1. Challenging Segregation
Chapter 29 Section 2
Part 1

2. The Sit-in Movement
The Sit-in movement brought large numbers of idealistic and energized college students into the civil rights struggle
Allowed them a way to take things into their own hands
Jesse Jackson b/c a big participant in the sit-in movement

3. The Sit-in Movement
The NAACP was at first worried about the sit-in movement
They did not b/l the students had the self discipline to remain nonviolent if they were provoked enough
The students proved them wrong
Sit-in participants were heckled, punched, kicked, beaten w/ clubs, and burned w/ cigarettes, hot coffee, and acid
Most did not fight back, they remained peaceful
This heroic behavior grabbed the nation’s attention

4. SNCC SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Mickey Schwerner – Jewish college student who went to Mississippi to help register black voters
1964 – He was killed along with two other SNCC members
Andrew Goodman – white
James Chaney – black
They were killed by KKK members, including the deputy sheriff

5. Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders – teams of blacks and whites that traveled into the South to draw attention to the South’s refusal to integrate bus terminals
1961 – first Freedom Riders arrived in Anniston and Montgomery, AL
Angry white mobs attacked them
Slit bus tires, threw rocks at the windows, a firebomb was thrown into one bus
No one was killed

6. Freedom Riders Freedom Riders in Birmingham
Emerged from the bus to face a gang of young men armed w/ baseball bats, chains, and lead pipes
They beat the riders viciously
The head of the police in B’ham, “Bull” Connor, said there had been no one at the bus station b/c it was Mother’s Day and he had given many of the officers the day off
Evidence later showed that Connor had contacted the local KKK and told them he wanted the Freedom Riders beaten

7. JFK and Civil Rights
Appointed blacks to high prestige and important govt. jobs
Created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO)
To stop the federal bureaucracy from discriminating against blacks when hiring and promoting people
JFK’s little brother Robert “Bobby” Kennedy was an avid supporter of civil rights

8. Violence in Birmingham
1963 – Dr. King decides to b/g demonstrations in Birmingham, AL
Dr. King knew it would probably provoke a violent response
King b/l that having a crisis (a violent response to protest) was the only way to get JFK to actively support civil rights
Tensions b/g to rise in Birmingham
Bull Connor was running for mayor
The man who arranged for the KKK to attack the Freedom Riders

9. Violence in Birmingham
8 days after the protests b/g MLK was arrested and held for a time in solitary confinement
While in jail MLK b/g to write the “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
One of the most eloquent defenses of nonviolent protest ever written

10. “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
MLK’s letter explained…
Although protesters were breaking the law, they were following a higher moral law based on divine justice
King argued that the protests did not create racial tensions, they only brought the hidden tensions that were already alive to the surface
He argued that injustice had to be exposed b/f it could be cured

11. Violence in Birmingham
After King was released from jail the protest b/g to grow
Bull Connor responded w/ force…
He ordered police to use clubs, police dogs, and high-pressure fire hoses on the demonstrators
Millions of people across the nation watched the graphic violence on tv
JFK ordered his aides to prepare a new civil rights bill

12. Alabama’s Governor
George Wallace – Alabama’s governor – committed to segregation
June 11, 1963 – Wallace personally stood in front of the University of Alabama’s admissions office to block the enrollment of two black students
He stayed there until federal marshals told him to move
President Kennedy seized this dramatic moment to announce his proposal for a civil rights bill (which will b/c a law in 1964)

13. March on Washington
MLK wanted to lobby Congress and build more public support to help JFK get his civil rights bill passed into law
August 28, 1963 – more than 200,000 demonstrators of all races flocked to the nation’s capital
They gathered peacefully near the Lincoln Memorial
Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
Outlined his dream of freedom and equality for all Americans