Morbid Romantic

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Yes, I feel it necessary to celebrate Black History Month before it comes to a close at the end of this month. It’s the history major in me, what can I say? I feel that it’s necessary that we look back and remember great people who don’t get their names printed in textbooks, people who have changed this country for the better. To change not only history but the mindset of longstanding culture is a show of bravery that I don’t think many of us can understand. We easily take our freedom for granted, never thinking twice about the people who risked everything for it. For us. In the 1960s, African Americans struggled against the white power elite, most of whom were determined to keep them at a subhuman standard of life, denying them the simple civil liberties enjoyed by the majority of affluent America. No longer willing to submit to cruel and inhumane injustice, they banded together and attracted many outside to their cause.

December 2, 1955: Mississippi Bus Boycott. This dedicated demonstration led to the eventual 1956 ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

1957: SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Martin Luther King Jr., is founded. One of their founding principles was nonviolent protest.

1960: SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is formed. This was a branch of the SCLC that was populated not by middle class adults, but young adults, many still in college. Some important members of SNCC include John Lewis (now a Senator), Diane Nash, and Cynthia Williams (who rode a mule through small towns in Alabama to organize African Americans).

February 1, 1960: In Greensboro, North Carolina, four young students stage a lunch counter sit in that spread throughout the United States as other groups mimicked their tactic for desegregation. Previously, in places such as Woolworth, Blacks were allowed to shop but not sit at the lunch counter to eat. These passive protesters stuck to King’s doctrine of nonviolent protest, many taught the principles by Robert Moses.

1961: SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP begin a Voter Education Project.

1961-1964: Blacks and Whites spread throughout the deep south to education voters and register them.

May 4, 1961: CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality (and later SNCC), begin the Freedom Rides from Washington DC to Alabama. The Supreme Court had ruled it unlawful to discriminate on facilities used for interstate travel, but the ruling hadn’t been enforced. James Farmer, leader of CORE, decided to force the government into protecting them by arranging a freedom ride of Blacks and Whites. They encountered much violence, even so far as to have one of their buses bombed, but continued on. In the end, Kennedy ordered for them to be protected though they were arrested afterwards. The ICC released orders that seating on interstate carriers was unlawful.

1962: Michael Harrington publishes The Other America, the first of its kind about poverty and displacement in America. One of his proposals for solving the ills of America is to grant African Americans Civil Rights.

September, 1962: James Meredith is denied the right to attend the University of Mississippi (Old Miss). The federal government has no choice but to step in and order the school to allow him admission.

Spring, 1963: SCLC begin a campaign of desegregation and voter registration in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Even when Bull Connor sets dogs and firehoses on them, they don’t relent. Many end up arrested and in jail, so the younger population of African Americans pick up where their parents left off and protest in their place. Much of what went on is highly publicized and shocked America. Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and kept in jail where he writes his now infamous letter.

August 23, 1961: March on Washington.

November, 1963: Robert Moses comes up with the idea of holding a Freedom Election. Disenfranchised African Americans cast freedom ballots in a fake election. It’s widely successful and showed the voting strength that African Americans had if they could only be assured voting rights.

Summer, 1964: Freedom Summer begins. Mass voter registration drive of both African Americans (mainly SNCC) and white college students in the South. There’s much violence and death, the most widely publicized being the murder of Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman.

Summer, 1964: As part of the Freedom Summer, Freedom Schools are created. These schools teach not only the basics of academics (the 3 Rs), but also politics and African American history.

Summer, 1964: Frustrated with the conservative Southern Democrat power, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party is established. Their goal is to replace the segregated Democratic power in place and replace them with legitimate leaders. Though they only gain two seats, they are still given the assurance that any party of the future would be desegregated.

Summer, 1964: As part of his Great Society plan, Lyndon Johnson passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Basically, this bill said three things:
- Public facilities had to desegregate.
- African Americans had the right to vote.
- Schools had to desegregate if they wanted federal money. If they failed to do so, the government would step in and force integration while removing their federal funding.
Though the Civil Rights bill was a big step in the right direction, many Southern states still found that African Americans remained disenfranchised because of tactics of fear, literacy tests, taxes, and grandfather clauses. A voting rights bill was necessary.

March, 1965: Protesters march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama over the Edmund Pettis Bridge. The first attempt is stalled by violence. A second march is arranged, this one led by Martin Luther King Jr. At the end of the bridge, King is given an injunction to stop the march. If he did so, Johnson promised a voting Rights bill. In 1965, the Voting Rights Bill became a reality.

*Excuse some vagueness. I did this all by memory, so I couldn’t recall all the details and names involved.

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