ACTIVISTS - part 1

Freedom Riders, Sit-ins & The March on Washington

Faced with various establishments’ refusal to desegregate, African-Americans took various actions to protest. In North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia in 1960s students began to “sit-in”. They would enter their locals stores and restaurants and sit at the lunch counters. They would dress professionally and sit quietly, waiting to be served. Every other stool was left unoccupied so that potential white sympathizers could join in. The technique of “sit-in” was used to protest segregation back in the 1940s but when it was used in the 1960s it brought national attention to the Civil Rights Movement. The success of sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina sparked a flame that spread throughout the South.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed in 1960 and students everywhere in the South campaigned for desegregation, sitting-in not only at restaurants but also on parks, beaches, libraries, theaters, museums and other public places. Frequently they would be arrested at which point they would refuse bail in order to be jailed and call attention to their cause. This also reversed the cost of the protest, forcing jails to spend more and more money on food.

SNCC then organized freedom rides in 1961. SNCC activists would travel by bus through deep South in order to desegregate the companies' bus terminals, which was required by federal law.

Riders were frequently harassed and often beaten and when they would be put in jail, it was often into tiny, filthy cells, without mattresses and with windows tightly shut on hot days. They would be forced to do hard labor in extreme heat and their food would often be deliberately over salted.

In 1963 A. Philip Randolph, James Bevel, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr. organized a large political rally that would become known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The goals of the march were: "meaningful civil rights laws, a massive federal works program, full and fair employment, decent housing, the right to vote, and adequate integrated education."

The Kennedy administration was concerned that the march would turn violent, undermine pending civil rights legislation and damage the international image of the United States and unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Randolph and King into calling it off.

On August 28, 1963 250 000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Four out of five attendees were black. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

While Kennedy Administration was applauded for its efforts toward obtaining new, more effective civil rights legislation that would protect the right to vote and outlaw segregation it was also heavily criticized for its lack of reaction towards attacks on the civil rights of blacks in the Deep South. This event was a major factor leading up to the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.