The Sixties in America: Social Strife and International Conflict
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The Sixties in America: Social Strife and International Conflict by Troy J. Sacquety Photo collage by D. Telles 22 Veritas best associated with its counter- The rides were designed to test whether the southern Although culture (flower-power) and music, states would uphold federal laws to desegregate interstate the 1960s was a tremendously turbulent decade both travel facilities regardless of local mandates. Originally domestically and internationally for the United States. thirteen participants (seven black and six white) began As historian Dr. Terry H. Anderson stated, “The long the rides aboard commercial Trailways and Greyhound decade was an endless busses. They faced no pageant of political and significant opposition until cultural protests.”1 Other reaching South Carolina. historians, Drs. George B. Then, hostility increased Tindall and David E. Shi to outright violence— said that “many social ills often while public law which had been festering enforcement stood by and for decades suddenly watched—as they traveled forced their way onto through the lower South. the national agenda.”2 Farmer described later Any U.S. soldier— events, “I was scared serving overseas or spitless and desperately stateside—would have wanted to avoid taking been affected by the that ride to Jackson critical issues defining [Mississippi]. Alabama had this period. This was chewed up the original Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), particularly true of the the 1961 Freedom Rides were led by James L. Farmer thirteen interracial CORE Civil Rights Movement and (inset). Violence against the riders, evidenced by the Freedom Riders; they the Cold War. This article burnt-out bus, raised public attention and garnered had been brutalized, will give a brief snapshot status for Farmer as one of the most influential hospitalized, and in one of the decade and show leaders of the Civil Rights movement. case disabled . blacks the reader the chaotic had been brutally pistol- nature of 1960s America whipped and clubbed in relation to both themes. “The long decade was an endless with blackjacks and fists This will help explain why pageant of political and cultural and then thrown, bloodied, 1 it was so important for the protests.” — Dr. Terry H. Anderson into the back of the bus. U.S. to stem Communist Whites had been clobbered insurrections in its own even worse for trying “back yard”—like those to intervene.”3 Television inspired by the Cubans. provided publicity and the The “Sixties” as they momentum grew. Between became known, started June and September over off as a continuation of the 60 separate Freedom Rides socially conservative and took place as volunteers materialistic 1950s—itself poured in despite the an outgrowth of WWII— threats to life. The rides but quickly changed as made the administration of many social and ethnic President John F. Kennedy groups sought equality. take notice as national In the black community, attention was drawn to the the long-simmering Civil Civil Rights Movement. Rights Movement had James H. Meredith, flanked by U.S. Marshals, was the At the same time, the gained momentum, even first African-American student to attend the University violence embarrassed the as it remained fragmented, of Mississippi. Supported by Mississippi’s governor, United States internationally. multi-directional, and lacking Ross R. Barnett, the school’s refusal to allow Meredith However, the rides a single leader. Although the to attend forced President John F. Kennedy to send succeeded in forcing the federal agents and troops to ensure his safety and forced integration of Little desegregation of interstate to quell white mobs. Rock Senior High School travel facilities.4 Racial (Little Rock, Arkansas) in 1957 and sit-ins in Greensboro, events continued into 1962 to keep Civil Rights on the North Carolina, in 1960 had gotten national attention, front pages of national newspapers. the “Freedom Rides,” which began in May 1961, raised James Meredith, an African-American student, awareness more. They were sponsored by the Congress attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi, of Racial Equality (CORE) and led by James L. Farmer. known as “Ole Miss,” but had repeatedly been Vol. 4 No. 4 23 denied admission. The state government supported and drew national attention. Finally the brutality being that position. After President Kennedy ordered U.S. imposed on those advocating equality became abhorred Marshals and federal troops to Oxford, Mississippi, on and repugnant. But internally the Civil Rights Movement 1 October 1962, Meredith was finally granted admission. began to splinter, and radical groups emerged—notably Eventually 12,000 U.S. troops were required to keep and the “Black Power” element—to push away from non- restore order at Ole Miss.5 But now Washington was violent activities. This further strained relations with acting on behalf of the movement. whites within and outside the Movement.8 President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Memorial Day address One of the first and most on 30 May 1963 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania [where visible reactions was the President Abraham Lincoln Watts Riots in Los Angeles, had spoken a hundred years Dr. Martin Luther California, that stretched before] reinforced the federal King, Jr.’s “I Have A from 11 to 15 August 1966. To government’s position: “Until Dream” speech inspired stem the escalating violence, millions. King was justice is blind to color, until the military had to be called assassinated in education is unaware of 1968 for being an in. When order was restored, race, until opportunity is outspoken leader. 34 people were dead, 1,000 unconcerned with the color of injured, 4,000 arrested, and men’s skins, emancipation will over $35 million of property be a proclamation, not a fact.”6 Andrew Goldman, James destroyed.9 Watts and other On 28 August 1963 on the steps E. Chaney, and Michael riots to come destroyed the of the Lincoln Memorial in H. Schwerner were philosophy of non-violent CORE workers murdered Washington D.C., Civil Rights by white-supremacists revolution that Martin Luther leader Dr. Martin Luther on 21 June 1964 near King and other early Civil King, Jr. gave his famous “I Philadelphia, Mississippi. Rights leaders had advocated. Have a Dream” speech during Their gruesome deaths As one historian reflected later, the “March on Washington forced President Lyndon B. “The Watts Riot was the first for Jobs and Freedom.” The Johnson to send in Federal major lesson for the American speech—considered one of the Bureau of Investigation public on the tinderbox most influential in American (FBI) agents because local volatility of segregated inner- history, ended with the words, authorities were complicit city neighborhoods. The riot in the murders. “Let freedom ring. And when provided a sobering preview this happens, and when we of the violent urban uprising allow freedom ring - when of the late 1960s and helped we let it ring from every village define several hardcore and every hamlet, from every political camps: militant state and every city, we will blacks applauded the spectacle be able to speed up that day of rage; moderates lamented when all of God’s children - the riots senselessness black men and white men, Jews and self-destructiveness; and and Gentiles, Protestants and conservative whites viewed Catholics - will be able to join the uprising as a symptom hands and sing in the words of of the aggressive pace of the the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free civil rights legislation.”10 One at last! Free at last! Thank God of those in the last category Almighty, we are free at last!”7 As Dr. Martin Luther King watches, President was future President Richard The speech electrified America, Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 M. Nixon. He condemned the spurred the Movement forward, on 2 July. The act, whose passage was rioters in a 15 August 1966 and helped to pave the way cemented by the murders of Schwerner, U.S. News and World Report for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Goldman, and Cheney and King’s speeches, editorial, by declaring that outlawed racial segregation in schools, which outlawed segregation the riots were a catalyst for a public, places, and employment. and discrimination in public general decline in Americans’ places, schools, and places of employment. But King’s respect for law and order, and that “the nation simply can fervent speech was short-circuited by an event that no longer tolerate men who are above the law.” He cited shocked America. Abraham Lincoln who said, “There is no grievance that On 21 June 1964 three Civil Rights workers, Michael is a fit object of redress by mob law.”11 But, the violence Schwerner, Andrew Goldman, and James Chaney were only got worse. brutally beaten and killed by Ku Klux Klan members near Black Power was most notably influenced by Malcolm X. Philadelphia, Mississippi. The murders rocked the nation Considered its “father,” he was a member of the 24 Veritas Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim group that promoted dictator General Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the Soviet the superiority of their race. Although Malcolm Union was perceived as America’s greatest threat. X later left the organization and was murdered in The Cold War “heated up” on 1 May 1960 when the 1965, the outspoken, powerful orator, had a lasting U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Gary influence on black America. Powers was shot down deep Stokely Carmichael, chairman Francis Gary Powers inside the Soviet Union of the Student Nonviolent was shot down over while conducting a covert Coordinating Committee (SNCC) the Soviet Union on flight. Powers survived and wanted to remove whites from 1 May 1960 while became a news spectacle who conducting a covert black-dominated Civil Rights reconnaissance debunked U.S.