The Scottsboro Boys
Because industry needed workers to produce material for the fighting effort, World War I brought about mass movement of blacks out of the South to northern industrial cities. This was called The Great Migration, and lasted until the late 1970s. By that time more than five million black people moved to the northern cities. (Jennings […]
Racial Equality Organizations
In an effort to combat the forces of racial prejudice and hate, W.E.B. Du Bois and others founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. The NAACP’s stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. […]
Segregation, Racial Hatred and Integration after World War II
As noted earlier, segregation existed in the United States armed forces. The Army, Navy and other branches of the services separated blacks and whites into distinct units. (See Josh White’s “Defense Factory Blues.”) It was not until after World War II that President Truman issued an executive order ending discrimination in the armed forces. (Hakim, […]
The Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
“The ultimate terror of racism lies in its ability to make the subjects of racism believe in their own inferiority…. Whether it was the act of signing a voter registration form for the first time, or of appearing as a witness against a white person in court, or even the bravery it sometimes took to […]
The “Little Rock Nine” and School Integration
In 1954, the NAACP’s efforts to reverse the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson that supported the Jim Crow system reached fruition when the United States Supreme Court issued its unanimous opinion in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas) (1954).The Court said: “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Thurgood Marshall, […]
The Lunch Counter Sit-ins
“Out of the pressure and needs involved in maintaining group unity while working under intense pressure and physical hostility, the Sit-In Movement developed its culture. Music was the mainstay of that culture.” (Eyerman and Jamison, p. 45, quoting Bernice Johnson Reagon of The Freedom Singers.) In February, 1960, four black college students from a local […]
The Freedom Riders
In May 1961, a group of 13 young people (seven black and six white) sponsored by CORE and modeled after the 1947 CORE “Journey of Reconciliation” (Anderson, pp. 51-54), who called themselves “the Freedom Riders,” traveled from Washington D.C. to Alabama and Mississippi by interstate bus to register black voters and challenge Jim Crow policies. […]
James Meredith’s Attempt to Enroll at the University of Mississippi
After high school, James Meredith spent nine years in the Army Air Force before enrolling in Jackson State College—an all-black school—in Mississippi. In 1961, he applied to the all-white University of Mississippi in Oxford. He was admitted, but his admission was withdrawn when the registrar discovered his race. Meredith filed a suit against the University […]
Desegregation in Birmingham, Alabama
In the summer of 1962, civil rights leaders attempted to desegregate public recreational facilities in Birmingham, Alabama, “…the most segregated city in America.” (Jennings and Brewster, p. 381.) Birmingham was referred to by civil rights leaders as “Bombingham” and “the Johannesburg of America.” (Seeger and Reiser, p. 103.) Rather than allow desegregated public facilities, the […]
The Killing of Medgar Evers
In the spring of 1963, Medgar Evers, a NAACP organizer in Jackson, Mississippi, requested a meeting with the racist mayor of the town to address racial inequality issues. When the mayor refused to have a meeting, Evers and other activists organized sit-ins at the local Woolworth lunch counters. The sit-ins led to counter-protests and arrests. […]