Chapter 28, Section 2“Kennedy, Johnson, and Civil Rights”

An attempt to swim at a whites-only St. Augustine, Florida beach was greeting by police wielding

batons.

Kennedy Elected in 1960

• Democrat John F. Kennedy won a close election against Republican Richard Nixon

• A televised debate prior to the election helped him

• Also, he won the African American vote by calling Martin Luther King’s wife Coretta following his arrest and by sending his brother Bobby Kennedy to Georgia to arrange for King’s release

Kennedy’s Inauguration• In his inauguration address

Kennedy said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” which encouraged young people to get more involved in public activities and politics

• Young people would play an enormous role in the civil rights movement

Kennedy’s Presidency• New Frontier – Kennedy’s name for his

proposals to Congress– Higher minimum wage– Tax cut to stimulate economic growth– New spending on the military and the

space program– New programs to help the poor

• Kennedy was unable to pass many laws due to a block of Republican and Southern Democratic Congressmen who opposed him

• Support for civil rights laws delayed

The Civil Rights Movement, 1960-63• The movement was grounded in

nonviolent civil disobedience• It was becoming increasingly

multiracial• Television & mass media

broadcasted images of the movement, helping make it national and international news

• Well dressed, polite, docile protesters were shown being brutalized by disorganized, disheveled white mobs (or worse, by Southern police with fire hoses and attack dogs)

• Images made many whites reflect on whether system was legitimate

Freedom Rides• In 1947 a civil rights group called

the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) began protests on interstate buses

• Protesters would ride in white-only sections of interstate buses

• The Supreme Court ruled in 1960 that segregation of bus stations was illegal

• CORE decided to test the ruling in 1961 by sending white and black riders around the South using the facilities of the opposite color (stations and seats on buses)

Freedom Riders Face Violence

• The first freedom ride was to go from Washington to New Orleans

• The riders faced violence along the way as buses were bombed and riders were attacked by angry mobs (often while the police watched)

• CORE called off the ride in Birmingham due to the violence

• SNCC volunteers decided to pick up where they left off and continue the freedom rides

Wisconsin Resident in Freedom Rides• 21 year old Jim Zwerg of Appleton,

a college student from Beloit College spent time as an exchange student in Nashville

• He joined SNCC and became active in sit-ins and freedom rides

• He and others were beaten badly on a freedom ride stop in Montgomery, Alabama

• In response to the violence, President Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce strict bans on segregation in interstate bus terminals

James Meredith James Meredith, a black air force veteran, tried to enroll in 1962 at the all-white University of Mississippi.

Segregationist Governor Ross Barnett refused Meredith’s registration.

JFK ordered 500 U.S. Marshals to accompany Meredith into school, but huge white mob attacked the Marshals. Two people died & 160

Marshals were injured.JFK ordered the army to

restore order, and Meredith was finally allowed to register.

In 1966 he began a solitary March Against Fear from

Memphis to Jackson and was shot by a sniper.

1963 – Birmingham, AlabamaIn late 1962, the movement

was stalled and King’s leadership was weakening.

King and the SCLC decided to make Birmingham the next target of their protests

King was arrested there and wrote “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” which outlined his commitment to non-violence and explained how when African Americans are asked to wait for equal rights “wait almost always means never”

Birmingham ProtestsWhen King was released from

jail a series of protest marches in Birmingham were planned

King made a controversial decision to allow school kids to participate in the protests.

Bull Connor unleashed attack dogs & fire hoses on the school kids, exposing the brutality of racism to the world.

It made world news and helped galvanize the movement toward its peak, the March on Washington.

1963 – America at a crossroad

Alabama Governor George Wallace refused to desegregate the University of Alabama by defiantly standing on the school steps.

In June, 1963 JFK finally gave a powerful endorsement of the rights movement.

JFK proposed a new Civil Rights Act which would outlaw discrimination in public facilities because racism & poverty were becoming priority issues.

Civil rights advocates organized March on Washington in the summer of 1963 to show support for JFK’s civil rights proposal.

In June, 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed.

Wallace being confronted by a U.S. attorney general

at the university, 1963.

March on Washington250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln

Memorial on August 28, 1963 to support JFK’s civil rights legislation.

The spiritual peak of movementThe civil rights movement beginning to

gather widespread support.King gives his famous “I Have a Dream”

speech about a future of equality.However, there were growing tensions

within the movement.SNCC’s John Lewis had prepared an angry

speech denouncing JFK’s delays because SNCC thought King was too cautious & the JFK administration was half-hearted.

SNCC was forced to tone down the speech & felt slighted causing the movement to start splitting.

Birmingham Church Bombing

• The positive feelings associated with the March on Washington crashed a month later with one event

• The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963

• This African-American church had been a meeting site for SCLC leaders in the past

• The explosion killed four girls• It contributed to support for passage of

the Civil Rights Act of 1964• SNCC leaders were determined to push

on and planned a voter registration drive in the South

Kennedy Assassination• While riding through the

streets of Dallas, President Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963

• Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the shooting and was himself killed while being escorted to a court hearing

• VP Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President on a plane heading back to Washington

• Johnson vowed to continue JFK’s work, and this helped get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed

Civil Rights Act of 1964• LBJ successfully pushed the Civil Rights

Act of 1964 through Congress (the single most important law of the civil rights era)– Outlawed discrimination in public

places on the basis of race, sex, religion, or nationality.

– Strengthened the Justice Dept.’s ability to enforce the act.

– Strengthened the push to desegregate schools.

• Was supported by 97% of Northern Democrats and 80% of Republicans

• Only 11% of Southern Democrats supported the Act.

• Its passage would turn the Dixiecrats away from the Democratic Party.

Freedom Summer• After 2 years, SNCC had only registered 4,000

new voters in Mississippi by 1963• In the summer of 1964, SNCC brought 1,000

Northern white students down to help register voters, and to set up new schools and community centers in black communities

• At the start, 3 SNCC workers (Andrew Goodman, James Cheney, and Michael Schwerner) were missing and were later found murdered, which attracted greater media attention to the voter drive

• This successful voter drive led to the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated alternative to the racist (Dixiecrat) Democratic Party

Selma March• King led the march from Selma

to Montgomery to draw attention to the need for a federal voting rights law.– In Selma, State Troopers

attacked the marchers in unprovoked violence, drawing even more media attention.

• LBJ seizes this moment to propose a voting rights act. – The Voting Rights Act passed

in 1965, which prevented states from creating barriers to minority voting, including federal monitoring of elections if needed.

• The march was perhaps King’s last great triumph.

Alabama State Troopers attack the Selma marchers. The attack would be

known as “Bloody Sunday.”

1964 Democratic National ConventionThe Mississippi Freedom Democratic

Party (MFDP) went to the convention, expecting to be seated as the true representatives of the Democratic Party in Mississippi

President Johnson and the Democratic Party were reluctant to alienate the Dixiecrats.

LBJ offered MFDP 2 seats as a compromise, but MFDP stormed out, felt betrayed by system.

This incident contributed to the radicalization of civil rights movement. It was spiritual birth of the Black Power Movement.

The Great Society

• President Johnson saw his landslide victory in the Election of 1964 as support for his domestic reform programs he called the Great Society

• The Great Society programs addressed problems such as poverty, the environment, civil rights, health care, urban decay, and in education

• It included the following programs:– Elementary and Secondary

Education Act– Medicare and Medicaid– Civil Rights Act of 1964– Voting Rights Act of 1965– Creation of the Dept. of Housing

and Urban Development

Black Power Movement• SNCC was losing faith in nonviolent civil

disobedience and in the goal of integration (Is a melting pot really achievable or even desirable?)

• Mild liberal reforms were “too little, too late” – many felt revolutionary change was the only answer

• SNCC was losing faith in key American institutions – politics, economics, religion, etc. – it wasn’t merely a race thing anymore

• In 1964, Malcolm X advocated the formation of a black nationalist (independence) organization, which many SNCC members like Stokely Carmichael found appealing

SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael coined the

phrase Black Power

US sprinters Tommie Smithand John Carlos raised black gloved fists on medal stand

at 1968 Olympics

Malcolm X• Malcolm X was a leader of the Nation

of Islam which combined religious teachings with ideas of black independence

• He believed African Americans had the right to defend themselves, using violence if necessary

• He traveled to Mecca in 1964 and met Muslims of many different races

• By 1965 Malcolm X broke from the Nation of Islam and began to preach that the races could coexist peacefully

• He was murdered that year by radical members of the Nation of Islam who were upset by his change of heart

Black Panther Party• The Black Panther Party for Self-

Defense was an African-American revolutionary leftist organization

• It was founded in Oakland, Cal. by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale on October, 1966

• The organization initially called primarily for the protection of African-American neighborhoods from police brutality

• The party's early black nationalist reputation attracted a diverse membership

• The organization's leaders eventually grew more radical and began to support socialism and communism

Violence in the Streets• Slow progress in the civil rights

movement frustrated many members of the black community

• Tensions turned into deadly riots in many cities like Watts in Los Angeles (1965) and Detroit (1967)

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.• Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated

in April of 1968 in Memphis, Tenn.• As news of his killing spread race, riots

took place in over 100 US cities• The civil rights movement lost its most

visible leader and lost momentum, though many gains had already been made by that time