civil rights movement

Important events/dates in the civil rights movement:

-NAACP focused on winning freedom, gaining ground, in the federal courts. Crucial victory in May 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which nullified Plessy v. Fergusson. Declared public school segregation unconstitutional.

-Dec 1955, Rosa Parks defies segregation on city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Arrested. Bus boycotts began, lasting until Nov, 1956, ending in success; buses become desegregated.

-The black church functioned as the driving force and institutional (spiritual, moral, cultural, political, organizational, and financial) base of the movement

-Feb 1960, lunch "sit-ins" begin, attempting to desegregate lunch counters in restuarants (SCLC guided this movement)

-1960, SNCC (student non-violent coordinating committee) created as an offshoot of the SCLC (by Ella Baker). The SCLC had charimastic leaders and used media attention as a lever, while the SNCC focused more on group-centered leadership. These differing strategies resulted in later tensions between the two groups.

-1961, "freedom rides" campaign to desegregate bus terminals in the Deep South (spear-headed by CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)); encountered much violence. Sep 1961, segregation in interstate terminals banned by the ICC.

-fall 1961-summer 1962, Albany, Georgia desegregation campaign first defeat of movement; SNCC and SCLC differed on strategies. Police Chief Laurie Pritchett studied MLK's tactics and
arrests masses of demonstrators (counters non-violence with non-violence?)

-lessons from Albany: need a clear-cut goal; need strategy and careful planning; need to be unified; need brutal response from police (Pritchett's response took the steam out of the demonstrations in Albany)

-March 1963, desegregation movement in Birmingham, Alabama. MLK wrote famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Police response brutal, attracting media attention. Protests paralyze city, and business elite agree to demands of SCLC

-1963, only about 1 percent of Southern black children attended school with whites. 1954 Supreme Court decision still far from a reality.

-1963, CUCRL (Council on United Civil Rights Leadership), an over-arching organization encompassing many other groups (SNCC, SCLC, CORE, etc.) formed

-August 28, 1963, 250,000 convened in Washington D.C. to march peacefully for civil rights

-early 1964, SNCC campaign to register large numbers of black voters; encountered much violence; tried to counter Democratic power in Mississippi; FDP (Freedom Democratic Party) formed; only slight political gains made

-1964, Malcolm X (a Muslim) seeks to internationalize the struggle of African-Americans; not a pacifist, endorsed militance; "Black is Beautiful"

-1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize

-February 21, 1965, Malcolm X assassinated

-March 7, 1965, "Bloody Sunday" Selma to Montgomery march; SCLC and SNCC defied Governor George Wallace's ban on marching; police used force against marchers

-March 15, 1965, in response, Lyndon B. Johnson endorses Voting Rights Act, not signed into law until summer

-August 1965, Watts riot in Los Angeles. Other riots soon followed...

-1965-66, SNCC encounters growing pains as factions within the movement develop; Black Power movement develops as offshoot, black nationalsim emerges (political and cultural groups); divergence with MLK (difference: conflict between seperatist vs integrationist perspectives)

-late 1966, Black Panther Party founded (in Oakland); goal-enforce civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees; militaristic and highly-centralized; no solid base in black community; support mainly from white left

-1967, MLK takes anti-war stance on Vietnam; criticized from both sides for his actions (criticized by "liberal media" for mixing anti-war and civil rights issues together; criticized by black leaders for jeopardizing delicate civil rights coalition)

-April 4, 1968, MLK assassinated in Memphis

-1969, SNCC breaks up

-1971 and beyond, black liberation movement loses momentum with the collapse of the SNCC and the Black Panthers