Transcript Slide 1
Section 2
Triumphs of a Crusade
Freedom
Rides (1961)
• Bus
Desegregation
challenged
– White leaders in
the South ignore
SC ruling about
desegregating
busses
• Black and white
activists (CORE
and SNCC) sat
together on buses
headed towards
south
– Encountered
violence
– Used Federal
Marshalls to
integrate buses,
lunch counters,
restrooms
Colleges
James Meredith
• Colleges were still
segregated and
needed to be
desegregated
• U Miss all white
up to 1962
• James Meredith:
Black Air Force
Veteran
– Fed Marshalls had
to escort him
– Lots of violence
and riots to keep
him out
• University of
Alabama
– All white up to
1963
– George
Wallace=Alabama
gov. that tried to
prevent blacks
from attending
– Fed marshals used
here too
Birmingham
• April 1963, MLK
asked to come lead
peaceful
demonstrations
– Arrested and
thrown in jail
• May 2, 1000 black
children march,
almost all arrested
• May 3, 2nd Crusade
• Law enforcement
ready and react
violently
• June 11, NAACP
leader Medgar Evans
is assassinated
Result
• Because of
coverage city
government
agreed to end
segregation
• Inspired other
communities to
rise up
• Inspired Kennedy
to write new Civil
Rights Legislation
Civil Rights Act
1964
• Passes easily for
two reasons
1. March on DC
– I have a Dream
2. Carry out legacy
of JFK
• What did it do?
– Prohibited most
forms of
discrimination
– Race , religion,
Gender, Ethnicity
– Now needed to be
enforced
Demanding
Voting Rights
• Freedom Summer
1964
• Group of mostly
college students
that attempt to
register AA voters
in South, met with
violence
• 24th Amendment
(1964)
– Eliminated having to
pay a fee to vote-poll taxes
Selma
• March 7, 1965
• Protest voting
injustices
• Met with a lot of
violence
• Media captured it
• 2nd March on the
21st : occurred
with gov
protection
• Also covered by
media
• Nat. gov had to
act
1965 Voting
Rights Act
• Summer 65
• Gov. eliminated having
to pass a literacy test to
vote
• Allowed National
Government to Register
blacks
– Previously had to go
through Racist local
officials
• End result: # of
registered voters tripled