C.R.M. Final Essays

Compare and contrast SNCC with SCLC

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Compare and contrast the organization and outcomes of the Albany Movement with those of Project C

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Explain the tree most important consequences of SCLC's efforts in Birmingham

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Analyze at least four sources and consequences of internal tension within the civil rights movement

1)Roy Wilkins (NAACP) opposed March on Washington (SCLC) because it was too expensive and ineffectual. Thought it would be tainted by Rustin's homosexuality, draft-dodging and communism. Urban League's Whitney Young worried that his organizations tax exempt status would be jeopardized by backing a political event. 2)SNCC vs SCLC: SNCC felt that SCLC subjected themselves to the white paternalism. Felt that SCLC was not aggressive enough and would accommodate to whites. 3)Violent vs Non-Violent: Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, N.o.I. vs. SCLC, early SNCC, CORE. 4)Malcolm X vs. N.o.I, later on when Malcolm found that N.o.I. was corrupt. 5)A. Philip Randolph vs. John Lewis in March on Washington. John Lewis wanted to give a speech demanding to know which side the government was on. Felt that Kennedy's politics were dirty and that he was using the CRM to his advantage. Randolph pulled him aside and said he had been waiting all his life for this to happen and asked him not to ruin it. Lewis censored his speech.

Explain three examples of how armed self-defense existed simultaneously with reliance on non-violent strategies in the civil rights movement

1. Medger Evers kept a gun in the trunk of his car 2. Deacons of Defense- practiced armed self defense and would often offer protection to non violent groups so that they didn't have to violate their principles 3. Robert Williams was the leader of the NAACP in Monroe NC. He was suspended for his support of armed self reliance in the face of racial hatred

Analyze the weaknesses of the Albany Movement

Albany Movement: encompassed several civil rights groups including SNCC Began November 1961 Goal : total desegregation of the way life was lived in Albany, GA, a place where blacks outnumbered whites. President: William G. Anderson SNCC activists, Charles Sherrod, Cordell Reagon, and Charles Jones, were pivotal in coordinating activism around the city December, MLK and SCLC get involved Bus stations, libraries, lunch counters occupied by Af-Ams, boycotts launched, hundreds of protestors marched on City Hall By the end of all the mass demonstrations, lunch counters, parks, etc. were not desegregated and no blacks were employed as clerks in stores. Bus stations were the only real achievement. Weaknesses: SNCC in over its head ' Local people had no experience, no provisions for bonding to get people out jail, common ordinary people Wanted MLK's presence for national attention, but did not want the input of his organization - methodology and strategy of SNCC was different than theirs The appearance of MLK alone could not bring change, it was the strategy he brought with him. Movement failed to realize that. Laurie Pritchett - savvy police chief who did not allow the protestors to fill up Albany's jails. Was unbrutal and therefore deemed nonviolent, not true, but many abuses were more discrete and therefore overlooked. so the massive attention to the movement was not the same. When King vowed to stay in jail, knew it would continue unrest and bad publicity, so got him out of Jail by arranging a bond The "negotiation" between Albany officials and the movement Desegregated train stations and lunch counters When MLK and media left, retrogression to segregation Terms meant they were not permitted to demonstrate at all Unwillingness of federal government to intervene No civil rights officer from the Justice Department got involved The FBI under Hoover had a way of ignoring cases in civil rights because they didn't always directly fall under violations of federal law Injunction from federal court placed on movement to keep them from demonstrating Whole premise of demonstrations was that they had the federal law at their backs

Explain two criticisms of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and identify its critics

Black militants chastised King for making a conciliatory gesture to white America, similar to Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise. Malcom X called King a traitor to his race and dismissed the rally as the "Farce in Washington." Black nationalist Malcolm X, in his Message to the Grass Roots speech, criticized the march, describing it as "a picnic" and "a circus". He said the civil rights leaders had diluted the original purpose of the march, which had been to show the strength and anger of black people, by allowing white people and organizations to help plan and participate in the march

Explain the two most unique features or consequences of Freedom Summer

Freedom Summer-1964. A) One unique feature of Freedom Summer was the interaction between white Freedom workers and blacks in Mississippi. Gave blacks a sense of hope because they were coming together with whites in a way that they never had before. Students spoke with blacks about how they had the right to vote. Unita Blackwell spoke about how the white workers who were staying with her family shared a pot of beans with them and they all sat on the floor eating together. This was their first experience in which they could be themselves around white people. For black people in Mississippi it made them realize there was hope and that there were white people who viewed African-Americans as their equals. B) A consequence of Freedom Summer was the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party by COFO. African-Americans in Mississippi were fighting against the Jim Crow party of Mississippi for the first time. They traveled to the Democrat party's national convention and sought recognition as the states true delegation. They received 2 token at large votes, so really they had no power. The compromise drew a mixed response. SNCC split in two with the more militant branch demanding racial separatism and embracing self defense. Freedom Summer marked the end of SNCC's effort to appeal to the nation's conscience and opening of a more confrontational chapter in the movement.

Analyze how the "masculine liberation ideology" critiqued the civil rights movement

It said that the men practicing non violence weren't actually men because they weren't defending their dignity, their race, their women, their pride or themselves. He believed that they were letting the white man walk all over them and as long as they were doing that they couldn't be considered men.

Identify 3 consequences of the Freedom Rides

Kennedy administration has the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issue another desegregation order. When the new ICC rule takes effect on November 1st, passengers are permitted to sit wherever they please on the bus, "white" and "colored" signs come down in the terminals, separate drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms are consolidated, and the lunch counters begin serving people regardless of color. The new order is signed on November 1st, and on that same day nine Black students in Albany GA try to use the bus terminal's "white-only" facilities. They are denied. And from that seed of defiance grows the Albany Movement which goes on to challenge segregation throughout Southwest Georgia. Courage and determination trump violence. After the Rides, it becomes a bedrock principle of the Freedom Movement that violence and repression cannot — must not ever — be allowed to deter an action or suppress a struggle. That the response to violent repression has to be determination to continue regardless. Even when Movement supporters disagree with the original action, they rally in support if it encounters violent repression. In 1966, for example, all Movement organizations and leaders oppose the Meredith Mississippi March Against Fear. But when James Meredith is gunned down on the highway south of Memphis, every organization and leader mobilizes to continue his march to Jackson.

Explain the main elements of Malcolm X's activity and philosophy and analyze the meaning of his name change to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

Malcolm X's philosophy was that blacks should use armed self-defense. He said that if a white man was being attacked by a black man that it would be perfectly justifiable that he would use violence to defen himself if necessary. He said that when black men used non-violent tactics and did not protect their women from the white men that they were unmasculine. He believed that brotherhood could be achieved by believing in the one true god Allah and uniting as brothers in the religion of Islam. He wanted to give the black man the strength to rise up and reorganize himself and free himself from the white man's oppression. Malcolm did not believe in pre-emptive or unprovoked violence, only violence in self defense. He changed his name after his pilgrimage to Mecca and his conversion from the NOI to orthodox Islam

Explain the process of the Freedom Rides

PROCESS-- organized by CORE and SNCC in which participants rode on buses and trains across the country challenging the previously passed laws and regulations concerning segregated travels--started in Washington DC and ended in Mississippi

Explain the purpose of the Freedom Rides

PURPOSE--The main purpose was to challenge the laws of segregation in public transportation during the Civil Rights Movement...test Boynton v. Maryland---They started on May 4, 1961

Explain how SNCC had evolved from its origins to 1966

SNCC started from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960. SNCC played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over the next few years. SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter registration drives all over the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the later 1960s, led by fiery leaders such as Stokely Carmichael, SNCC focused on "black power", and then protesting against the Vietnam War. At the beginning, SNCC promoted non-violent action and later became centered around the idea of Black Power. Throughout the 1960s, SNCC worked closely with the SCLC and CORE. SNCC's first chairman was Marion Berry, and then John Lewis became chairman in 1963.

Explain the motivations and consequences of the Selma to Montgomery march

SNCC was working in Selma for years to help blacks have the right to register and vote, but were unsuccessful. The Voter's League recruited MLK and SCLC to help with the voter's registration drive in Selma, Alabama. King and John Lewis (SNCC) led a march in January of 1965 to provoke violence from Mayor Jim Clark so that they could receive media attention. Selma demonstrators were arrested and the jails began to fill up. In February, in Marion Alabama, C.T. Vivian and Albert Turner led a rally and made an evening march around courthouse. Local whites sprayed television cameras with black paint and beat reporter. Troopers then beat demonstrators. Jimmie Lee Jackson (SCLC) was killed. Enraged activists and they planned a march from Selma to Montgomery instead of their initial Selma demonstration. This displayed that the killing was Governor Wallace's fault. Wallace banned march, but demonstrators continued anyway. King was not present because he had to leave because of too many death threats. On March 7, 1965 the march began, led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis. Wallace's troopers and Sheriff Clark's mounted possemen waited for them and attacked them on the bridge. Tear gas, beatings, firehoses, etc. were used to attack the demonstrators. Known as "Bloody Sunday." Later that evening a white minister was killed, gained lots of media attention. Resulted in the Voting Acts Right of 1965.

Explain how the "politics of race" influenced the Kennedy administration

Sit-ins Election of 1960 : JFK saw opportunity to attract black voters King had just been arrested for the first time during sit-ins in Atlanta JFK called Coretta Scott King, wife, and gave her his condolences Robert Kennedy pressured judge to release him Used both instances as examples in pamphlets of his humanity and alignment with civil rights Promised: end to job discrimination and segregated public housing Was elected to office with 68% black vote, who believed in those promises. But civil rights was low priority to JFK, and leaders of civil rights were aware of it - thought it was just a way to get elected Freedom Ride Federal law said there could no more segregation in public interstate transportation To challenge the commitment of the feds to this new law, CORE organized an interracial group to travel from D.C. through deep south to New Orleans in 1961 James Farmer, president of CORE, sent letters to John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy (attorney general) - no reply FBI informed the police in Anniston and Birmingham of the itinerary, even with the knowledge that some officers in Birmingham were members of KKK. FBI knew KKK planned to do violence, yet did nothing. Head of FBI, Hoover, no sympathy with the movement Became an international embarrassment to the Kennedys. Decided to help Freedom Riders out of Birmingham When ast. Attorney general asked governor of Alabama to protect the Riders. After governor pitched a fit over states rights, instead of realizing that federal force was necessary, allowed protections of riders to be kept in the hands of Alabama officials. Once bus in approaching Montgomery city limits, all protections vanished and the bus was attacked by a mob Robert Kennedy consistently called for "cooling off periods" each time there was violence. When the Freedom Riders defied him and headed to Jackson anyway, Kennedy came up with his own solution. Not sending in troops for protection, but cutting a deal with James Eastland. In exchange for no violence, attorney general agreed not to uphold Supreme Court decision. The judge in Jackson didn't listen to defense of the Freedom Riders when they were arrested in Jackson, sentenced them to serve 60 days. The most defiant judges against equal rights for blacks were Kennedy appointees Episode with James Meredith: Political necessity to use federal force because of the bad defeat of Freedom Riders when they tried to enter Miss. Miss. Was most resistant to change, so they became a "good whipping boy" for feds

Explain the unique challenges Martin Luther King faced in the Chicago Freedom Movement

The Chicago Freedom movement lasted from mid 1965 to 1967. MLK demanded to end the slums of Chicago and improve housing, education, transportation, job access, income and employment, health, wealth generation, crime, and community development. The movement was affiliated with SCLC and the CCCO. MLK worked with Bernard Lafayette and James Bevel to challenge Chicago to restore the city's west side. Operation Breadbasket (Jesse Jackson) rallied white and blacks of Chicago and focused on housing discrimination. The march was led by MLK on Feb. 10, 1966. The movement gained a large amount of attention and national press. Finally, the city of Chicago proposed the "The Summit Agreement" which was months of organizing and direct action. In 1967, the movement lost its momentum and other matters were targeted.

Explain two lessons learned in the South by the Battle of Ole Miss

The feds can successfully put overzealous racists in their place when they actually try to Had never had to confront the issue of how a Supreme Court decision is to be enforced if there is resistance Learned from Ole Miss case that it is the sworn duty of president to uphold the law, it's the reason he is the given reign over the military Learned what constitution means in practical application

Explain the origins of the term Black Power and the significance of the reaction it provoked

The first popular use of the term "Black Power" as a social and political slogan was by Stokely Carmichael. On June 16, 1966, after the shooting of James Meredith during the "March Against Fear", Stokely Carmichael said: "This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I ain't going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!" Stokely Carmichael saw the concept of "Black Power" as a means of solidarity between individuals within the movement. With his conception and articulation of the word, he felt this movement was not just a movement for racial desegregation, but rather a movement to help combat America's crippling racism. The black Power slogan assisted the black community to begin organizing institutions and organizations. It encouraged racial pride in all spectrums: art, music, clothing etc. Later in 1968, the Olympic black power salute addressed the issue to an international level.

Analyze how the sit-ins and the formation of SNCC demonstrate the evolution of civil rights leadership, strategies and tactics

The first sit-in (Feb. 1, 1960) in Greensboro NC was said to have been the catalyst for an entire movement including the birth of SNCC. State and local ordinances known as Jim Crow laws in at least 11 Southern states prohibited interracial interaction in most areas of public life — restaurants, schools, courtrooms, buses and trains, movie theaters, even reform schools. The tactic they chose was simple: They sat at lunch counters and waited to be served. The stores refused to serve them, and the students were arrested and hauled off to jail, sometimes after being beaten and spat on by white mobs. The tactic became known as sit-ins, and in 1960, tens of thousands of students across the South were doing it — protesting racial discrimination that had scarred their parents, risking their futures to try to ensure a better one for their children. Perhaps 100,000 students participated in sit-ins; 3,000 were arrested in 1960 alone. The sit-ins — and the students they attracted — reinvigorated Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights movement, which had begun to flag after the success of the Rosa Parks-inspired Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56.

Explain the civil rights work of Medger Evers

WWII vet. After being rejected from University of Mississippi's law school, Evers became the state's first NAACP field secretary, tirelessly encouraging blacks to vote, file lawsuits, and join the association. Evers registered black voters, encouraged sit-ins, and organized boycotts of the state fair and Jackson's business district. Mentored James Meredith through his attempt to enroll at University of Miss

List at least five major civil rights events of 1963

• MOWM- Apr 28th, Deputy Director Bayard Rustin Marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Marched from Washington Monument to Lincoln Memorial. A. Philip Randolph had threatened to conduct a similar march in 1941 that convinced President Roosevelt to establish the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and ban discriminatory hiring in the defense industry. March was to support the civil rights bill introduced by the Kennedy Administration. • Project Confrontation- Birmingham Because of its violent past, King believed that Birmingham could greatly help the civil rights movement. He counted on Bull Connor to commit his brutality openly which would compel federal intervention. Preacher Fred Shuttlesworth founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights after Alabama banned the NAACP. ACMHR sought black police officers, challenged bus segregation, and tried to integrate schools and railroad stations. SCLC planned to disrupt the city's commerce by urging blacks to boycott selected downtown department stores. King penned a 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' Jim Bevel called for a children's crusade. Bull Connor retaliated and the Kennedy administration was forced to act. Project C was successful in the wake of the failed Albany movement because leaders had focused their goals. • JFK's Civil Rights address- Delivered on tv and radio. JFK promised Civil Rights Act of 1964. The address transformed civil rights from a legal issue to a moral one.[1] The speech was in response to the U.S. National Guard being sent to protect African American students enrolling at the University of Alabama. President Kennedy became an ally of this movement, and added the moral weight of his Presidency to the demand for civil rights. The President announced that he would be submitting legislation to ensure equal access to the public, accommodations and to address other aspects of discrimination •Medger Evers is murdered outside his home in Jackson, MS by Byron de la Beckwith • Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths.

Explain how the goals and problems of activists in the city of Memphis in the 1960s represent the issues of the mature civil rights movement

• More focused on poverty, housing, unemployment, and police brutality • Black, working-class Memphians in the 1960s showed that freedom was still unachieved by addressing labor injustice and racial and gender inequality • Prior to the sanitation strike, Memphis was perceived to be a place of racial harmony - like many other cities just before the urban riots of the 60s erupted, city officials thought they were immune to the problems of the south • Striking Memphians equated their struggle to the concept of manhood, using the slogan "I Am a Man" o Black Power and its emphasis on masculinity was making its influence on the movement, which gave the movement a different atmosphere than that of the early period of nonviolence

Explain four major consequences of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• November 1956, US Supreme Court ruled in Gayle v Browder that Montgomery's segregation laws were unconstitutional and violated the 14th admendment • Creation of the US commission of Civil rights to monitor alleged racial complaints- and the civil rights section of the Justice Dept was upgraded to a division that could investigate and litigate allegations against local officials for impeding voting rights. • NAACP in Alabama was banned??????? • The bus company, downtown businessmen and city lost $1 million dollars

Explain the multiple meanings and significance of the Memphis Sanitation Strike

• Represented a turning point in the struggle over race, gender, and power • Reflected black working-class agitation and issues with servitude, dependency, and dehumanization o Garbage workers referred to as "boys" o White housewives would give black workers "handouts" - secondhand clothes; condescending and embarrassing o Workers would literally be covered in garbage leakage by the end of the day o Called "walking buzzards" by public • Problems of fair wage and dignity connected to the concept of manhood o "I Am a Man" slogan • Violent police response turned strike into a mass movement involving thousands of black Memphians • Working-class women central to the strike support movement • Sparked a freedom march/movement (along with King's death) o Further protests to demand equality from racial injustice

Analyze how what happened in Montgomery led to new dimensions of the civil rights movement

• The smug white belief that blacks were "happy" with their subservience was an obvious lie. Moreover, blacks unhappiness was not stimulated by outside protesters. • Nor was it true that blacks were incapable of organizing themselves for any substantial goal or that they possessed little economic clout • Martin luther king, jr. was a new leader of the new movement- inspired many black southerners and white northerners to join the civil rights crusade. Most important the boycott showed that protesters needed to create sufficient internal pressure to compel intervention from outside the south • The MIA's interlocking strategy of local boycott, nonviolent protest and federal lawsuit would prove successful- Ghandian movement • Building on the success in Montgomery, King and other black ministers formed the Southern Christian League Conference SCLC in January 1957 to harness the untapped power of the church against racial discrimination. King would be able to appeal to black people through the church. • The middle class and lower classes were united through church and king.

Explain five reasons for the fragmentation of the civil rights movement by 1968

• Urban riots of the 60s: alienated whites; series of urban explosions that showed urban dissatisfaction with areas the Civil Rights Movement hadn't touched; convinced whites that blacks were to be feared rather than helped • Chicago Freedom Movement 1966: King was unsuccessful in challenging housing problems (like redlining); violence was elicited by white residents, but there was no police brutality; failed effort • Conflicts of the inner workings of the Civil Rights Movement: especially revealed in the last major march of the Movement - the James Meredith March 1966; difference of leadership ideology between SCLC and SNCC; debated over: o National or local march? SNCC wanted it to be local o Role of whites in leadership? SNCC thought blacks needed to be in control o Role of nonviolence - is it outmoded? SNCC wanted the Deacons of Defense to come for protection (who carried guns) • Alienation of Black Power: although "black power" had many different meanings to different people, to some it meant the exclusion of whites; whites were purged from positions of power in SNCC in 1966; put white America on edge; very alienating; denounced by King, Wilkins, and Randolph • Mounting criticism against King and his murder: from within the Movement - Black Panthers, Black Power, SNCC, turn away from nonviolence; from Lyndon Johnson and white America for being part of the antiwar movement; King's murder robbed the Movement of an important voice

Explain how the conflict over the Little Rock Nine showed the high cost of segregation

• many blacks and whites lost their jobs or moved away o Daisy (NAACP mentor to the little rock nine) and LC Bates lost their newspaper o The mayor who was for desegregation fled the state and abandoned his insurance company o Industrial development came to a halt o Assistant police chief killed himself and his wife out of stress • Significantly, what became a national pattern, white parents enrolled their children in all white private academies or suburban public schools • Whites fled the district to escape desegregation "white flight" leaving majority black students at Central High • Public school system was devastated as teacher moral plummeted • It took until 1972 for all grades to become desegregated • Only 49 more school districts desegregated in Eisenhower's term • President was forced to use federal troops (101st Airborne Division) to protect and permit black students into Central High and the paratroopers stayed as guardsmen throughout the year • 4 public high schools were shut down by Governor Faubus to prevent segregation. (the supreme court had to rule this unconstitutional and he was forced to reopen the schools a year later) • Severe harassment and discrimination of the little rock 9 • United Nations denounced the US for racism o International criticism • Governor used politics of race to further his career • Federal v State- biggest show down between state and federal governments since the Civil War. • Republicans v Democrats