National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People?
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Civil Rights organization focused on removing obstacles
to voting for all Americans and to secure full legal
equality (legal challenges for equality in the courts!)
Interracial group
Created in 1909 by W.E.B. DuBois, Moorfield Storey, and
Mary White Ovington
Focus: anti-lynching laws, legal battles for equal housing
and education
Appealed to upper and middle class African Americans
W.E.B.
DuBois –
Co-founder of
NAACP
CORE?
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Congress of Racial Equality – founded
1942
Pacifist – bring about change by
peaceful confrontation
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Interracial
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Sit –ins and Freedom Riders
James Farmer – Founder of CORE
CORE – nonviolent action – Sit-ins and
Freedom Rides
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
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MLK and other African American clergymen
Influence of Walter Rauschenbusch – religious
faith, peace, and love used in struggle for
social justice
Gandhi - nonviolence – “assert their human
dignity”
SCLC –
founded
by MLK
MLK as president of the SCLC
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“nonviolent resistance
transforms weakness
into strength”
Peacefully refuse to
obey unjust laws
Sit - ins
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Young members of CORE and SNCC
Sat down in segregated diners in the South
Refused to leave until they were served – put business
profits at risk
Psychologically empowering and even gained support of
some White students and citizens
Powerful method of protest – white people could not
ignore
What was the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee?

Off-shoot of the SCLC

For students – took focus away from church leaders

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Gave young African Americans a chance to make
decisions about priorities and tactics
More militant than most of the older organizations
Sit - ins
The Greensboro Four
Lunch Counter in Jackson, Mississippi - 1963
Civil Rights and 1960?

Kennedy voiced support for sit-ins
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Nixon said little about CR
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JFK and RFK helped Dr. King when he was arrested in
Atlanta
JFK won 70% of the black vote
JFK says “minimum legislation, maximum executive
action”
Kennedy on CR?
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Appointed approx. 40 African Americans to high
federal positions
JFK appointed Thurgood Marshall to federal appellate
court
Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity – fight
discrimination in federal civil service and in corporations
with government contracts
Created Civil Rights Division of Dept. of Justice
The Freedom Riders?

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Test the Court’s decision to end segregation on buses and
public places
1961 – interracial CORE group rode interstate buses
Attacked and beaten by white mobs in Birmingham and
Anniston, AL

One bus was firebombed
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In Montgomery riders were beaten with bats and pipes
How did the government respond to the
violence?
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RFK sent 400 Federal Marshals for the
rest of the ride
The ICC banned segregation in all
interstate travel
What was the Albany Movement?
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SNCC, NAACP, and local groups from Albany, GA 
coalition to desegregate
Sat-in, boycotted, marched to integrate public facilities
and secure voting rights in Albany, GA
Police Chief Pritchett filled the jails with demonstrators
and prevented white mob violence
Nonviolence of Pritchett denied movement of national
sympathy – movement failed
Integrating Ole Miss
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Sept. 1962 – air force veteran James Meredith won his
case to enroll
Gov. Ross Barnett refused to let him register
RFK sent federal marshals – Barnett encouraged
resistance

Riots  2 killed, 169 marshals injured
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JFK sent 5,000 troops Meredith went to school
James Meredith with NAACP lawyers
Meredith
being
escorted
by Federal
Marshals