Nonviolent Resistance to Black Militancy

1955-1968

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956) •Secretary of Montgomery NAACP

•Nonviolent Civil Disobedience: refused to leave her seat designated for whites (December, 1955)

•Arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance

•Leaders organized the boycott

•50,000 people participated (over 90% of African Americans in Montgomery)

•381 days

•Bus revenue reduced by 80%

•Desegregated buses in November of 1956

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5gvNPWSuKM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoqRsZXR9UM

Civil Rights Organizations

• CORE: Congress of Racial Equality

• SCLC: Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• SNCC (Snick): Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Freedom Rides 1961• Interstate journeys to test

court ruling organized by CORE

• Anniston, AL: bus firebombed

• Birmingham, AL: Public Safety Commissioner allowed the KKK 15 min

• Montgomery, AL: mob beat passengers

• Jackson, MS: arrested• Eventually pressured the

Kennedy administration to get the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) to issue a desegregation order

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w_FDixZ0Sc

March on WashingtonAugust 28, 1963

Famous “I Have a Dream” Speech

200,000 – 300,000 people

Joan Baez & Bob Dylan

Kennedy Assassinated, LBJ assumes Presidency Nov. 22, 1963

• Elected in 1964• LBJ’s “Great Society” allowed for Civil

Rights Laws to be enacted– 24th Amendment: made poll taxes

illegal– Civil Rights Act of 1964: Eliminated

discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender. All Americans had the right to enter all public facilities.

– Voting Rights Act of 1965: Outlawed discrimination in voting (literacy tests).

Violent Reaction

• Medgar Evers is murdered June 12, 1963• Freedom Summer murders 1964• Violence in “Bombingham” (16th St. Baptist Church

Bombing September 15th, 1963 and Selma (Bloody Sunday March 7, 1965)

• Malcolm X is assassinated (Feb. 21st. 1965)• Watts Race Riots (August, 1965)• King is assassinated April 4, 1968

Malcolm X (1925-1965) “By any means necessary”

• Born Malcolm Little in Omaha• Early and young adult years were rough• Trouble with the law• Found the Nation of Islam while in prison• Became Muslim, changed surname to “X”• Communism & Criticism• Leaves Nation of Islam and goes on pilgrimage to Mecca• Assassinated 1965 by 4 armed men, sent by whom?• Conspiracy? To this day, nobody knows who was

responsible.• Legacy was Black Power movement• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7iHxAwPhpU

The Movement Shifts to Black Militancy

• Black Power: Stokely Carmichael transforms SNCC to Black Power – white members kicked out (c. 1966).– Black power = the idea that Blacks

should stand up for themselves, demand their rights and fight back to protect themselves if needed.

• Black Panther Party (1966-1974) and militancy: committed to stopping oppression “by any means necessary” = violence

Huey Newton & Bobby Seale

10 Point ProgramThe Ten Point Program1. We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed

communities' education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

2. We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people. 3. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people,

other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States. 4. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression. 5. We want full employment for our people. 6. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our Black Community. 7. We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings. 8. We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of

this decadent American society. 9. We want freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in U. S.

Federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.

10.We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology.