Civil Rights - FP4 - AA Resistance Flashcards
Causes of MBB
Rosa Parks arrested Dec 1955 for refusing to move from her seat
Baton Rouge 1953 - Boycotts seen as effective, economic power hit white pockets
NAACP activisim - Nixon NAACP branch leader knew Parks best possible case when compared to similar case of Colvin in Mar 1955 who was pregnant and unmarried (percieved badly by press)
Churches keen - set up Dec 1955 Montgomery Improvement Association - and Alabama State College organise protests
MBB:Reasons for success
Grassroots mobilisation - unanimity within 50,000 black population of Montgomery, funding from Club from nowhere, Thurgood Marshall, Jo Ann Robinson etc
Non-violent methods - continuous and hit hard
Leadership of MLK - eloquent oratory, non-violent message = widespread sympathy, key to MIA, ensured national coverage
SC backing - Browder v Gayle
21 Dec boycott came to an end after 381 days
Aims of SCLC
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Established Jan 1957
Aimed to encourage white involvement, use of non-violent protest, offered action in contrast to NAACP litigation
Consequences of MBB
Demonstrated strength of large scale protests by the whole of the black community and economic power - black shoppers could nto get downtown witout buses so businesses lost $1m
Whie opposition revealed - Montogomery White Citizens council membership 6000 to 12000 Feb-Mar 1956 - MLK’s house firebombed, 1957 Jan 4 black churches bombed
Television reports portrayed injustices to huge audiences, raised question of lack of federal response
Inspired individuals such as Melba Pattillo in Little Rock 1957
King established and SCLC
SCLC: March on Washington
1957 - only attracted 20,000 people to support Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Bill
Civil Rights Act 1957 - empowered prosecutors to obtain court injuctions against interference with the franchise
1960 Civil Rights Act established penalties for anyone who obstructed voter registration
Uneffective up to 1960, under staffed and lacked clear purpose
SCLC: Crusade for Citizenship
1958-60 Not effective due to poor organisation and limited finances - initiated by Ella Baker (would become increasingly critical of King’s leader-centred approach)
SCLC: Albany
Nov 1961-1962 - originated by SNCC, students from Albany State College begin sit-ins after city refused to desgregate bus station - SNCC hostile to calls to involve SCLC BUT they provided national coverage
Protests lead to Albany agreeing to reforms if there were no protests for 30 days - MLK left, but the city reneged on its promise
City Polic Chief Pritchett sensitive to media and did not employ open violence - under these conditions whites looked like the forces of law and order, whilst civil rights protestors seemd to be breaking this
Led to divisions - radicals begin to talk about using violence - success of resistance depended on fostering of creative tensions and consequent national outrage
Sit-Ins
Feb 1960 4 AA students to North Carolina college sat down at white only lunch counter and waited to be served - they stayed until the store closed, brought 23 students the next day and 80 the next
Impact of SNCC sit-ins
North Carolina incident inspired sit ins across the south and establishment of SNCC
Feb Apr 1960, 70,000 students involved in 78 different locations - media publicity
By end of 1961 810 towns had desegregated public areas - BUT deep south unchanged
2000 arrested by police who ignored white aggressors
Creation of SNCC
Organised byt Ella Baker for students following the sit ins
Inter organisational strife - SNCC accused SCLC of keeping donations meant for SNCC - unstructured and anarchic - worked to empower and mobilise ordary AA in deep south
Recieved attention for civil rights leaders: James Lawson trained members of SNCC and CORE in non-violence tactics, Fred Shuttlesworth and Floyd McKissik
Attacked all areas of segregation - economic power
CORE: Freedom Rides
Apr-Dec 1961 Founders of CORE James Farmer = clear purpose to create crisis and force federal govt to intervene and SC decision
4 white and 4 black students took interstate buses to test existing segregation laws
In Alabama, a bus attacked by white mob and burnt, and second group arrived an hour later and were savagely beaten
Televised and reported on by national press
Impact of CORE to 1961
King claimed SCLC had initiated rides and used them to get all groups to work together - high point of co-operation but divisions and competition for limelight remain
CORE becomes potent as it attracted the attention of college students across the country
Role of federal government 1961-2
JFK President Jan 1961 - mixed civil rights record, but recieved 75% of AA vote in the 1960 election
Appointed over 40 blacks to important position in govt
Apr 1961 executive order 10925 to improve employment opportunities for blacks in federal govt
Created Federal Interstate Commerce Commission under his brother Robert to enforce racial integration on interstate buses - sent troops to Mississippi Oct 1962 to enforce court order for Meredith
Nov 1962 JFK order 11063 to end segregation in federal housing projects
SNCC: Mississippi Freedom Movement
1960 5.2% of Mississippi AA could vote, and no elected black official since 1877, 70% black pop illiterate, few black doctors and black babies twice as likely to die as white babies
SNCC channelled membership into voter resgistration work, workers lived in communities for months (and often became radicalized), developed grassroots leadership but little practical improvement sin terms of voting
SNCC 1964 voter registration drive saw 800 Northern volunteers pour into Mississippi to help - education surrounding politics and voting encouragement
Key events of ‘63: Why Birmingham?
SCLC needed to demonstrate its success in face of competing organisations, found confrontation with Eugne Connor - a hot temperered determined segregationist
MLK impatient with federal govt and hoped connor would force a response
V industrially important city and racial separation extremely rigid - aim to target segregation of shops, unequal job opportunities etc.
Key events of ‘63: Events in Birmingham
Apr 1963 SCLC arrive looking to end racial segregation through peaceful protest
3-6th sit in demonstrators arrested, 10th all marches banned
12th MLK arrested for breaking injunction preventing the marching - King uses oratory skills to galvanise secular and religious liberals and the movement gathered pace
Children invited to join in ‘Children’s Crusade’ - harsh opposition but paid off when 3rd May Eugene Connor used force and violence to brutally attack and arrest many - 2500 in custody but huge national attention
Further demonstrations after KKK attacked MLK during talks to improve situation in Birmingham - Bombs damaged houses of King’s brother and SCLC headquarters 11 Mya leading to rioting by AA
Key event of ‘63: Impacts - King
National publicity and helped civil rights bill - peaceful end but limited change, desegregation of schools and publci areas not mentioned
Retention of moral high ground for SCLC
Pressure on federal because of national coverage
Some critics of King - marches for peace one day then threatens actions to bring about violent responses in otherwise peaceful neighbourhoods, SCLC had not worked with or recognised other groups
Key event of ‘63: Impacts - White Opposition
Sep 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing killed four young girls and sparked protests across Birmingham
June 1963 activist Medgar Evers assassinated outside his home - protests at his funeral
Key event of ‘63: Impacts - Federal
Birmingham crucial in pushing the 1964 civil rights act
June - JFK announces his support for civil rights legislation - sickened by imagery from Birmingham
Wave of sit ins and demonstrations - 930 public civil rights demonstrations 1963 in at least 115 cities, 20,000 arrested compared to 4000 1961
March on Washington - Aims and Events
Aimed to increase black employment and ecourage passage of civil rights bill
Aug MLK addresses 250,000 in front of Lincoln Memorial - called for integration for 1/4 white crowd - influential whites such as Eugene Blake of National Council of Churches and Walter Reuther President of United Allied Workers Union
March on Washington ‘I had a dream’ - Impact
Briliant publicity - possibly helped civil rights bill
Major civil rights leaders collaborate and presentation of movement as a united front
Emotional impact and interational audience - no opposition from Kennedy so growing federal sympathy
Backlash Sep 1963 4 black children in Sunday school killed in a bomb attack
Some signs of inter organisational tension - price of unity involved toning down more radical economic messages - criticism from Malcolm X etc.
