“I Have a Dream”
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” was written for the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom organized by A. Phillip Randolph and The Executive Secretary for the NAACP, Roy Wilkins. On August 28th Washington was visited by 260,000 people marching towards the Lincoln Memorial for a series speeches on Civil Rights in America. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech would become the capstone speech of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Birmingham Bombing
Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins were murdered when a bomb detonated inside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 1963. The Birmingham Bombing on September 15th resulted in string of riots, bombings, and attacks. Roy Wilkins responded to the outbreak of violence, telling the president that unless they are allowed more than the “‘picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of bestiality’ Negroes will ‘employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the’ lives of our people” (Washington Post, 1963). Three hundred State Troopers, 500 National Guardsmen and the entire police force were assembled to re-establish order after the bombing. After an FBI investigation Robert Chambliss, a notorious racist, was charged with murder and the possession of dynamite only to be acquitted of the murder charges. In 1977 the case was reopened and Chambliss was prosecuted again and found guilty. Eventually his co-conspirators Thomas Blanton and Robert Cherry were discovered and also convicted.
The Washington Post Article covering the event in 1963 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/archives1.htm
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
On November 22nd Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown plaza. Lyndon B. Johnson would become President and continue Kennedy’s role in Civil Rights. Inspired by The March for Jobs and Freedom, Johnson used his conservative connections and the mourning of Kennedy to ensure The Civil Right Act of 1964 became law.
“Provisions of the legislation included: (1) protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests; (2) outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; (3) authorizing the U.S. Attorney General's Office to file legal suits to enforce desegregation in public schools; (4) authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination; and (5) outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding 25 people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints” (J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museum).
Burning Trial
On The 21st of June 1964, the Klu Klux Klan murdered Michael Schwerner, aged 24, Andrew Goodman, 20, both from New York and James Chaney, 22, from Meridian, Mississippi. All members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the young men were in Miss. working to advance voting rights in the south. The men went missing for six weeks before the FBI found their bodies in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Originally 19 men were arrested and charged with murder and the Burning Trial took place.
The Assassination of Malcolm X
In February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was standing in Audobaun Ballroom in Harlem about to address the Afro-American Unity when he was shot several times by men who identified as Black Muslims. A week before his death his home in Queens, NY, was burnt down and he had been receiving death threats from Nation of Islam members. On February 18th Malcolm X explained in an interview “no one can get out with out trouble, and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence.”
From Selma to Montgomery
In 1965 DCVL and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organized marches from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the states capital. The marches were led by Martin Luther King and would set off a series of violent riots in Birmingham, Alabama and Watts, Los Angeles. The violent riots in tandem with the nonviolent protests would change public opinions and Lyndon B. Johnson would propose of the Voters Rights act of 1965.
The March was attempted three times; the first on March 7th, which would be become known as “Bloody Sunday.” An estimated 550-600 protesters began marching on Highway 80. The marchers were stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were faced with a wall of state troopers and freshly deputized white men. The protesters were attacked with tear gas and billy clubs. Televised images of the brutal attack presented people with horrifying images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Amelia Boynton was beaten and gassed nearly to death; her photo appeared on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized.
The second march was dubbed “Turn Around Tuesday.” On Tuesday, March 9th Martin Luther King organized a march that would be postponed because Judge Frank Minis Johnson needed time to organize protection for the protesters. Instead of Marching King gathered 2,500 people and led them to Edmund Pettus Bridge said a prayer then turned around. The third and successful march happened on March 21st. 2,000 marchers would be protected by the U.S. Army and Alabama National Guard on their way to Montgomery. On March 25th the march would culminate in speeches by Martin Luther King and others to which 50,000 people attended.
The Black Panthers
Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA in 1966, The Black Panthers were organized to protect and empower working class African Americans using militant force.
Malcolm X served as major role model for the Panthers, unafraid of militant action; Malcolm endorsed a better self-image and social programs for African Americans.
The Panthers followed Malcolm’s belief of international working class unity across the spectrum of color and gender, and thus united with various minority and white revolutionary groups. From the tenets of Maoism they set the role of their Party as the vanguard of the revolution and worked to establish a united front, while from Marxism they addressed the capitalist economic system, embraced the theory of dialectical materialism, and represented the need for all workers to forcefully take over the means of production. The organization consisted of a ten-point plan, military training, and social programs.
http://www.blackpanther.org/index.html
“Black Power”
Originally from Trinidad, Stokely Carmichael immigrated to Harlem, NYC in 1952 at age 11. Carmichael attended Howard University and graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 1964. Two years later he was he was chosen as chairman of SNCC, replacing John Lewis. In 1966 Carmichael was in Greenwood, Miss., speaking in support of Protesters marching in place of a wounded James Meredith. When he was setting up camp in Greenwood he was arrested. After being released he exclaimed, “This is the 27th time, we been saying ‘Freedom’ for six years,” referring to the chant that movement protesters used as they stood up to racist politicians and hostile policemen pointing water hoses and unleashing snarling dogs. “What we are going to start saying now is ‘Black Power!’” The phrase would catch on and ignite controversy. It troubled some members of the black community because some thought it sound anti-white and the phrase was tagged as “reverse racism.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
On April 4th 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London’s Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary.
King was in Memphis to aid the black Sanitation workers in their strike.
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
The assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. After winning the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian Palestinian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime. Sirhan's lawyers have released statements claiming evidence that he was framed. A freelance newspaper reporter recorded the shooting on audiotape, and the aftermath was captured on film.
Kennedy’s body lay in repose at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York for two days before a funeral mass was held on June 8. His body was interred near his brother John at Arlington National Cemetery. His death prompted the protection of presidential candidates by the United States Secret Service. Hubert Humphrey went on to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency, but ultimately narrowly lost the election to Richard Nixon.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” was written for the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom organized by A. Phillip Randolph and The Executive Secretary for the NAACP, Roy Wilkins. On August 28th Washington was visited by 260,000 people marching towards the Lincoln Memorial for a series speeches on Civil Rights in America. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech would become the capstone speech of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Birmingham Bombing
Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins were murdered when a bomb detonated inside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 1963. The Birmingham Bombing on September 15th resulted in string of riots, bombings, and attacks. Roy Wilkins responded to the outbreak of violence, telling the president that unless they are allowed more than the “‘picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of bestiality’ Negroes will ‘employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the’ lives of our people” (Washington Post, 1963). Three hundred State Troopers, 500 National Guardsmen and the entire police force were assembled to re-establish order after the bombing. After an FBI investigation Robert Chambliss, a notorious racist, was charged with murder and the possession of dynamite only to be acquitted of the murder charges. In 1977 the case was reopened and Chambliss was prosecuted again and found guilty. Eventually his co-conspirators Thomas Blanton and Robert Cherry were discovered and also convicted.
The Washington Post Article covering the event in 1963 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/archives1.htm
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
On November 22nd Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through downtown plaza. Lyndon B. Johnson would become President and continue Kennedy’s role in Civil Rights. Inspired by The March for Jobs and Freedom, Johnson used his conservative connections and the mourning of Kennedy to ensure The Civil Right Act of 1964 became law.
“Provisions of the legislation included: (1) protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests; (2) outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; (3) authorizing the U.S. Attorney General's Office to file legal suits to enforce desegregation in public schools; (4) authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination; and (5) outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding 25 people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints” (J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museum).
Burning Trial
On The 21st of June 1964, the Klu Klux Klan murdered Michael Schwerner, aged 24, Andrew Goodman, 20, both from New York and James Chaney, 22, from Meridian, Mississippi. All members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the young men were in Miss. working to advance voting rights in the south. The men went missing for six weeks before the FBI found their bodies in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Originally 19 men were arrested and charged with murder and the Burning Trial took place.
The Assassination of Malcolm X
In February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was standing in Audobaun Ballroom in Harlem about to address the Afro-American Unity when he was shot several times by men who identified as Black Muslims. A week before his death his home in Queens, NY, was burnt down and he had been receiving death threats from Nation of Islam members. On February 18th Malcolm X explained in an interview “no one can get out with out trouble, and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence.”
From Selma to Montgomery
In 1965 DCVL and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organized marches from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the states capital. The marches were led by Martin Luther King and would set off a series of violent riots in Birmingham, Alabama and Watts, Los Angeles. The violent riots in tandem with the nonviolent protests would change public opinions and Lyndon B. Johnson would propose of the Voters Rights act of 1965.
The March was attempted three times; the first on March 7th, which would be become known as “Bloody Sunday.” An estimated 550-600 protesters began marching on Highway 80. The marchers were stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were faced with a wall of state troopers and freshly deputized white men. The protesters were attacked with tear gas and billy clubs. Televised images of the brutal attack presented people with horrifying images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Amelia Boynton was beaten and gassed nearly to death; her photo appeared on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized.
The second march was dubbed “Turn Around Tuesday.” On Tuesday, March 9th Martin Luther King organized a march that would be postponed because Judge Frank Minis Johnson needed time to organize protection for the protesters. Instead of Marching King gathered 2,500 people and led them to Edmund Pettus Bridge said a prayer then turned around. The third and successful march happened on March 21st. 2,000 marchers would be protected by the U.S. Army and Alabama National Guard on their way to Montgomery. On March 25th the march would culminate in speeches by Martin Luther King and others to which 50,000 people attended.
The Black Panthers
Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA in 1966, The Black Panthers were organized to protect and empower working class African Americans using militant force.
Malcolm X served as major role model for the Panthers, unafraid of militant action; Malcolm endorsed a better self-image and social programs for African Americans.
The Panthers followed Malcolm’s belief of international working class unity across the spectrum of color and gender, and thus united with various minority and white revolutionary groups. From the tenets of Maoism they set the role of their Party as the vanguard of the revolution and worked to establish a united front, while from Marxism they addressed the capitalist economic system, embraced the theory of dialectical materialism, and represented the need for all workers to forcefully take over the means of production. The organization consisted of a ten-point plan, military training, and social programs.
http://www.blackpanther.org/index.html
“Black Power”
Originally from Trinidad, Stokely Carmichael immigrated to Harlem, NYC in 1952 at age 11. Carmichael attended Howard University and graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 1964. Two years later he was he was chosen as chairman of SNCC, replacing John Lewis. In 1966 Carmichael was in Greenwood, Miss., speaking in support of Protesters marching in place of a wounded James Meredith. When he was setting up camp in Greenwood he was arrested. After being released he exclaimed, “This is the 27th time, we been saying ‘Freedom’ for six years,” referring to the chant that movement protesters used as they stood up to racist politicians and hostile policemen pointing water hoses and unleashing snarling dogs. “What we are going to start saying now is ‘Black Power!’” The phrase would catch on and ignite controversy. It troubled some members of the black community because some thought it sound anti-white and the phrase was tagged as “reverse racism.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
On April 4th 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London’s Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary.
King was in Memphis to aid the black Sanitation workers in their strike.
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
The assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. After winning the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian Palestinian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime. Sirhan's lawyers have released statements claiming evidence that he was framed. A freelance newspaper reporter recorded the shooting on audiotape, and the aftermath was captured on film.
Kennedy’s body lay in repose at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York for two days before a funeral mass was held on June 8. His body was interred near his brother John at Arlington National Cemetery. His death prompted the protection of presidential candidates by the United States Secret Service. Hubert Humphrey went on to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency, but ultimately narrowly lost the election to Richard Nixon.
Black Power at the Olympics
Tommie Smith and John Carlos “black power fist” at 1968 Olympics. Teammates at San Jose State University, Smith and Carlos were stirred by the suggestion of a young sociologist friend Harry Edwards, who asked them and all the other black American athletes to join together and boycott the games. The protest, Edwards hoped, would bring attention to the fact that America’s Civil Rights movement had not gone far enough to eliminate the injustices black Americans were facing. Edwards’ group, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), gained support from several world-class athletes and Civil Rights leaders but the all-out boycott never materialized.
Still impassioned by Edwards’ words, Smith and Carlos secretly planned a non-violent protest in the manner of Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 200-meter race, Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze. As the American flag rose and the Star-Spangled Banner played, the two closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and began their protest.
Smith later told the media that he raised his right, black-glove-covered fist in the air to represent black power in America while Carlos’ left, black-covered fist represented unity in black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around Smith's neck stood for black pride and their black socks (and no shoes) represented black poverty in racist America. In the U. S. Smith and Carlos faced abuse including death threats against themselves and their famlies. Smith and Carlos were also largely ostracized by the U.S. sporting establishment and they were subject to criticism by the media. Time magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier,” instead of “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”
Tommie Smith and John Carlos “black power fist” at 1968 Olympics. Teammates at San Jose State University, Smith and Carlos were stirred by the suggestion of a young sociologist friend Harry Edwards, who asked them and all the other black American athletes to join together and boycott the games. The protest, Edwards hoped, would bring attention to the fact that America’s Civil Rights movement had not gone far enough to eliminate the injustices black Americans were facing. Edwards’ group, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), gained support from several world-class athletes and Civil Rights leaders but the all-out boycott never materialized.
Still impassioned by Edwards’ words, Smith and Carlos secretly planned a non-violent protest in the manner of Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 200-meter race, Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze. As the American flag rose and the Star-Spangled Banner played, the two closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and began their protest.
Smith later told the media that he raised his right, black-glove-covered fist in the air to represent black power in America while Carlos’ left, black-covered fist represented unity in black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around Smith's neck stood for black pride and their black socks (and no shoes) represented black poverty in racist America. In the U. S. Smith and Carlos faced abuse including death threats against themselves and their famlies. Smith and Carlos were also largely ostracized by the U.S. sporting establishment and they were subject to criticism by the media. Time magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier,” instead of “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”