DOCUMENTS
FOR YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS ESSAY
DOCUMENT 1: Brown v. Board
of Education of Topeka
APPEAL
FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF KANSAS
No.
1. Argued: Argued December 9, 1952Reargued December 8, 1953 --- Decided:
Decided May 17, 1954
Segregation
of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the
basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation,
denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment -- even though the physical facilities and other
"tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal. Pp.
486-496.(a) The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is inconclusive as to its
intended effect on public education. Pp. 489-490.(b) The question presented in
these cases must be determined not on the basis of conditions existing when the
Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, but in the light of the full development of
public education and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.
Pp. 492-493.(c) Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an
education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be
made available to all on equal terms. P. 493.(d) Segregation of children in
public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority
group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities
and other "tangible" factors may be equal. Pp. 493-494.(e) The
"separate but equal" doctrine adopted in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S.
537, has no place in the field of public education. P. 495.(f) The cases are
restored to the docket for further argument on specified questions relating to
the forms of the decrees. Pp. 495-496.
DOCUMENT 2:
MLK,
Non-Violence and Racial Justice, 1957
It
is commonly observed that the crisis in race relations dominates the arena of
American life. This crisis has been precipitated by two factors: the determined
resistance of reactionary elements in the south to the Supreme Court's
momentous decision outlawing segregation in the public schools, and the radical
change in the Negro's evaluation of himself... Once he thought of himself as an
inferior and patiently accepted injustice and exploitation. Those days are
gone...
...
the basic question which confronts the world's oppressed is: How is the
struggle against the forces of injustice to be waged? There are two possible
answers. One is resort to the all too prevalent method of physical violence and
corroding hatred. The danger of this method is its futility. Violence solves no
social problems; it merely creates new and more complicated ones...
DOCUMENT 3:
WARREN,
C.J./Opinion of the Court/SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES/Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka
No.
1. Argued: Argued December 9, 1952Reargued December 8, 1953 --- Decided:
Decided May 17, 1954
________________________________________
[p*486]
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.
These
cases come to us from the States of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and
Delaware. They are premised on different facts and different local conditions,
but a common legal question justifies their consideration together in this
consolidated opinion. [n1][p487]
In
each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal
representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the
public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. In each
instance,[p488] they had been denied admission to schools attended by white
children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This
segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of
the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the cases other than the
Delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the
plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced
by this Court in Plessy v. Fergson, 163 U.S. 537. Under that doctrine, equality
of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities,
even though these facilities be separate. In the Delaware case, the Supreme
Court of Delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be
admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the Negro
schools.
The
plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not "equal" and
cannot be made "equal," and that hence they are deprived of the equal
protection of the laws. Because of the obvious importance of the question
presented, the Court took jurisdiction. [n2] Argument was heard in the 1952
Term, and reargument was heard this Term on certain questions propounded by the
Court. [n3][p489]
Reargument
was largely devoted to the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the
Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It covered exhaustively consideration of the
Amendment in Congress, ratification by the states, then-existing practices in
racial segregation, and the views of proponents and opponents of the Amendment.
This discussion and our own investigation convince us that, although these sources
cast some light, it is not enough to resolve the problem with which we are
faced. At best, they are inconclusive. The most avid proponents of the post-War
Amendments undoubtedly intended them to remove all legal distinctions among
"all persons born or naturalized in the United States." Their
opponents, just as certainly, were antagonistic to both the letter and the
spirit of the Amendments and wished them to have the most limited effect. What
others in Congress and the state legislatures had in mind cannot be determined
with any degree of certainty.
An
additional reason for the inconclusive nature of the Amendment's history with
respect to segregated schools is the status of public education at that time.
[n4] In the South, the movement toward free common schools, supported[p490] by
general taxation, had not yet taken hold. Education of white children was
largely in the hands of private groups. Education of Negroes was almost
nonexistent, and practically all of the race were illiterate. In fact, any education
of Negroes was forbidden by law in some states. Today, in contrast, many
Negroes have achieved outstanding success in the arts and sciences, as well as
in the business and professional world. It is true that public school education
at the time of the Amendment had advanced further in the North, but the effect
of the Amendment on Northern States was generally ignored in the congressional
debates. Even in the North, the conditions of public education did not
approximate those existing today. The curriculum was usually rudimentary;
ungraded schools were common in rural areas; the school term was but three
months a year in many states, and compulsory school attendance was virtually
unknown. As a consequence, it is not surprising that there should be so little
in the history of the Fourteenth Amendment relating to its intended effect on
public education.
In
the first cases in this Court construing the Fourteenth Amendment, decided
shortly after its adoption, the Court interpreted it as proscribing all state-imposed
discriminations against the Negro race. [n5] The doctrine of[p491]
"separate but equal" did not make its appearance in this Court until
1896 in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, supra, involving not education but
transportation. [n6] American courts have since labored with the doctrine for
over half a century. In this Court, there have been six cases involving the
"separate but equal" doctrine in the field of public education. [n7]
In Cumming v. County Board of Education, 175 U.S. 528, and Gong Lum v. Rice,
275 U.S. 78, the validity of the doctrine itself was not challenged. [n8] In
more recent cases, all on the graduate school[p492] level, inequality was found
in that specific benefits enjoyed by white students were denied to Negro
students of the same educational qualifications. Missouri ex rel. Gaines v.
Canada, 305 U.S. 337; Sipuel v. Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631; Sweatt v. Painter, 339
U.S. 629; McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 339 U.S. 637. In none of these
cases was it necessary to reexamine the doctrine to grant relief to the Negro
plaintiff. And in Sweatt v. Painter, supra, the Court expressly reserved
decision on the question whether Plessy v. Ferguson should be held inapplicable
to public education.
In
the instant cases, that question is directly presented. Here, unlike Sweatt v.
Painter, there are findings below that the Negro and white schools involved
have been equalized, or are being equalized, with respect to buildings,
curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other "tangible"
factors. [n9] Our decision, therefore, cannot turn on merely a comparison of
these tangible factors in the Negro and white schools involved in each of the
cases. We must look instead to the effect of segregation itself on public
education.
In
approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the
Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We
must consider public education in the light of its full development and its
present place in American life throughout[p493] the Nation. Only in this way
can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs
of the equal protection of the laws.
Today,
education is perhaps the most important function of state and local
governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for
education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to
our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic
public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very
foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening
the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training,
and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is
doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is
denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state
has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on
equal terms.
We
come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public
schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and
other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the
minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.
In
Sweatt v. Painter, supra, in finding that a segregated law school for Negroes
could not provide them equal educational opportunities, this Court relied in
large part on "those qualities which are incapable of objective
measurement but which make for greatness in a law school." In McLaurin v.
Oklahoma State Regents, supra, the Court, in requiring that a Negro admitted to
a white graduate school be treated like all other students, again resorted to
intangible considerations: ". . . his ability to study, to engage in
discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn
his profession." [p*494] Such considerations apply with added force to
children in grade and high schools. To separate them from others of similar age
and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of
inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts
and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. The effect of this separation on
their educational opportunities was well stated by a finding in the Kansas case
by a court which nevertheless felt compelled to rule against the Negro
plaintiffs:Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a
detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has
the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually
interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of
inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the
sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and
mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the
benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.
[n10]Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time
of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority.
[n11] Any language[p495] in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is
rejected.
We
conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate
but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated
for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation
complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment. This disposition makes unnecessary any discussion whether
such segregation also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment. [n12]
DOCUMENT 4: White Citizens' Councils
aimed to maintain 'Southern way of life'
The
White Citizens' Council was born in Greenwood, Miss., shortly after the 1954-55
Brown vs. Board of Education decisions were rendered. Sister branches rapidly
surfaced throughout Mississippi and other Southern states.
Leading
citizens joined. The goal was to maintain segregation.
Tennessee's
relatively ineffective version of the citizens' council was called the
Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government, of which Madison County had
a chapter. The group placed advertisements in The Sun in the 1960s in support
of segregation. One was an editorial from another newspaper that said,
"The Negro today is the best treated human being in the United States."
The
Madison chapter also held at least one meeting covered by The Sun. According to
the story, a Memphis attorney called for prosecuting Jackson's bus company for
integrating its buses and called the 1954 school desegregation by the U.S.
Supreme Court "a judicial monstrosity."
At
the same meeting, according to the article, District Attorney David P. Murray
called on the audience to "help maintain our Southern way of life"
and added, "Let's fight for it to the bitter end." According to The
Sun's story, 200 people attended the meeting, including a circuit judge, an
American Legion commander and the sheriff of Haywood County. Citizens' councils
used economic and political pressure to achieve their ends. The election of
Ross Barnett as governor of Mississippi, on the promise of defending the
state's traditions - which meant white supremacy - was one display of the
council's success. Below are excerpts from a pamphlet from the Association of
Citizens' Councils titled "Why Does Your Community Need a Citizens' Council?":
Maybe
your community has had no racial problems! This may be true; however, you may
not have a fire, yet you maintain a fire department. You can depend on one
thing: The NAACP (National Association for the Agitation of Colored People),
aided by alien influences, bloc vote seeking politicians and left-wing
do-gooders, will see that you have a problem in the near future.
The
Citizens' Council is the South's answer to the mongrelizers. We will not be
integrated. We are proud of our white blood and our white heritage of sixty
centuries.
...
We are certainly not ashamed of our traditions, our conservative beliefs, nor
our segregated way of life.
Sources:
The Jackson Sun; "History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement;" The
Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
DOCUMENT 5:
An
Individual Describes his involvement with a White Citizen’s Council:
They
had 90,000 members in the state of Mississippi, and didn't do a durn thing. I
joined the Citizens' Council the very first year, but I didn't join after that.
But what was so funny was that they'd have this meeting at the courthouse. Big
speaker get up and say, "We're not going to let the federal government do
so-and-so. We are not going to do so-and-so. Come on. Bring your money up here.
Let's join. Give us your money." So people would give their money and
leave there, and they would feel better, like an emotional purgative, even
though no plan had been adopted; no course had been assumed. The situation was
the same, but they felt better. It was just kind of like clutching, "Oh,
man, we've got a Citizens' Council now, and they're going to help us."
Like we've got a Sovereignty Commission, and they're going to help us, too. You
know.
DOCUMENT 6: "LETTER
FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL" April 16, 1963
Birmingham,
Alabama
In
spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white
religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and,
with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just
grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would
understand. But again I have been disappointed. I have heard numerous southern
religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation
decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers
declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and
because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices
inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline
and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a
mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have
heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel
has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves
to a completely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical
distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. I hope
the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. Before
closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has
troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for
keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you
would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and
inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them
push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them
slap and kick Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they
did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our
grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police
department.
I
wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for
their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing
discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize
its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of
purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the
agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be
old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old
woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and when her
people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with
ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My
feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They will be the young high
school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of
their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and
willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that
when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were
in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most
sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation
back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding
fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence. Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is
much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have
been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else
can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long
letters, think long thoughts, and pray long prayers?
Yours
for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
DOCUMENT 7: Alternative to
Violence
The
alternative to violence is nonviolent resistance. This method was made famous
in our generation by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who used it to free India from the
domination of the British empire. Five points can be made concerning
nonviolence as a method in bringing about better racial conditions.
First,
this is not a method for cowards; it does resist. The nonviolent resister is
just as strongly opposed to the evil against which he protests as is the person
who uses violence. His method is passive or nonaggressive in the sense that he
is not physically aggressive toward his opponent. But his mind and emotions are
always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken.
This method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually...
A
second point is that nonviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate
the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent
resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but
he realizes that noncooperation and boycotts are not ends themselves; they are
merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is
redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of
the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.
A
third characteristic of this method is that the attack is directed against
forces of evil rather than against persons who are caught in those forces. It
is evil we are seeking to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil. Those of
us who struggle against racial injustice must come to see that the basic
tension is not between races...
A
fourth point that must be brought out concerning nonviolent resistance is that
it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of
spirit. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. In
struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow
themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with
hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along
the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off
the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to
the center of our lives...
...
it means understanding, redeeming good will for all men, an overflowing love
which seeks nothing in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of
men. When we love on the agape level we love men not because we like them, not
because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but because God loves them. Here
we rise to the position of loving the person who does the evil deed while
hating the deed he does.
Finally,
the method of nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe is on
the side of justice. It is this deep faith in the future that causes the
nonviolent resister to accept suffering without retaliation. He knows that in
his struggle for justice he has cosmic companionship. This belief that God is
on the side of truth and justice comes down to us from the long tradition of
our Christian faith. There is something at the very center of our faith which
reminds us that Good Friday may reign for a day, but ultimately it must give
way to the triumphant beat of the Easter drums...
Source:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Nonviolence and Racial Justice." The
Christian Century, February 6, 1957, pp. 165-167.
DOCUMENT 8: Letter from a
Freedom Rider’s Father, 1961
Berkeley
student John Dolan joined CORE in 1960 and, when the call went out for more
Freedom Riders in late spring of the following year, he decided to head to the
South. Reactions from those close to him were mixed; as he put it, "My
father disinherited me. My mother was worried about my safety. My friends in
college supported me. My older friends from high school were concerned I might
become a communist."
Dolan
was arrested and jailed in Mississippi and Louisiana, and was beaten by the New
Orleans police. Still, Dolan never regretted his decision, which gained him
respect after the fact. Even his father put him back in his will. More
recently, he has spoken about his experiences to students.
He
saved this letter from his father, in which the father expresses disappointment
at his son's decision.
________________________________________
John,
It
is now 1:30 a.m., but I have been unable to sleep so will kill the time by
writing you.
Upon
my return home this evening I found your note, together with your drums and
other items. I will put your things in the front room and take good care of
them for you in the hope that someday your sanity will return.
Your
group has received excellent publicity in all bay area newspapers, so any
attempt to keep this episode quiet is utterly impossible. The men in the band
were all studiously polite to me today, but I learned that nearly all of them
had read the account in one paper or another.
It
seems incredible that a man with a brilliant mind and all the opportunities
that you have had should choose to pursue such a ridiculous course. One of the
men in the band who is a student at Cal told Bob Hanson that you had the
reputation of being "a crazy mixed-up kid." I wonder if psychiatric
help would be of any value, and I write this in all seriousness. I wish you
would give the matter serious though.
If
I had any religious convictions I could pray, but without faith of any kind in
the supernatural I can only hope, and at present it doesn't seem that hope is
of any great value.
In
the years ahead your actions will prove a severe handicap in many fields,
particularly in any government positions and also in teaching if you decide to
make that your career.
In
the past three years I have tried every system that I could think of.
Arguments, threats, cajolery, humor and bribery with no effect whatsoever.
Presumably as a parent I have been a miserable failure.
When
you first advised me of your decision, I characteristically blew my top, and
was quite bitter. This feeling is now modified into one of deep disappointment
and an aching void.
I
should type this, but I just do not have the ambition. Hope you will be able to
decipher the major portion of it.
Sorry
I can't wish you "Bon Voyage," but with all my failings, no one has
ever called me a hypocrite.
Your
Father
Source:
John Dolan, August 2006. Also online at:
http://www.freedomridersfoundation.com/photos.articles.and.artifacts.html
DOCUMENT 9: Following their
months-long bus boycott, the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama got word
that the Supreme Court had decided in their favor, and that the buses would
have to desegregate. The boycotters' organization, the Montgomery Improvement
Association, circulated the following flyer to advise people on how to behave
in order to maintain the movement's non-violent character and enjoy a dignified
victory.
Rules
for Riding Desegregated Buses
Integrated
Bus Suggestions
December
19, 1956
This
is a historic week because segregation on buses has now been declared
unconstitutional. Within a few days the Supreme Court Mandate will reach Montgomery
and you will be reboarding integrated buses. This places upon us all a
tremendous responsibility of maintaining, in face of what could be some
unpleasantness, a calm and loving dignity befitting good citizens and members
of our Race. If there is violence in word or deed it must not be our people who
commit it.
For
your help and convenience the following suggestions are made. Will you read,
study and memorize them so that our non-violent determination may not be
endangered. First, some general suggestions:
1.
Not all white people are opposed to integrated buses. Accept goodwill on the
part of many.
2.
The whole bus is now for the use of all people. Take a vacant seat.
3.
Pray for guidance and commit yourself to complete non-violence in word and
action as you enter the bus.
4.
Demonstrate the calm dignity of our Montgomery people in your actions.
5.
In all things observe ordinary rules of courtesy and good behavior.
6.
Remember that this is not a victory for Negroes alone, but for all Montgomery
and the South. Do not boast! Do not brag!
7.
Be quiet but friendly; proud, but not arrogant; joyous, but not boisterous.
8.
Be loving enough to absorb evil and understanding enough to turn an enemy into
a friend.
Now
for some specific suggestions:
1.
The bus driver is in charge of the bus and has been instructed to obey the law.
Assume that he will cooperate in helping you occupy any vacant seat.
2.
Do not deliberately sit by a white person, unless there is no other seat.
3.
In sitting down by a person, white or colored, say "May I" or
"Pardon me" as you sit. This is a common courtesy.
4.
If cursed, do not curse back. If pushed, do not push back. If struck, do not
strike back, but evidence love and goodwill at all times.
5.
In case of an incident, talk as little as possible, and always in a quiet tone.
Do not get up from your seat! Report all serious incidents to the bus driver.
6.
For the first few days try to get on the bus with a friend in whose
non-violence you have confidence. You can uphold one another by glance or
prayer.
7.
If another person is being molested, do not arise to go to his defense, but
pray for the oppressor and use moral and spiritual forces to carry on the
struggle for justice.
8.
According to your own ability and personality, do not be afraid to experiment
with new and creative techniques for achieving reconciliation and social
change.
9.
If you feel you cannot take it, walk for another week or two. We have
confidence in our people.
DOCUMENT 10: An Ugly Situation in
Birmingham: 1963 press conference, President John F. Kennedy:
THE
PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I am gratified to note the progress in the efforts
by white and Negro citizens to end an ugly situation in Birmingham, Alabama. I
have made it clear since assuming the Presidency that I would use all available
means to protect human rights, and uphold the law of the land. Through
mediation and persuasion and, where that effort has failed, through lawsuits
and court actions, we have attempted to meet our responsibilities in this most
difficult field where Federal court orders have been circumvented, ignored, or
violated. We have committed all of the power of the Federal Government to
insure respect and obedience of court decisions, and the law of the land.In the
City of Birmingham, the Department of Justice some time ago instituted an
investigation into voting discrimination. It supported in the Supreme Court an
attack on the city's segregation ordinances. We have, in addition, been
watching the present controversy, to detect any violation of the Federal civil
rights or other statutes. In the absence of such violation or any other Federal
jurisdiction, our efforts have been focused on getting both sides together to
settle in a peaceful fashion the very real abuses too long inflicted on the
Negro citizens of that community.Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall,
representing the Attorney General and myself on the scene, has made every
possible effort to halt a spectacle which was seriously damaging the reputation
of both Birmingham and the country. Today, as the result of responsible efforts
on the part of both white and Negro leaders over the last 72 hours, the
business community of Birmingham has responded in a constructive and
commendable fashion and pledged that substantial steps would begin to meet the
justifiable needs of the Negro community.Negro leaders have announced
suspension of their demonstrations, and when the newly elected Mayor who has
indicated his desire to resolve these problems takes office, the City of Birmingham
has committed itself wholeheartedly to continuing progress in this area.While
much remains to be settled before the situation can be termed satisfactory, we
can hope that tensions will ease and that this case history which has so far
only narrowly avoided widespread violence and fatalities will remind every
State, every community, and every citizen how urgent it is that all bars to
equal opportunity and treatment be removed as promptly as possible.I urge the
local leaders of Birmingham, both white and Negro, to continue their
constructive and cooperative efforts.
QUESTION:
Mr. President, against the background or possibility of similar trouble
developing in other Southern towns, I wonder if you could tell us how you
regard the techniques that were used over the last few days in Birmingham by
either side, dogs and fire hoses used by one side, and the use of school
children and protest marchers by the other side?
THE
PRESIDENT: I think what we are interested in now is seeing the situation
peacefully settled in the next 12, 24 hours. I think all of our statements
should be devoted to that end. Quite obviously, as my remarks indicated, the
situation in Birmingham was damaging the reputation of Birmingham and the
United States. It seems to me that the best way to prevent that kind of damage,
which is very serious, is to, in time, take steps to provide equal treatment to
all of our citizens. That is the best remedy in this case and other cases.
QUESTION:
Mr. President, do you see any hope of Birmingham serving as a model for a
solution in other communities facing similar problems?
THE
PRESIDENT: We will have to see what happens in Birmingham over the next few
days...
QUESTION:
Mr. President, in the Alabama crisis at Birmingham, according to your
interpretation of the powers of the Presidency, was there power that you
possessed either by statute or the Constitution that you chose not to invoke or
did you use your powers in your view to the fullest in this controversy?
THE
PRESIDENT: There isn't any Federal statute that was involved in the last few
days in Birmingham, Alabama. I indicated the areas where the Federal Government
had intervened in Birmingham, the matter of voting, the matter of dealing with
education, and other matters. On the specific question of the parades, that did
not involve a Federal statute.
QUESTION:
On the matter of improving race relations in the United States, do you think
that a fireside chat on civil rights would serve a constructive purpose?
THE
PRESIDENT: Well, it might. If I thought it would, I would give one. We have
attempted to use all -- what happens is we move situation by situation. Quite
obviously all these situations carry with them dangers. We have not got a
settlement yet in Birmingham. I attempted to make clear my strong view that
there is an important moral issue involved of equality for all of our citizens.
And until you give it to them you are going to have difficulties as we have had
this week in Birmingham. The time to give it to them is before the disasters
come and not afterwards. But I made a speech the night of Mississippi at Oxford
to the citizens of Mississippi and others that did not seem to do much good.
But this doesn't mean we should not keep on trying. As the result of
responsible efforts on the part of both white and Negro leaders over the last
72 hours, the business community of Birmingham, and so on. So it is their
efforts, and not the Federal Government's efforts. I would think it would be
much better to permit the community of Birmingham to proceed now in the next 24
hours to see if we can get some -- and not from here....
Source:
President Kennedy's press conference #55, May 8, 1963. John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.
DOCUMENT 11: Patience is a
Dirty Word
At
age 23, John Lewis, chairman of SNCC, was a veteran of many civil rights
battles. On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington, he gave one of the
major speeches.
Though
not as well known as Reverend Martin Luther King's "I have a dream"
speech, delivered the same day, Lewis' fiery words cut deep, accusing the
federal government of conspiring to ignore inequality. The text of Lewis'
speech was itself a battleground; some of the most controversial words and
phrases were removed, and the ending was reworked, at the insistence of other
march leaders. The text here is the version Lewis delivered.
We
march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for
hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here. They have no money for their
transportation, for they are receiving starvation wages, or no wages at all. In
good conscience, we cannot support wholeheartedly the administration's civil
rights bill. There's not one thing in the bill that will protect our people
from police brutality.
This
bill will not protect young children and old women from police dogs and fire
hoses, for engaging in peaceful demonstrations: This bill will not protect the
citizens in Danville, Virginia, who must live in constant fear in a police
state. This bill will not protect the hundreds of people who have been arrested
on trumped-up charges. What about the three young men in Americus, Georgia, who
face the death penalty for engaging in peaceful protest? The voting section of
this bill will not help thousands of black citizens who want to vote. It will
not help the citizens of Mississippi, of Alabama and Georgia, who are qualified
to vote but lack a sixth-grade education. "ONE MAN, ONE VOTE" is the
African cry. It is ours, too. It must be ours.People have been forced to leave
their homes because they dared to exercise their right to register to vote.
What is there in this bill to ensure the equality of a maid who earns $5 a week
in the home of a family whose income is $100,000 a year?
For
the first time in one hundred years this nation is being awakened to the fact
that segregation is evil and that it must be destroyed in all forms. Your
presence today proves that you have been aroused to the point of action. We are
now involved in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of political
leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with
open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. What political
leader here can stand up and say, "My party is the party of principles?"
The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also
the party of Goldwater. Where is our party?
In
some parts of the South we work in the fields from sunup to sundown for $12 a
week. In Albany, Georgia, nine of our leaders have been indicted not by
Dixiecrats but by the federal government for peaceful protest. But what did the
federal government do when Albany's deputy sheriff beat attorney C. B. King and
left him half dead? What did the federal government do when local police
officials kicked and assaulted the pregnant wife of Slater King, and she lost
her baby?It seems to me that the Albany indictment is part of a conspiracy on
the part of the federal government and local politicians in the interest of
expediency.
The
revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political
and economic slavery. The nonviolent revolution is saying, "We will not
wait for the courts to act, for we have been waiting for hundreds of years. We
will not wait for the President, the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we
will take matters into our own hands and create a source of power, outside of
any national structure, that could and would assure us a victory."To those
who have said, "Be patient and wait," we must say that "patience"
is a dirty and nasty word. We cannot be patient, we do not want to be free
gradually. We want our freedom, and we want it now. We cannot depend on any
political party, for both the Democrats and the Republicans have betrayed the
basic principles of the Declaration of Independence.We all recognize the fact
that if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in
our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about. In the struggle, we
must seek more than civil rights; we must work for the community of love, peace
and true brotherhood. Our minds, souls and hearts cannot rest until freedom and
justice exist for all people.
The
revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy is trying to take the revolution out
of the streets and put it into the courts. Listen, Mr. Kennedy. Listen, Mr.
Congressman. Listen, fellow citizens. The black masses are on the march for
jobs and freedom, and we must say to the politicians that there won't be a
"cooling-off" period.
We
will not stop. If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress,
the time will come when we will not confine our marching to Washington. We will
march through the South, through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of
Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets of Birmingham.
But we will march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that
we have shown here today.
By
the force of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter
the desegregated South into a thousand pieces and put them back together in the
image of God and democracy.
We
must say, "Wake up, America. Wake up! For we cannot stop, and we will not
be patient."
DOCUMENT
12: No School Will be Segregated
In this televised address, delivered on September 13, 1962,
Mississippi governor Ross Barnett defied the Supreme Court's order to admit
James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Barnett claimed the federal
government was interfering in what was a state matter.
Two weeks later the situation would escalate to crisis level as
segregationist crowds erupted in riots and violence at the Ole Miss campus.
President John F. Kennedy sent federal troops to enforce the court order and
guarantee Meredith's enrollment.
"The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by
it to the States are reserved to the States respectively or to the
people." These are not my words. This is the Tenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.
Ladies
and gentlemen, my friends and fellow Mississippians: I speak to you as your
Governor in a solemn hour in the history of our great state and in our nation's
history. I speak to you now in the moment of our greatest crisis since the War
Between the States.
In
the absence of constitutional authority and without legislative action, an
ambitious federal government, employing naked and arbitrary power, has decided
to deny us the right of self-determination in the conduct of the affairs of our
sovereign state. Having long since failed in their efforts to conquer the
indomitable spirit of the people of Mississippi and their unshakable will to
preserve the sovereignty and majesty of our commonwealth, they now seek to
break us physically with the power of force.
Even
now as I speak to you tonight, professional agitators and the unfriendly
liberal press and other trouble makers are pouring across our borders intent
upon instigating strife among our people. Paid propagandists are continually
hammering away at us in the hope that they can succeed in bringing about a
division among us. Every effort is being made to intimidate us into submission
to the tyranny of judicial oppression. The Kennedy Administration is lending
the power of the federal government to the ruthless demands of these agitators.
Thus we see our own federal government teamed up with a motley array of
un-American pressure groups against us. This is the crisis we face today.
Principle
is a little word. It is easy to speak and to spell and in print is easily
overlooked, but it is a word that is tremendous in its import and meaning
denoting respect and obedience to those fundamental and eternal truths that
should be respected and form the way of life of all honest and right-thinking
people. Expediency is for the hour; principles are for the ages. Principles are
a passion for truth and right and justice, and as long as the rains descend and
the winds blow, it is but folly to build upon the shifting sands of political
expediency. It is better for one's blood to be poisoned than for him to be
poisoned in his principles. So deep and compelling were the convictions and
principles of our forefathers that they risked even death to establish this now
desecrated Constitution as the American way of life and handed it to us in
trust as our sacred heritage and for our preservation.This is the day, and this
is the hour. Knowing you as I do, there is no doubt in my mind what the
overwhelming majority of loyal Mississippians will do. They will never submit
to the moral degradation, to the shame and the ruin which have faced all others
who have lacked the courage to defend their beliefs.
I
have made my position in this matter crystal clear. I have said in every county
in Mississippi that no school in our state will be integrated while I am your
Governor. I shall do everything in my power to prevent integration in our
schools. I assure you that the schools will not be closed if this can possibly
be avoided, but they will not be integrated if I can prevent it. As your
Governor and Chief Executive of the sovereign State of Mississippi, I now call
on every public official and every private citizen of our great state to join
me..
DOCUMENT 13: A Volatile Time, 1961
J.
Robert Elliott was the federal judge who stopped civil rights activists from
marching in Albany, Georgia. In this account, he explains his decision.
J.
Robert Elliott retired Dec. 31, 2000, as the nation's oldest federal district
judge. In his nearly 40 years on the bench, he rarely granted interviews and
rarely, if ever, elaborated on his decisions...
...Within
the sprawling Middle District of Georgia, black residents and their allies were
fighting to end segregation of public accommodations, voting practices, schools
and other public facilities.
Suddenly,
the man whose fiery oratory helped elect Herman Talmadge -- one of the South's
staunchest segregationists -- was now charged by his judicial oath with
maintaining order while desegregating schools and public facilities.
The
segregationist politics that ruled Georgia -- policies Elliott helped write and
maintain -- collided head-on with forces seeking to desegregate the state and
nation. Judge J. Robert Elliott had to give the orders opening public
facilities to everyone.
"It
was just a matter of doing the job, of doing what was the law," Elliott
said. "And, therefore, my views changed. They had to and they did. I can
see that there was a clash there, and I tried to do what was right."
His
first test on the civil rights issue was brewing before Elliott was even
nominated.
The
battleground was Albany, Ga. -- 90 miles south of Columbus.
It
was 1961 and names that would become national figures were converging on
Albany.
The
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph David Abernathy led protests.
Leaders
from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society urged
local residents to stage sit-ins, marches, demonstrations and protests.
Their
battle to win the rights their white neighbors took for granted was on.
Protesters
were arrested by the hundreds in 1961 and early 1962, sometimes led by Martin
Luther King Jr., sometimes by Abernathy.
But
mostly the protests were led by Albany Movement leaders such as Dr. William G.
Anderson and two brothers, Slater King and C. B. King, an attorney who fought
the group's legal battles and sought release of those arrested.
It
was a time of great hope, fear, concern, pride and even joy, said Carol King,
widow of C. B. King.
Poor
blacks who walked the streets barefoot and climbed aboard crowded trucks before
dawn to ride to nearby farms, others who made their way to the homes of wealthy
white families to care for their children and their houses, some who trekked to
kitchens throughout the city to cook for thousands of Dougherty County
residents and visitors -- afterward, all came together to sing, clap hands,
pray and march for freedom not just for themselves, but for their children and
their children's children.
"It
was wonderful to see these people come free," said Carol King. "It
was amazing. They would say, 'We can do this.' They felt good about themselves
and about each other."
By
July 1962, daily protests included blacks seeking service at downtown lunch
counters, in "white" sections of the city's theaters, public
libraries, city parks, bowling areas and recreation facilities. Pairs of black
residents would go to all-white churches on Sundays.
By
mid-July, more than 1,000 had been arrested -- and Martin Luther King Jr. was
scheduled to rejoin the Albany Movement for another march.
On
July 20, Elliott issued an injunction. He stopped further protests or marches,
but didn't explain why he issued the order later overturned by the Fifth
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Elliott
says now that ruling has been "often misunderstood."
It
was based, he says, on a threat of violence against protesters -- specifically
against Martin Luther King Jr.
"In
previous marches, Martin Luther King Jr. had marched at the head of the parade
saying something to the effect of 'Kill me! Kill me!' " Elliott said.
"Well, there were groups that had said if he did that again, they would.
That was the truth of it. I did it to prevent violence."
The
injunction prevented at least one weekend of marches by movement leaders. It
came at a time of heightened tensions and could have kept someone from shooting
King or other marchers, Elliott says.
"Maybe
he would have been killed and maybe he wouldn't, " Elliott said. "All
I know is he didn't parade -- and he wasn't killed."
Carol
King said the atmosphere was "very tense" atmosphere and the lives of
several leaders, including her husband, were threatened. She believed the
threats were very real.
"Slater,
my brother-in-law, gave me a gun to protect myself because I was here at home
with five children while C. B. was out working to cover all those who were arrested,"
she said. "Cars of white men would come and drive slowly past our house or
park out in front. I guess they were waiting for my husband. I don't think they
had anything positive in mind."
The
same scene occurred all over town.
"They
would call and tell me they were going to murder C. B., and they did this
repeatedly," she said. "They'd say, 'We're going to get him. We're
going to blow his brains out.' "
More
than 3,000 Ku Klux Klan members assembled nightly in an open pasture less than
a mile from her home.
It
was a volatile time, but Carol King heard of no direct threat that Martin
Luther King Jr. or other leaders would be shot if they marched as planned.
During
hearings into whether the injunction should be reissued, she sat in court,
listened to the testimony and watched closely. She came away with an
unfavorable opinion of Elliott.
"The
judge was very negative," she said.
Two
years later, Elliott ruled that blacks had the right to peaceful protest. He
enjoined the city of Albany from arresting protesters as they had in 1962.
As
Elliott prepared to retire, work was finishing on a new federal building in
Albany. It will be named for C. B. King.
Houston,
Jim. "Judge Elliott Reflects on Career." Columbus [Georgia]
Ledger-Enquirer, July 4, 2006.
DOCUMENT 14: One
Volunteer’s Freedom Summer: Violence Against Volunteers
...The...
most serious incidents concerning volunteers were beatings. The first occurred
on July 10 when the Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld of Cleveland, (a Ministers Project volunteer)
and two white male college students were beaten while on their way to one of
the churches where lunch was served after a morning of canvassing. They were
attacked by two white men who had been following them in a pickup truck without
license plates. Shouting "white nigger" and "nigger lover"
they beat the rabbi and one of the students with an iron bar. The other student
was kicked down an embankment, pummeled and kicked, and finally, his assailant
shoved his canvassing notes into his mouth, shouting "eat this... nigger
lover." All three were treated at a hospital and the rabbi was
hospitalized over night.
For
a city whose white population continually expresses its shock and righteous
indignation at the "lawlessness" of New York City, Hattiesburg didn't
do too well that day. White people watched the beating from their porches and
front lawns, but no one called the police until other volunteers returned to
the scene to look for the rabbi's glasses.
Both
the police chief and the mayor issued strong statements, saying the assailants
would be sought and prosecuted for "assault and battery with intent to
kill," a felony. The FBI investigated and a week later, one of the
assailants turned himself in. The two were charged with "assault and battery
with intent to maim, also a felony, but the grand jury refused to indict them.
The district attorney then charged them with simple assault and battery (a
misdemeanor) and they each paid a $500 fine. Each also received a suspended
sentence of 90 days.
...The
civil rights act, signed on July 2, brought little change in Hattiesburg. Some
local Negroes tested the lunch counters and were served at Woolworths's and
Kress's both of which immediately became the objects of Citizens' Council
boycotts. (Mississippi's anti-boycott law is enforced only against civil rights
groups.) Walgreens took the coward's way out and closed the lunch counter...
Source:
Shaw, Terri. "Freedom Summer Recollections." Civil Rights in
Mississippi Digital Archive, The University of Southern Mississippi.
http://anna.lib.usm.edu/%7Espcol/crda/shaw/ts001.htm
DOCUMENT 15: What does Mississippi
have to do with Harlem?, Malcolm X
In
fall 1964, after the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's delegates had been
denied seats at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, Malcolm X
delivered this speech. ...How can you and I be looked upon as men, with black
women being beaten, and nothing being done about it? Black children and black
babies being beaten, and nothing being done about it? No, we don't deserve to
be recognized and respected as men, as long as our women can be brutalized...
and nothing can be done about it except we sit around singing "We Shall
Overcome."
...If
they don't want to deal with the Freedom Democratic Party, then we'll give them
something else to deal with. If they don't want to deal with the Student
Nonviolent Committee, then we have to give them an alternative. Never stick
someone out there without an alternative. We waste our time. Give them this or
give them that. Give them the choice between this or that...
...We
will never communicate talking one language and he's talking another language.
He's talking the language of violence...Let's learn his language. If his
language is with a shotgun, get a shotgun. If he only understands the language
of a rifle, get a rifle. If he only understands the language of a rope, get a
rope. But don't waste time talking the wrong language to a man, if you want to
really communicate with him. Speak his language. And there's nothing wrong with
that. If something was wrong with that language, the Federal government would
have stopped the cracker from speaking it to you and me. I might say, secondly,
some people wonder well, what does Mississippi have to do with Harlem?... America
is Mississippi. There's no such thing as a Mason-Dixon line. It's America.
There's no such thing as the South. It's America. If one room in your house is
dirty, you've got a dirty house. If the closet is dirty, you've got a dirty
house. Don't say that that room is dirty but the rest of my house is clean.
You're over the whole house. You have authority over the whole house. The
entire house is under your jurisdiction. And the mistake that you and I make is
letting these northern crackers shift the weight to these southern crackers.
Every
senator from a state where our people are deprived of the right to vote,
they're in Washington, D.C. illegally...
...Out
of 36 [Congressional] committees that govern the foreign and domestic direction
of this country, 23 are in the hands of southern racists. And the reason
they're in the hands of southern racists is because the areas from which they
come the black man is deprived of his right to vote. If we had the ballot in
that area, those racists would not be in Washington, D.C. There'd be some black
faces there. There'd be some brown and some yellow and some red faces there.
there'd be some faces other than those cracker faces that are there right now.
So what happens in Mississippi and the south has a direct bearing on what
happens to you and me here in Harlem.
And
likewise, out of the Democratic party, which black people supported --
recently, I think, something like 97 percent -- all of these crackers -- and
that's what they are, crackers -- they belong to the Democratic party. That's
the party they belong to. Same one you belong to. Same one you support. Same
one you say is going to get you this, and get you that. Why, the base of the
Democratic party is in the South. The foundation of its authority is in the
South. The head of the Democratic party is sitting in the White House. He could
have gotten Mrs. Hamer in Atlantic City. He could have opened up his mouth and
had her seated. Hubert Humphrey could have opened his mouth and had her seated.
Wagner, the mayor, right here, could have opened up his mouth, and used his
weight, and had her seated. Don't be talking about some crackers down in
Mississippi, in Alabama, in Georgia. All of them are playing the same game.
Lyndon B. Johnson is the head of the cracker party...
...These
northern crackers are in cahoots with these southern crackers. Only these
northern crackers smile in your face, and show you their teeth, then they stick
the knife in your back when you turn around....
Wagner
is a Democrat. He belongs to the same party as Eastland. Johnson is a Democrat.
He belongs to the same party as Eastland. Now, Wagner was in Atlantic City...
Lyndon B. Johnson was in Atlantic City. Hubert Humphrey was in Atlantic City.
The crackers that you voted for were in Atlantic City. What did they do for you
when you wanted to sit down? They were quiet. They were silent. They said don't
rock the boat...
As
Mrs. Hamer pointed out, the brothers and the sisters in Mississippi are being
beaten and killed for no reason other than they want to be treated as
first-class citizens. There's only one way to be a first-class citizen. There's
only one way to be a first-class citizen. There's only one way to be
independent. There's only one way to be free. It's not something that someone
gives to you. It's something that you take... If you can't take it you don't
deserve it. Nobody can give it to you... We obey the law... But at the same
time, at any moment that you and I are involved in any kind of action that is
legal, that is in accord with our civil rights, in accord with the courts of
this land, in accord with the Constitution, when all of these things are on our
side and we still can't get it...
We
have to let the people in Mississippi as well as New York and elsewhere know,
that freedom comes to us either by ballot, or by bullet. That's the only way
freedom is gotten. Freedom is gotten by ballot, or bullet. These are the only
two avenues, the only two roads, the only two methods or means, either ballot
or bullet. When you know that, then you are careful how you use the word
freedom... They've always said that I'm anti-white. I'm for anybody who's for
freedom. I'm for anybody who's for freedom. I'm for anybody who's for justice.
I'm for anybody who's for equality. I'm not for anybody who tells me to sit
around and wait for mine. I'm not for anybody who tells me to turn the other
cheek when a cracker is busting up my jaw. I'm not for anybody who tells black
people to be nonviolent while nobody is telling white people to be
nonviolent... Source: Malcolm X, speech at Harlem Rally, 1964.
DOCUMENT 16: Panther’s Ten Point
Program/October 1966 Black Panther Party Platform and Program
What
We Want/What We Believe
1.
We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
We
believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our
destiny.
2.
We want full employment for our people. We believe that the federal government
is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income.
We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full
employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen
and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize
and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
3.
We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.
We
believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the
overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was
promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black
people. We will accept the payment as currency which will be distributed to our
many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the
genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The
American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over twenty million black
people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.
4.
We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings. We believe that if the
white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the
housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community,
with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.
5.
We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent
American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our
role in the present-day society. We believe in an educational system that will
give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of
himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to
relate to anything else.
6.
We want all black men to be exempt from military service. We believe that Black
people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist
government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of
color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white
racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and
violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means
necessary.
7.
We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. We
believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black
self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from
racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore
believe that all black people should arm themselves for self defense.
8.
We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city
prisons and jails. We believe that all black people should be released from the
many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial
trial.
9.
We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury
of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the
Constitution of the United States. We believe that the courts should follow the
United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The
14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his
peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious,
geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the
court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the
black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries
that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the
black community.
10.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as
our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be
held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be
allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people
as to their national destiny.
When
in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume,
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws
of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation.
We
hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That,
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown,
that mankind are more disposed to supper, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But,
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariable the same
object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new
guards for their future security.
Source:
"Black Panther Party Ten Point Program." The Sixties Project.
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/
Manifestos/Panther_platform.html.
DOCUMENT 17: Excerpt from Anne Moody's Coming
of Age in Mississippi (1968)
From
Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968):
I
sat there listening to "We Shall Overcome," looking out of the window
at the passing Mississippi landscape. Images of all that had happened kept
crossing my mind: the Taplin burning, the Birmingham church bombing,, Medgar
Evers' murder, the blood gushing out of McKinley's head, and all the other
murders. I saw the face of Mrs. Chinn as she said, "We ain't big enough to
do it by ourselves," C.O.'s face when he gave me that pitiful wave from
the chain gang. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes.
"Moody…"
it was little Gene again interrupting his singing. "Moody, we're gonna git
things straight in Washington, huh?"
I
didn't answer him. I knew I didn't have to. He looked as if he knew exactly
what I was thinking. "I wonder. I wonder."
We
shall overcome, We shall overcome
We
shall overcome some day.
I
WONDER. I really WONDER.
DOCUMENT 18: Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin
Luther King, Jr., 1963
You speak of
our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that
fellow clergyman would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I
began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces
in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of
Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of
self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to
segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree
of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by
segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other
force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously closed on
advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups
that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being
Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over
the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of
people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated
Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible
"devil."
I have tried
to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the
"do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the
black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent
protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church,
the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle.
If this
philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am
convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white
brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators"
those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support
our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and
despair, seek solace and security in blacknationalist ideologies -- a
development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed
people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually
manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro.
Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something
without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously,
he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa
and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean,
the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the
promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has
engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public
demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and
latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make
prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -- and try to
understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in
nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a
threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of
your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy
discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct
action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.
DOCUMENT 19: JFK SPEECH:
"We
preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom
here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to
each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we
have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste
system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes? Now the
time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham
and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or
legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them."
—President
Kennedy
DOCUMENT
20: BOB DYLAN, "THE DEATH OF EMMITT TILL"
Bob
Dylan - The Death of Emmett Till Lyrics
'Twas
down in Mississippi not so long ago
When
a young boy from Chicago town
Stepped
through a Southern door
This
boy's dreadful tragedy
I
can still remember well
The
color of his skin was black
And
his name was Emmett Till
Some
men, they dragged him to a barn
And
there they beat him up
They
said they had a reason
But
I can't remember what
They
tortured him and did some things
Too
evil to repeat
There
were screaming sounds inside the barn
There
was laughing sounds out on the street
Then
they rolled his body down a gulf
Amidst
a bloody red rain
And
they threw him in the waters wide
To
cease his screaming pain
The
reason that they killed him there
And
I'm sure, it ain't no lie
Was
just for the fun of killin' him
And
to watch him slowly die
And
then to stop the United States
Of
yelling for a trial
Two
brothers, they confessed
That
they had killed poor Emmett Till
But
on the jury there were men
Who
helped the brothers commit this awful crime
And
so this trial was a mockery
But
nobody there seemed to mind
I
saw the morning papers
But
I could not bear to see
To
see smiling brothers
Walkin'
down the courthouse stairs
For
the jury found them innocent
And
the brothers, they went free
While
Emmett's body floats the foam
Of
a Jim Crow southern sea
If
you can't speak out against this kind of thing
A
crime that's so unjust
Your
eyes are filled with dead men's dirt
Your
mind is filled with dust
Your
arms and legs
They
must be in shackles and chains
And
your blood, it must refuse to flow
For
you let this human race
Fall
down so God-awful low
This
song is just a reminder
To
remind your fellow man
That
this kind of thing still lives today
In
that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan
But
if all of us folks that thinks alike
If
we gave all we could give
We
could make this great land of ours
A
greater place to live
DOCUMENT
21: THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
Gil
Scott-Heron (1970)
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop
out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by
the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be
televised, Brother.
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the
dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a
stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new
process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and
Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the
Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will be live.
DOCUMENT 22:Nina Simone
"MISSISSIPPI GO#$^&AM"
Alabama's
gotten me so upset
Tennessee
made me lose my rest
And
everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Alabama's
gotten me so upset
Tennessee
made me lose my rest
And
everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Can't
you see it
Can't
you feel it
It's
all in the air
I
can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody
say a prayer
Alabama's
gotten me so upset
Tennessee
made me lose my rest
And
everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
This
is a show tune
But
the show hasn't been written for it, yet
Hound
dogs on my trail
School
children sitting in jail
Black
cat cross my path
I
think every day's gonna be my last
Lord
have mercy on this land of mine
We
all gonna get it in due time
I
don't belong here
I
don't belong there
I've
even stopped believing in prayer
Don't
tell me
I
tell you
Me
and my people just about due
I've
been there so I know
They
keep on saying "Go slow!"
But
that's just the trouble
"do
it slow"
Washing
the windows
"do
it slow"
Picking
the cotton
"do
it slow"
You're
just plain rotten
"do
it slow"
You're
too damn lazy
"do
it slow"
The
thinking's crazy
"do
it slow"
Where
am I going
What
am I doing
I
don't know
DOCUMENT 25: "STRANGE
FRUIT"
BILLIE
HOLIDAY
“STRANGE
FRUIT”
Southern
trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood
on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black
bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange
fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral
scene of the gallant south,
The
bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent
of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then
the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here
is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For
the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For
the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here
is a strange and bitter crop.MLK, Non-Violence and Racial Justice, 1957
DOCUMENT 26: Phil Ochs “Here's to the state of
Mississippi,”
Here's
to the state of Mississippi,
For
Underheath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If
you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa
the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The
calender is lyin' when it reads the present time.
Whoa
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of!
Here's
to the people of Mississippi
Who
say the folks up north, they just don't understand
And
they tremble in their shadows at the thunder of the Klan
The
sweating of their souls can't wash the blood from off their hands
They
smile and shrug their shoulders at the murder of a man
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
Here's
to the schools of Mississippi
Where
they're teaching all the children that they don't have to care
All
of rudiments of hatred are present everywhere
And
every single classroom is a factory of despair
There's
nobody learning such a foreign word as fair
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
Here's
to the cops of Mississippi
They're
chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door
Their
bellies bounce inside them as they knock you to the floor
No
they don't like taking prisoners in their private little war
Behind
their broken badges there are murderers and more
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
And,
here's to the judges of Mississippi
Who
wear the robe of honor as they crawl into the court
They're
guarding all the bastions with their phony legal fort
Oh,
justice is a stranger when the prisoners report
When
the black man stands accused the trial is always short
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
And
here's to the government of Mississippi
In
the swamp of their bureaucracy they're always bogging down
And
criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
They're
hoping that no one sees the sights and hears the sounds
And
the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
And
here's to the laws of Mississippi
Congressmen
will gather in a circus of delay
While
the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
Unwed
mothers should be sterilized, I've even heard them say
Yes,
corruption can be classic in the Mississippi way
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
And
here's to the churches of Mississippi
Where
the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust
And
the Sunday morning sermons pander to their lust
The
fallen face of Jesus is choking in the dust
Heaven
only knows in which God they can trust
Oh,
here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Mississippi
find yourself another country to be part of
