In a similar fashion, CORE’s non-violent ‘Freedom Ride’ of May 1961 served to challenge racial segregation in the nations interstate bus system, which the Supreme Court had declared an unconstitutional violation of human rights. By the time they had reached Alabama on the 14th of May, the trip had drawn little national publicity and had achieved little, but on this day the violence directed towards the freedom riders brought the freedom rides to national attention. In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was stopped and set ablaze. As the Freedom Riders ran from the smoke and flames, a mob tried to murder them, while other southerners tried to save them. The other bus reached Birmingham, and the Freedom Riders were dragged off and beaten nearly to death . The press had a field day. Howard K. Smith, a veteran reporter, publicized a gripping eyewitness account of the violence, Smith told the nation “One passenger was knocked down at my feet by twelve hoodlums, and his face was beaten and kicked until it was a bloody pulp” . Arsenault (2006) believes that nothing had prepared Americans for the image of the burning bus outside of Anniston or of the broken bodies in Birmingham, and that the subsequent news reports opened the floodgates of public reaction. Indeed leader of the movement, James farmer later explained that the freedom rides were created with the specific intention of creating a crisis, “ We were counting on the bigots in the South to do our work for us… we figured the government would have to respond if we created a situation that was headline news all over the world” . After the long summer of 1961 it was evident that segregation on the nations interstate buses could not survive and on September that year buses were officially ... ... middle of paper ... ...me That Changed America, Random House., p191 - 196 19. Beito, David; Beito, Linda (2009). Black Maverick: T. R. M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, University of Illinois Press. P130 20. Kirk, J (2007), Beyond Little Rock: The origins and legacies of the Central High Crisis, p1 21. Dudziak, M (2000), Cold War Civil Rights p.32 22. Carson,C (1995). In Struggle : SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. United States of America, Boston: Harvard University Press. page 9 23. j. garrow,D (2004). Bearing the cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New york: HarperCollins . 134. 24. Arsenault, R (2006). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New york: Oxford University Press. 165. 25. L. Krenn,M (1999). Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department, 1945-1969. New york: Sharpe.
Trilling, Lionel. "Review of Black Boy." Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. New York : Amistad, 1993.
This documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice”. It was a radical idea organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that alarmed not only those who challenged the civil rights but also deliberately defied Jim Crows Law that were enacted between 1876 and 1965, by challenging the status quo by riding the interstate buses in the South in mixed racial groups. This law segregated public services like public transportation, public places, public schools, restrooms, restaurants, and even drinking fountains for black and whites. Though these activists were faced by various bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment, they were successful in desegregating the buses and bus facilities in the Deep South in September 22, 1961. They strove for nonviolent protest for justice and freedom of African Americans freedom.
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience. Ed. Gabriel Burns Stepto. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003.
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124.
The years between 1954 and 1965 represent the coalition of two movements that forever changed the landscape of American Politics. The Civil rights movement and the black power movement established two separate thrusts for black civil and political equality. Understanding how each movement saw race relations in the United States helps to further explain the goals and how each movement influenced one another. In the following pages I am going to detail the leaders of the Black Power and Civil rights and how under their philosophy grew movements influenced by one another that forever changed the American political environment.
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. "Freedom Rides." The Reader's Companion to American History. 1 Dec. 1991: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 19 May. 2014. .
King organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is an organization that was founded to fight against racial segregation in the South. King attitude of nonviolent protests and campaigns led to numerous arrest during the 1950’s and 60’s. His protests had success in ending racial segregation in the South, but his protests and campaigns in Birmingham, Alabama gained him worldwide attention. Through all King’s hard work and determination, brought together more than thousands and thousands of people to bo...
The focus of the video documentary "Ain't Scared of your Jails" is on the courage displayed by thousands of African-American people who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it new direction. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins spread across the south. In 1961, Freedom Rides were running throughout the southern states. These rides consisted of African Americans switching places with white Americans on public transportation buses. The whites sat in the back and black people sat in the front of the public buses. Many freedom riders faced violence and defied death threats as they strived to stop segregation by participating in these rides. In interstate bus travel under the Mason-Dixon Line, the growing movement toward racial equality influenced the 1960 presidential campaign. Federal rights verses state rights became an issue.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
The Black Panther Party was born to elevate the political, social, and economic status of Blacks. The means the Party advocated in their attempt to advance equality were highly unconventional and radical for the time, such as social programs for under privileged communities and armed resistance as a means of self preservation. The Party made numerous contributions to Black’s situation as well as their esteem, but fell victim to the ‘system’ which finds it nearly impossible to allow Blacks entry into the dominant culture. Thus, the rise and fall of a group of Black radicals, as presented by Elaine Brown in A Taste of Power, can be seen to represent the overall plight of the American Black: a system which finds it impossible to give Blacks equality.
John A. Kirk, History Toady volume 52 issue 2, The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans
For additional help in understanding his reasoning and thought processes, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson, can give one a sense of exactly why King had such a strong religious background. In fact, the first words of the writing state “Of course I was religious. I grew up in the church. My father was a preacher, my grandfather was a preacher, my great-grandfather was a preacher, my only brother is a preacher, my daddy’s brother is a preacher. So of course I didn’t have much choice” (Carson 1). Furthermore, this work is special because it combines hundreds of King’s writings in order to make a first person narrative of his life. The book skips no part of his life and includes his thoughts and feelings
African American Review 32.2 (1998): 293-303. JSTOR.com - "The New York Times" Web. The Web. The Web. 11 April 2012.
The above-mentioned essays are: Nihilism in Black America, The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning, The Crisis of Black Leadership, Demystifying the Black Conservatism, Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity, On Black-Jewish Relations, Black Sexuality: T...