Rights and Protest: US Civil Rights Movement - Protests and Action

Concept of Civil Disobedience

* No violence, only to an extent to gain moral high ground
* Having a focus on where treatment isn’t equal
* Drawing out big issues by knowingly breaking the law
* Forcing authorities to overwhelm the system and arrest a lot of people

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

* Actions of grassroots, local activists
* Rosa Parks bus incident
* Regarded as starting point of movement in US
* Protestors used non-violence and civil disobedience
* Protestors made 3 demands:
* Pledge from city + bus company that they’ll be treated with courtesy
* Revise city code: whites front to back, blacks back to front → no reserved areas
* Hire black drivers for routes carrying all or mostly African Americans

What was the effect of the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

* Buses were desegregated but Montgomery itself was still segregated for some years
* Only a partial victory
* Big symbolic effect though with the impact on wider and inspiration for next frameworks

“The Lost Year'“: 1958-59

* Lots of legal battles in trying to implement brown
* Little Rock incident with Faubus
* Loss of connection between big orgs and grassroots
* Power vacuum with leaders like MLK stuck in faraway courts
* Students took initiative
* Less to lose, more time, more energy than older adults
* Direct action + non-violence
* Universities hothoused ideas together in 1 locale
* More concerned with practical impacts -→ want to provoke showdown to force government to implement Supreme Court decisions

What was the relationship between the student organisaitons and the big organisations during the Lost Year of 1958?

* Loss of connection between big orgs and grassroots
* Power vacuum with leaders like MLK stuck in faraway courts
* Student organisations were tense with federal government -→ government doesn’t like being rushed
* Student orgs also tense with NAACP and SCLC too -→ the two latter prefer to do things through court
* Overall, differences in mindset and how to do things for progress
* Split post 1961 was imminent
* Confrontation, decentralised grassroots leadership (SNCC) vs. established, centralised leadership (NAACP + SCLC)

Freedom Rides (1961)

* Wanted to challenge segregated inter-state transport
* Facilities: terminals, waiting rooms, restaurants and restrooms
* Meant to force government and president Kennedy to act
* Challenging Kennedy to back up what he said about the civil rights movement in his campaign for presidency
* Got support from SCLC and NAACP for housing and food during this campaign

Results of Freedom Rides (1961)

* By end of 1962, no more inter-state travel segregation
* Specific goal of intergation achieved but no overt and maintained support from federal government
* Support from Kennedy was limited and slow

Freedom Summer (1964)

* Campaign in Mississippi by the SNCC-led CORE to increase voter registration, enroll black people in Freedom Schools and generate more suffrage
* Wanted to put pressure on Lyndon B Johnson’s administration

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)

Political party formed in Mississippi during Freedom Summer as an alternative to the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party

Civil Rights Act (1964)

* Gave government responsibility for protecting civil rights, no individual state exceptions
* Aimed to end discrimination and segregation
* Federal funds were denied to any government agency that discriminated
* Individual states could still impose their own regulations though
* Non-immediate transition
* Factors: foreign + domestic policies, social unrest

Voting Rights Act (1965)

* Civil Rights Act didn’t fully guarantee voting rights
* Enacted investigations for if less than half of eligible citizens are registered to vote in certain states
* After 2 years, more than half of blacks registered -→ Mississippi went from least to most amount of black voters

How did the nature of the Civil Rights Movement change post-Voting Rights Act?

* End of the non-violent movement with the Watts Riots (1965) in LA, Detroit, Newark
* Goals went from racial nature to more economic and social -→ more radical = more black identity
* From MLK to Black Power Movement and Malcom X
* People wanted faster change and didn’t want to settle