The Freedom Rides: Malcolm X And The Civil Rights Movement

Black liberation was stalled once again in 1961 and 1962, as white savagery reared its head again and black people were forced to deal with the reality that success was not inevitable, yet. Still more "sit-ins", "shoe- ins" were led to combat segregation in public places which were met with violent responses from some white people. These responses ranged from burning down a bus with black people to assaulting black passengers on a train car in Anniston. These racist white people also targeted other white people who were deemed as sympathizers to black struggle or "nigger lovers". Police refused to arrest the white aggressors and in some cases also refused to protect the black people. The Freedom Rides resulted in both losses and gains in the civil rights movement. People came to the realization that justice will not be won through merely trying to persuade Southern whites with peaceful protest but only "when

blatant, horrifying white violence had aroused a national consensus to demand a forceful federal response
Martin Luther King continued to lead a movement for racial justice, determined to prove the effectiveness of nonviolence.

Chapter 5 showed the contrast between King and fellow black civil rights leader, Malcolm X. Malcolm X did not believe in nonviolent protest and did not sit well with "integration". King believed in conciliatory efforts between blacks and whites while Malcolm X was a separatist and believed in "Black Nationalism". King needed to succeed and force action from Kennedy to prevent other people from becoming extremists. Birmingham, Alabama nicknamed "Bombingham" held a lot of racial tension during the civil right movement; King and his forces decided to take action there. King led marches which in turn brought on confrontations from white authorities. Again, The plight of black people under white savagery tugged on the moral strings of viewers and brought more sympathizers to the cause. The gains won in the struggle in Birmingham reignited black hope and confidence in the power of "mass social dislocation to overcome white intransigence"

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After the March on Washington, the struggle for black equality began to recede. Sitkoff agued that the movement created unattainable aspirations and "pride" that bordered racism. Mississippi, considered to be the "most backward and illiterate state in the nation" (156), remained impervious to the black struggle for equality. The Freedom Vote Campaign, 1963, conducted by Bob Moses, proved that black people wanted in Mississippi wanted to vote and did not simply not vote due to political apathy and provided the thought necessary for organizing blacks politically.