Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History The Civil Rights Movement 20240712

Professor taylor focuses on the 1954 u. S. Supreme Court Decision in brown v. Board of education, the integration of a high school in little rock, arkansas, and the 1960 sit in at a lunch counter in greensboro, North Carolina. Folks, welcome to this class in africanAmerican History. Were going Movement Origin our discussion of the Civil Rights Movement tonight. For those of you in this room who know who i am, but for others im Quintard Taylor and im a professor of history, American History at the university of washington. Ok, well get started. Last time last week we talked about world war ii and one of the things that i tried to emphasize was the fact that ordinary people were becoming much more militants or militant or aggressive in defending their civil rights. Im going to continue that theme tonight and, indeed, i think its even more so the case in the 1950s and 1960s that ordinary people became the engines of the Civil Rights Movement. We tend to think about the Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther king and fanny hammer and largerthanlife figures. But i would argue that the civil the Civil Rights Movement was also made up up by ordinary people, including, as he will find out tonight, a lot of College Students. A lot of College Students. In fact, in some ways the driving force of the Civil Rights Movement came from people who were probably no older than you in this room. I want you to remember that. College students were the main force in terms of the Civil Rights Movement. Ok. I want us to keep that in mind when talk about the evolution of this movement. Ill begin the lecture by discussing the decade of the 1950s because the 1950s really provide, i think, the impetus for what will be the what most historians call the grand Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. There are three episodes. Episode number one is brown. The brown decision in 1964. Brown v board of education. Well say a little more about that later on. Episode number two is the montgomery bus boycott. Of course, that boycott was important for a variety of reasons not only the fact that it catapulted Martin Luther king to fame but also because it was the First Successful movement in the deep south that actually challenged racial segregation. Then, of course, there was the Central High School desegregation crisis in little rock, arkansas. Everybody probably has heard of little rock. Youre generally familiar with what went on. What ill talk about tonight is the fact that all three of these episode, especially little rock , were going to, in effect, lay the foundation for what would become the more active Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Each of these episodes indicated profound changes in Race Relations and in black progress. And as ive argued all throughout this class, when we talk about black progress and Race Relations were not talking about black people gaining new rights, were talking about africanamericans seeing thing seeing the rates the rights that they lost in the 1870s finally restored. In other words when we talk about vote rights, blacks were essentially trying to get back thing rights that were supposed to be guaranteed by the 15th amendment that was ratified finally in 1870. Let me show a couple of slides that reflect on what i call this rising militancy and trying to change the narrative of the civil rights struggle. First of all, militancy is the keyword, the watch word. Africanamericans throughout the country either inside the naacp or beyond the naacp were much less tolerant of the racial order after 1946. In other words, the war itself had made people impatient with racial segregation and Racial Discrimination. No longer would africanamericans simply wait for the laws to change, now they would force that change. Secondly, the 1940s, especially in the 1950s indicated that the federal government would increasingly use its authority and its power even in the form of troops if necessary to defend black rights. I love this photograph. It is evocative in so many ways. First of all, technically its u. S. Forces, u. S. Army forces defending the freedom riders bus near the mississippi alabama quarter in 1961. 1961. Der in and some of you know about the freedom riders and well at least mention them in passing. But i think whats more interesting about this and the subtext that people dont know virtually all of these young men and they were young men, probably between the ages of 18 and 22, almost all of these young men were southern boys but they were also members of the u. S. Army and they were sworn to defend the constitution and in this instance they were sworn to defend black people who were protesting for their civil rights. There are a couple of other images that i want to show because they are evocative of the role of the federal government and the way in which that role became, if you will, popular at least in the north in the 1950s and 1960s. You probably dont remember this episode, but this is ruby baits. This is actually a Norman Rockwell painting of ruby baits. She was a young africanamerican girl whose parents sued to have her integrated to a school, ironically in the ninth ward of new orleans, the ward thats now overwhelmingly black. At the time it was white. Ruby baits, her struggle was captured by Norman Rockwell in this very famous painting. But i want to pull this up. This is the actual photograph of ruby baits. Why is this important . This is the federal government defending the rights of blacks. In this instance, defending the rights of a little girl. This is powerful. This is evocative. This is reflecting the changes taking place in American Society and particularly the attitudes. Of the three episodes that i mentioned earlier, the brown decision is by far the most important. The brown decision reflects on two very important changes that had taken place in the 1940s and the 1950s. First, i want to pull this image up. Theres a change in the courts. Now im showing here the u. S. Supreme court. Interestingly, this is the Supreme Court in 1954, it was all white and all male. And that was, you know, that was pretty well the norm at that time. But whats more interesting is that that Supreme Court will rule in 1954 unanimously in favor of racial, the end of racial segregation in the Public Schools in the south. What does that mean . It means that the Supreme Court is moving in a particular direction but it also means at least i argue that it also reflects that a whole host of other courts were going to follow suit and they were going to issue orders or they were going to make decisions that would help to break town the to break down the wall of segregation. Ill take this a little bit farther. I argue that its the courts that were the one arm of government at that particular time that were most committed to making sure that the rights of africanamericans were respected. And ill let you in on a little secret. You may already know this. There is absolutely no way the congress of the United States would have taken a similar state similar step like this in 1954. And theres no way, in fact, that the president of the United States, president dwight eisenhower, would have taken that step without the prompting by the courts. Now, part of this is almost obvious. The Supreme Court is appointed. The appointments are for life. The appointments of the federal judges in the south are for life. As a result they are in some ways insulated from public opinion. In ways that the congress and the president are not. The congress and the president certainly were not embracing of civil rights at that particular moment as the Supreme Court was and is other courts were. As other courts were. And i make this argument. Had it not been for those courts, had it not been for the courts, i doubt if we have much to say about the Civil Rights Movement. In other words, they played a crucial role in terms of laying the foundation for what would come in the 1960s. But i suggested there are other changes taking place as well. One of those changes was in the naacp itself. The National Association for the advancement of colored people as we talked about in this class, the National Association for the advancement of colored people in some ways lost its energy, lost its drive, lost determination in the 1930s, partially because it was attacked by the communists and the left. We talked about scotsboro. You know the significance of the scottsboro case. Even though the communists didnt get those young men off, the very fact the communists were more assertive and aggressive in terms of challenging for their freedom put the naacp in the shadow, out of which it found itself very difficult to emerge. By 1940, certainly by 1942, 1943, the naacp was reemerging as the major Civil Rights Organization in the country. It was beginning to, if you will, regain the militancy it had in its first two decades. Part of that is because of the war itself. Part of it is because world war ii, of course, brought large numbers of africanamericans out of the south and as they went to these various other cities they often joined the naacp. Ill give you and example here, a local example. This is the naacp dinner at the Mount Zion Baptist church in seattle in 1945. Whats important is not that these people were celebrating and having a great time at the dinner. , in is important is that 1940, there are only 140 members of the naacp in seattle. By 1945, there were over 3,000. Over 3,000. This kind of growth is pretty well typical, reflective of the evolution of naacp chapters in a number of cities across the country. This was happening in the north. What was happening in the south was even more dramatic. In the south, essentially, the naacp for the first time became a Major Organization to contend with. Our best estimate is that , between roughly 1940 and 1946, naacp membership in the south increased from about 25,000 to over 400,000. 25,000 to over 400,000. Now this is not just about numbers. It is not just about the growing ranks of the naacp. Its also about whats happening within the organization itself the 1940s theres going to be an increase, a dramatic increase in the number of lawsuits filed by naacp local chapters, local branches. In other words whats happening here is that the National Leadership of the naacp is in many ways being pushed by the people at the bottom. The National Movement is increasingly becoming a movement thats driven by ordinary people in various naacp chapters across the country, and as youre going to see this will have profound implications in the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1940s, and we talked about some of this before, 1940s, the naacp local chapters, local chapters were going to engage in a whole host of lawsuits. They were is going to file a whole host of lawsuits against Racial Discrimination. Let me give you one example here. Well, well start with this one. The restrictive covenants. We talked about restrictive covenants before in this class and im not going to because the cameras are rolling i wont ask you to kib them but essentially you know the problem with restrictive covenants. You know that they were a major force in terms of keeping africanamericans in the ghettos in the urban north and in some places in the south as well. And i would say in the 1930s , there was a Small Movement of naacp types in los angeles to challenge restrictive covenants. That Small Movement became a larger movement. It eventually spread beyond los angeles, and by the 1940s, the Supreme Court by 1948, the Supreme Court would finally rule against restrictive covenants. This is not the naacp leadership from the top down saying we have to deal with restrictive covenants. These are local people, people in local branches beginning with l. A. Who are saying that we have to challenge restrictive covenants and eventually the naacp National Leadership got on board. Now, they got on board in a big way. They provided significant lawyers. They provided financial support. But the impetus for this came from the bottom up. It came from the naacp branches in los angeles and elsewhere. Theres Something Else thats going on by the 1940s as well im sorry, i got this out of order. These are the boilermakers. I dont know if you remember our discussion of boeing, but in portland, the big struggle, the big political struggle was among the boilermakers, the black boilermakers who were discriminated against. The naacp in portland led the campaign to get Racial Justice for the boilermakers. Let me repeat that. The naacp led, the local naacp , led the campaign to get Racial Justice for the boilermakers. In fact, there were going to be at least three lawsuits that would eventually end discrimination by the boilermakers in portland and elsewhere. But let me suggest that the naacps composition is changing. It is growing as an organization and much more militant in terms of its willingness to challenge the status quo. Particularly the people at the bottom are growing militant. There is also a change of the top that is going to be crucial in the long run. And 1942oughly 1938 the naacp will secure a number of new attorneys and these attorneys will be critical in terms of winning cases for the organization. I am going to focus on three of them, the three on the screen. In some ways these attorneys were the people who were going naac the legalthe style of the naacp. Charles houston. I do not know how many of you are familiar with charles architectut he is the of the modern Civil Rights Movement or the legal phase. He is the man who planned the legal strategy that would eventually result in brown v. Board of education. Charles houston was the dean of Howard University law school at the time. Graduate,o a Harvard Harvard law school graduate. He was the first africanamerican to edit the harvard law review. There was a great deal of emphasis on barack obama being the first person to run the harvard law review. Headk obama was elected to the harvard law review, but the first africanamerican selected was charles houston. Charles houston was a brilliant legal strategist and he set the direction and tone for the naacp throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s. His cousin, william macy, was the second black to edit the harvard law review. He would work for the naacp in 1940 and be involved in a number of signification is. The third person is the one i am sure you are most firmly with. That is Thurgood Marshall. How many have heard of Thurgood Marshall . Ok, ok. You are already familiar with Thurgood Marshall. Marshalls cases interesting. He wanted to go to the university of Maryland Law School and could not because he is africanamerican. He settled on going to Howard University law school and it is there he met charles houston. He came under the tutelage of charles houston and the rest is history. Because of houston marshall would devote the rest of his career to the civil rights litigation. , hastings, andn marshall would win almost as many cases for the naacp as most of the leading lawyers of the naacp had done in the previous 15 years. They were remarkably successful, especially marshall. Lead to his being on the Supreme Court eventually. Things that has to be said is the irony of all of this is that houston, hasty, and marshall would be successful with the naacp at least in part because there was nowhere else to go. The best black lawyers today would do what . They would go into corporate law, they would work in a variety of legal areas. 1945, the best black lawyers did civil rights law. They did it because that is what they wanted to do, but also because other areas were closed. The discrimination against them by many law firms would lead them to be involved in the kinds of activities that would help change american, and particularly africanamerican, life. Marshall is the one that would chart the legal strategy that would lead to brown. That was very simple, or at least im good to supply five. [laughter] the culprit is racial segregation, but one cannot confront segregation directly in 1940. One has to confront the edges of segregation. What the lawyers attempted to do was try and look for, if you will, the weak spots. The edges of segregation. What is the edge of segregation . And boards. Hools they would attempt to desegregate schools and places that were on the border between the u. S. South and u. S. North. What is another edge of segregation . Graduated go after schools because they tended to have older students and older students, theoretically, would be more acceptable at the idea of racial desegregation. The naacp begin to launch a series of lawsuits against various institutions in the 1940s and early 1950s. Im going to give you three examples. 1948, the naacp initiated a lawsuit against the university of delaware, against the graduate program, and as a result that program accepted black students for the first time. 1949, the university of kentucky ,ntegrated for the first time and the graduate Program Integrated for the first time, as a result of the naacp. In 1950, Louisiana State university and this is significant because this is the deep south Louisiana State integrated its graduate program for the first time as a result of the naacp. Then there is the university of oklahoma. [laughter] ido not know how much time want to spend on this, but this is a photograph that shows the struggle in the 1940s and early 1950s and how that had ebbs and flows. They brought a lawsuit against the university of oklahoma. Eventually, they thought they prevailed. The naacp thought it prevailed because a federal judge said the university should be integrated. Point the university decided to technically integrate by providing a separate area for the one black student that was enrolled at the university. Before they got to this they actually put the single black rotundain the capitol and they had one faculty member teach him. This was a farce. This was not an integration of the university. To be honest, this is not true integration, but it reflects on the fact there is this tension going on throughout the south against africanamerican entry into various schools. This was considered a victory and eventually the oklahoma University Law school did integrate, but not without difficulty. One can argue the integration of these schools, the law schools, the professional schools, the graduate program, was fairly easy compared to, if you will, the 800 pound elephant in the room and that is Public School segregation. I want you to look at this photograph for a minute. School a typical black not only in arkansas, but throughout the south. Segregation was the law of the land and a number of states across america, but nowhere more pronounced than in the deep south. You credibly see i hope you see a number of things going on. Here. Is a host of kids these schools were supposedly separate and equal. That was the idea that came from plessy v ferguson. There was nothing equal about the schools. Inferior and were if anybody wanted to really investigate for five minutes, they would find out this is the case. This was the situation the naacp was going to have to take on and it took it on partly because i would say mainly because there was a host of parents, of African American students, who were upset at these kinds of conditions. Discussionlot of about why blacks chose to desegregate Public Schools in the south. We could get into all kinds of theories, but my idea is fairly simple and it came for my parents. My parents went through this along with a host of others. I am not going to get into my own integration experience, but let me suggest you are looking at someone who went to a segregated school until 1965. This is not just some story. This is not ancient history. This is something that would affect the lives of a host of people. For my parents and a host of other black parents in the south, there was a very interesting situation. Throughout the whole period of segregation, throughout disenfranchisement when black people did not have the right to vote, there was never a time when africanamericans were relieved from paying taxes. Let me repeat that. During the entire period of segregation, during disenfranchisement, there was no time when black people were relieved from paying taxes. I am doing this on camera and national tv, but im going to be doing it anyway. [laughter] parentsmember my own going down to the courthouse and literally going to the back door to pay property taxes every year. They did so at a time when they could not vote. They did so at a time when they did not have the rights and safeguards of normal citizens. This is the paradox. The lack folks continue to pay taxes, including taxes to support the schools, and much of the money we will talk about this in a minute much of that was going to be diverted to pay for the schools of others in the south at the time. Remember that to most black parents were not thinking in terms of School Integration as essentially putting their kid in proximity with white kids. They were thinking of School Integration as the only way, the only way to make sure their kids got a quality education. That theway to ensure education their kids receive would prepare them for the future. We can argue that parents may have put too much stock in education. That they spent too much time focusing on education, but i understand my own parents and for them, that was the biggest civil rights battle. Even when you talk about adding the right to vote, getting the right to vote was, in part, to make sure one had access to the best education. Let me talk about the inequality. Let me pull up a couple of images. Arkansas children receiving polio shots, 1957. Major debilitating, crippling disease at the time and only in the 19 for these was there a vaccine in the 1950s was there a vaccine to counter polio. What we have is modern technology, at least modern for 1957, and modern medicine being made available, but being made available in a segregated context. Line is the black kids in for their polio shots, in the white kids in line for their polio shots. They are not going into the same room. Photograph because it is so evocative of the divide, the racial divide, in the American South at the time. Let me give you another example. Again, this may be unsettling, but i will show it anyway. This is an example of the inequality. This is the cafeteria for a black school in alabama in 1954. Hostu multiplied this by of other cities, you begin to get the sense of what africanamerican parents and students were up against. Let me repeat this. There was no separate, but equal facility in the south at this time. Every facility that was segregated, if it was for blacks, it was going to be patently inferior. Let me pull up a chart that reflects on this. Numbers. He the average daily pupil expense in all Public Schools in the south in 1950. Look at the difference for whites and blacks. Let me remind you that this is at a time when black students represent depending on the 45 e generally represent of the students in the south at the time. You can see clearly the difference and if you get into the individual states, look at the difference. Look at georgia, but worse, look at mississippi. There is nods, separate, but equal here. Clearly the facilities the africanamericans had were going to be less because the allocations were going to be less. I put up california, new york, and washington in comparison. You will notice right away the area of the country that provides the least for education, the south, provides it significantly less for African Americans. You know, im going to get myself in trouble, but people talk about the achievement gap today. This is the root of the achievement gap. This is where it came from. It came from decades of poor trading in the aftermath of that poor training. By the early 1950s, africanamerican parents in south carolina, virginia, delaware, and the district of columbia initiated a series of lawsuits against segregation that will eventually be under brown v. Board of education. I want to pull up linda brown. She is the key to this. Girl whown was a young resided in topeka, kansas. Topeka, kansas is not the deep south, but kansas maintained a segregated school system. Across town even though she lived two blocks away from a white school. Bussing isabout how used to promote racial integration and that is correct. Used tout bussing being maintain racial segregation . The bus was going in the opposite direction in order to make sure that blacks were in allblack schools. The other thing that is interesting this is by circumstance the famous Supreme Court case became the brown case essentially because oliver brown, the father of linda brown, came first on the alphabetical roll. All of this was lumped under brown. What is interesting about the campaign in topeka is not just that topeka is involved in a lawsuit against integration, the black parents are involved and in favor of desegregation, but that this is not the first lawsuit. The very first lawsuit filed by black parents in topeka, kansas to challenge racial segregation, racially segregated schools, was filed in 1879. In very first was filed 1879. This is long before the naacp existed. The naacp is hardly responsible for it. You going to get into know the rest of the story. The Supreme Court will eventually come to make its decision and that decision is handed down may 17, 1954. That decision is going to be monumental. Legal scholars consider it to be one of the three or four most significant decisions by the Supreme Court. That decision would send shockwaves through american ways, wend, in some are still dealing with that today. In some ways when we talk about, as i said before, the educational gap or segregated 2012, wen seattle in are dealing with the consequence of the brown decision. Immediatek about the brown decision because that was a huge reaction on a part of the white south. The white south let me pull this up. The white south reaction was swift and equally negative. It set the tone for a pattern of resistance to desegregation that would extend i have on the paper for 20 years. I think we can argue it would extend 40 years. Was called the massive resistance campaign. Folks, this is not ancient history for me. I can remember seeing the signs in tennessee and mississippi in the 1960s. The idea of essentially impeaching because of the brown decision was something that was politically popular for a long time. Southern states would pass new laws to prevent integration. Let me give you some examples of these laws. They are almost humorous except for the consequences. Several states gave their governors the power to close schools that were ordered to integrate. Let me repeat that. Several states gave their governors the power to close schools the Court Ordered to integrate. In virginia, the law went like this. A governor can close a school that has been ordered to desegregate by declaring that school inefficient. There were governors that would do so. The grand example of what would happen this is the governor stepping it was Prince Edward 1950 andirginia between 1967. Between 1957 and 1960 there were no publicly operated schools. Between 1957 and 1960 there were no Public Schools operated in the county. All of the white students attended private schools and the blacks who remained in the county many sent them out of the county the black kids who remained received no education at all for three years. I use Prince Edward county on the because i want to give you a sense, and it is hard to imagine in 2012 this reaction, but a sense of what would happen and what did happen after the brown decision. Law to funding a for inefficient schools that were declared racially integrated. What is even more interesting, and in some ways more sinister, is that in the wake of the brown decision new organizations arose that would make it their business to prevent not just the desegregation of schools, but the desegregation of all southern society. Im going to give you a couple of things. One of the names you may be familiar with is the White Citizens Council. I think eric has heard of it. How many hav of you have heard of them . Some of them are called the uptown plan. They were dedicated to the idea of maintaining segregation and were often very powerful people. My personal favorite in terms of these organizations was the National Association for the advancement of white people. [laughter] this was an organization that was created in order to try and stymie racial integration. Perhaps the most sinister of these organizations i should have pulled these up. These are images that reflect the growing opposition to segregation. I love the one of the Woman Holding the sign. Iintegration is a mortal sin. [laughter] that was palpable. I will give you more images in a minute, but i want to talk about this one. This was an organization that was established to try and block not just black segregation in mississippi but try to block any effort to change the racial status quo. How many have heard of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission . Im not surprised. It was a much more Secretive Organization than White Citizens Council and was more sinister than the National Association for the advancement of white people. The mississippi sovereignty Counsel Commission was an organization of very powerful, private citizen. Some of the richest citizens in the state of mississippi plus powerful public figures who secretly belonged to the association. The governor belong to it, other public official secretly , and there are some who argue that it was behind much of the socalled and violence in the 1950s 1960s. The mississippi sovereignty foression came to the because of a woman who has a connection. Rita bender you know her. Her first husband was one of the three People Killed in mississippi in 1964. Go ahead. [indiscernible] prof. Taylor i did not no david duke lived in seattle. This one. Ner. Is michael swer those who lived through the 1960s and 1970s knew his name very well. He and these other two gentlemen were killed by klansmen in mississippi because of their Civil Rights Activity. There was a famous book written called three lives from mississippi. Wife, at theas the and a civilrner rights worker on her own. She always believed this is what i interpret she always believed the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission was behind her husbands death. She continued to investigate and that investigation continued into the 1990s and the first decade of the 20th century. Finally, there have been indictments handed down against some of these people. Not the people who did the killing. Most of them are dead, but against the people who provided, ill, the money, the resources, to create the climate. Rita bender is a hero to me. She is a person who came from the Civil Rights Era and continue the fight long after most of us were no longer interested in that direct civil rights campaign. Let me come back to the national story. Remember i talked about barack obama and the whole relationship to communism. We talked about Joseph Stalin and some of you discussed that on your exam. How the communists got involved in africanamerican civil rights in the 1960s. This is a shadow of this. This is the mirror opposite. When people began to be involved in Civil Rights Activity in the 1950s and 1960s it was very easy for the opposition to say these people are communists. It was easy for the opposition to make the communist argument. This was going to be very powerful and as you can see, Arkansas State law in 1958 [laughter] naacpy knows about the will be hardpressed to imagine they are the capital of the International Coming is conspiracy. Nonetheless, that was the law that was going to be passed in 1958 and for a specific reason. Most of the members in arkansas at the time were schoolteachers, black schoolteachers. This law was seen as a way of making sure that they would no workr be involved in the and with the naacp. Situation is heating up dramatically. I will show you where that tension leads. You can almost see it happening. These are black students turned away from North Little Rock high the famous957 and antiintegration protest in clinton, tennessee in 1956. There was a race riot over the idea of integrating the schools. There is growing tension all over the south. Almost every senator from the south and every congressman from the south signed a petition removal of the brown decision, or the negation of the brown decision. I think this is almost unprecedented. It is hard to imagine a scene where most senators and congressmen from a region are coming together over one issue, but they did at the time. School integration, as far as they were concerned, was a major step toward the destruction of their society and as a result, they were going to do everything they could to stop it. Tot inevitably leads us little rock. Thisnot know if we can do while the cameras are rolling. Im going to ask how much you know about little rock. Steve, tell me what you know. I have been there. Integrate andd to will local authorities eisenhower sent troops, which was a direct intervention of force for the first time. Prof. Taylor a direct intervention of force. Im going to talk about that in a minute. What about the background . What prompted this. . Naacp lawsuit calling for the desegregation of central high, the Major High School in little rock. The lawsuit went to federal court. The federal judge said yes, central high should be desegregated and he ordered the entrance, the allowing of eight young men and women into little rock high. Interestingmes because when these kids show up to go to school, under the federal order, they are turned away by a mob. They show up again, they are turned away by the Arkansas National guard. [laughter] , the governor will stand in the schoolhouse door to prevent these kids from going to school. To prevent these kids from going to little rock Central High School. This is the photograph that has been seen across the world. This is elizabeth. She is one of the eight students. She is surrounded by a mob in the Arkansas National guard we say national guard, but they were under the control of the governor. They are standing by as she is attacked. Every one of the students had to run the gauntlet of hate in order to get to the school. Desegregation was not successful. The federal court order was being defied and it is at this point president eisenhower steps in. There is a back story to that that i will not get into. He felt he had an agreement with the governor. Eisenhower became extremely decided that the federal government has to step in. Not only that, the federal government has to enforce the order so the decision of the and eisenhower says that he is sending in 1100 01stral troops from the 11 airborne. They were the toughest unit in the u. S. Army. The hundred first airborne where 01sttoughest unit 11 airborne with the toughest unit. They were going to be sent to protect those kids in little rock. Not only did they protect them in 1957, federal troops remained in little rock until may of 1958. They remained for the entire year. It made for a bizarre situation. I will give you an example. Lady, or a young man but mostly a young lady, had to go to the bathroom she was required to be escorted by a 1stber of the 10 airborne. When these kids left home every day they were escorted and you can see this. They are riding to school in the army car. They were escorted by troops. When they returned home they were escorted by troops. They did not go anywhere on School Grounds without the 101st airborne. By our standards that seems like hyperbole, like eisenhower is exaggerating the situation. If you can imagine the anger in little rock at the time, you know this was no exaggeration. One of the things i learned later on when i was interviewing a man who had served with the 101st who rose to the rank of colonel, he was angry about what happened. Not for the reasons you might imagine. He was angry because when eisenhower sent them to little tok he also issued an order say that only whites troops would be sent. Went,icanamerican troops that might provoke the mob even more. My friend i interviewed his he wass sam kelly angry about that. He was angry about that for years, because he felt that as a member of the u. S. Military, as an officer, he should go along enforce theops to desegregation. It did not happen. Who knows . Maybe eisenhower was right. Maybe sending blacks as part of the 101st airborne would increase tension and led to more violence. But the fact eisenhower would make a decision like that is reflective of the kinds of situations that emerged in little rock at the time. Little rock was a crisis. No question about it. It was a crisis that is going to be followed on national tv every single day you could go home and see on the 6 00 news those soldiers guarding the dudes. The students. One of the reasons eisenhower was because ifst he did not, this would be propaganda for the soviets. The soviets were following this, people in germany, people in france, people in great britain, people around the world were very much interested in and someone say invested in the little rock crisis. They wanted to know what the u. S. Government was going to do to ensure justice in the south and in Central High School. I bring this up for an important reason. I hinted at it before, but i think it is something we need to understand. Ii this probably started the scottsboro issues surrounding civil rights were no longer the exclusive purview of the u. S. The world became involved. The world became interested in the world commented on it. The story from little rock were going to be headline stories in london papers, paris papers, and other papers around the world. As eisenhower said im not using my words eisenhower said we have got to deal with little rock because it is giving us a black eye abroad. Eisenhower was not necessarily in favor of School Integration. [laughter] he was a product of his time and he expressed a lot concerns about black kids and white kids sitting in the same classroom. He was also the president of the United States and he felt he had a responsibility, and he did have a responsibility, to enforce the supreme Court Decision. The die was cast. The troops were going to be sent to defend the rights of his black kids in the south. Little rock is significant for a couple of reasons. Let me list them quickly. First, little rock is significant because it proves the 1954 brown decision is the law of the land. It proves that that decision means that those who oppose desegregation are now on the wrong side of the law. Before 1954, segregation was legal. Before 1954, segregation was legal and legal in some 20 states and not all of them in the deep south. After 1954, after the brown decision, segregation is no longer legal. Segregation and those who promoted or embraced segregation were violating the law. This was a very Important Message sent to the people on both sides of this issue. For the first time in u. S. History, the law favored integration rather than segregation. Secondly, eisenhower set a precedent with the use of federal troops. This would happen again and again and again. Maybe it had to happen because for the potential for violence, but the fact that it did happen met the federal government was committing its resources, including its most militant resources, in order to defend black rights. This was a lesson not loved on africanamericans or on the segregationists. Thirdly, the 1954 decision and the little rock crisis itself left gaping holes in the wall of segregation. We have been talking about chipping away at that wall the beginning of the class. I am not going to suggest to you that wall fell in 9054 or 1957 by the 1960s, but i am going to say the foundation was, for the first time, significantly weakened. Led, especially the little rock crisis, to the realization that the battle for civil rights could go only so far in the courts. Now it would have to take place in the streets. Now it would take place in the streets. I think that is a good point for us to break. We will take five minutes and then regroup and i will talk about the battle in the street. We will talk about the sit ins that began in the early 1960s. Ok. We are going to get started. Mib film . Am i being filmed . [laughter] what we are suggesting is that ordinary people were going to be crucial in the Civil Rights Movement. You see this in a host of ways. You have seen it in terms of the civil rights cases that bubble up from the bottom to the top. Cases that challenge the conventions of race in American Society and i think you also see it in terms of crises like little rock. These are kids. These are High School Kids and some can argue these were kids who were pulled into a vortex of politics and they really were. Ot significant instruments one could argue these kids understood that they were making history. They understood they were part of a challenge, in much larger challenge, of racial segregation. Yes, it is about going to a particular high school. It is about integrating a high school, but it is about much more than that. It is seeing to it there is Racial Justice all over the country. The said before the break little rock crisis was the last major crisis in the 1950s certainly the last one we are going to address. Significantbenefi because it grew out of the legal attempt to try and challenge segregation. 1960s there will be new forms of protest, new forms of challenge, and what i am speaking about are the sit ins and the demonstrations that accompany those. The idea of ordinary people e. Comes unequivocabl folks would engage in thousands of demonstrations across the south strike that all over the country because there is going to be one in seattle as some of you know. It is those ordinary people who are going to say, we want justice and we are willing to take to the streets to bring about that justice. Let me talk about the sit ins. Let me talk about why they took place in the early 1960s and how that would lead to this nationwide campaign to challenge segregation and Racial Discrimination. By 1960, the overall civil rights gains of the last six years were recognized by a number of people, but especially by black students and black students in the south. They had seen segregation outlawed in Public Schools. They had seen the little rock situation where federal troops came in to defend the rights of black children, but they also saw in 9057 and this came out of little rock 1957 the passing of the civil rights bill. That civil rights bill was very weak. As we look back on it now the major thing that came out of the civil rights bill was the u. S. Civil Rights Commission which is still limping along. Bill57, that civil rights was the first bill of its kind to be passed by the u. S. Congress since 1875. Think about that. Finally, congress was beginning to act on the rights of blacks and other people of color throughout the country. Those students in success ofad saw the Martin Luther king. We do not have time to talk about the montgomery bus boycott, but the boycott was a prime example of ordinary people. You know the story of rosa parks and she was a brave woman and there are monuments to her all over the country. What you probably do not know is the rest of the story. Act parks her symbolic could not have been successful had it not been sustained by thousands of black folks in montgomery, alabama who chose to walk rather than ride. They did so for well over a year despite the fact these were the people who depended on Public Transportation. They decided they were not going to use that transportation because they were segregated and they were marginalized by the Public Transportation system. To make it very plain they wanted dignity. They wanted dignity and they decided they would not ride in order to gain that dignity. Students had seen the victories. They had seen the changes taking place in the south at the time. They had seen ordinary people involved in these victories. Ordinary people challenging the status quo, but what they also saw in 1960 was essentially a wall of segregation that even though it had gaping holes was Still Standing and some would say proudly standing. Let me give you examples. Lic schoolb segregation in 1954. There is the 1954 decision that makes this illegal. Here is the reality. 92 of the black children in the south still remained in segregated schools. Despite the supreme Court Decision that outlawed segregation 92 of kids in the south, in these states, still went to segregated schools. To put it more directly what you see in this room today, what you see in this room today, would have been illegal or would not have been allowed in a host of schools and a host of states even as late as 1960 despite the supreme Court Decision. These College Students recognized there is a contradiction. On one hand there is a supreme Court Decision and on the other there is the reality that segregation is very much alive. Students by 1960 these also recognized that 65 of the eligible black voters were not allowed to vote. 65 of south eligible black voters were not allowed to vote. Folks, that included my parents. In 1960, my parents were in their 40s and had never voted. Some would assume they never would. That would change for them, and it would change for a lot of black folks, but i want you to see the figures. 76 in the it is mississippi 99 . 99 of the black folks eligible to vote were not allowed to vote in the state of mississippi. This was the reality. This was the reality these students saw in 1960. Thirdly, there were thousands, thousands of private businesses and public accommodations across the south that either barred blacks altogether or segregated them. Again, the reality. I keep becoming personal. I remember these signs. I remember growing up with these signs. They were on businesses throughout brownsville, tennessee and i suspect they were on businesses throughout the south of the time, and even outside of the south. Restaurants, hotels, Department Stores, public parks all segregated. Let me give you a sign i remember seeing. Brownsville and this was a big city. Sort of like olympia and seattle. You go to the big city for various recreation. I would say every three months the kids for my school would be put on a bus and we would go to memphis to the zoo. It was a great experience for kids. You go in see the animals, but the zoo was segregated. Every thursday, this sign was put out. No whites were allowed in the overton park zoo because this was negro day. This was the only day that africanamericans were allowed to go to the zoo. Day was for swimming pools, for Department Stores, we could only go to the Department Stores and try and close on thursday which was negro shopping day. That was the way of the world at the time. That was the nature of segregation and that is the situation that those africanamerican students recognized at the time. I think this is a poignant description of segregation in 1960. I will give you a minute so you can read it. The question has always been raised why 1960 . Would students in the south begin to challenge segregation at that particular moment . All, that question is based upon an incorrect premise. It did not start in 1960. There have been situations or developments that had taken place earlier that would lead up to this as well. You could argue the entire africanAmerican History class i have been telling you about would lead up to this, but there were certain episodes that would lead to this and i want to mention a couple. One of the ones i am going to at the is an episode university of new mexico in 1948. This is not in your history book. This is not in either of the books you are reading. Mexicoversity of new itself was not segregated and had a handful of black students including george long. George long was undergraduate student and would become a law student and practices in oakland. That is a side story, but george at thes a 19yearold university of new mexico in 1948 and he could not go to the favorite watering hole for the students which was across the street from the campus. That watering hole was oklahoma joes. It was considered the best place in the albuquerque for College Students. I do not know if you have watering holes anymore. [laughter] this was a great place for College Students to hang out except if you were black. George long decided to challenge this and not only did he challenge this, but he got the associated students at the university of new mexico to join in the challenge. To vote tod them pass a resolution calling for all university of new mexico students to boycott oklahoma joes. This was remarkable. These were mostly white students who said, this kind of racial practice is wrong and that boycott was so successful that not only was oklahoma joes integrated, but long became the architect of a campaign to get a civil rights ordinance passed for albuquerque, new mexico. He did this while he was still in undergraduate school and while he was in law school he helped draft the legislation that would become the new mexico Civil Rights Act. The new mexico Civil Rights Act was passed in 1955. What makes this interesting is that some of the legal language of the new mexico act would eventually be integrated into the 1964 Civil Rights Act that would govern the entire country. My point is that george long, and ordinary College Student, would begin a protest that would have ramifications far beyond new mexico. Far beyond albuquerque, far beyond the campus of the university of new mexico at the time, but long is not the only one involved. Let me give you another example. Civil rights demonstrations in Oklahoma City, oklahoma 1958. Those demonstrations were going to be led there were two sets of demonstrations. I do not have a picture for wichita, but there were some in wichita, kansas and Oklahoma City, oklahoma. Those in wichita were led by 21yearold College Student ron walters. The civil rights demonstrations in Oklahoma City in 1958 were led by 16yearold High School Student barbara posey. People. Maybe Extraordinary People who, up until that point, lead ordinary lives. Understandhave to that the protests in new mexico, in oklahoma, in wichita, did not catch on. They did not grow as would be the case after greensboro in 1960. Reason, wefor that do not know much about them. For that reason, they do not stand out strip of as much. Stand out in history books as much. By 1960, the protests would begin at this time they would continue. They would grow and they would spread and they would continue and eventually they would transform america. Reasons or about the background for those protests that began in 1960. First of all, there are a host of College Students, white College Students, but even more important young black College Students who are going to school partly because their parents had made money during world war ii. We talked about the rising tide of prosperity for africanamericans in the second world war. That rising tide of prosperity means a lot more young black kids would go to college. An emerging black middleclass will send a huge wave of students to college. Unlike the earlier black College Students there had always been some black College Students but unlike earlier students who had mostly come from dire poverty these kids were upwardly mobile. These kids believed they had a future and they believed if they could get rid of segregation, that future would be even brighter. Them,em, segregation, for Racial Injustice stood in the way of their own economic progress and growth and their full participation in American Society. For them, it was very important to challenge the system. I am going to Say Something and get myself in trouble again. [laughter] i think a lot of africanamericans, and particularly young africanamericans, have lost that. I think they have come to the false conclusion that the situation is so bad that it is just as bad as it was and thats a shame. Because one of the things that was very important for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was this sense that one could change the world. As a matter of fact, its almost an arrogance on the part of these people in terms of believing that they could change the world. Ill come back to that in a minute. But that optimism is very important. These were kids who felt that they really could these were College Students who felt they really could change the world. Secondly, these students did not understand, and they were often impatient with the legalistic approach of the naacp. And the naacp for them, essentially was their elders. They wanted to do something. They wanted to do something dramatic, and they wanted to do something now in order to challenge segregation. You guys do you know where that is . Anybody know . [inaudible] yeah, the university of washington, its 15th. This is theoretically, this is a sympathy demonstration. In other words, these are College Students at the university, black and white College Students at the university of washington, supporting whats going on in nashville. And ill pull up another one here. Heres another one. This is another demonstration in seattle in 1960. A support demonstration. But i can tell you, although this is not part of the main lecture tonight, by 1961, these students will be in the streets, not protesting or not supporting whats going on in nashville in terms of those protests. They will be in the streets protesting Racial Discrimination in seattle. Okay . [laughter] but in 1960, theyre still at the lets see if i can go back. In 1960, theyre still at the sympathy demonstration stage. That will change. That will change, and it will change dramatically. But the point here is that these young people, whether theyre in seattle or whether theyre in selma, they understand that something is wrong. They understand that Racial Injustice is rampant. And they want to do something. They want to employ the direct action approach of Martin Luther king and others in order to challenge racial segregation. Again, i dont want to put people on the spot here. I mean, often when i talk about how these students these ordinary students were going to engage in Civil Rights Activity, theres kind of a the unspoken word that somehow or another im castigating or criticizing Young Students for the lack of activism now. Im not, okay . Im not. But what i am saying is that there is a particular moment there is a particular moment in history when, if you will, the stars line up, its an overworked cliche, but the stars line up, and those students were in the middle of the constellation. Those Young Students, students who were no older than those of you in this room, were in the middle of those stars lining up at that moment. But there are other factors. And let me talk about those other factors. Theres a president ial Campaign Going on in 1960. And actually, in early 1960, in february of 1960, there are president ial primaries, and there is an intense guess what, there is an intense battle going on in the Democratic Party to see who is going to get the nomination. The two leading candidates at that time on the democratic side were the senator from minnesota, hubert humphrey, who had a long civil rights record, and young senator from massachusetts, named john kennedy, who hadnt had as much of a civil rights record. But they were going to do battle, and they were going to engage in rhetoric. As john kennedy does here with Adam Clayton Powell and Eleanor Roosevelt in harlem. They were going to talk about what they would do to promote civil rights. Now, as we look back on their words now, as we look back at the transcript of their speeches, they really werent making much of a commitment. But the students saw an identification with their cause. The students saw these president ial candidates as saying, we are with you. We want to try to change america. We want to challenge Racial Injustice in American Society, just like you do. And this was heartening to the students. Or at least students took this as heartening. And they said, this is another reason why we should go forward with our Civil Rights Activity. In other words, there is something out there. There is this sense, this tangible sense, that this atmosphere, as it were, that says that political leaders or at least the political leaders in the Democratic Party, are in favor of civil rights. And as a result, they the students should move forward. But there is Something Else. In the late 1950s and through the early 1960s, country after country after country was becoming independent. These countries were sometimes involved in violent struggle. More often, they were involved in nonviolent struggle, the kind of nonviolent struggle that africanamerican students would be engaged in. And the political leaders like kwame emkruma in ghana or benjamin azeke way were heroes, because these men almost all men, very few women involved but these were men leading their nations to independence. And the assumption was before african corruption rose, the assumption was that once these nations become independent, they will be democratic, they will show the way. They will show that black people can participate in the political process. They will change the world dynamic. That was the hope. And i can say this, because i was one of those people who naively had that hope. I was okay, ill just go on record here. I was proud of every new africanamerican nation. I was excited every time a new flag went up showing that there was a new african nation, because i identified with that. And i said that this was going to be part of the freedom struggle. Because they are engaged in a struggle for freedom. And they are successful. And others ought to be. Others in the United States ought to be and will be engaged in that same struggle. There is one other thing i should mention, because i dont want to take too much time on this. But there is what i call the arrogance of youth. The very beginning of the baby boom generation. Now, they the people who took place excuse me. The people who took part in civil rights demonstrations in 1960 were really unless they were you know, 14 or 15, they really werent technically part of the baby boom generation. But just wait for a couple of years. As more and more of these young people came of age, those people would become participants in civil rights struggles. And you know, its hard to sort of explain now, but there was a particular arrogance, and im speaking of myself and my own generation now, so im indicting myself, guys. But there was a particular arrogance on the part of that generation, of my generation. We really did believe we were going to change the world. We really did believe that we could do anything. And we really were impatient with the Political Leadership that had come before us. We knew that we would do better. We were wrong. [laughter] as everybody has figured out at this point. But at that moment, we really believed that we would do better. I am going to go so far as to suggest that i believe that some of you may feel the same way. Okay. Dont answer that. [laughter] dont answer that at all. But the point here is that in the 1960s, there were a lot of young people there were just a lot of young people, okay, more young people than there had been in the past because of the baby boom generation. And its the very numbers, the sheer numbers of the people that created this sense, important factor in terms of Civil Rights Activity. There were young and eager and energetic and this dynamism would change america for the better. We were young and eager and active and energetic. We all got older and we got cynical. But that is the way we looked at the world in the 1960s. And that becomes a very important factor in terms of Civil Rights Activity and in terms of those young people coming into those demonstrations. Let me shift here to the demonstrations themselves. And let me go back to the very first one, the father of them all, which was the greensboro sitin, in 1960. The sitin at woolworths at greensboro, North Carolina in 1960. How many of you have heard of this sitin before this class, honestly . Okay. Most of you. Most of you. This is considered the red letter date, one of the red letter dates in the Civil Rights Movement. Ill list those men, because im going to list their names in a minute. But i want to again again, i want to provide a context for you to understand what happened. Ordinary people. Very ordinary people. These are four College Students. They were College Students at North Carolina agricultural and Technical University in greensboro, North Carolina. They werent the brightest students, they werent the best students. They shared a couple dormitory rooms. And they would get together for these okay. Im trying to look for a better word than well, okay, ill just say it on national tv. They got together for bull sessions. Have you guys ever heard of a bull session . Okay. Some of us are old enough to remember this. Essentially, students those students get together in their dormitory no, you guys go on facebook now. But before there was facebook, people actually got together, and they sat down, and they talked about life and issues and what they were going to do, what their futures were going to be. In this instance, these students talked about racial segregation. They talked about all those other things, but they also said, you know, we dont like the fact that woolworths and other schools excuse me, other stores, in downtown greensboro, are segregated. A lot of people said before, we dont like that there they are segregated. This time, they decided to do something about it. There is no grand strategy, okay . These guys arent a member of some kind of organization, okay . These are just plain College Students who decide were going to do something, were going to engage in a protest that will challenge racial segregation. Just a side note. At the time i dont know if this is a major factor. But at the time, the student body president was jesse jackson. Okay . [laughter] but they were they were all kids who said, we want to do something. They were freshmen. They were freshmen. So they were just barely in the school. But they knew they wanted to do something about the situation. So on february 1, 1960, these four college freshmen, ezel blair, joseph mcneil, David Richmond and Franklin Mccain decided after a conversation in the dormitory room the night before that they not only did not like the fact that woolworths was segregated, but they were going to do something about it. And is so they walked they didnt even march, they walked down to woolworths the next day, and they decided to stage a sitin. And i dont know where they got the idea of the sitin. There had been sitins before, but they decided, this is a way of nonviolently protesting the segregation of the woolworths store. They walked in, and they had no idea what they were going to expect. They had no idea what greeting was going to meet them. They sat at the stools, and, of course, heres the problem. According to the segregationist ordinances, black folks are not supposed to come in and sit at the lunch counter. Theyre supposed to come and give an order and then get whatever they get and leave. Usually at a back door. But these kids decided they were going to come and they were going to sit at the lunch counter. They did. And at first and ill show you how ironic this is. At first, the black counter person yes, there were black people working at woolworths. The black counter person said, look, you guys get out of here. If you dont get out of here, youre going to cost me my job, because the counterperson, his responsibility was to serve whites. He understood if they were being served and if he was seen as somehow being involved in this, then he would lose his position. So they said, were not here to harm you, were not here to challenge you. We are here for justice, whatever the term was at that time that they used. And they just sat. And they werent served. And they continued to sit. And they werent served. And an hour turned into two hours. And finally, one of the people, mccain, said maybe they cant do anything to us. Im going to use his direct quote. Maybe they cant do anything to us. Maybe we can keep this up. And they just sat there until woolworths closed until 5 00 that evening. Thats the beginning of the movement. Its as simple as that. They thought they were going to be arrested. The manager thought contemplated having them arrested. There were cops that came outside. But nobody moved against them. Nobody attempted to arrest them. Nobody attempted to attack them at that particular point. At that point, they went back to their dormitory rooms, confident they had actually won a victory. That they had actually gone in, they had protested, they hadnt been served, but they had managed to protest without getting arrested. And so what happens the next day . They bring friends. [laughter] they bring a lot of friends. Okay . And these friends sit. And then for the next couple of days, other friends come. And the protest continues. And after a fashion, the manager says, serve them, im losing money. This you know, i dont want to sound sort of trite about this, but this is this is how ordinary the situation was. A group of people who got together and said, were going to challenge racial segregation. They didnt have any grand scheme or plan or strategy. They just decided to do it. And it resonated. It caught on. And essentially, once it was declared successful in greensboro, then, of course, other College Students began to join in. The movement spread to raleigh, it spread to durham. Im particularly aware of raleigh, because one of the schools that was the earliest participant in these demonstrations was st. Augustens college. Thats my old college. I wasnt there. I was still in brownsville at the time. I was young. But essentially, students were my campus from that campus participated in protests. Students at Shaw University participated in protests. And then much to the surprise of a lot of folks, students from Duke University joined in the protest. Now all of a sudden there are integrated groups who are sitting in. And they are breaking down this wall of segregation in the cities across North Carolina. The protest spread across almost every town, every city in North Carolina. What they had colleges, they had black colleges, at least, and by the end of february remember, the first demonstration was february 1. By the end of february february 28th that was a leap year. February 29th. By february 29th, every major city in North Carolina had seen its public facilities desegregated. This was a major victory. An un a surprising victory. An unexpected victory. Now, thats not to mean that Racial Discrimination ended in North Carolina. Im not suggesting that at all. What i am suggesting, is that the sitins had initially at least been successful. The sitins had done what they had intended to do, and that was the focused attention on segregated public facilities. Once the success came to North Carolina, it began to spread across the south. It spread to atlanta, it spread to richmond, it spread to nashville. Atlanta the atlanta sitins were led by a 20yearold College Student named julian bond. How many of you heard of julian bond . Okay. Julia bond is still an activist thats not julian bond. Those are some other folks. But essentially, College Students College Students would decide to get involved in this. Ill explain this photograph. These are the kids from nashville i shouldnt call them kids. These are the College Students from nashville. And they were led by a remarkable woman named diane nash. And i wish we had more time to talk about her. She was, again, one of those ordinary students, an ordinary College Student, who becomes extraordinary. She is one of the leaders. This is not in the script, so she becomes one of the leaders of the freedom rides. She becomes so important that she literally defies the federal government and continues the freedom rides when the Kennedy Administration wants to shut them down. And Robert Kennedy asks famously, who the hell is diane nash . Because she has because she has effectively defied the federal government and continues to lead the demonstrations. [laughter] and eventually, there will be the integration of the buses. Thats another story. I dont have time for that. But thats another story. But thats an idea thats an example, i should say, of whats going on at this particular time. Let me give you the stats. By march 14th, 1960 by march 14th, there were 17 separate demonstrations or sitins in atlanta alone involving over 1,000 students. Yes, this is a movement. Yes, these are students. These are ordinary people who are getting engaged in these kinds of protests. I love this photograph on the left. You guys should never complain again about taking an exam or studying for an exam. These are kids who are studying for their midterm while theyre in jail, okay . And what theyre saying is that our freedom is as important as our education. Our freedom is as important as our education. All the man on the right, reverend james lawson, is one of the leaders, hes one of the older leaders of the sitins spreading out across nashville. By june, 1960 now, remember, were talking february to june. By june, 1960, sitins and other demonstrations had occurred in 112 cities across the south. That is, from virginia to the texas border. From virginia to the texas border. The first demonstrations came in houston in the summer, later in june, 1960. And ill tell you how they came about. Sort of humorous. Lyndon johnson, the Vice President well, yeah hes just recently inaugurated as the Vice President , lyndon johnson, when asked about the civil rights demonstration sweeping across the south, says that, yeah, i dont understand whats going on, but what i do know is that our students or our kids in texas are not stupid enough to get wrapped up in these kinds of civil rights demonstrations. The next day, the first demonstration was in houston. Okay . [laughter] in other words, over and over and over again, students are going to take to the streets. Theyre going to challenge racial segregation. Ill give you another footnote here, too. The person who covered the first civil rights demonstration in houston, texas, the first sitin, in houston, texas, was a young reporter from east texas who would eventually come to identify with the movement. That reporters name was dan rather. Dan rather. This is a like i said before, this is a movement that is sweeping fast. Indeed, its sweeping across the south so fast, so very fast, that the elder civil rights leaders, the people in the naacp especially, are becoming concerned, or maybe i should use the term alarmed. In other words and its not simply the fact that the elders dont like the fact that all these young people are doing this stuff. Its the fact that the elders also understand that when these kids go to jail, naacp funds are used to bail them out. So there is a draw or a drain on naacp resources. As a consequence of this, the naacp, along with scoc, the other Civil Rights Organization of Martin Luther king, decided they had better try to get control over these students. They had better try to organize these students and orchestrate these students and lead these students, rather than have these civil rights demonstrations take place, you know, sort of ad hoc all across the south. So a conference was called in raleigh, North Carolina. At Shaw University. In 1960. In april of 1960. And the consequence of this threeday conference was a new organization, an organization of these young people, an organization thats supposed to represent these young people. And that organization was going to be called the student nonviolent coordinating committee, or sncc. The student nonviolent coordinating committee. Let me explain these two people. You may know them. Ella baker was the naacp leader, the elder who was given the responsibility for organizing sncc. She was one of the few elders that the students trusted. And marion berry was the first chair of sncc. [laughter] how many of you know who marion berry is . Ooh. You probably know him in a different context, dont you . I didnt say civil rights leaders were infallible. They were brave. And marion berry in 1960 was brave. He, like a lot of student leaders, and im not recommending this, im not suggesting this, he dropped out of school in order to become a fulltime participant in the movement. But he would lead sncc in his early days. And i think he would be a very vibrant and dynamic leader. Let me talk about sncc for a minute. This is how sncc differed from the other organizations. First of all, sncc was committed to the tactics, but not the philosophy of nonviolence. Sncc was committed to the tactics, but not the philosophy of nonviolence. This was a reference to Martin Luther king. Remember, king had always talked about how nonviolence was going to transform america, that it was not just a tactic for him, it was a way of life. The sncc people said, no to that. Eventually the sncc people would have great disdain for Martin Luther king for a whole host of reasons i wont go into now. But the sncc people always said that nonviolence is a tactic to be used in the struggle. Its not a philosophy that we embrace. Secondly, the sncc people argued that confrontation brings more results than closeddoor negotiations. Again, this was a slap at the naacp and scoc. One of the things that would happen often is that scoc and maybe i should talk about scoc. Southern christian Leadership Conference. This essentially was the organization of Martin Luther king. After Martin Luther king led the successful boycott in montgomery, some people suggested that he ought to have an organization, that there ought to be an organization that forms around him. And essentially, this is a southern christian Leadership Conference became his organization. He was the head of it for most of the well, all of his life. And people gravitated toward it. Mostly minsteres gravitated toward it because of their respect for king. But sclc had a particular idea about the Civil Rights Movement. As i said before, they had this idea they were going to completely transform American Society, and sncc didnt buy it. Sncc didnt buy into that, and one of the things that sncc was critical of, was sclc would come in organize public , demonstrations and then almost immediately after the public demonstrations would begin, they would go behind closed doors and negotiate a settlement. Sncc said no to that. Sncc said, we are going to confront racism where it is, we are not going to negotiate with anybody. Were going to fight until we win this particular campaign. Thirdly, sncc saw its role, or the sncc leadership saw their role as assisting local leaders rather than dominating a local campaign. Again, a contrast for Martin Luther king. With marlin Martin Luther king, there is a local Campaign Going on and local leaders would ask him to come in. He and sncc will fly in, and they will take over the movement. They will make all of the decisions. The sncc people were just the opposite. They were very, very quiet. They didnt put themselves in front of the tv cameras. They said that our job is to help local leadership develop and to help local leadership achieve its goals. Im going to give you one example of this. And its actually its a local example. Tent city in Fayette County, tennessee. You know, i told you i grew up in brownsville. Fayette county, tennessee is the next county over. Both Haywood County and Fayette County experienced rampant voter intimidation. Remember, i said earlier that my parents hadnt voted in 1960 . They had never voted . The reason they had never voted was because the last person who attempted to organize black voters in Haywood County, tennessee in 1940 was lynched. Its that simple. The last person was lynched. And his body was dismembered, and it was thrown into the Tallahatchie River and, eventually it was discovered and it was horrific. What was fished up was horrific. And it was designed to well, it was designed to make a statement. Is and that statement was if you attempt to vote, you will lose your life. And so it seemed then that that was going to hold except by 1960, theres a new generation of people coming along, and theyre going to try again. Theyre going to try to vote. And most of these folks were sharecroppers. Again, ordinary people. But these were sharecroppers who said, we want the right to vote. And unfortunately, if youre a sharecropper and you try to vote in Haywood County or Fayette County, tennessee, the landowner can come in and say, you know, get off my land. If you want to try to vote, youre not going to work here. Youre not going to be a sharecropper any longer. And at that point, about three black landowners, two in Haywood County, one in Fayette County, at considerable risk to themselves, allowed these sharecroppers who had been kicked off the various properties to come and build or establish tent cities on their properties. The leaders of this effort i shouldnt say the leaders, the people who assisted the folks in Fayette County and Haywood County, were sncc people. Including a guy named haroyd brown, who eventually in the late 1960s became known to the world as h. Rap brown. By the late 1960s, he was a guy who wanted to kill everybody. In 1961, haroyd brown was a guy who dropped out of college and came to brownsville, tennessee or came to the area surrounding brownsville, tennessee and risked his life to help develop the leadership that would help get my parents and other people the right to vote. So this is this is sncc. This is what they do. This is what theyre about. And they want, and they will, challenge the system. And not just the system of racial segregation. They will also challenge the elite status, if you will, of the other Civil Rights Organization. Or what they call the timidity of the other Civil Rights Organizations. Fourthly, finally, sncc seriously commits itself to voter registration. And we see what reflected in what happens in brownsville and also reflected in what happens in mississippi. They be the organization that goes into the heart of mississippi, and they will they will help blacks register to vote. As a matter of fact, let me pull up bob moses. I dont know how many of you guys are familiar with bob moses. Steve is shaking his head in affirmation. Bob moses is legendary among civil rights figures. He was the leader of the sncc registration efforts in mississippi. First of all, hes extremely brave to do that. Extremely brave to do that, given what happens in mississippi. Given the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and all of the rest that we talked about. Moses was a kind and gentle and almost angelic figure. Ive only heard him speak once. And even now, even years later, he barely speaks above a whisper. And that was the way in which he was he was able to organize a whole host of people or help local people organize, like you see here. Hes working with cleve jordan, civil rights leader. Bob moses is there to assist cleve jordan. Bob moses is also at 25, the old man of sncc. At 25, he is the oldest person involved in sncc at that time. Again, ordinary people. And young, very, very young. Whatss talk about going on here. Has founded the civil rights demonstrations sweeping across the south. One would imagine there is a great deal of progress. And the race. There is no question there are some places being challenged. Some segregationist institutions being challenged. But there are also places like albany, georgia, where the local sheriff outsmarted Martin Luther king and the demonstrators and as a result, they didnt get what they wanted. In other words, talk about the successes like birmingham. We also need to remember that there were failures. Places where civil rights ministrations did not work. I think there was Something Else going on. It was not that sometimes they failed. It is the very ubiquity of the demonstrations themselves. Let me give you some figures. I think you will see both the prospect and the problems. 1963, there had been over 2007 rights demonstrations across the south. 1963 there had been over 2000 civil rights demonstrations across the south. 1963 an estimated 100 50,000 people have been involved in civil rights demonstrations. Talk about a grassroots movement. By 1963, 10 have been arrested. 10,000 people have been arrested. By 1960 300s of people were injured or beaten by mobs and the police. In other words, it is hard to know. By the best estimate of the civil rights leadership, the organizations, at least 17 people have been killed because of their activity in civil rights demonstrations between 1960 and 1962. In other words, this was slow progress. This was very, very slow progress. A number of people were becoming upset. And number of people were becoming impatient. These are the freedom rights. I dont know how much i want to say. Assessment byhis all of these activists is that, as one said, if we continue at this rate, if we continue at this rate it will take until 1980 before all of the south is desegregated. If we continue at this rate it will take until 1980 before all of the south is integrated. Some people began to talk about doing something, doing Something Big to try to focus National Attention on the civil rights campaigns. To move away going from the script for a minute. Images thatyou some reflect on the civil rights campaigns. They are very poignant images. Are youngn, there people and then sit instant, young people and all people who decide to test what is already a law. The law of interstate travel that says that anybody who travels across the south or anywhere can use the bus facilities. That is supposed to be the law. Ridethey attempt a freedom that begins in washington dc and is supposed to and in the world ends as they get further to the south lets see if i can get back to. Wrong way. You can see the line. As they get farther into the south, more and more violence takes place and finally the buses burn outside anniston, alabama. Point, the freedom rides become a national crisis. I think what i will do is give au, i will put on reserve documentary on freedom rights. I dont have enough time now. It is a very powerful story and, in fact, there are people from up here, the Pacific Northwest went down to participate. Whites went down to join blacks on those buses. It was a scary situation because there was a tremendous amount of violence that was going to be met it out. They never made it. They got as far as jackson, mississippi where they were all inown, not in jail, but penitentiary. That is hard time, guys. That is really, really hard time. At any rate, i point here is that all of these activities were going on. Rides,0 cities, freedom it is the voter campaign, the city and to try to open up the lunch facilities and other facilities. All of this is going on and is heroic. But is it enough . Is it enough . Thee get further into 1960s realize that there is no national change or action at the national level. Again, im going to go through a group of slides here. Im going to share with you some slides. This is jackson mississippi, 1963. This is towards the end of the movement, as you can see the violence. The violence that is involved here. Birmingham, alabama. Everyone in this room has probably heard of birmingham. You know about the violence in firming hand. You know what would happen in 1963. Thousands, not hundreds, thousands of people would be arrested. Many of them will be children. The fire hoses, the famous fire hoses be turned on people. Wasourse, the worst of this , if you want to call it that, the worst of this was the four little girls who were bombed at septemberchool in 1963. This was birmingham. The man who orchestrated much of this is bull connor. Bull connor was the guy who went after Eleanor Roosevelt in 1937. He is still the head of police. Dont have a chief position. He is called the commissioner of public safety. Interesting phrase. He is also the person who is responsible for castrating violence throughout northern alabama. Not just in birmingham. In the early 1960s. Of course, there is meg rivers who was assassinated. Made grabbers, who was assassinated. Mostgrabbers was the important naacp leader in mississippi. I want to end the discussion by what i think is a poignant letter. A letter from mississippi in 1964 and by a young lady who i believe, im not certain, but i believe is from seattle. The number of white College Students and black College Students went from the Pacific Northwest down to mississippi, down to other areas of the south to try to challenge racial segregation. This is a letter from bonnie. Wherever she is from, it is important are the words here. This explains why she gets involved and why others should get involved in the civil rights campaign. I will end the class, i will wrap up the class by allowing you to read that letter. I think that letter says volumes about why people would no longer accept the status quo. Why they would decide to get involved. , like the four students at greensboro and all of the other people weve been talking about our ordinary people. Otherwise ordinary people who decide to challenge the racial status quo. That is the genius. That is the genius of the Civil Rights Movement of that particular time. We will stop it at this point here. I dont know if im supposed to Say Something official than that. Ok. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] bucks this is American History tv on cspan3, for each weekend we feature programs exploring our nations past. The cspan cities stewart travels the country, exploring the american story. We have been to more than 200 communities across the nation. Like many americans, our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. Next, a look at one of our city stewart visits