Standard 11.10.3

• Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between African-America and white Civil Rights lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education.

• Essential Question: Why did it take so long for justice to be served in the case of Medger Evers murder?

Sit-In Movement, 1960

• 4 black students sat – Greensboro, NC– Woolworth’s

• Refused to leave– followed passive resistance of Dr. King– spread all across the country

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• A grass roots organization

• Focus was non-violent protest– letters to newspapers,

sit-ins, etc.

Freedom Riders, 1960

• whites and blacks tried to force desegregation on public buses

• Buses were torched and attacked• JFK sent US Marshals to ride buses

– interstate bus travel was protected by federal law

Oxford Town-Bob Dylan• Oxford Town, Oxford Town

Ev’rybody’s got their heads bowed downThe sun don’t shine above the ground

Ain’t a-goin’ down to Oxford Town• He went down to Oxford Town

Guns and clubs followed him downAll because his face was brown

Better get away from Oxford Town• Oxford Town around the bend

He come in to the door, he couldn’t get inAll because of the color of his skin

What do you think about that, my frien’?• Me and my gal, my gal’s son

We got met with a tear gas bombI don’t even know why we comeGoin’ back where we come from

• Oxford Town in the afternoonEv’rybody singin’ a sorrowful tune

Two men died ’neath the Mississippi moonSomebody better investigate soon

• Oxford Town, Oxford TownEv’rybody’s got their heads bowed down

The sun don’t shine above the groundAin’t a-goin’ down to Oxford Town

•

University of Mississippi, 1962

• James Meredith had to have a federal escort to attend Ole Miss– Gov. Ross Barnett refused to

allow his enrollment• 2 dead and 166 injured

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1YKdAEL9qE

A Pawn in Their Game-Bob Dylan• A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood

A finger fired the trigger to his nameA handle hid out in the darkA hand set the sparkTwo eyes took the aimBehind a man’s brainBut he can’t be blamedHe’s only a pawn in their game

• A South politician preaches to the poor white man“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain.You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain.And the Negro’s nameIs used it is plainFor the politician’s gainAs he rises to fameAnd the poor white remainsOn the caboose of the trainBut it ain’t him to blameHe’s only a pawn in their game

• The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paidAnd the marshals and cops get the same

• But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a toolHe’s taught in his schoolFrom the start by the ruleThat the laws are with himTo protect his white skinTo keep up his hateSo he never thinks straight’Bout the shape that he’s inBut it ain’t him to blameHe’s only a pawn in their game

•

• From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracksAnd the hoofbeats pound in his brainAnd he’s taught how to walk in a packShoot in the backWith his fist in a clinchTo hang and to lynchTo hide ’neath the hoodTo kill with no painLike a dog on a chainHe ain’t got no nameBut it ain’t him to blameHe’s only a pawn in their game.

• Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caughtThey lowered him down as a kingBut when the shadowy sun sets on the oneThat fired the gunHe’ll see by his graveOn the stone that remainsCarved next to his nameHis epitaph plain:Only a pawn in their game

Medgar Evers

• Activist who led boycotts against racist white merchants in Mississippi– investigated Emmett Till’s death– helped get James Meredith into Ole Miss

• Assassinated just hours after JFK’s civil rights address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NDThlgXKoM

Civil Rights Speech, 1963

“If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him; if in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?”

—John F. Kennedy, 1963

King is Arrested• King went on voter registration drive

– Gov. George Wallace • “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”

• Attack dogs, cattle-prods, high-pressure water hoses were used to stop the march

• King was arrested• TV and newspaper coverage

“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 1963

• We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

• "An unjust law is no law at all.“

• Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

March on Washington, 1963

• King led 200,000 demonstrators to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial– 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg address

• Goal: to pressure on Congress to pass the legislation that JFK promised

“I Have a Dream Speech” 1963

• I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcbpGK9_aw

16th Street Church Bombing, 1963

• A bomb killed four young girls at their church in Birmingham, AL– Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae

Collins • FBI withheld information at the time of the murders• NO convictions

– Robert Chambliss convicted in 1978, died in prison in 1985– Thomas Blanton, Jr. convicted in 2001– Bobby Cherry convicted in 2002, died in prison in 2004

• Bragged to his friends about his involvement– Herman Cash died in 1994

Civil Rights Act of 1964• JFK died in November 1963• LBJ pushed for the law • Banned discrimination in most public facilities

– hospitals, schools, theaters, restaurants– gave federal government authority to make schools follow the

law• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

– eliminated discrimination in hiring

Remember the Titans Prompt

• 1 Pager Prompt: Compare/Contrast the movie Titans with your fellow Titans. In your own opinion do you think Martin

Luther King’s Dream has been achieved? Provide examples from the movie and your real life to strengthen

your arguments.

Study Guide

• Questions 16-20