Civil Rights Triumphs

8/8/2019 Civil Rights Triumphs

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The Triumphs of a Crusade!

In this lesson, you will learn about thesuccesses that occurred as the nation

mobilized!


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Freedom Riders were protesters who rode buses

with the goal of integrating buses & bus stations .

In 1961, a bus of Freedom Riders was attacked in Anniston,Alabama, where a w hite mob burned the bus . Another instance

occurred when a group of Nashville students rode intoBirmingham, Alabama, where they w ere beaten .


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Ku Klux Klansmen beat black bystander George Webb in theBirmingham Trailways bus station, May 14, 1961.


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John Le w is and James Z w erg, t w o Freedom Riders beatenup by a w hite mob in Montgomery, Alabama .


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Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered areluctant bus company to continue to carry

the freedom riders.

When freedom riders were attacked inMontgomery, Alabama, P resident Kennedy

sent 400 U.S. marshals to protect thefreedom riders.

The Interstate Commerce Commissionbanned segregation in all travel facilities

including w aiting rooms, rest rooms, & lunchcounters !


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Civil rights workers soon turned theirattention to integrating Southern schools.

In Sept. 1962, a federal court allowed JamesMeredith to attend the all-white University of Mississippi. However, Mississippi s governor

refused to admit him.


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James Meredith addresses the rally inJackson, Mississippi.


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The Kennedy administration sent in U.S. marshals.

They forced the governor to let in Meredith.

James Meredithheads to class,flanked by federalofficials.Photo: courtesy Library of Congress


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Another confrontation occurred in 1963 inBirmingham, Alabama when ML K & other civil

rights leaders tried to desegregate the city.

Police attacked activists

with dogs &

water hoses.


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Many Americans witnessed the attacks on television.They were outraged by what they saw!

Eventually, Birmingham officials gave in.

TheyThey agreed to end segregation in the city.agreed to end segregation in the city.


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The growing civil rights movement impressed

PresidentK

ennedy. He became convincedthat the nation needed a new civil rights law.

Kennedy called on Congress to pass a sweeping

civil rights bill.

President Kennedy meets theleaders of the civil rightsmovement


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P resident Kennedy s civil rights bill outla w eddiscrimination based on race, religion, national

origin, & gender.

Civil rights leaders staged a massivemarch on Washington, D. C .


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O n August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 blacks &

whites marched into the nation s capital.

There they demanded the immediate passage of the bill!


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D r. Martin Luther King Jr ., spoke to the crowd.He called for peace & racial harmony in his now

famous I Have a Dream speech.


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Several months later, JF K was assassinated!Lyndon Johnson became president.

He won passage in Congress of Kennedy s C ivil Rights Act of 1964.

P resident LyndonB. Johnson meetswith Civil Rightsleaders


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S igning of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Credit: LBJ Library photo byCecil S toughton


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C ivil rights activists next worked to gain votingrights for African Americans in the South.

The voting project became known asFreedom Summer.

A group of studentvolunteers waiting for buses to take them toMississippi (1964)


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The workers focused their efforts on M ississippi.

They hoped to influence C ongress to pass a voting rights act.

Mississippi police departments beefed uptheir forces in preparation for the Summer P roject, which state politicians called aninvasion by "outside agitators."


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In 1965, civil rights workers attempted avoting project in Selma, Alabama .

They w ere met w ith violent resistance!


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Police wait for marchers to come acrossthe Edmund Pettus Bridge (Alabama)


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As a result, Martin Luther King Jr. led amassive 2 nd march through Alabama.


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P resident Johnson responded by asking Congressto pass a new voting rights act.

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . Thelaw eliminated state laws that had prevented African

Americans from voting.

Signing of the Voting

Rights Act


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Signing Ceremony for the Voting Rights Act

Credit: LBJ Library photo byF rank Wolfe

Documents

Civil Rights Triumphs