Freedom Is Never Free!
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Freedom Is Never Free! Civics 101 @ FMBC The Fight For Equality Continues Rev. Sandra Caldwell-Williams and Mr. Brandon Neal, Esq. Facilitators Freedom Is Never Free Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) • CORE – organized in Chicago in 1942 was a political offshoot of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Inspired by the principles of Gandhi, CORE’s founders – James Farmer, George Houser and Bernice Fisher, they hoped to use nonviolent resistance to advance the cause of black civil rights. • CORE – The Congress of Racial Equality- April 9, 1947 an interracial group of 9 activists boarded a bus to the nations capital with the intent of testing the enforcement of the Morgan vs. Virginia decision (1946). The Supreme Court had ruled segregation in interstate transit unconstitutional, however bus companies continue with segregated buses, because they argued, they were private companies. Members of a relatively new civil rights organization – CORE, organized the test. Freedom Is Never Free Sit-Ins • February 1, 1960 – Four (4) students from NC A&T College – Ezell Blair, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond –sat down at the whites only lunch counter of Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC. Knowing they would not be served, this was a deliberate protest, intentionally designed to bring attention to the fact that the largest store in the city would allow them to shop for clothing and other merchandise, but would not allow them to eat lunch alongside whites. The reinforcement of that point was made by the students, as they purchased small items, kept their receipts and requested coffee at the counter. Of course, the employees of Woolworth’s refused to serve them, and the students returned to campus; told their fellow students what happened, and the following day 20 more students joined the original 4. • The protest continued and grew during the week – whites retaliated by cursing, throwing food and spitting on protestors. Freedom Is Never Free • The sit-ins spread throughout the South, with active protests in Nashville (John Lewis, James Lawson, Marion Berry, Diane Nash and other students from Fisk University and Vanderbilt Divinity School had staged protests the year before and the Greensboro protests inspired them to hold more). In Atlanta (Julian Bond, Lonnie King and Morehouse students coordinated sit-ins, protesting 10 restaurants at once. Many Atlanta University students spent time in jail, and other protests took place in Hampton, Virginia; Rock Hill, South Carolina (The Friendship 9 – McCrory Lunch counter(1961); Montgomery Alabama and Little Rock, Arkansas. Freedom Is Never Free Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) • The sit-ins, from a tactical perspective were not highly successful – protestors spent time in jail, felt the wrath of whites, however it established a new form of nonviolent direct action protests, and a younger group of civil rights activists – college students rather than middle class, older ministers. • These young protestors sought organization and a accessed that SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) nor the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) were the organizations they should align with. They instead formed their own organization SNCC. • The students felt a generation gap between them and the elders, yet they wanted their support and their financial and organizational strength. Freedom Is Never Free • Ella Baker – was the answer to their angst, as Ms. Baker was growing increasingly alienated from what she viewed as the timidity of the SCLC leadership. Ms. Baker believed that the power of protest should come from the grass roots organizations and not from charismatic leaders like Dr. King. She issued a call for student activists to meet at Shaw University – Raleigh NC, “to help charter future goals for effective activism.” 150 students (inclusive of 12 white students) convened in Raleigh on April 16, 1960. Most gathered viewed the NAACP as too conservative; they respected Dr. King and CORE who emphasized nonviolence. Ms. Baker encouraged them to establish their own course, and voted to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Marion Berry was name chairman, and the following year they aligned with the NAACP, CORE and SCLC and together they challenged segregation in interstate transit. Freedom Is Never Free Freedom Riders • On May 4, 1961 thirteen (13) riders – 7 black and 6 white – boarded buses and left Washington DC journeying to the South. As with earlier attempts (Journey of Reconciliation) they met problems when arriving in the deep South. John Lewis, a passenger on the bus, attempted to enter the white restroom at the Greyhound terminal in Rock Hill, SC, and a group of white ruffians beat him badly. At this point the reality of extreme violence was the forerunner of things to come, as they passed through Atlanta and crossed into Alabama. Freedom Is Never Free • On May 14, the first bus passed through Anniston Alabama headed to Birmingham. Angry whites lined the streets. When the bus arrived, the mob slashed its tires, broke the windows with stones, and the whites rushed the disabled bus. Alabama’s governor (John Malcolm Patterson) had placed an undercover officer on the bus , not to protect the Freedom Riders, but to stop the negative publicity their mission would bring. The undercover officer halted the mob, left the bus and soon after the bus burst into flames from a Molotov cocktail. The second bus met a similar fate in Anniston AL, but made it to Birmingham. At the Birmingham Greyhound terminal whites attacked the riders with no police in site. Police Chief Bull Connor said his officers were off for Mother’s Day. Freedom Is Never Free • Diane Nash organized reinforcements in Nashville; the Freedom Riders regrouped and headed south to Montgomery. Arriving there, John Lewis noticed and eerie silence, and minutes after the bus stopped , whites rushed from nearby streets and buildings and attacked the Riders. Lewis was hit with a milk bottle, and since white ambulances would not pick him up, Lewis lay in the street unconscious. Whites assault a federal official and reporters as well. That same night Dr. King held a rally at 1st Baptist church as a mob threatened to burn the church, filled with 1200 people, to the ground. • Dr. King convinced a reluctant President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to send federal marshals to disperse the mob. The Kennedys made a deal with Senator James Eastland, as the riders began to prepare to head to Mississippi. Eastman promised that police would protect the riders, only if the federal government did not prevent their arrest for traveling “for the avowed purpose of inflaming public opinion.” The Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, sent to Mississippi’s jails and prison farms, where they were brutalized; slept on soiled blankets on concrete floors; many worked outside in oppressive summer heat; beaten by guards for no reason; James Farmer received so little food he lost 30 lbs. The Interstate Commerce Commission finally enforced laws against bus segregation, and fearing intervention from the Kennedy’s, local and state government began to comply. The majority of bus terminals eliminated separate black restrooms and over the next year bus segregation ended. President’s commitment to civil rights was in doubt because of his dependence for support in Congress from Southern Dixiecrats. Freedom Is Never Free Birmingham Church Bombing • August 28, 1963 more than 200,000 people, black and white, converged on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, demanding their civil rights (The March on Washington). The march culminated with Dr. Kings “I Have A Dream” speech, which cast a vision of a racially democratic America. After the march President Kennedy, who privately opposed the protest, met with the organizers, as a purported sign of his commitment to civil rights. The march ended on a sublime note, but a few weeks later the nation would be reminded that seething opposition to racial equality still remained, particularly in the south. • September 15, 1963 a bomb exploded in the basement of Sixteenth St. Baptist Church, killing four black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair, the youngest martyrs of the movement. Robert Chambliss was arrested and convicted of the bombing in 1977. In 2000 the FBI announced that three (3) Klansmen helped perpetrate the murders. Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry were tried and convicted. Herman Cash had already died. • Visceral shock swept the nation and the world over the bombing. Reading List Readings John Hope Franklin and Evelyn Higginbotham, “From Slavery To Freedom : A History of African Americans” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kevin M. Burke “And Still I Rise : Black America Since MLK and Illustrated Chronology” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “Life Upon These Shores : Looking at African American History 1513 – 2008” Gary May, “Bending Toward Justice : The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy” Linda Beatrice Brown, “Belles of Liberty : Gender, Bennett College, And the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, North Carolina James H. Cone, “For My People: Black Theology and the Black Church: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? James Farmer, “Lay Bear The Heart: An Autobiography of The Civil Rights Movement” Michelle Alexander, “The New Jim Crow” Film PBS, “Eyes On The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985” The Fight For