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Peaceful Protests, Freedom Summer + Selma - Coggle Diagram
Peaceful Protests
2nd April 1963. SNCC, SCLC and ACMHR began Campaign 'C' (for 'Confrontation').
They targeted Birmingham because it was completely segregated and Black Americans had often been attacked.
Nicknamed 'Bombingham' because o the constant attacks on Black people and their churches, houses etc.
Where 'Bull' Connor was, believed he could easily provoke violence against peaceful protests.
Hundreds of people took part in the peaceful protests in Birmingham. And hundreds arrested in the first few weeks.
Lessons Learnt Inviting violence from opponents worked because it won them publicity and sympathy from the USA and World Wide.
James Bevel of the SNCC trained young Black Americans to protest. On 2 May, about 6,000 of them marched. Most were students but some were as young as 6 years old.
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Almost immediately after the Birmingham protests, civil rights leaders planned a march involving people from all over the USA. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Chosen location because the White House and Congress were there. Over 250,000 people 40,000 of them being white Americans.
Size Showed huge support for civil rights in the USA. Neither federal nor state governments could argue it was a minor issue.
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King's Speech It was powerful. Gained support for civil rights. Saw King as the leader of the movement.
Crowd Black and White Americans peacefully protesting together. Showed support for civil rights. Famous people like Bob Dylan turning up.
In October 1961, civil rights groups including SNCC and NAACP organised a campaign of marches, boycotts and other protests against segregation.
Stat police arrested protesters but did not publicly use violence.
They had very little impact and publicity even when people like Martin Luther King joined. White violence was gaining more publicity.
Freedom Summer + Selma
Between 1962 and 1964, about 700,000 Black Americans in the South registered to vote. But in the countryside and Deep South the number of black people registered to vote hardly rose at all.
SNCC and CORE set up Freedom Summer in Mississippi. About 1,000 volunteers went to Mississippi to work with local campaigners on projects in black communities.
Most volunteers were white college students from good families, chosen because they could pay their way. Class and colour would make any violence against them make bigger news.
Some taught in Freedom Schools for black children. Others held voter registration classes to teach locals how to pass the voter registration test.
SNCC volunteers knew they were putting themselves and Black Mississippians in danger. Many white Mississippians called the project an invasion and argued that northern students did not understand the South.
There were over 10,000 KKK members in Mississippi. They burned 61 crosses - before the 'invasion' - to show their power and anger.
During the summer they burned 37 black American churches and 30 homes. They beat up countless volunteers and local black people.
Many black people lost their jobs going to civil rights meetings, trying to register to vote or allowing their children to go to a Freedom School. About 17,000 black people tried to register to vote that summer, only 1,600 succeeded.
Mississippi Murders
21 June, Michael Schwerner (white CORE field worker), Andrew Goodman, (white volunteer) and James Chaney (black CORE worker) were arrested while driving to Schwerner's home. They were released that evening, and on their way home murdered by the KKK.
CORE and SNCC members tried to find their bodies, they found the car, a burnt out wreck on the 23 June.
They also found 8 bodies of black American men. Three were later identified as CORE workers.
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were not found until 4 August. They had been shot.
When the summer ended, most of the volunteers had to go back to college, but SNCC continued to work for voter registration across the South.
Spring 1965, SNCC was still working for voter registration, but white officials still had many methods of stopping black Americans from voting. Selma was in Dallas, few black people applied for fear of violence. Selma had the largest WCC in Alabama.
Local groups invited the SCLC and King to campaign in Selma. They arrived in January 1965. At the same time President Johnson was stressing the need for a Voting Rights Act to make voting tests fair and equal.
There were confrontations with the police and violent arrests. Johnson spoke in favour of voter registration and the number of protesters rose, as did the violence. One protester died.
Sunday 7 March, about 600 protesters set out to march from Selma to Montgomery. State troopers stopped them at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. firing tear gas and attacking protesters with clubs and electric cattle prods.
Again, USA made world headlines for its abuse of black Americans.
Pressure on the Congress. The assassination of President Kennedy (who had introduced a strong Civil Rights bill) and the growing protests led to a greater awareness of the issues of civil rights in America.
In both parts of the Congress, many spoke against the violence and in favour of voter registration. All over the country people marched in support of those attacked on Sunday 7. It became known as 'Bloody Sunday'. Hundreds of both black and white Americans joined the marches.
Johnson used an executive order to federalise the state national guard. They then escorted the marchers from Selma to Montgomery on 21-24 March. King led the march and gave a speech to a crowd of 25,000.
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