The Freedom Rides
President Kennedy may have been reluctant to push ahead with civil rights legislation, but millions of black Americans and the civil rights movement would not wait, and eventually the administration would be compelled to act. In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), led by James Farmer, organized integrated "Freedom Rides" to defy segregation in interstate transportation (seating on buses and waiting rooms, rest rooms, and restaurants in bus stations). Freedom Riders were arrested in North Carolina and there were beatings in South Carolina. But, in Alabama a bus was burned and the riders attacked with baseball bats and tire irons. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 400 federal marshals to protect the freedom riders and urged the Interstate Commerce Commission to order the desegregation of interstate travel (which became effective in September.)
James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss
Mississippi defied the courts and the administration in 1962 by refusing to desegregate the state university. James H. Meredith, Jr., a black Air Force veteran, was denied admission to "Ole Miss" with the full support of Governor Ross Barnett. Meredith had attempted to register four times without success. Lengthy telephone conversations between the President, the Attorney General and the Governor failed to produce a solution. JFK mobilized the National Guard and sent federal marshals to the campus. After a riot in which two died and dozens were injured, Meredith registered and segregation ended at the University of Mississippi.
See Integrating Old Miss, an interactive website that tells the story of James Meredith and the tumultous events surrounding his historic admission to the University of Mississippi.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Bull Conner, and the Demonstrations in Birmingham
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. organized desegregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama, which he called the most segregated city in America. The city administration, led by Police Chief "Bull" Connor, refused to yield. King mobilized sit‑ins and marches by thousands of school children–which began on Good Friday. Backed by the state's new segregationist governor George Wallace, the Birmingham police used dogs and high-pressure fire hoses to put down the demonstrations. King was arrested along with nearly a thousand children. Kennedy, as a demonstration of federal authority, sent several thousand troops to an Alabama air base. The violence was broadcast on television to the nation and the world. The Kennedy administration moved rapidly to respond to the crisis by speeding up the drafting of a comprehensive civil rights bill.
Integrating the University of Alabama
The defiant Governor George Wallace, who had vowed at his inauguration to defend “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever,” carried out his promise to "stand in the schoolhouse door" in June to prevent two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. After federalizing the Alabama National Guard in order to protect the students and secure their admission, the president addressed the nation that evening about civil rights. Kennedy defined the crisis as moral, as well as constitutional and legal, and announced that major civil rights legislation would be submitted to the Congress to guarantee equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education and to provide federal protection of the right to vote.
The March on Washington and The Civil Rights Act of 1964
In August 1963, more than 200,000 Americans of all races celebrated the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation by participating in the March on Washington. The event was led by key civil rights figures such as A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, and Whitney Young. But the most memorable moment came when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech." The comprehensive civil rights bill had cleared several hurdles in the Congress by the fall, including winning the endorsement of House and Senate Republican leaders.
It was not passed, however, before November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. The bill was left in the hands of Lyndon B. Johnson who, before coming Vice President, had served as a U. S. Senator for Texas. Johnson used his connections with Southern white Congressional leaders and the outpouring of emotion from the country in response to the death of President Kennedy to urge the Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill as a way to honor President Kennedy. Provisions of the bill included: (1) protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests; (2) outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce (private clubs were exempted); (3) authorizing the U.S. Attorney General’s office to file legal suits to force desegregation in public schools; (4) authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination; and (5) outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding twenty five people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to review complaints. This bill was passed on July 2, 1964 and was a crucial step in achieving the civil rights movement’s initial goal: full legal equality.
References
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. by Henry Reeve, 1839, retrieved November 25, 2002 from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch18.htm.
2. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393(1856),retrievedNovember25,2002fromhttp://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=60&invol=393.