AMH 2020 001 page 1 April 9 2015 Birmingham violence leads to the Passing on 1964 Civil rights act No discrimination in hotels restaurants busses transportation Voting Rights act of 1965 Gave right to vote to af am in the south Landmark pieces of legislation are passed due to Lyndon Johnson If Kennedy had lived the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act would have never been passed Now the problem is o The war in Vietnam is heating up and being fought mostly by minorities o Dr King comes out against the War in Vietnam o Johnson is also pushing war and can t understand why King alienated him on terms of the war Civil Rights movement suffers a set back Change in society occurs with Af Am in the country New Af Am generation says that they aren t going to be peaceful They re going to strike back and King s Non violent movement losses credence o King Tried to broaden his objective to bring in new people Spreads himself thinner and thinner Dr King said that the media can only cover one story Civil Rights movement was no longer THE story it was replaced by the Vietnam war Organized a march on Washington to dramatize the impact of poverty At the same time he was trying to organize a Garbage worker strike to get basic human AMH 2020 001 page 2 rights Memphis o Said go on strike I ll be there for you April 1968 King is in Washington then flies to Memphis to make dramatic speech Goes back to his motel and is shot and Killed by James Earl Ray who fired a long range riffle from across the street After King s death the Civil Rights movement hits the skids and basically comes to a stop Emmett Till down Since ruling of Brown v Board of education racial stress was high o White supremacy was attempting to be upheld o KKK upheld white supremacy with lynchings and brutal murders Curtis Jones and Emmett Till had no idea what they were doing when they were coming o Had pictures of the white classmates in his wallet and the white girl he claimed was his girlfriend o Said bye to girl working at the counter in a store o Sunday morning 0230 White man came to get Emmett at gunpoint Body was so damaged that they identified him by a ring with his initials Open casket funeral so All the world can see what they did to my boy Emmett s mother o Jet magazine published a picture of the corpse of Emmett Till An entire generation was scared by the photo AMH 2020 001 page 3 Husband and brother arrested for the murder of Emmett Till NAACP and other colored organizations fought to keep story in the news Courtroom was segregated Defense argued that the body was too misfigured to be identified as Emmett Till Mose Write testified despite death threats o Was asked to identify who came to get Emmett Till out o He identified a white man and accused him of murder Jury deliberated for an hour to find men not guilty Trial went on for 5 days Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 3 months after Till trial Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat Bus boycott began after her scene Dr Martin Luther King Jr 26 was elected to lead them the bus Wave of violence began o Bombs thrown at homes of boycotters o Boycotters were killed Boycotters road black taxis did car pool and mostly walked Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional Little Rock 1957 3 years after segregated schools ruled unconstitutional Little rock was supposed to be different 2 3 of the bus riders were black before Dec 5 after there were few to no black riders on AMH 2020 001 page 4 o Moderate state with moderate people and active NAACP Orvile Farvas o Moderate by South standards o Needed segregational vote so he resisted desegregation Central High School was elected to be desegregated by teenagers who had memory of Emmett Till o Arkansas policed school and kept blacks out o 8 of 9 went to school together with parents and ministers Elizabeth Eckerd walked alone and faced a mob on her way to school because she missed the call to go together safe o A sole woman lead her through the crowd and onto a bus so she could get home President met with Farvas and thought he had persuaded Farvas to let the students in o Farvas just pulled the national guard and let the small police force protect students o Police stopped fighting mob o Students were led into the basement and into cars where the drivers were instructed to start driving and not to stop Eisenhower sent in 101st Airborne division to protect the students o Occupied Arkansas with federal troops to protect the rights of the colored students Daisy Bates NAACP was president and worked with parents to get kids to school safety o Jeep in front and back and armed soldiers protecting students o Students were finally able to get into school Beginning of a school year like no other AMH 2020 001 page 5 Each student got an individual soldier to walk with them everywhere o Not in girls bathroom or with them during gym Minnie Jean Brown struck back against harassers o Minnie had just picked up chili and dumped it on white boys head Minnie said that this story wasn t true What had actually happened was different The two people who stated to story the way they did wanted to remember it that way Said that a chair was slid in front of her and she stopped short and the chili spilled over and got the white kid behind her o Help all black broke into applause May 29 1958 Ernest Green graduated from Central High School o Emmett Till s generation was beginning to head to college The next year Farvas shut down all high schools to prevent desegregation Birmingham 1963 January 14 1963 George Wallace was central oppose to desegregation Known for strict segregation and racial prejudice AKA Bombingham for so many bombing attacks Bull Connor s views on segregation won him 6 terms in politics King goes to jail and writes his most eloquent work o Everyone says that I have a dream was the greatest o King didn t have writing paper all he had was the local newspaper o Local ministers took out an AD to tell king to leave AMH 2020 001 page 6 King writes in the margins For years I have heard the phrase wait Justice delayed is Justice denied Wait rings in the ears of every Af King has a hard time attracting adults and the kills take up all of the jail Am In this country cells Bull Connor rendered helpless because jails have filled up City of Birmingham gives in and signs concessions after 100s of arrests violence police dogs and other acts of violence Birmingham is a turning point Kids were taken out of school May 2 children began to walk in Birmingham