Protest, Progress & Radicalism Flashcards
All 29 cards in this deck
What happened at Greensboro, North Carolina, on 1 February 1960?
Four Black college students sat at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter and refused to leave when they were refused service. The sit-ins spread to over 50 cities and SNCC was founded in April 1960.
Why did the Freedom Riders ride interstate buses into the South in 1961?
To test the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals was illegal, by travelling in mixed-race groups.
True or false? The Freedom Riders of 1961 were all Black Americans.
False. Black and white activists, organised by CORE and later SNCC, rode together.
What happened at Anniston, Alabama, on 14 May 1961?
A Ku Klux Klan mob firebombed a Freedom Riders' bus and beat the riders as they escaped. The publicity shocked the nation and pushed Kennedy's government to act.
What was the James Meredith case (1962)?
Meredith, a Black air force veteran, won a court ruling allowing him to enrol at the all-white University of Mississippi. Riots followed and Kennedy sent federal marshals and troops to protect him.
What was King's Birmingham campaign (April–May 1963)?
Marches and sit-ins against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Police chief Bull Connor's use of dogs and fire hoses on peaceful protesters was televised worldwide.
What was the March on Washington (28 August 1963)?
A peaceful, multi-racial march of about 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial, where King made his 'I have a dream' speech. It put pressure on the Kennedy administration to pass civil rights laws.
What was Freedom Summer (1964)?
A campaign, led mainly by SNCC, to register Black voters in Mississippi, using white student volunteers from the North and setting up Freedom Schools.
What were the Mississippi murders (1964)?
Three civil rights workers — Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner — were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during Freedom Summer. The case gained national publicity because two of them were white.
What did the Civil Rights Act (1964) do?
Made segregation in public places and discrimination in employment illegal on grounds of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. Proposed by Kennedy, it was pushed through Congress by Johnson.
What did the Voting Rights Act (1965) do?
Ended literacy tests and other barriers to registration, and allowed federal officials to register voters. Johnson introduced it after the Selma marches and Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Who was Malcolm X and what did he believe?
The leading spokesman of the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), who rejected integration and non-violence and argued for Black separatism, Black pride and self-defence (later summed up in his phrase 'by any means necessary', after he left the Nation of Islam in 1964).
How did Malcolm X's attitude change after 1964?
After leaving the Nation of Islam and making the pilgrimage to Mecca he accepted that Black and white people could work together. He was assassinated by Nation of Islam members in February 1965.
Who was Stokely Carmichael?
The SNCC leader who popularised the slogan 'Black Power' in 1966, after becoming frustrated with non-violence and the slow progress of civil rights.
What happened at the Mexico Olympics in 1968?
Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute on the medal podium, giving Black Power international publicity as a worldwide concept.
What were the two main types of method used by the Black Panther Party?
Armed patrols to monitor and confront the police over brutality, and community social programmes such as free breakfasts for children.
What were the riots of 1965–67?
Riots in Black ghettos in cities such as Watts, Los Angeles (1965) and Newark and Detroit (1967), usually sparked by a police incident and fuelled by poverty, unemployment and poor housing.
True or false? The Kerner Report (1968) blamed the riots mainly on Black agitators.
False. It blamed white racism, poverty and discrimination, warning the USA was moving towards 'two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal'.
What was King's campaign in Chicago (1966)?
A campaign against slum housing and discrimination in the North. It achieved very little: his non-violent tactics worked less well outside the South and he met violent white opposition and divisions among activists.
When and where was Martin Luther King assassinated, and what was the immediate impact?
Shot in Memphis, Tennessee on 4 April 1968 by James Earl Ray. Riots broke out in over 100 cities.
Give one sign of progress in civil rights by 1975.
Legal segregation and voting restrictions had been ended by the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965), and the number of Black elected officials rose sharply.
Give one way civil rights progress was still limited by 1975.
Most Black Americans remained poorer than white Americans, and de facto segregation in housing and schools continued, especially in northern cities.
What happened when the Freedom Riders reached Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1961?
Ku Klux Klan members beat them at the bus station. Police chief Bull Connor kept his officers away, claiming most were off duty for Mother's Day.
What federal action followed the Freedom Rides in September 1961?
The Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in bus terminals serving interstate travellers, showing the Freedom Rides had succeeded.
How did President Kennedy respond to the Birmingham campaign in June 1963?
In a TV address on 11 June 1963 he called civil rights a moral crisis for the nation and announced that he would ask Congress for a major civil rights bill.
Give two ways President Johnson got the Civil Rights Bill through Congress in 1964.
He presented it as a memorial to the murdered Kennedy, and used his long experience in Congress and his standing as a Southerner to win votes, overcoming a filibuster by Southern Democrats.
How did Malcolm X become involved with the Nation of Islam?
Born Malcolm Little, he converted while in prison for burglary (1946–52). He replaced his surname with 'X', rejecting the name given to his enslaved ancestors, and became its leading preacher after his release.
Who founded the Black Panther Party, and when and where?
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, in Oakland, California, in October 1966. Both had been influenced by Malcolm X.
How far did school segregation in the South fall between 1968 and 1974?
The share of Southern Black children in segregated schools fell from 68% to 8%, helped by bussing, which the Supreme Court backed in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971).