The impact of civil rights protests, 1960‐74

Question 1

Freedom riders, Anniston fire bombing.

Answer 1

1960 SC confirmed interstate busses to be desegregated
1961 CORE tested this for publicity + reaction
arrived in Aniston = attacked by white crowd + KKK
Police chief ordered officers to do nothing
Bus set on fire

-Southerners angry at the intrusion and regard the riders as the second wave of reconstruction; bought out the KKK

• Gained publicity etc by being arrested and because of the huge violence which accompanied the riders – fire bombs, chains etc
• North appaled by violence and discrimination in south
• police stood by

Question 2

Sit-ins.

Answer 2

1)1st Feb 1960: 4 students from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College protest at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greenbo’ro, North Carolina
2nd Feb: 4 students return, accompanied by 25 others who take turns to sit at the lunch counter.
3rd Feb: 80 more turn up.
4th Feb: about 300+ students
—-
then organisations get involved and help boycott
MLK invited to speak to students and this led to the formation of SNCC,
—-
significance-
1)1961 120 lunch counters —desegregated—
because profits suffered (boycott)
-this showed that more direct action was needed instead of just marches

2)Publicity
-students attacked + spat on but didn’t retaliate
=public sympathy

Question 3

Meredith Case.

Answer 3

1)James Meredith tried to enrol at Mississippi University. He was rejected.
-JFK sent 320 federal marshals to escort
-Meredith registered + guarded by 300 state troops 1yr
—-
significance
—Federal action—
- JFK forced to act + send more than 2,000 troops
=restore order
-300 soldiers had to remain on the campus until degree

—Desegregation—
-clear message the segregation was. coming to an end
-There were no major issues about black people registering at universities after this case.
-Showed NAACP tactics worked actual advancements
-laws were enforced
+ SC was for the equality of races

Question 4

The methods and activities of Martin Luther King. The Birmingham and Washington Peace Marches and the ‘Dream’ speech.

Answer 4

1)Slow progress
1957 civil rights act not working; segregation still existed despite sit-ins etc; white resistance; seeming failure of Kennedy’s New Frontier to improve black lives – still living in poverty etc.

Birmingham 1963)
-King arrested for parade without permit
-letter from jail
-released due to riots + boycotts
—Impacts—
Publicity-letter led to protests and riots
Desegregation- most shops + lunch counter
led to JFK Civil Rights Bill 1963

Washington Peace March 1963)

• Speech = powerful language
• Nobel Prize - for principles of nonviolence
• inspirational + publicity +celebrities
• 250,000 + people
• white people support as well

Selma 1965)
-three marches organised for voting
1)Bloody Sunday- protesters attacked by clubs + tear gas
2)Turn back Tuesday- faced by troopers
3)March made legal by Johnson
—Impacts—
Federal action- LBJ —> voting rights bill
Publicity-3 deaths + police beating nonviolent protesters

Question 5

Voting Rights Act

Answer 5

1965
-Ended state literacy tests
-made national literacy test
-Federal government regulate discrimination
Mississippi- 1960 = 6%   1966 = 28%
Texas- 1960 = 35%   1966 = 80%
(1964+civil rights act=less diluted)