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In December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a black woman named
Rosa Parks insisted on sitting in the front of a bus. The
segregation laws in America's deep south reserved the front section
of public buses for whites (although most bus passengers in
Montgomery were blacks and the front section was often almost
empty).
Rosa Parks was arrested (pictured at right) and jailed, which led
to mass protests and a boycott of the buses, led by local black
minister Martin Luther King. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling that
segregation was unconstitutional in 1954, Alabama's white officials
avoided integrating schools until 1963.
In September 1957 Governor Faubus of Arkansas used National
Guardsmen to prevent nine black schoolchildren from entering the
high school in Little Rock. President Eisenhower sent more than
1,000 Federal troops to escort the children to the school.
A group of anti-racist campaigners calling themselves the
"freedom riders" toured the southern United States travelling
on bus services to test whether Federal orders to
integrate public transport were being obeyed. The group met with
violent opposition, with some of the ugliest scenes taking place in
the town of Montgomery, capital of Alabama, where white
segregationists (who included members of the notorious Ku Klux Klan)
tried to burn and block the path of buses, and attacked freedom
riders with clubs.
Attorney-General Robert Kennedy sent Federal marshals to
Montgomery, where the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King had pledged to
continue the struggle for equal rights. Dr King insisted that
"passive resistance and the weapons of love" were the most
effective means of fighting bigotry and racism. In 1962, Federal
troops were called out again, this time to escort James H Meredith
when he became the first black student to enrol at the University
of Mississippi. Meredith's entrance was blocked by State Troopers
who were sent by Governor Ross Barnett. President John F Kennedy,
however, ordered the Federal marshals to escort Meredith safely to
class.
Two men were killed and 50 people were injured in the ensuing
riots as angry whites, stirred up by Barnett's actions, stormed the
university in protest against Meredith's admission. 3,000 Federal
soldiers were eventually used to quell the riots.
On August 28 1963, over 250,000 people walked the streets of
Washington and gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in the biggest civil
rights march to date. The Rev. Dr Martin Luther King delivered a
speech to the gathering which included the likes of Judy Garland,
Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Bob Dylan.
President John F Kennedy said that Dr Luther King's actions and
that of other activists had speeded up the "cause of 20 million
Negroes", and henceforth undertook a great deal of work towards
civil rights reform, and following his assassination in 1963, his
work was continued by Lyndon B Johnson who worked hard to ensure
Congress did not dilute the proposed reforms.
On July 2 1964 President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the most radical civil rights law in US history. The Act
prohibited racial discrimination in employment, public facilities,
places of public accommodation, union membership and Federal funded
programs.
Black nationalist leader Malcolm X was shot dead at a rally for
the OAAU (Organization of Afro-American Unity) in New York City on
February 21 1965. The gunmen, one of whom was caught, were connected
with a group called the Black Muslims - the sect in which Malcolm X
was formerly a leading figure.
Some black Americans began to seek new solutions to continuing
injustice and poverty. In Oakland, California, Huey Newton and Bobby
Seale founded a new political organization, The Black Panthers. The
Panthers aimed to protect the ghetto community from racist police,
but also hoped to organize clinics, community centers and free
breakfast schemes. Their violent language disturbed many of the
older campaigners for black rights, but it reflected a new attitude
among young black Americans.
The Black Panthers were part of the growing "Black
Power" movement - a phrase originally coined by black leader
Stokely Carmichael. Instead of trying hard to be accepted by white
American society, Black Power supporters wanted revolutionary change
in the USA. The growing fashion for natural afro hairstyles was an
indication of the popularity of the new militancy.
On April 4 1968, revered Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King
was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Across the United States,
black Americans took to the streets in grief and rage, while riots
broke out in167 cities and on innumerable campuses.
Later that year, black American athletes Tommie Smith and John
Carlos used the Olympic Games in Mexico City to protest about racism
in the USA. As they received their medals for the 200 meter sprint,
gold medallist Smith and bronze medallist Carlos raised their
black-gloved clenched fists high above their heads in a salute
identified with Black Power.
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