The Fight for Equality

•CORE sets up bus trips through South to test Jim Crow Laws•Known as the Freedom Riders•Met with resistance all the way, Alabama buses are burned•JFK sends federal Marshalls to protect them

School Integration

•Fighting school segregation becomes a focus•James Meredith becomes 1st black enrolled at U of Mississippi•Riots occur, Feds get involved

Birmingham, Alabama

•All aspects of life are segregated•MLK organizes a Good Friday march•HE writes Letter from a Birmingham Jail•Children’s march organized later almost 1000 kids arrested •TV coverage of arrests and economic boycott wins the fight •JFK sends troops to desegregate U of Alabama

Setbacks

•Medgar Evers killed in 1963, killer not convicted until 1994•16th Street Baptist Church bombing, 4 killed•JFK assassinated

March on Washington

•JFK sends his civil rights bill to Congress, that prompts a march in August 1963•MLK gives his “I Have dream Speech”•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ6frC7hboc

1964

•Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed•CORE and SNCC organize Freedom Summer to register black voters•4 workers killed, 85 badly beaten, black churches, homes, businesses burned

1964 Election

•Looking for representation in the ‘64 convention, the MFDP was formed by Hamer•LBJ feared losing white votes in the South, so he didn’t support them 100%•A compromise is reached between the Dems and MFDP

Selma, Alabama 1965

•Only 1% of blacks were registered to vote there•MLK protest march put down by police, Jimmie Lee Jackson killed•March to protest his death was broken up by police•March 21 Feds protect MLK and 3000 marchers, when they reach Montgomery there were 25000•2 months later Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed