Lecture 2

1. I Have A Dream Lecture 2

2. Standard 11.10.3 • Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between African-America and white Civil Rights lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education. Essential Question: How did the Civil Rights Movement gain ground in the 1960s?

3. Sit-In Movement, 1960 • 4 black students sat • Greensboro, NC • Woolworth’s • Refused to leave • followed passive resistance of Dr. King • spread all across the country

4. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) • A grass roots organization • Focus was non-violent protest • letters to newspapers, sit-ins, etc.

5. Freedom Riders, 1960 • whites and blacks tried to force desegregation on public buses • Buses were torched and attacked • JFK sent US Marshals to ride buses • interstate bus travel was protected by federal law

6. University of Mississippi, 1962 • James Meredith had to have a federal escort to attend Ole Miss • Gov. Ross Barnett refused to allow his enrollment

7. Medgar Evers • Activist who led boycotts against racist white merchants in Mississippi • investigated Emmett Till’s death • helped get James Meredith into Ole Miss • Assassinated just hours after JFK’s civil rights address

8. Civil Rights Speech, 1963 “If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him; if in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?” —John F. Kennedy, 1963

9. King is Arrested • King went on voter registration drive • Gov. George Wallace • “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” • Attack dogs, cattle-prods, high-pressure water hoses were used to stop the march • King was arrested • TV and newspaper coverage

10. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 1963 • We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. • "An unjust law is no law at all.“ • Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

11. March on Washington, 1963 • King led 200,000 demonstrators to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial • 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg address • Goal: to pressure on Congress to pass the legislation that JFK promised

12. “I Have a Dream Speech” 1963 • I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

13. 16th Street Church Bombing, 1963 • A bomb killed four young girls at their church in Birmingham, AL • Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins • FBI withheld information at the time of the murders • NO convictions • Robert Chambliss convicted in 1978, died in prison in 1985 • Thomas Blanton, Jr. convicted in 2001 • Bobby Cherry convicted in 2002, died in prison in 2004 • Bragged to his friends about his involvement • Herman Cash died in 1994

14. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • JFK died in November 1963 • LBJ pushed for the law • Banned discrimination in most public facilities • hospitals, schools, theaters, restaurants • gave federal government authority to make schools follow the law • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • eliminated discrimination in hiring

15. HW Questions: Chp. 14, Sec. 2 p. 477 1. What is civil disobedience? 2. What were the goals of the Freedom Riders and what did they accomplish in the summer of 1961? 3. How did James Meredith and MLK Jr. prompt President Kennedy to promote civil rights? 4. When and where did MLK give his “I Have a Dream” speech? 5. In what way did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 affect employment in the United States?