Protest, progress and radicalism, 1960-65

Question 1

What happened in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960?

Answer 1

On 1st February 1960, four black college students sat at a segregated lunch counter at Woolworth’s department store and waited to be served despite being told to leave.

Question 2

Who organised the Greensboro sit-in?

Answer 2

By 4th February there were over 300 students working in shifts – black and white, male and female. Both CORE and the SCLC were asked to send people to train the students in non-violent protest tactics. Ella Baker from the SCLC held a meeting of students on 15th April in Raleigh, North Carolina to plan protests across the South.

Question 3

What organisation led the sit-ins?

Answer 3

Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC – pronounced ‘snick’)

Question 4

Why was Greensboro significant?

Answer 4

The Greensboro sit-in was significant because:
• It helped sit-ins to spread across the country
• Some white southerners joined CORE and SNCC
• Attracted around 50,000 protesters by April 1960
• Sit-ins were easy for the media to cover (publicity!)

Question 5

What Supreme Court judgment desegregated state transport?

Answer 5

Browder v. Gayle (1956)

Question 6

What were the ‘Freedom Rides’ of 1961?

Answer 6

CORE activists decided to ride buses from the North to the Deep South to test if desegregation was happening.

Question 7

What happened on the first Freedom Ride?

Answer 7

On 4th May 1961, seven black and six white ‘Freedom Riders’ left Washington DC. The Governor of Georgia urged calm but the governor of Alabama spoke out against the riders. KKK and WCC members aimed to stop them.

Question 8

What was the reaction to the freedom rides by white opponents?

Answer 8

• On 15th May 1961, over 100 KKK members surrounded the first bus in Anniston, Alabama, slashing the tires and smashing windows. Someone threw a firebomb through a broken window and held the doors shut. Passengers escaped just before the petrol tank exploded, although some were beaten up.
• On 17th May the SNCC set up their own Freedom Riders from Nashville, Tennessee. No driver would take them further than Birmingham, Alabama. At the bus station they encountered an angry mob outside. Governor John Patterson was forced to get them safely to Montgomery by the federal government.
• A policeman fired a gun in the air to stop the mob from attacking the Riders at the Montgomery bus station. The mob (over 1,000) then roamed Montgomery, attacking black people and setting one boy on fire.

Question 9

What was the impact of the Freedom Rides?

Answer 9

• More people volunteered. Over the summer there were over 60 Freedom Rides.
• Over 300 Riders went to Jackson, Mississippi’s segregated jail.
• On 1st November 1961 the federal government pledged to enforce desegregation if states did not obey.
• Southern states began to desegregate bus facilities.

Question 10

What was the name of the black student who tried to enrol at the university of Mississippi in 1962?

Answer 10

James Meredith

Question 11

How had Southern universities responded to desegregation?

Answer 11

1962 – The Supreme Court had ordered the University of Mississippi to admit Meredith but university officials and Ross Barnett (state governor and WCC member) physically stopped him from registering.

Question 12

How did the federal government respond to the Meredith case?

Answer 12

Meredith returned to register on 30th September 1962 accompanied by 500 federal officials. President Kennedy called for calm on television. Despite this, a mob of over 3,000 (many armed with little opposition from state police) attacked the federal officials and chanted in favour of Governor Ross Barnet. Many federal marshals were badly injured with 28 shot and hundreds of civilians hurt. Kennedy sent in federal troops who stopped the rioting.

Question 13

When did James Meredith register?

Answer 13

On 1st October – federal troops guarded him for the whole year!

Question 14

Who was the chief of police in Birmingham, Alabama?

Answer 14

‘Bull’ Connor – tough chief of police who instructed police not to prevent the KKK from attacking the Freedom Riders.

Question 15

What nickname was given to Birmingham?

Answer 15

‘Bombingham’ due to the regular bombing of black churches, homes and businesses there.

Question 16

How did police respond to civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963?

Answer 16

Civil rights groups (including SNCC and SCLC) began Campaign ‘C’ (for ‘confrontation’) to end segregation. This included sit-ins, mass meetings, peaceful marches and a boycott of shops.
• On 2nd May, about 6,000 (mostly students) marched. Over 900 were arrested.
• The next day on 3rd May, more young people marched. The jails were full so ‘Bull’ Connor ordered the police to use dogs and fire hoses on protestors.

Question 17

What occurred after the campaign in Birmingham?

Answer 17

• Desegregation agreed for Birmingham
• Black homes and businesses bombed
• First significant riots against white violence
• Kennedy ordered federal troops into Alabama
• Over 1,000 black students expelled for missing school

Question 18

What were the longer term effects of the Birmingham campaign?

Answer 18

• Federal government fear of widespread race riots
• Protests in other cities across USA
• A month later, 143 cities had some desegregation
• Many black people felt progress was too slow
• Some black Americans thought it was wrong to put children and students in danger through protests
• Many more Americans saw civil rights as most important issue – media had helped raise publicity
• The government produced a tougher civil rights bill which became the Civil Rights Act 1964

Question 19

What was the March on Washington 1963?

Answer 19

Civil rights leaders led a protest march of people from across the USA: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Question 20

How many people took part in the March on Washington?

Answer 20

Over 250,000, about ¼ of them white, took part. At the time it was the largest political gathering in US history.

Question 21

Why was the March on Washington significant?

Answer 21

This was because:
• Showed that civil rights was a huge national issue
• It was broadcast live on television in the USA and in other countries
• King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial meant many more saw King as the leader of the movement
• Black and white people protested together peacefully
• Showed support from all classes, including famous people such as Bob Dylan
• Led to Kennedy proposing the Civil Rights Act 1964

Question 22

What did the ‘Freedom Summer’ in 1964 aim to do?

Answer 22

This was a campaign by SNCC and CORE to increase black voter registration in Mississippi in the run up to the 1964 presidential election.

Question 23

What progress in black voter registration had been made in the early 1960s?

Answer 23

Between 1962 and 1964, about 700,000 black Americans in the South registered. However, in the countryside and Deep South the number hardly rose at all.

Question 24

What did the ‘Freedom Summer’ involve?

Answer 24

Most volunteers were white college students from middle class families who could afford to work with local campaigners on projects in the black community. Some helped teach locals how to pass voter registration tests.

Question 25

Was there white opposition to the ‘freedom summer’?

Answer 25

Yes, and it was often extremely violent. Many white people from Mississippi did not like what they saw as an ‘invasion’ of liberal white students from other states. There were 10,000 KKK members in Mississippi who burned 37 black churches and 30 homes during the Freedom Summer.

Question 26

How successful was the Freedom Summer?

Answer 26

Not very. Of the 17,000 black people in Mississippi who tried to register to vote, only 1,600 succeeded.

Question 27

What were the Mississippi murders?

Answer 27

1964, three civil rights campaigners – Michael Schwerner (white CORE worker), Andrew Goodman (black CORE worker) and James Chaney (white volunteer) – were arrested while driving home. Later that evening they were released. However, on their way home they were shot by the KKK. Their bodies were found on the 4th August.

Question 28

Where was Selma?

Answer 28

Alabama

Question 29

Why was black voter registration so important in Selma?

Answer 29

1. Selma was in Dallas County where more black people were legally entitled to vote than white people, yet only 1% of them were registered.
2. Selma had the largest WCC in Alabama.

Question 30

What happened in Selma on 7th March, 1965?

Answer 30

Organised by King, 600 protestors set out to march from Selma to Montgomery. State troopers stopped them just outside Selma, firing tear gas and attacking protestors with clubs and electric cattle prods. This became known as Bloody Sunday. All over the country, people marched in support.

Question 31

What were the consequences of Selma?

Answer 31

• President Johnson used an executive order to take over the state national guard that subsequently protected the marchers from Selma to Montgomery on 21-24th March.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.

Question 32

What did the Civil Rights Act 1964 do?

Answer 32

Changed the law at a federal level (covering all states) to:
• Ban discrimination in voter registration tests (was not effective as Selma shows)
• Banned discrimination in public places and businesses with branches in more than one state
• Federal government given power to enforce school desegregation
• Federal government could stop giving money to states that discriminated
• OVERALL IT ALLOWED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ENFORCE DESEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH IN ALL PUBLIC PLACES/AMENTITIES

Question 33

How did the Voting Rights Act 1965 help?

Answer 33

Allowed the government to enforce voting rights.
By the end of 1965, federal registrars had enrolled nearly 80,000 showing some progress.
However, change remained slow due to white anger.

Question 34

What were the roles of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson?

Answer 34

John F. Kennedy (Democratic; 1961-63):

• Appointed black people to high level jobs such as Thurgood Marshall to the courts and Robert Weaver in the White House
• Pressed for Civil Rights Act – but assassinated before passed
• Good relationship with MLK
• Personal pressure – argued for protection for the Freedom Riders

Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic; 1963-69):

• Appointed black people to high level jobs – Thurgood Marshall promoted to Supreme Court
• New laws – CRA (1964) and VRA (1965)
• Used executive orders – took over state national guard in Alabama to protect Selma marchers
• Personal pressure – pressed Southern politicians to support civil rights bill

Question 35

How much had changed between 1954 and 1965?

Answer 35

Civil Rights Act had ended segregation
Voting Act had increased voting rights
BUT Many black Americans continued to face discrimination in housing, work, education, healthcare and treatment by police.