Rights and Protest: US Civil Rights Movement - Key Actors and Groups

Martin Luther King Jr

* Christian background impacted qualities of early movement
* President of SCLC
* Born in South but educated in North -→ alienated from South but Northern connections get stuff done
* Snappy, quotable figurehead
* Connections in Kennedy + Johnson administrations
* Radicals concerned with him cozying up to white power figures

Albany Movement (1961-62)

* Key MLK led activity
* Resistance against segregation
* Wanted to desegregate the whole of Albany, New York
* Series of protests and arrests
* Successes but not really wide, sweeping instant desegregation (eventually though)

Criticism of MLK

* People in SNCC
* Dislike lack of violence, gradualism
* Questioning MLK’s courage -→ MLK doesn’t want to be arrested, unwilling to join
* Freedom Riders
* Movement organisers
* MLK sweeps in to bring attention but they deal with fallout and aggression
* Protestors
* More media attention to MLK specifically more than actual issues
* Malcolm X
* Doesn’t like the integrated society dream that MLK has
* Government + FBI
* Hate him, spied on him

Malcolm X

* Opposite of MLK’s ‘preachy’ background -→ Northern
* Not a good history: crimes and jail
* Joins Nation of Islam in prison
* Forms his emphasis on black pride
* Background helped people relate to him with how bad his life was before
* Charismatic and witty -→ appealed to desperate urban blacks
* Criticism of MLK integration
* US in inherently unequal
* Black nationalism > assimilating into white society
* Ballot or the Bullet speech

Black Pride

* Celebration of african heritage eg. popularisation of afros
* People find solidarity even if not in NOI
* Idea of outside forces dividing them is technically true

Nation of Islam

* Church that Malcolm joins while in prison
* Initially helps him out with fundraising but they felt he gave them too much negative attention
* They are a religion not an activist group so fighting isn’t their thing
* Want to prepare and educate black people to take back control of the planet
* Appeal of them
* Self sufficiency + respect
* Black run economy
* Clean living (No vices)

Protection and salvation from the whites

What were some changes to Malcolm X’s stance post-NOI?

* Broke from NOI because of disagreement with their non-political position
* Had a pilgrimmage to Mecca -→ from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X
* Less anti-white but still in favour of Pan-Africanism
* Self defence > non-violence

Lyndon B Johnson

* Feb 1965: promised MLK he’d act
* Televised speech on voting rights in Congress -→ Voting Rights Act passed quickly
* Thought blacks were ungrateful because of riots
* Fair Housing Act (1968): issues Malcolm X brought up
* Public vs. personal support is debatable

National Association for the Advancement of the Coloured People (NAACP)

* Old organisation going back to WEB Dubois
* Grandfather organisation of civil rights movement
* Increase in memberships during WW2
* Provided lots of help
* Legal + finance for arrested students
* Bail for freedom riders
* Reprisal from authorities
* Faded post-Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

* Big names and respected activists
* Used the church to gather support, used bible language, for support base
* Preferred non-violence and pacifism
* Employed Northern white people to use system to fix the system
* Appeal to sympathetic whites
* Viewed occasionally as inefficient and unreliable
* Constant disagreements with NAACP and couldn’t unite

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

* Young students who want direct action
* Felt betrayed by the outset of MFDP -→ decision made behind their backs
* Thought SCLC was ganging up with the whites
* Betrayed a lot by the bigger organisations
* Selma riots (1965) -→ everyone turned back before reaching police lines but SNCC wasn’t and had a lot of casualties
* Dislike non-violence, want direct change and the inclusion of white people is distracting

How did the SNCC change post-1967?

* Split between violent and nonviolent groups
* Black Panther movement emerged with the leadership of Stokely Carmichael (1965)
* Civil rights movement as a whole splintered and violence occurred