Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Martin Luther Kin

Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Martin Luther King Robert Kennedy Civil Rights 20240707



all right. so again try to listen up and we'll talk a little bit about it. see what you remember from the we are on the moon for our liberation. we have been tired of trying to prove things to like people we are tired of trying to explain to why people that we're not going to hurt them. we are concerned with getting the things we want the things that we have to have to be able to function by 1967. the freedom movement was changing course across the nation black men and women struggle for control of their lives. develop box on the street in the schools at the call for power challenge. they established relationship between blacks and whites in america. okay, so that's just a little review of where we were last week with the documentary from eyes and the prize looking at black power stokely carmichael provides a really great introduction and what purpose of black power is how it folds into this. part is really fold into the civil rights movement at the stage. so the years after the passage of the civil rights act the voting rights act as is demonstrated in what we've covered so far. was a time of racial reckoning comparable to the years after the civil after the civil war civil rights legislation, as you know, dismantled legally mandated systems segregation laws in this franchisement in the south and broadened federal protections of citizenship rights. black power represented the broad-based struggle of african-americans to define the meaning of freedom in a country where structures of racial inequality and injustice remained deeply rooted. so this site and this is most glaring in northern areas this sense of racial inequality being deeply systemic and rooted in history and society. in northern areas by 1960 nearly half of african-americans lived in northern and western urban areas and cities as we've discussed in class really across the term the migration of black americans in the south to cities in the north and west from world war one roughly up through the 1950s transformed america's racial landscape. while many left the south seeking freedom and and freedom from the terror and repression of jim crow, they faced widespread discrimination resulting in overcrowded segregated neighborhoods with substandard housing inferior schools and limited job opportunities. for many there was a feeling of no way out now in this slide as you recall, you know when we're doing the early 60s, we read an article by gertrude samuels a freelance report who visited five cities in 1963 in the spring of 1963 and described as the title of her piece said a report on the forms. the -- revolution is taking against discrimination economic and social in the north and that this was even more crucial in the south at this stage and the two images one shows. a parent and children protesting outside the school committee in boston against segregated schools in 1963, and the other is in harlem confrontation between police and a man in 1964 around the harlem race racial uprising after the shooting of james powell. so, let's see. the 1964 civil rights act in voting rights act did little to affect these conditions. for a minority of african-americans who were prepared to take advantage of the opportunities created by civil rights legislation. they could achieve significant advances even as racial prejudices persisted. but for the many trapped by generations of poverty and substandard education conditions did not change. martin luther king observed and again, we read this piece earlier on in it op-ed on january 1st 1966 in the amsterdam news, and you see it up here the excerpt with all the struggle and achievement the seeds of freedom have grown only a bud not yet a flower. the black american is still far from equal. he is straight jacketed and the least skilled most underpaid strat of our society. to put it succinctly the -- in america is an impoverished alien in an affluent society. now realizing that the civil rights legislation would do little to remedy these conditions accelerated demands for change and energize the movement for black empowerment. the question conditions in urban areas and routine policing abuses along with the hope stirred by the civil rights movement created explosive conditions. robert kennedy who was elected to the senate and entered the senate in early in 1965 described a crisis as he called quote unparalleled in our history. so aligning with the black power movement, which we've looked at in some detail was a sustained struggle to compel white americans to face the consequences of the nation's racial past and realize the opportunities created by the civil rights movement to bend the country in a new direction. kennedy and king each offered a unique kind of leadership in this regard both were shaped by their experiences during the peak years of the civil rights movement and their grasp of the depth and nature of a crisis. that would determine the country's future. so today we're going to look at these tumultuous years between 1965 to 1968 largely through the evolution in actions of king and kennedy both men became iconic figures in the aftermath of their assassinations often obscuring the challenges and struggles of their final years, which would deeply intertwined with the racial reckoning fostered by the civil rights movement. these years were marked by escalation of america's warm vietnam and successive summers of urban rebellion sparked by police mentality and a terrible conditions. so as the reading for today demonstrated, there was no clear path forward and that sort of evident in the title. so a question for you all a title for the chapter. you read i'm martin luther king. what do you remember? what is the title of that chapter? anybody to take chaos your feet sorry. oh, yeah, just sent him to chaos. okay descent into chaos. okay chaos right when we look back at history. we see things as evolving but really it's it's so much is happening and ralph ellison the noted writer the invisible man made this comment right around the same time. this king was wrote his column. we are living in a time of chaos within the total political structure. we do not have the political structures that can contain the energies set loose by the passage of the civil rights bills. so that's again black expectations and also white reactions white backlash as a movement expands and it's demands and expectations. so the watts rebellion in august of 65 again, which we've mentioned, but that is a pivotal turning point in american history and in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. it was a turning point for both king and kennedy. as you may recall it lasted for six days covered 45 miles of los angeles and beyond surveys estimated that at least 30,000 people participated 34 people were killed in 25 of whom were african-american and more than 1,000 injured and 4,000 arrested. now king who at this point was planning a campaign to challenge surrogation in the north to take sclc to northern city and apply what they learned in the south to conditions there. he flew immediately to los angeles. and he walked the streets of watts the watts community. he met with patrick community meetings and heard the grievance of people and the abuses they suffered from police as well as lack of city services and and litany of things and he was overwhelmed by what he saw and what he heard. in a stormy meeting with city officials the police chief william parker lectured king that violence was to be expected quote when you keep telling people they are unfairly treated and teach them to disrespect the law. a shaken king told reporters after that meeting. to treat this situation as though it was some a result of some criminal element is to lead the community into a potential holocaust. early at 66 again as you read in adam fair class book king took sclc to chicago where he would attempt to employ the tactics of non-violent direct action in a campaign targeting poor segregated housing conditions. and what was called a campaign to end slums. he hope this would enable black americans to channel their anger and frustration into collective action aimed at securing change and improving conditions. so another question from from that particular chapter. so what happened was the campaign a success. what was some of the challenges that king faced in chicago page? he was basically forced to kind of reassess this basic assumptions about american society because it wasn't a success for him because whites basically controlled and profited from these slums and you know, he basically said, you know, there's something seriously wrong with capitalism and you know a society without slums poverty or unemployment a society of free health care for all and a society dedicated to peace but whites were not ready for deep radical change, basically. okay, so just the general opinion liberals in chicago weren't supportive of this efforts, right? i mean mayor daley was a much more wiley customer than the people they dealt with in the south. african-americans were pretty cynical about using these techniques when the challenges are so great. and he said he faced a kind of violence that he hadn't seen before. yeah, wasn't he trying to get married daily not reelected. well, he thought maybe you know the pressure if daily did not come through but of course my daily was reelected and he had significant black support, you know, people are tied into political patronage. so but as you said page he made him confront really reassess his understanding of race in america and and this depth of the structures of racism in these cities and what it would take to actually create change. at a time when the pressures were really high again in the wake of watts and the sense of that these tensions would continue to explode unless some change was secured. so it was during this time and in this image, actually, he's stoned during a march and his age are trying to protect him during that and here he is giving a talk in chicago. so chicago was a celebrant experience. he was there into the summer. and during this time in june as we discussed he goes to mississippi to join. strictly carmichael for nikisic and other activists who pick up after james meredith was shot of with this march against fear to mississippi, and i think it's just good to remember the kind of relationship king developed with stokely carmichael and cleve sellers who told us that about that when he came to class on thursday during this march march relaxing was how how just glad he was to be going through mississippi being greeted by, you know, african-americans in these rural communities and and even though this was the the the mart where because of please harassment and being evicted from the school where they set up their camp overnight and all kinds of problems with the police carmichael had been arrested for several hours and he came out of that went to a major rallying greenwood and issued a call for black power and you know, that is but we've talked about that but it's um, it represented approach that had stick had been using, you know, black empowerment for a number of years, but it's really captured the attention of the nation and and got a real reaction. and what was king's view of i mean do you recall from that account kings response to black power? anybody claire are you talking about very importantly talked about in the cleveland salaries book either cleveland's house book is stokely karma time. i remember in that book. sellers mentioned that he was talking to him like presenting these ideas and he was basically saying how i get my work you have been sitting at like it could be an option, but it's not necessarily like okay. yeah, i mean he was open to it. right and i think yes. yeah. haley in the stokely carmichael account. i remember that he had a quote from king that said like people who have power don't speak of their power. so he just was saying that like the movement should speak for itself. they don't have to call it power. okay, okay, but really good points. and so, you know, it's just a question of tactics, right and and it also king felt that the reaction of white liberals to that and to the press and he was correct. i mean people reacted in a that that means what that's kind of racism. that means separatism and all these alarming things. whereas you saw what carmichael said at the beginning of their clip what it meant. it was about organizing the community black empowerment and even king, you know, so king after that march he'd be constantly reporters would ask him what he thought about black power. he never dismissed it, right he changed the conversation and at one point he said i'm going to get this quote, correct. oh, let's see. yes, he said. he turned the question around and he would answer by pointing to the poverty and injustice that endured in america and and the need for a militant thrust forward. so he's talking about militancy something more militant has to happen and you know what you call it to him again, that could be a distraction and the press really harped on that and of course that was a story about the march against fear, which one is about much more than that voter registration the harassment they experience and again the kind of camaraderie between the various representatives of the movement. so robert kennedy who i mentioned he took his cd of an attorney general under his brother and stayed into august at 64. then he ran for the center from new york and enter the senate in in january of 1965 and he begins to move on a parallel path with king during these years now as attorney general and jfk's administration. he was shocked to witness the depths of the poverty and rachel segregation in urban areas outside of the south. and he was influenced by james baldwin's essay in the new yorker in november of 1962 that ended up providing the basis for the fire next time. kennedy spoke in this very room in the spring of 1963 when he came to, south carolina. and focusing talking to southerners white southerners. he focusing on the consequences of racial discrimination. he emphasized the north as well as the south right usc wasn't the surrogated yet. so he's telling people we've got to move, you know, these things have to happen boating rights, but that this problem is not just southern it's national and then he said time is running out fast for this country. okay. so here's a sense again of that this it's so deep so wide and that white america is so really ignorant of our history and of the need to really move forward on all fronts. now in the aftermath of watts kennedy pushed back on the call for law and order which was the dominant response across the political spectrum from democrats republicans. he said there is no point in telling -- to obey the law. to many -- the law is the enemy. in harlem bedford stuyvesant, it has almost always been used against him. and he would elaborate on this point and speeches before white groups. noting that he was not only talking about the police. he said the law did not protect african-americans from unscrupulous landlords substandard living conditions and merchants who cheated black customers. quote we have a long way to go before the law means the same thing to a black man as it does to us. kennedy went to watts with his aid peter edelman just a two of them. they were in la he said to peter let's go to watts. they jumped into taxi and they rode to the center of watts and walked around saw peter said it was like seeing a burned out area a war-torn area in your own country. i mean, it's the record was throughout and they talked to people and ask them about their lives and what and the really the every almost everyone talked about. no jobs low paying jobs, you know that that condition persisted no changes after after watts. he began supporting a group that was founded in the aftermath of the rebellion. the watford is brought watts right as workshop, which was created for young residents of watts and became a major part of the black arts movement. kennedy supported sent money visited with them and even campaign there when he was running for president in 68, so he's connecting with these forces that are helping to build up these communities and supporting young a young black people now when he was created about black power, get my thing. he in the way for the meredith march he said well you can interpret black power in many ways. and it could raise he said tactical concerns because he felt that the future of the country depended on black and white people working together. but he said he prays the march the march against fear for demonstrating that black citizens would keep up their efforts. for full equality and until they establish full equality and he himself embraced black self-determination and community empowerment which was evident and in the bedford stuyvesant project, which was an innovative redevelopment project. that was run by people in the community. they'd raised money from the federal government philanthropy businesses and people in the community would develop plants for renovating homes. education programs job training and the rest but what's particularly interesting is that kennedy had been a south africa a very famous trip to south africa in june of 60 six when he was invited by antipartheid student group and remarkable trip where he makes these comparisons between america and south africa and the struggles that both countries have to overcome. ah, and so what he was most concerned when this conversation about black power would come up was about whites. you know, white what do white people thinking and and white attitudes white ignorant he talked about the ghetto of our ignorant and backlash, you know this kind of supporting politicians who play on those fears and resentments and so there was a cover story and look here. he is in bedside. just put that up there because i mentioned that that picture but this article suppose god is black. front page on life magazine where the popular magazines like people magazine today. suppose god is black by robert kennedy and then you went inside the magazine and he was writing about his trip to south africa and this exchange he had with an africana who justified apartheid talking about the bible and this is what he said, but suppose god is black. what if we go to heaven and we all alive so treated the -- and inferior and god is there and we look up and he's not white. what is our response then? okay, and that sort of comment in the summer of black power provided a different angle of vision? third successive wave of urban uprisings raising from a ranging from omaha, nebraska, des moines, iowa to chicago cleveland, brooklyn, troy new york and a number of other. above the cities president johnson had been mostly silent about the se uprisings and the crisis behind them and was increasingly obsessed with the war in vietnam. during his during 1966 his administration doubled the budget the projected budget for military aid by 10 billion dollars. that's five times. what administration spent on anti-poverty programs right here. and of course johnson's more on poverty began with high hopes. um spoke out when pressed he was giving a speech on vietnam and reporters. wanted to know what do you think about what's going on? and he says this -- riots threatened to jeopardize civil rights gains, okay. and response onto whether black power or riots will create new antagonisms among white. look at what he says. i'd like you to read that and tell me what you think about that. what is he saying? you must recognize that while there's a -- minority of 10% in this country. there's a majority of 90% that is not --. whites have come iraq whites have come around to the viewpoint of wanting to see equality and justice given to their fellow citizens. but they want to see it done under a law under law and in an orderly manner what? does suggest he understands i

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