Robert Mickey
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691133386
- eISBN:
- 9781400838783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691133386.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines how the federal government and black protest organizations intervened in southern authoritarian enclaves, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting ...
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This chapter examines how the federal government and black protest organizations intervened in southern authoritarian enclaves, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as the reform of the National Democratic Party during the period 1964–1972. It first considers state authorities' consensus preference for effecting a “harnessed revolution” before discussing the challenges posed by the Civil and Voting rights acts to southern enclaves. It then describes the degree to which outsiders interfered in enclaves' responses to these landmark statutes, including federal oversight of voting rights in the Deep South and deployments by black protest organizations. It concludes by analyzing the McGovern–Fraser national Democratic party reforms of 1968–1972.Less
This chapter examines how the federal government and black protest organizations intervened in southern authoritarian enclaves, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as the reform of the National Democratic Party during the period 1964–1972. It first considers state authorities' consensus preference for effecting a “harnessed revolution” before discussing the challenges posed by the Civil and Voting rights acts to southern enclaves. It then describes the degree to which outsiders interfered in enclaves' responses to these landmark statutes, including federal oversight of voting rights in the Deep South and deployments by black protest organizations. It concludes by analyzing the McGovern–Fraser national Democratic party reforms of 1968–1972.
Kent Spriggs (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813054322
- eISBN:
- 9780813053134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813054322.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Part 3 discusses the growth of basic legal rights. In the twenty-first century it can be hard to appreciate how remarkably welcoming the federal judiciary was to the claims of the civil rights ...
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Part 3 discusses the growth of basic legal rights. In the twenty-first century it can be hard to appreciate how remarkably welcoming the federal judiciary was to the claims of the civil rights movement. Part 3 includes chapter 7, “Access to Justice”; chapter 8, “Voting Rights and Political Representation”; chapter 9, “Public Accommodations”; chapter 10, “School Desegregation and Municipal Equalization”; and chapter 11, “Employment Discrimination.”
Voting rights and political representation were key. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened the portals for dramatic increases in black voter registration.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated equal accommodation in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and other public places. Some applications of these rights were realized immediately, others not so much.
This was the era in which the promise of the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision became a reality in the Deep South. Desegregation suits proliferated. The Supreme Court dramatically increased the pace of desegregation. The varied forms of pushback were astonishing: the shutting down of a historic black high school lest white students have to attend (even at the expense of double sessions); the hiding of athletic trophies from the historic black high school upon merger; the suspension and expulsion of many black students at the moment of desegregation.
The other major accomplishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the ban on employment discrimination. At the time of its passage, job and labor union segregation were ubiquitous in the Deep South. This all changed.Less
Part 3 discusses the growth of basic legal rights. In the twenty-first century it can be hard to appreciate how remarkably welcoming the federal judiciary was to the claims of the civil rights movement. Part 3 includes chapter 7, “Access to Justice”; chapter 8, “Voting Rights and Political Representation”; chapter 9, “Public Accommodations”; chapter 10, “School Desegregation and Municipal Equalization”; and chapter 11, “Employment Discrimination.”
Voting rights and political representation were key. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened the portals for dramatic increases in black voter registration.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated equal accommodation in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and other public places. Some applications of these rights were realized immediately, others not so much.
This was the era in which the promise of the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision became a reality in the Deep South. Desegregation suits proliferated. The Supreme Court dramatically increased the pace of desegregation. The varied forms of pushback were astonishing: the shutting down of a historic black high school lest white students have to attend (even at the expense of double sessions); the hiding of athletic trophies from the historic black high school upon merger; the suspension and expulsion of many black students at the moment of desegregation.
The other major accomplishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the ban on employment discrimination. At the time of its passage, job and labor union segregation were ubiquitous in the Deep South. This all changed.
Yvonne Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813143798
- eISBN:
- 9780813144467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813143798.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter spans the period immediately following the assassination of President Kennedy to the riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles, which exploded in the summer of 1965. Although Lyndon ...
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This chapter spans the period immediately following the assassination of President Kennedy to the riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles, which exploded in the summer of 1965. Although Lyndon Johnson was a familiar figure, it was difficult to tell whether he would champion Kennedy’s civil rights legislation, which was working its way through Congress at the time of the president’s death. Much to Wilkins’s relief Johnson proved to be his greatest political ally. Johnson made great efforts to court black leaders, particularly Wilkins and Whitney Young of the Urban League. The president frequently sought Wilkins’s counsel and advice on civil rights issues and, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, his administration quickly drafted more legislation to secure voting rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, however, did little to quell the increasing frustration felt by African Americans marginalized in urban ghettoes, and just days after the bill was signed, violent riots broke out in Watts, warning Wilkins that much more still needed to be done. Frustration was also evident within the Association when a group called the Young Turks, board members dissatisfied with Wilkins’s leadership, challenged him to take more militant action.Less
This chapter spans the period immediately following the assassination of President Kennedy to the riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles, which exploded in the summer of 1965. Although Lyndon Johnson was a familiar figure, it was difficult to tell whether he would champion Kennedy’s civil rights legislation, which was working its way through Congress at the time of the president’s death. Much to Wilkins’s relief Johnson proved to be his greatest political ally. Johnson made great efforts to court black leaders, particularly Wilkins and Whitney Young of the Urban League. The president frequently sought Wilkins’s counsel and advice on civil rights issues and, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, his administration quickly drafted more legislation to secure voting rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, however, did little to quell the increasing frustration felt by African Americans marginalized in urban ghettoes, and just days after the bill was signed, violent riots broke out in Watts, warning Wilkins that much more still needed to be done. Frustration was also evident within the Association when a group called the Young Turks, board members dissatisfied with Wilkins’s leadership, challenged him to take more militant action.
Chris Danielson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049878
- eISBN:
- 9780813050348
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049878.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chris Danielson takes up the Mississippi story after 1964 and provides a somewhat different interpretation of succeeding events than Rebecca Miller Davis implies. Danielson acknowledges that race did ...
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Chris Danielson takes up the Mississippi story after 1964 and provides a somewhat different interpretation of succeeding events than Rebecca Miller Davis implies. Danielson acknowledges that race did play a major role in the Republicanization of Mississippi, but contends that the move toward a GOP-controlled state was not seamless or without significant internal division. The essay explores the growth of a large black electorate in the Magnolia State after the 1965 Voting Rights Act and contends that state Republican leaders were not immediately warm to the idea of an all-white party, held conflicting ideas about the viability of the black vote in post-1965 Mississippi, and weighed the effects of Republican presidential administrations pursing a more nuanced path than simply embracing the raw white supremacy of the Ross Barnetts and George Wallaces. Despite attempts by Republican presidents to weaken renewals of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, Danielson argues, GOP administrations actually expanded black office-holding through their enforcement of the Act's provisions.Less
Chris Danielson takes up the Mississippi story after 1964 and provides a somewhat different interpretation of succeeding events than Rebecca Miller Davis implies. Danielson acknowledges that race did play a major role in the Republicanization of Mississippi, but contends that the move toward a GOP-controlled state was not seamless or without significant internal division. The essay explores the growth of a large black electorate in the Magnolia State after the 1965 Voting Rights Act and contends that state Republican leaders were not immediately warm to the idea of an all-white party, held conflicting ideas about the viability of the black vote in post-1965 Mississippi, and weighed the effects of Republican presidential administrations pursing a more nuanced path than simply embracing the raw white supremacy of the Ross Barnetts and George Wallaces. Despite attempts by Republican presidents to weaken renewals of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, Danielson argues, GOP administrations actually expanded black office-holding through their enforcement of the Act's provisions.
Julian Maxwell Hayter
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813169484
- eISBN:
- 9780813169972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813169484.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
By 1965, the VRA not only revolutionized electoral politics in the United States but also immediately gave rise to white resistance. This chapter describes the freedom struggle’s progression from ...
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By 1965, the VRA not only revolutionized electoral politics in the United States but also immediately gave rise to white resistance. This chapter describes the freedom struggle’s progression from protest to politics and how African Americans took their place in American city halls. By 1966, Richmond had elected three African Americans to the city council, including Henry Marsh III. As black Americans began to elect more than a handful of representatives and to contest the legacy of segregationist policies (e.g., slum clearance, expressway construction, police brutality), whites embarked on a Machiavellian campaign of vote dilution. In Richmond, they first tried to dilute blacks votes by staggering elections. The urban unrest of the late 1960s and the rise of Black Power heightened white anxiety about a black revolution. By 1968, the Crusade embraced not only the politics of black empowerment but also Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. Richmond’s white officials met these challenges by annexing portions of a predominantly white suburb, Chesterfield County.Less
By 1965, the VRA not only revolutionized electoral politics in the United States but also immediately gave rise to white resistance. This chapter describes the freedom struggle’s progression from protest to politics and how African Americans took their place in American city halls. By 1966, Richmond had elected three African Americans to the city council, including Henry Marsh III. As black Americans began to elect more than a handful of representatives and to contest the legacy of segregationist policies (e.g., slum clearance, expressway construction, police brutality), whites embarked on a Machiavellian campaign of vote dilution. In Richmond, they first tried to dilute blacks votes by staggering elections. The urban unrest of the late 1960s and the rise of Black Power heightened white anxiety about a black revolution. By 1968, the Crusade embraced not only the politics of black empowerment but also Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. Richmond’s white officials met these challenges by annexing portions of a predominantly white suburb, Chesterfield County.
Robert E. Luckett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496802699
- eISBN:
- 9781496802736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496802699.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's practical racism as a means to undermine the civil rights movement. It first considers the response of white southern leaders to the Voting Rights Act of ...
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This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's practical racism as a means to undermine the civil rights movement. It first considers the response of white southern leaders to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, with particular emphasis on Paul Johnson's call for a special legislative session to enact constitutional amendments to change Mississippi's voting laws. It then discusses Patterson's stand on the proposed constitutional amendments, as well as his lobbying against the Voting Rights Act and his use of the Sovereignty Commission to continue his fight against the Citizens' Council. It also explores Erle Johnston's version of practical segregation; Patterson's feud with Hazel Brannon Smith, editor of the Lexington Advertiser; James Meredith's March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966; and Aubrey Norvell's attempted assassination of Meredith. The chapter concludes by focusing on how the March Against Fear became the launching pad of the civil rights slogan “Black Power.”Less
This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's practical racism as a means to undermine the civil rights movement. It first considers the response of white southern leaders to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, with particular emphasis on Paul Johnson's call for a special legislative session to enact constitutional amendments to change Mississippi's voting laws. It then discusses Patterson's stand on the proposed constitutional amendments, as well as his lobbying against the Voting Rights Act and his use of the Sovereignty Commission to continue his fight against the Citizens' Council. It also explores Erle Johnston's version of practical segregation; Patterson's feud with Hazel Brannon Smith, editor of the Lexington Advertiser; James Meredith's March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966; and Aubrey Norvell's attempted assassination of Meredith. The chapter concludes by focusing on how the March Against Fear became the launching pad of the civil rights slogan “Black Power.”
Julian Maxwell Hayter
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813169484
- eISBN:
- 9780813169972
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813169484.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The Dream Is Lost describes more than three decades of national/local racial politics and the unintended consequences of the civil rights movement. It uses the mid-twentieth-century urban history of ...
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The Dream Is Lost describes more than three decades of national/local racial politics and the unintended consequences of the civil rights movement. It uses the mid-twentieth-century urban history of Richmond, Virginia, to explain the political abuses that often accompanied American electoral reforms. The rights embodied in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 cannot be explained by separating the mobilization of black voters, on one hand, and federal policy directed toward race, on the other. The story first examines the suffrage crusades that predated the Voting Rights Act and how an organization called the Richmond Crusade for Voters mobilized African Americans a decade prior to 1965. As the Crusade mobilized voters, its members met firm resistance from their white counterparts. Local people and federal officials beat back the forces of white resistance by implementing majority–minority district systems. Although the reapportionment revolution led directly to the election of a black-majority city council in Richmond in 1977, it, too, had unintended consequences. The very forces that made Richmond’s majority–minority district system possible—an increase in African American populations in densely packed enclaves, unremitting residential segregation, white flight, and urban retrenchment—were the same that brought about intensifying marginalization in black communities during the twilight of the twentieth century. This story follows black voter mobilization to its logical conclusion: black empowerment and governance. It demonstrates that mid-twentieth-century urban redevelopment left a lasting impression on America’s cities. Richmond’s black-majority council struggled to negotiate the tension between rising expectations in black communities, sustained white resistance, and structural forces beyond the realm of politics.Less
The Dream Is Lost describes more than three decades of national/local racial politics and the unintended consequences of the civil rights movement. It uses the mid-twentieth-century urban history of Richmond, Virginia, to explain the political abuses that often accompanied American electoral reforms. The rights embodied in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 cannot be explained by separating the mobilization of black voters, on one hand, and federal policy directed toward race, on the other. The story first examines the suffrage crusades that predated the Voting Rights Act and how an organization called the Richmond Crusade for Voters mobilized African Americans a decade prior to 1965. As the Crusade mobilized voters, its members met firm resistance from their white counterparts. Local people and federal officials beat back the forces of white resistance by implementing majority–minority district systems. Although the reapportionment revolution led directly to the election of a black-majority city council in Richmond in 1977, it, too, had unintended consequences. The very forces that made Richmond’s majority–minority district system possible—an increase in African American populations in densely packed enclaves, unremitting residential segregation, white flight, and urban retrenchment—were the same that brought about intensifying marginalization in black communities during the twilight of the twentieth century. This story follows black voter mobilization to its logical conclusion: black empowerment and governance. It demonstrates that mid-twentieth-century urban redevelopment left a lasting impression on America’s cities. Richmond’s black-majority council struggled to negotiate the tension between rising expectations in black communities, sustained white resistance, and structural forces beyond the realm of politics.
Robert E. Luckett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496802699
- eISBN:
- 9781496802736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496802699.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's role in the conservative political effort to derail the advancing civil rights movement. When Patterson won a third term as Mississippi attorney general in ...
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This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's role in the conservative political effort to derail the advancing civil rights movement. When Patterson won a third term as Mississippi attorney general in 1963, he had to face a number of challenges from the civil rights movement. Among them were the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP); Freedom Summer; the murders of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During those years, Patterson refused to renounce segregation and took tough stands against the movement. He also shaped a burgeoning brand of conservatism in the South. This chapter first considers how Patterson helped transition southern Democrats into modern-day Republicans before turning to Freedom Summer, an attempt by civil rights activists to bring African Americans access to the voting rolls and adequate educational opportunities. It also discusses the significance of Paul Johnson's tenure as governor of Mississippi to the shift in Mississippi politics.Less
This chapter examines Joe T. Patterson's role in the conservative political effort to derail the advancing civil rights movement. When Patterson won a third term as Mississippi attorney general in 1963, he had to face a number of challenges from the civil rights movement. Among them were the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP); Freedom Summer; the murders of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During those years, Patterson refused to renounce segregation and took tough stands against the movement. He also shaped a burgeoning brand of conservatism in the South. This chapter first considers how Patterson helped transition southern Democrats into modern-day Republicans before turning to Freedom Summer, an attempt by civil rights activists to bring African Americans access to the voting rolls and adequate educational opportunities. It also discusses the significance of Paul Johnson's tenure as governor of Mississippi to the shift in Mississippi politics.
Gary Dorrien
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300205619
- eISBN:
- 9780300231359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300205619.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Martin Luther King Jr. was more radical and angry in 1960 than in 1955, more of both in 1965 than in 1960, and more of both in 1968 than ever. The great demonstrations in Birmingham, St. Augustine, ...
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Martin Luther King Jr. was more radical and angry in 1960 than in 1955, more of both in 1965 than in 1960, and more of both in 1968 than ever. The great demonstrations in Birmingham, St. Augustine, and Selma yielded the civil rights bills, but King struggled to adjust to the rise of Black Power and dared to oppose the Vietnam War, burning his alliance with President Johnson. King provided the theology of social justice that the civil rights movement spoke and sang.Less
Martin Luther King Jr. was more radical and angry in 1960 than in 1955, more of both in 1965 than in 1960, and more of both in 1968 than ever. The great demonstrations in Birmingham, St. Augustine, and Selma yielded the civil rights bills, but King struggled to adjust to the rise of Black Power and dared to oppose the Vietnam War, burning his alliance with President Johnson. King provided the theology of social justice that the civil rights movement spoke and sang.
Kent Spriggs (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813054322
- eISBN:
- 9780813053134
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813054322.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Twenty-six contributors tell their stories about being civil rights lawyers in the Deep South. A thematic structure is employed to reflect these stories.
Ten of the stories describe how children of ...
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Twenty-six contributors tell their stories about being civil rights lawyers in the Deep South. A thematic structure is employed to reflect these stories.
Ten of the stories describe how children of the South and children of the North chose to become civil rights lawyers.
The context of civil rights lawyering is explored from big events such as the 1965 Selma march to the everyday experiences of mass meetings and the recurring racism of Neshoba County. The misadventures of civil rights lawyers are described from arrests, to beatings, to a black lawyer being called by a racial epithet in court by a judge. The development of civil rights lawyer groups—the Legal Defense Fund, the LCDC (Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee), and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law—were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement.
Voting rights dramatically spurred by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were crucial to the newly emerging status of blacks. The public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 broke barriers in hotels and eating places. School desegregation litigation changed the face of public schools forever. Employment discrimination litigation dramatically changed the workplace.
The success of civil rights litigation led to using the federal courts to reform prisons and facilities for the mentally ill. Two authors discuss the contemporary language of race and the status of white supremacy.Less
Twenty-six contributors tell their stories about being civil rights lawyers in the Deep South. A thematic structure is employed to reflect these stories.
Ten of the stories describe how children of the South and children of the North chose to become civil rights lawyers.
The context of civil rights lawyering is explored from big events such as the 1965 Selma march to the everyday experiences of mass meetings and the recurring racism of Neshoba County. The misadventures of civil rights lawyers are described from arrests, to beatings, to a black lawyer being called by a racial epithet in court by a judge. The development of civil rights lawyer groups—the Legal Defense Fund, the LCDC (Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee), and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law—were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement.
Voting rights dramatically spurred by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were crucial to the newly emerging status of blacks. The public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 broke barriers in hotels and eating places. School desegregation litigation changed the face of public schools forever. Employment discrimination litigation dramatically changed the workplace.
The success of civil rights litigation led to using the federal courts to reform prisons and facilities for the mentally ill. Two authors discuss the contemporary language of race and the status of white supremacy.
Lyn Ragsdale and Jerrold G. Rusk
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190670702
- eISBN:
- 9780190670740
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190670702.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Democratization
Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also ...
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Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also boasts the highest economic growth rate of any of the four periods, coupled with the early days of television which transformed politics in the 1950s. In general, economic growth and the introduction of television move nonvoting rates downward. The chapter also considers in detail the struggles leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the law’s impact on nonvoting rates among African Americans. It also uncovers that in the 1960s the Vietnam War increased nonvoting. The chapter begins an analysis of nonvoting at the individual level. The less individuals know about the campaign context and the less they form comparisons between the candidates, the more likely they will say home on Election Day.Less
Abstract: The chapter considers nonvoting after World War II, a unique electoral period in American history with the lowest nonvoting rates of any period from 1920–2012. The post-war period also boasts the highest economic growth rate of any of the four periods, coupled with the early days of television which transformed politics in the 1950s. In general, economic growth and the introduction of television move nonvoting rates downward. The chapter also considers in detail the struggles leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the law’s impact on nonvoting rates among African Americans. It also uncovers that in the 1960s the Vietnam War increased nonvoting. The chapter begins an analysis of nonvoting at the individual level. The less individuals know about the campaign context and the less they form comparisons between the candidates, the more likely they will say home on Election Day.
Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604731071
- eISBN:
- 9781604737608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604731071.003.0039
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut, Constance Baker Motley experienced discrimination at the age of fifteen when she was turned away from a public beach for her dark skin. In 1964 ...
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Born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut, Constance Baker Motley experienced discrimination at the age of fifteen when she was turned away from a public beach for her dark skin. In 1964 she became the first African American woman to serve in the New York State Senate and the first woman president of the Manhattan City Council. Two years later she became the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On August 9, 1965, Motley addressed a Southern Christian Leadership Conference audience in Birmingham, Alabama. This chapter presents Motley’s speech, in which she praised Rosa Parks for her role in the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1955 and Martin Luther King Jr. for his leadership that culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She also urged members of the “Grand Alliance,” of labor, intellectuals, religious liberals, and civil rights advocates to continue to strive for educational integration.Less
Born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut, Constance Baker Motley experienced discrimination at the age of fifteen when she was turned away from a public beach for her dark skin. In 1964 she became the first African American woman to serve in the New York State Senate and the first woman president of the Manhattan City Council. Two years later she became the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On August 9, 1965, Motley addressed a Southern Christian Leadership Conference audience in Birmingham, Alabama. This chapter presents Motley’s speech, in which she praised Rosa Parks for her role in the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1955 and Martin Luther King Jr. for his leadership that culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She also urged members of the “Grand Alliance,” of labor, intellectuals, religious liberals, and civil rights advocates to continue to strive for educational integration.
Elizabeth Gritter
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144504
- eISBN:
- 9780813145150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144504.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The book ends with a brief examination of the 1955 to 2011 period. In 1960, the sit-in movement swept Memphis and the South. Civil rights activists in Memphis, including Maxine Atkins Smith and ...
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The book ends with a brief examination of the 1955 to 2011 period. In 1960, the sit-in movement swept Memphis and the South. Civil rights activists in Memphis, including Maxine Atkins Smith and Russell B. Sugarmon, Jr., embraced direct action and supported the Democratic Party, which spearheaded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black Memphians and southerners saw better employment opportunities and won public office on a larger scale. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis in 1968, and civil rights gains were stunted by the persistence of poverty and ongoing racial polarization. Nevertheless, this study concludes that the political activities of black southerners in the Jim Crow era not only led to racial advancement at the time but also forwarded the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which forever changed the country for the better.Less
The book ends with a brief examination of the 1955 to 2011 period. In 1960, the sit-in movement swept Memphis and the South. Civil rights activists in Memphis, including Maxine Atkins Smith and Russell B. Sugarmon, Jr., embraced direct action and supported the Democratic Party, which spearheaded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black Memphians and southerners saw better employment opportunities and won public office on a larger scale. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis in 1968, and civil rights gains were stunted by the persistence of poverty and ongoing racial polarization. Nevertheless, this study concludes that the political activities of black southerners in the Jim Crow era not only led to racial advancement at the time but also forwarded the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which forever changed the country for the better.
Simeon Booker
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037894
- eISBN:
- 9781617037900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037894.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
During his Inaugural Ball, Lyndon B. Johnson danced with a Negro woman, Lynette Taylor. What he did was something no American president had ever done before. Many blacks were represented in the ...
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During his Inaugural Ball, Lyndon B. Johnson danced with a Negro woman, Lynette Taylor. What he did was something no American president had ever done before. Many blacks were represented in the celebration. Johnson easily won the 1964 presidential election, garnering more than 61 percent of the popular vote and 94 percent of the black vote. The election also saw more blacks winning political office than in any year since the Reconstruction. This chapter focuses on Johnson’s support for the civil rights movement during his term as president of the United States, including his signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It also examines his support for the Alabama Freedom Campaign launched by Martin Luther King Jr. and leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in protest of voting restrictions that kept most Negroes out of the polls.Less
During his Inaugural Ball, Lyndon B. Johnson danced with a Negro woman, Lynette Taylor. What he did was something no American president had ever done before. Many blacks were represented in the celebration. Johnson easily won the 1964 presidential election, garnering more than 61 percent of the popular vote and 94 percent of the black vote. The election also saw more blacks winning political office than in any year since the Reconstruction. This chapter focuses on Johnson’s support for the civil rights movement during his term as president of the United States, including his signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It also examines his support for the Alabama Freedom Campaign launched by Martin Luther King Jr. and leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in protest of voting restrictions that kept most Negroes out of the polls.
Sekou M. Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789384
- eISBN:
- 9780814760611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789384.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter covers the activities of three youth-based activist movements: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU), and the Free South ...
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This chapter covers the activities of three youth-based activist movements: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU), and the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM). It examines their experiment with creative organizing strategies in three parts. The first part focuses on the SNCC's organizing efforts after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its efforts to implement new strategies aimed at helping the organization adjust to a different political context in the second half of the 1960s. The second part turns to the SOBU who used framing and appropriation to marry African American students to black working-class politics and Pan-African movements. The last part deals with the FSAM and how the anti-apartheid campaign heightened the political consciousness of the youth about racial justice and transnational politics.Less
This chapter covers the activities of three youth-based activist movements: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU), and the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM). It examines their experiment with creative organizing strategies in three parts. The first part focuses on the SNCC's organizing efforts after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its efforts to implement new strategies aimed at helping the organization adjust to a different political context in the second half of the 1960s. The second part turns to the SOBU who used framing and appropriation to marry African American students to black working-class politics and Pan-African movements. The last part deals with the FSAM and how the anti-apartheid campaign heightened the political consciousness of the youth about racial justice and transnational politics.
Sekou M. Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789384
- eISBN:
- 9780814760611
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789384.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
What happened to black youth in the post-civil rights generation? What kind of causes did they rally around and were they even rallying in the first place? This book takes a close look at a variety ...
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What happened to black youth in the post-civil rights generation? What kind of causes did they rally around and were they even rallying in the first place? This book takes a close look at a variety of key civil rights groups across the country over the last forty years to provide a broad view of black youth and social movement activism. It examines popular mobilization among the generation of activists—principally black students, youth, and young adults—who came of age after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The book argues that the political environment in the post-civil rights era, along with constraints on social activism, made it particularly difficult for young black activists to start and sustain popular mobilization campaigns. Building on case studies from around the country—including New York, the Carolinas, California, Louisiana, and Baltimore—the book explores the inner workings and end results of activist groups such as the Southern Negro Youth Congress, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Student Organization for Black Unity, the Free South Africa Campaign, the New Haven Youth Movement, the Black Student Leadership Network, the Juvenile Justice Reform Movement, and the AFL-CIO's Union Summer campaign. It demonstrates how youth-based movements and intergenerational campaigns have attempted to circumvent modern constraints, providing insight into how the very inner workings of these organizations have and have not been effective in creating change and involving youth.Less
What happened to black youth in the post-civil rights generation? What kind of causes did they rally around and were they even rallying in the first place? This book takes a close look at a variety of key civil rights groups across the country over the last forty years to provide a broad view of black youth and social movement activism. It examines popular mobilization among the generation of activists—principally black students, youth, and young adults—who came of age after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The book argues that the political environment in the post-civil rights era, along with constraints on social activism, made it particularly difficult for young black activists to start and sustain popular mobilization campaigns. Building on case studies from around the country—including New York, the Carolinas, California, Louisiana, and Baltimore—the book explores the inner workings and end results of activist groups such as the Southern Negro Youth Congress, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Student Organization for Black Unity, the Free South Africa Campaign, the New Haven Youth Movement, the Black Student Leadership Network, the Juvenile Justice Reform Movement, and the AFL-CIO's Union Summer campaign. It demonstrates how youth-based movements and intergenerational campaigns have attempted to circumvent modern constraints, providing insight into how the very inner workings of these organizations have and have not been effective in creating change and involving youth.
Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604738223
- eISBN:
- 9781604738230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604738223.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty, affected the way Fannie Lou Hamer delivered her speeches. In the ...
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The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty, affected the way Fannie Lou Hamer delivered her speeches. In the late 1960s, Hamer discarded personal narratives, in which she highlighted the cruelties and violence of Mississippi’s white supremacist culture, in favor of new rhetorical strategies and tactics for bureaucratic and electoral ends. In early 1967, Hamer spoke at a chapter meeting of the National Council of Negro Women in Mississippi. This chapter reproduces Hamer’s speech, in which she continues to criticize the educated middle-class blacks’ alliances with “chicken-eating” black ministers and white power brokers. Hamer specifically attacked the Sunflower County Progress Inc., a coalition of moderate blacks and whites that sought to attract Head Start monies from the federal government and would compete directly with the Child Development Group of Mississippi, with whom Hamer was aligned.Less
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty, affected the way Fannie Lou Hamer delivered her speeches. In the late 1960s, Hamer discarded personal narratives, in which she highlighted the cruelties and violence of Mississippi’s white supremacist culture, in favor of new rhetorical strategies and tactics for bureaucratic and electoral ends. In early 1967, Hamer spoke at a chapter meeting of the National Council of Negro Women in Mississippi. This chapter reproduces Hamer’s speech, in which she continues to criticize the educated middle-class blacks’ alliances with “chicken-eating” black ministers and white power brokers. Hamer specifically attacked the Sunflower County Progress Inc., a coalition of moderate blacks and whites that sought to attract Head Start monies from the federal government and would compete directly with the Child Development Group of Mississippi, with whom Hamer was aligned.
James M. Denham
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060491
- eISBN:
- 9780813050638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060491.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter addresses constitutional questions that arose in the Middle District of Florida since 2000. The new millennium saw many constitutional disputes reach the Middle District Court. Subjects ...
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This chapter addresses constitutional questions that arose in the Middle District of Florida since 2000. The new millennium saw many constitutional disputes reach the Middle District Court. Subjects ranging from nude-dancing to expressions of religiosity to the right to die are addressed. Post September 11 security measures were put in place and the constitutionality of some (such as pat downs at Tampa Bay Buccaneer football games) were tested. Florida’s continued population growth, immigration patterns, and demographic shifts spurred challenges to existing voting methods at the local level. In several counties the growing Hispanic populations prompted class actions against counties, charging that the at-large election system for county commissioners diluted Hispanics’ voting power and violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The U. S Justice Department often joined these suits and an extensive discussion of an Osceola County case is included. Next the chapter turns to the right to die case of Terri Schaivo. Finally the chapter concludes with the troubled tenure of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and its effect on the Middle District’s U.S. Attorney’s office.Less
This chapter addresses constitutional questions that arose in the Middle District of Florida since 2000. The new millennium saw many constitutional disputes reach the Middle District Court. Subjects ranging from nude-dancing to expressions of religiosity to the right to die are addressed. Post September 11 security measures were put in place and the constitutionality of some (such as pat downs at Tampa Bay Buccaneer football games) were tested. Florida’s continued population growth, immigration patterns, and demographic shifts spurred challenges to existing voting methods at the local level. In several counties the growing Hispanic populations prompted class actions against counties, charging that the at-large election system for county commissioners diluted Hispanics’ voting power and violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The U. S Justice Department often joined these suits and an extensive discussion of an Osceola County case is included. Next the chapter turns to the right to die case of Terri Schaivo. Finally the chapter concludes with the troubled tenure of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and its effect on the Middle District’s U.S. Attorney’s office.
Charles P. Henry
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036453
- eISBN:
- 9780252093487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036453.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter traces the evolution of Blacks from voters to candidates following the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It argues that there were two waves of Black electoral success. Focusing on ...
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This chapter traces the evolution of Blacks from voters to candidates following the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It argues that there were two waves of Black electoral success. Focusing on Black mayors, it contrasts the “insurgent strategy” with the later “deracialized strategy.” The “insurgent” strategy often resembles a social movement more than a political campaign and is directed at mobilizing the candidate's racial support base. The “deracialized” strategy attempts to downplay any racial issue as the candidate reaches out to form a broad coalition of supporters. The chapter also gives credit to Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson for their strategy of expanding the base of the Democratic Party rather than moving to the right to capture “Reagan Democrats.”Less
This chapter traces the evolution of Blacks from voters to candidates following the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It argues that there were two waves of Black electoral success. Focusing on Black mayors, it contrasts the “insurgent strategy” with the later “deracialized strategy.” The “insurgent” strategy often resembles a social movement more than a political campaign and is directed at mobilizing the candidate's racial support base. The “deracialized” strategy attempts to downplay any racial issue as the candidate reaches out to form a broad coalition of supporters. The chapter also gives credit to Harold Washington and Jesse Jackson for their strategy of expanding the base of the Democratic Party rather than moving to the right to capture “Reagan Democrats.”
Laura Visser-Maessen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469627984
- eISBN:
- 9781469628004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469627984.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Detailing the journey from the foundation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to its seating challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, this chapter ...
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Detailing the journey from the foundation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to its seating challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, this chapter analyses the role out-of-state forces and organizers with broad strategic visions within the Movement—especially Moses—played in the Challenge’s realization, which helps to appreciate more fully why Moses and SNCC-workers felt so betrayed by what transpired in Atlantic City.Through new primary documents and Moses’ own recollections, it features the people whose advice Moses followed and the degree of Moses’s and SNCC’s structural support in realizing the Challenge while simultaneously demonstrating how its success depended on grassroots leadership, thereby underscoringthe tensions between Moses’s conception of leadership and (political) reality. The chapter concludes with an examination of the short term and long term effects of ‘Atlantic City’ on Moses, President Lyndon Johnson, the movement at large, COFOand the Mississippi movement. The beginning of the end, it captures the breakdown of internal unity, but also underscores the MFDP’s significance for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Less
Detailing the journey from the foundation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to its seating challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, this chapter analyses the role out-of-state forces and organizers with broad strategic visions within the Movement—especially Moses—played in the Challenge’s realization, which helps to appreciate more fully why Moses and SNCC-workers felt so betrayed by what transpired in Atlantic City.Through new primary documents and Moses’ own recollections, it features the people whose advice Moses followed and the degree of Moses’s and SNCC’s structural support in realizing the Challenge while simultaneously demonstrating how its success depended on grassroots leadership, thereby underscoringthe tensions between Moses’s conception of leadership and (political) reality. The chapter concludes with an examination of the short term and long term effects of ‘Atlantic City’ on Moses, President Lyndon Johnson, the movement at large, COFOand the Mississippi movement. The beginning of the end, it captures the breakdown of internal unity, but also underscores the MFDP’s significance for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
