The Civil Rights Movement Marches On Quiz

PDF page 811: On February 1, 1960, four sophomores at the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College in Greensboro—Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and Franklin McCain—entered the local Woolworth’s and sat at the lunch counter. The lunch counter was segregated, and they were refused service as they knew they would be. They had specifically chosen Woolworth’s, because it was a national chain and was thus believed to be especially vulnerable to negative publicity. Over the next few days, more protesters joined the four sophomores. Hostile White people responded with threats and taunted the students by pouring sugar and ketchup on their heads. The successful six-month-long Greensboro sit-in initiated the student phase of the

PDF page 812: In the words of grassroots civil rights activist Ella Baker, the students at Woolworth’s wanted more than a hamburger; the movement they helped launch was about empowerment. Baker had grown up listening to her grandmother's stories about life as an enslaved person, and had dedicated her life to racial justice. One of her main roles in both the NAACP and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (of which she was the first staff member) had been developing local branches and combining the efforts of diverse groups across states and ideologies. Her talent for organization and education laid the groundwork for city and state initiatives across the country, which proved critical in later efforts such as voting drives. Baker pushed for a “participatory Democracy” that built on the grassroots campaigns of active citizens instead of deferring to the leadership of educated elites and experts. As a result of her actions, in April 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed to carry the battle forward. Within a year, more than one hundred cities had desegregated at least some public accommodations in response to student-led demonstrations. The sit-ins inspired other forms of nonviolent protest intended to desegregate public spaces. “Sleep-ins” occupied motel lobbies, “read-ins” filled public libraries, and churches became the sites of “pray-ins.”

PDF page 812: In the words of grassroots civil rights activist Ella Baker, the students at Woolworth’s wanted more than a hamburger; the movement they helped launch was about empowerment. Baker had grown up listening to her grandmother's stories about life as an enslaved person, and had dedicated her life to racial justice. One of her main roles in both the NAACP and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (of which she was the first staff member) had been developing local branches and combining the efforts of diverse groups across states and ideologies. Her talent for organization and education laid the groundwork for city and state initiatives across the country, which proved critical in later efforts such as voting drives. Baker pushed for a “participatory Democracy” that built on the grassroots campaigns of active citizens instead of deferring to the leadership of educated elites and experts. As a result of her actions, in April 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed to carry the battle forward. Within a year, more than one hundred cities had desegregated at least some public accommodations in response to student-led demonstrations. The sit-ins inspired other forms of nonviolent protest intended to desegregate public spaces. “Sleep-ins” occupied motel lobbies, “read-ins” filled public libraries, and churches became the sites of “pray-ins.”

PDF page 812: Students also took part in the 1961 “freedom rides” sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SNCC. The intent of the African American and White volunteers who undertook these bus rides south was to test enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting segregation on interstate transportation and to protest segregated waiting rooms in southern terminals. Departing Washington, DC, on May 4, the volunteers headed south on buses that challenged the seating order of Jim Crow segregation. White riders would stay in the back, African-Americans would sit in the front, and on other occasions, riders of different races would share the same bench seat. The Freedom Riders encountered little difficulty until they reached Rock Hill, South Carolina, where a mob severely beat John Lewis, a freedom rider who later became chairman of SNCC (Figure 29.15). The danger increased as the riders continued through Georgia into Alabama, where one of the two buses was firebombed outside the town of Anniston. The second group continued to Birmingham, where the riders were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan as they attempted to disembark at the city bus station. The remaining volunteers continued to Mississippi, where they were arrested when they attempted to desegregate the waiting rooms in the Jackson bus terminal.

PDF page 812: Students also took part in the 1961 “freedom rides” sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SNCC. The intent of the African American and White volunteers who undertook these bus rides south was to test enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting segregation on interstate transportation and to protest segregated waiting rooms in southern terminals. Departing Washington, DC, on May 4, the volunteers headed south on buses that challenged the seating order of Jim Crow segregation. White riders would stay in the back, African-Americans would sit in the front, and on other occasions, riders of different races would share the same bench seat. The Freedom Riders encountered little difficulty until they reached Rock Hill, South Carolina, where a mob severely beat John Lewis, a freedom rider who later became chairman of SNCC (Figure 29.15). The danger increased as the riders continued through Georgia into Alabama, where one of the two buses was firebombed outside the town of Anniston. The second group continued to Birmingham, where the riders were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan as they attempted to disembark at the city bus station. The remaining volunteers continued to Mississippi, where they were arrested when they attempted to desegregate the waiting rooms in the Jackson bus terminal.

PDF page 813: In Cambridge, Maryland, hospital and school segregation led to severe health issues and limited educational advancement. The area's only two factories had declared that they would not hire Black people, and housing limitations led to horrible living situations. To bring about change, local activists Gloria Richardson and Inez Grubb launched the only affiliate of the SNCC that was not led by students, the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC). They began protests against local businesses that refused to hire Black workers, and conducted sit-ins at restaurants and other venues that would not serve Black people. Mobs of White people disrupted these protests, often with violence, and the conditions escalated to the point where both groups regularly carried firearms. As riots ensued and martial law was declared, the U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, negotiated what became known as the Treaty of Cambridge, which would have guaranteed complete desegregation of schools, as well as provisions for public housing. After Kennedy's intervention, the local government began to pull back from the arrangement. While some of her colleagues considered a softer stance, Richardson warned against complacency: “A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the white power structure to give him something that the whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not white rights.”

PDF page 813: In Cambridge, Maryland, hospital and school segregation led to severe health issues and limited educational advancement. The area's only two factories had declared that they would not hire Black people, and housing limitations led to horrible living situations. To bring about change, local activists Gloria Richardson and Inez Grubb launched the only affiliate of the SNCC that was not led by students, the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC). They began protests against local businesses that refused to hire Black workers, and conducted sit-ins at restaurants and other venues that would not serve Black people. Mobs of White people disrupted these protests, often with violence, and the conditions escalated to the point where both groups regularly carried firearms. As riots ensued and martial law was declared, the U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, negotiated what became known as the Treaty of Cambridge, which would have guaranteed complete desegregation of schools, as well as provisions for public housing. After Kennedy's intervention, the local government began to pull back from the arrangement. While some of her colleagues considered a softer stance, Richardson warned against complacency: “A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the white power structure to give him something that the whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not white rights.”

PDF page 813: Perhaps the most famous of the civil rights-era demonstrations was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, held in August 1963, on the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Its purpose was to pressure President Kennedy to act on his promises regarding civil rights. The date was the eighth anniversary of the brutal racist murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. As the crowd gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial and spilled across the National Mall (Figure 29.16), Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his most famous speech. In “I Have a Dream,” King called for an end to racial injustice in the United States and envisioned a harmonious, integrated society. The speech marked the high point of the civil rights movement and established the legitimacy of its goals. However, it did not prevent White terrorism in the South, nor did it permanently sustain the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience.

PDF page 814: By 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. had become one of the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement, and he continued to espouse nonviolent civil disobedience as a way of registering African American resistance against unfair, discriminatory, and racist laws and behaviors. While the campaign in Birmingham began with an African American boycott of White businesses to end discrimination in employment practices and public segregation, it became a fight over free speech when King was arrested for violating a local injunction against demonstrations. King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in response to an op-ed by eight White Alabama clergymen who complained about the SCLC’s fiery tactics and argued that social change needed to be pursued gradually. The letter criticizes those who did not support the cause of civil rights:

PDF page 815: Some of the greatest violence during this era was aimed at those who attempted to register African Americans to vote. In 1964, SNCC, working with other civil rights groups, initiated its Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer. The purpose was to register African American voters in one of the most racist states in the nation. Volunteers also built “freedom schools” and community centers. SNCC invited hundreds of White middle-class students, mostly from the North, to help in the task. Many volunteers were harassed, beaten, and arrested, and African American homes and churches were burned. Three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, were killed by the Ku Klux Klan with the help of police. After the three men were released following a questionable arrest, a local deputy intercepted them and forced them into his car. He drove them into the hands of a group of Klan members, who beat and shot the men. That summer, civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Robert Parris Moses formally organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as an alternative to the all-White Mississippi Democratic Party. The Democratic National Convention’s organizers, however, would allow only two MFDP delegates to be seated, and they were confined to the roles of nonvoting observers.

PDF page 815: Some of the greatest violence during this era was aimed at those who attempted to register African Americans to vote. In 1964, SNCC, working with other civil rights groups, initiated its Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer. The purpose was to register African American voters in one of the most racist states in the nation. Volunteers also built “freedom schools” and community centers. SNCC invited hundreds of White middle-class students, mostly from the North, to help in the task. Many volunteers were harassed, beaten, and arrested, and African American homes and churches were burned. Three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, were killed by the Ku Klux Klan with the help of police. After the three men were released following a questionable arrest, a local deputy intercepted them and forced them into his car. He drove them into the hands of a group of Klan members, who beat and shot the men. That summer, civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Robert Parris Moses formally organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as an alternative to the all-White Mississippi Democratic Party. The Democratic National Convention’s organizers, however, would allow only two MFDP delegates to be seated, and they were confined to the roles of nonvoting observers.

PDF page 815: The vision of White people and African Americans working together peacefully to end racial injustice suffered a severe blow with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968. King had gone there to support sanitation workers trying to unionize. In the city, he found a divided civil rights movement; older activists who supported his policy of nonviolence were being challenged by younger African Americans who advocated a more militant approach. On April 4, King was shot and killed while standing on the balcony of his motel. Within hours, the nation’s cities exploded with violence as angry African Americans, shocked by his murder, burned and looted inner-city neighborhoods across the country (Figure 29.17). While White people recoiled from news about the riots in fear and dismay, they also criticized African Americans for destroying their own neighborhoods; they did not realize that most of the violence was directed against businesses that were not owned by Black people and that treated African American customers with suspicion and hostility.