans with its ideas of strict moral discipline, respect for religious faith and apparent ability to straighten out the lives of individuals such as drug addicts and criminals who had been considered being beyond hope. Malcolm X is an example of someone who was saved.

Source 9 from Intermediate 2 notes

Black Muslims took ‘Islamic’ names or replaced their surnames with an ‘X’. They

believed their original surnames were ‘white’ names which were the symbol of white power which Black Muslims wanted to get rid of. Many blacks were attracted to the ideas of the Black Muslims.

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Source 10 Early Life of Malcolm X – from Spartacus Education

Malcolm Little, the son of an African American Baptist preacher, Earl Little, was born in Omaha Nebraska, on 19th May, 1925. Malcolm's mother, Louise Little, was born in the West Indies. Her mother was black but her father was a white man.

The family was the victim of racist attacks. "Shortly after my youngest sister was born came the nightmare night of 1929, my earliest vivid memory. I remember being suddenly snatched awake into a frightening confusion of pistol shots and shouting and smoke and flames. My father had shouted and shot at the two white men who had set the fire and were running away. Our home was burning down around us. We were lunging and bumping and tumbling all over each other trying to escape. My mother, with the baby in her arms, just made it into the yard before the house crashed in, showering sparks."

In 1931 Earl Little, Malcolm’s father was found dead by a street car railway track. Although no one was convicted of the crime, it was believed that Little had been killed by the Black Legionnaires, an extreme branch of the KKK.

Source 11- from Malcolm X

(we) …should stand on our own feet and solve problems instead of depending on White people to solve them for us… non-violent is another word for defenceless.

Source 12- from ‘Free at Last’ by John Kerr

Malcolm X was a very different black leader compared to Martin Luther King Jr. He criticised the ideas of non-violence and integration saying;

The goal of Dr King is to give Negroes a chance to sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white folks who have persecuted, beaten and lynched black people for years. Dr King seems to want black people to forgive the people who have beaten, bought, sold and lynched our people for 400 years.

Source 13 – from Malcolm X

I don't even call it violence when it's in self-defence; I call it intelligence.

Source 14 from Intermediate 2 notes

What many people forget is that Malcolm X’s attitudes and ideas changed. In 1964 Malcolm X had a big argument with the leader of the Black Muslims and left the Nation of Islam. After a long visit to Africa in 1964 Malcolm X altered his ideas and became less aggressive towards white people. In Africa he met Muslims, white and black, who welcomed him as a brother. When he returned to the USA Malcolm X said:

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In a few weeks in Africa I saw what I had never seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all races, all colours, blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans in true brotherhood... In the past yes, I have made sweeping indictments (criticisms) of all white people. I never will be guilty of that again as I now know that some whites are truly sincere and are capable of being brotherly towards a black man.

Source 15

By 1965 Malcolm X had many enemies in the American government and in the Nation of Islam, some of whose members had issued death threats against Malcolm. In 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam while his FBI and CIA tail, which had been following him day and night for months, were mysteriously absent!

Source 16 – from bbc.co.uk

Malcolm X's rejection of Christianity limited his appeal. Yet although his message was an extreme one, millions of blacks liked his stress upon racial pride, and applauded him when he insulted white society. He was murdered in 1965, but despite this his message lived on, and the urban riots that hit America made it clear that many blacks had given up on the idea that non-violent protest could change conditions in the North.

Source 17 – from the Historylearningsite.co.uk

The Mexico Olympics of 1968 saw African-American protests reach a world-wide audience when two black athletes used a medal ceremony for the 200 meters to protest about the lack of real civil rights in America.

One of the greatest sprinters in the world in 1968 was Tommy Smith. By the end of his athletics career, Smith had equalled or broken thirteen world records. Close behind him in the rankings was John Carlos. In the build up to the games, all African-American athletes were urged to boycott the games by the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). Though a boycott never happened, both Smith and Carlos agreed on a protest at the medal ceremony for the 200 meters which both were expected to be at.  

In the 200 meters final, Smith won the gold medal and Carlos took the bronze medal. Smith's time of 19.8 seconds equalled the world record. As both men climbed the medals podium, it became clear that they were wearing one black glove; Smith on his right hand, Carlos on his left. Smith later stated that his right handed demonstration was meant to represent Black Power in America. The black socks that both wore (and no shoes) represented black poverty in America. 

Their gesture was seen as a Black Power salute - and was watched by tens of millions of people world-wide. This resulted in both men being expelled from the Olympic

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village and ordered to leave Mexico City. Their 'official' crime had been to bring in political issues to an event which was not supposed to mention politics.

When the two men returned to America, they were greeted as heroes by the African-American community and as unpatriotic troublemakers by others. In fact, both men suffered threats against their lives. However, the stance they took was publicised throughout the world.

Source 18 – Muhammed Ali

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

Lesson 17 Burn Baby Burn - The Ghetto riots of the 1960s

Source 1 - from Intermediate 2 notes

Non-violence to Black Power - the ghettos

Between 1950 and 1960, 3.5 million whites moved out of American inner cities but at the same time 4 million blacks migrated from the south and looked for homes in the inner cities. In some cities blacks started to outnumber the whites.

As the white middle classes moved out, the cities became poorer. The cities depended on wealthy people paying taxes for new house building, schools and other facilities. Without the tax income the cities became more run down. With less money to spend the city transport system, schools and hospitals got worse. As housing decayed and became more crowded the inner cities became slums which were mainly inhabited by blacks. The inner city slums were called ghettos.

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Source 2

Source 3 - from Intermediate 2 notes

In 1965 the first of many city riots took place in Los Angeles. To most black people in the ghetto the police represented white power. Most of the police were white! The police seemed to be the enemy.

Source 4 is from an interview with a young black man, Levi Jackson.

Last night a police officer stopped us and said, ‘OK, everybody get off the street!’ I said, ‘Hey man, it’s summer. It’s really hot. We don’t have air-conditioned rooms like you rich white folks. We like to hang out with our brothers and sisters on the street till late in the cool night air. Where are we going to go? We got no job to get up for in the morning.’ But the policeman came at us with his stick and his guns. He wanted to beat people on the head. He arrested one guy.

Source 5 from Intermediate 2 notes

The Watts area of Los Angeles was a ghetto slum. The population was 98% black but the police force was almost entirely white. In August 1965 the police stopped a black youth

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for drunk driving. August was a hot month and tempers were short. A local fight became a riot that lasted for 6 days and left 34 dead, 900 wounded and 4,000 arrested.

More riots followed during the long hot summers of the next few years. In 1966 there were another 43 ‘race riots’ but despite extra government money for schools, housing, jobs and health programmes the looting, rioting and killing continued. Civil rights leaders condemned the violence but young blacks refused to listen. They had run out of patience with seeing blacks being pushed around and treated as second class citizens.

Source 6 - from ‘New York Race Riots’ Civil Rights Digital Library

The New York Race Riots of 1964 were the first in a series of devastating race-related riots that ripped through American cities between 1964 and 1965. The riots began in Harlem, New York following the shooting of fifteen year-old James Powell by a white off-duty police officer on July 18, 1964. Claiming that the incident was an act of police brutality, an estimated eight thousand Harlem residents took to streets and launched a large-scale riot, breaking widows, setting fires and looting local businesses.

The violence soon spread and continued for six days, resulting in the death of one resident, over one hundred injuries, and more than 450 arrests. As the civil unrest in New York City began to cool, another riot broke out upstate, in Rochester, New York. Like the Harlem Riot, the Rochester Riot stemmed from an alleged act of police brutality. For three days, violent protestors overturned cars, burned buildings, and looted stores causing over one million dollars worth of damages.

Source 7 - from various rioters who were asked why they were rioting.

“...because the Man keeps pushin’ us.”In this case, “the Man” translates to white, middle class society, whose so-called “front men” or “errand boys” are the police.

“Those greedy white bastards [referring to local white store owners] are too ----n’ happy to get ----’n rich off what money we can scrape up; yet none of those ----’n sons of -----es hires one of us; no brothers get no dough to start up no ---damn store. Let it all burn...”

“Because this town ain’t nothin’ but crap. I’ve been livin’ in crap my whole life, my momma been sopped in it, my Gramma seen all this crap come down, and it ain’t never gonna end. It’s finally time to get rid of all this crap.”

Source 8 – from www.67riots.rutgers.edu

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The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers carried out a raid on an after hours drinking club or “blind pig” in a mostly black neighbourhood. They were expecting to round up a few patrons, but instead found 82 people inside holding a party for two returning

Vietnam veterans. The officers attempted to arrest everyone who was on the scene. While the police awaited a “clean-up crew” to transport the arrestees, a crowd gathered around the club in protest. After the last police car left, a small group of men who were “confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go” lifted up the bars of a clothing store and broke the windows. From this point, further reports of vandalism came in. Looting and fires spread through the city. Within 48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized, to be followed by paratroopers on the riot’s fourth day. As police and troops sought to regain control of the city, violence increased. At the end of 5

days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested.

Source 9 – from www.67riots.rutgers.edu

In Detroit, during the 1960s the police roamed the streets, searching for bars to raid and prostitutes to arrest. They frequently stopped youths who were driving or walking through the neighborhood. They insulted these youths, calling them “boy” and “nigger”, asking them who they were and where they were going.

Most of the time, black residents were asked to produce identification, and having suffered their requisite share of humiliation, were allowed to proceed on their way. But if one could not produce “proper” identification, this could lead to arrest or worse. In a few notable cases, police stops led to the injury or death of those who were detained. Such excessive use of force was shown in the 1962 police shooting of a black prostitute named Shirley Scott who was shot in the back while fleeing from the back of a patrol car.

The main issue in the minds of Detroit’s black residents was police harassment and police brutality, which they identified in a Detroit Free Press Survey as the number one problem they faced in the period leading up to the riot.

Source 10 - from www.67riots.rutgers.edu

The lack of affordable housing was a major concern for black Detroiters. When asked by the Detroit Free Press regarding the problems that contributed most to the rioting in the previous year, respondents listed “poor housing” as one of the most important issues, second only to police brutality. Detroit had a long history of housing discrimination.

During the 1940s and 1950s white Detroiters sought to block the entry of blacks into their neighborhoods, in one instance building a six-foot high concrete wall along Eight Mile Road, to separate themselves from potential black neighbors. The quality and cost of housing differed substantially for blacks and whites in Detroit, with black residents paying considerably higher rents than their white counterparts for the same quality of accommodation. Only 39 percent of African Americans owned their own

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homes in 1960, as compared with the 64 percent of whites who were homeowners

Source 11- from ‘Free at Last’ by John Kerr

In the summer of 1966 Chicago got hotter and hotter. On the 12 th July some black teenager opened a fire hydrant because they wanted the water to help coolthem down. The police closed the fire hydrant and a fight broke out. As a result windows were smashed, shops were looted and ten people were injured. The moyor did not think that the violence was important. However the next night the violence got worse with sniper fire, petrol bombs and the stoning of the cities firefighters. Martin Luther King Jr called this a riot.

Source 12 - from the BBC

Dr Martin Luther King, has been assassinated. Dr King was shot dead in the US city of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions. He was shot in the neck as he stood on a hotel balcony and died in hospital soon afterwards

Source 13 - from highbeam.com

The Chicago riots of 1968 were triggered by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was shot on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. Chaos and violence erupted in many cities throughout the United States, with Chicago getting hardest hit with 90 policemen injured, 11 citizens killed, 48 wounded and 2,150 arrested.

Throughout the United States, riots were widespread in many cities. The reasons for the rioting by black youths were their bleak situation and their dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War. As a reaction to the assassination of King on April 4, riots broke out in nearly every major city in the United States with arson, looting and shooting. While there was no difference between the riots in Chicago and elsewhere, the reaction of the mayor was very different.

By the early afternoon of April 5, groups of black youths gathered throughout the city of Chicago. It began with the smashing of car and store windows and looting the stores and eventually escalated to arson, shooting and sniper attacks. Fires were

rampant throughout the city and totally engulfed the black areas. The fires caused the downing of power lines and as a result there was no electric power going to the black neighbourhoods, leaving them in total darkness. That encouraged more looting and arson.

The mayor issued a statement which will forever be remembered in Chicago history. He said, "I have ordered the police to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand ... and ... to shoot anyone looting any store in our city."

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Source 14 – HistoryLearningSite

In 1960, the Civil Rights Commission found that:

57% of African American housing judged to be unacceptable, African American life expectancy was 7 years less than whites, African American infant mortality was twice as great as whites, African Americans found it impossible to get mortgages from mortgage lenders, Property values would drop a great deal if an African American family moved into a neighbourhood.

President Kennedy made these facts available to the American public. Constantly in the background was the poor treatment of people in Eastern Europe during the Russian occupation of this area. How could America condemn the Russians and turn a blind eye to the inequalities of what was clearly going on in America itself - the "land of the free"?

Kennedy’s assassination shocked the world. His vice-president - Lyndon Johnson - suddenly found himself sworn in as president on Air Force One. Johnson believed that he owed it to Kennedy’s life to push through this act especially as he was not an elected president. Martin Luther King was now an international figure and Malcolm X was now proclaiming that a more militant approach could be used to gain civil rights. The apparent passive approach of the 1950’s was now gone. The northern city ghettos were now moving more and more towards violence. Society had changed in just a few short years.

Source 15 – Spartacus Educational

The 1964 Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination in public places, such as cinemas, restaurants and hotels, illegal. It also required employers to provide equal employment opportunities. Projects involving government funds could now be cancelled if there was evidence of discrimination.

The Civil Rights Act also attempted to deal with the problem of African Americans being denied the vote in the Deep South. The law stated that the same standards must be used for deciding the right to vote. Schooling to sixth grade (11) constituted legal proof of literacy and the government was given power to initiate legal action in any area where they found resistance to the law.

Source 16 – Digital HistoryAlthough most white Southerners accepted the new federal law without resistance, many violent incidents occurred as angry whites vented their rage in shootings and beatings. The Civil Rights Act was a success despite such incidents. In the first weeks under the 1964 Civil Rights Law, segregated restaurants and hotels across the South opened their doors to black patrons. Over the next ten years, the Justice Department brought legal suits against more than 500 school districts and more than 400 suits against hotels, restaurants, taverns, gas stations, and truck stops charged with racial discrimination.

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Source 17- from the Kerner Commission

During 1966 there were 43 ‘race riots’. The government had spent money on housing, health, jobs and school but the rioting still continued. After the Detroit riot President Lyndon Johnson asked Otto Kerner, the governor of Illinois to investigate the causes of the city riots. It found that the riots were the result of lack of economic opportunity for black communities and criticized both the Federal and State governments. Some of its sharpest criticism was directed at the media, which the commission had felt inflamed passions and made things worse. President Johnson rejected the findings of the commission.

Kerner said that the riots had been caused by whites that did not care about the black Americans. 40% of all blacks lived in poverty and this was the main cause of the riots. As Kerner was white he had no reason to look for excuses for the blacks to riot.

Lesson 18 – Free at Last?

Sources from Intermediate 2 Pack

A steel worker said in 1969, ‘We do all the work. The niggers have got it made. Last three or four months you can’t turn on a damn TV without seeing a nigger. Us briarhoppers (whites who migrated from the south) ain’t gonna stand for it. If a bunch of good ol’ briarhopper Ku Kluxers had got hold of Martin Luther King, he wouldn’t have lived as long as he did.’

In 1985 the US government declared a national holiday in memory of Martin Luther King on his birthday, 15 January.

By 1978 there were 18 black members of Congress.

By 1980 nearly all the schools in the south were integrated and there was a big increase in the numbers of black students at college.

By 1983 there were black mayors in 240 towns and cities.

In 1967 the first black mayor was elected. In 1990 Colin Powell, a black man, was an important general in the US army. In 1968 George Wallace (from Alabama) got 10 million votes in the 1968 election campaigning for segregation.

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In a 2014 study, it was discovered that black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students.

More than 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, half of black men in the US end up arrested at least once by age of 23.

In 2009, the average life expectancy of black men and women in the United States was just 75. That's roughly the same as the average life expectancy of white men and women in 1979 — 30 years earlier. The average life expectancy of black men in 2009 was just 71 (compared to 76 for white men).

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