Civil Rights in 1957-1960

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

The Congress of Racial Equality, also known as CORE, is a U. S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. The organization is described to be “open to anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultimate goal of true equality throughout the world.” CORE was founded in 1942 by James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser and Bernice Fisher. The civil rights project sought to enforce pacifist principles as a tactic against segregation, as portrayed in the literary work that inspired the organization’s inception, War without Violence by Krishnalal Shridharani, which outlined Gandhi’s step-by-step instructions for organizing under a nonviolent campaign. At the time, Gandhi was still engaged in non-violent resistance against British imperialism in India. By 1961, CORE held 53 chapters across the United States, which were organized based on a model similar to that of a democratic trade union; monthly membership meetings, elected officers, and volunteer committees.

On April 10, 1947, CORE sent a group of eight white and eight black men on a two-week Journey of Reconciliation through southern states, including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in an effort to end segregation in interstate travel. The members were incarcerated several times, however, the publicity associated with the journeys marked the beginning of a series of similar campaigns, which came to be known as “Freedom Rides.” In 1963, the CORE organization partook in the famous March on Washington, a political rally on in Washington D. C. most remembered for Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic recitation of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Advocating for racial integration and harmony under law, 250,000 citizens, both CORE members and other civil rights activists, marched to the Lincoln Memorial.

In the preceding year, CORE members and other civil rights campaigns launched their Freedom Summer project, the objective being to end the political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the Deep South. Volunteers from the organizations decided to concentrate its efforts on the state of Mississippi, where a mere 6.7% of blacks were registered to vote. While challenging the attendance of the all-white Mississippi representation, CORE volunteers also established 30 Freedom Schools across the state, which infused black history into the core curriculum. These Freedom Schools, while revolutionary in their staunch opposition to racial adversity, were commonly targeted by white mobs and racist police officers. In June of 1964, three leading CORE activists were brutally lynched at the hand of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. It was not until 2005 that the case received a proper trial, which resulted in the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of manslaughter.

SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee)

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was yet another principal civil rights organization founded during the 20th century movement. Consisting primarily of college-age activists, the SNCC evolved from numerous student meetings led by an Ella Baker at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Through the philosophy of nonviolent protest, the SNCC contributed most significantly to the enfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, organizing voter registration drives in Georgia and, particularly, Mississippi. In its beginnings, SNCC members partook in small-scale protests, such as sit-ins at segregated public areas in order to discredit pervasive Jim Crowe and Racist ideology.

The campaign promoted many of the same civil rights projects as fellow organization, Congress of Racial Equality; Freedom Rides in the south to encourage safe integration of blacks and whites on interstate travel, Freedom Summers to promote the enfranchisement of blacks in the south, and the March on Washington to promote collective harmony amongst all races. After the Democratic convention of 1964, many within the organization grew skeptical about the tactics of nonviolence, and the group soon began to split into two factions – one favoring a continuation of nonviolent, integration-oriented existence within the political system, and the other moving towards Black Power and revolutionary ideologies. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael took over as chairman of the SNCC, and soon after advocated for Black Power and a departure from the mainstream Civil Rights Movement.

This secession from the liberality of the national movement proved to be harmful to the cohesiveness of the SNCC, and the organization largely disappeared in Southern and Northern communities in the 1970’s. In spite of this, the SNCC was still a crucial contributor to the Civil Rights Movement in the south, as the promotion of integration by the youth of America signified a revolutionary turning point for cultural and social mores in the United States.

Civil Right Issues in 1957:

McCarthyism

The McCarthy Era; also known as the Red Scare, was a period of time in the United States when fear of the communist was commonplace, and accusations were made as to the integrity of a person based on whether or not he was a "communist". Often, these accusations were wild and foundless, however, there were repercussions for all the accused.

John Henry Faulk was a talk show host who had participated in taking control of a union from officers working for AWARE, INC. AWARE was an organization that would examine individuals for "disloyalty", and certainly the removal of its officers from control over a union was enough to be labeled as disloyal.

After publicly declaring Faulk a communist, he was fired from his current job, and an offer from another station was retracted. Faulk sued AWARE in 1957, and eventually won the case in 1962. This case set the precedent that anyone who calls someone a "communist" is legally liable for an professional or fnancial damage caused to that person.

Court cases such as Yates V. US 1957, where the convictions of 14 'communists' were reversed, and Watkins V. US 1957, where the company HUAC was punished for punishing its "uncooperative" witnesses, mark the end of the McCarthy era; the rights of the people were no longer at jeopardy in the courts, and soon the Red scare faded away.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in early January, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. Issuing a document, the group declared that civil rights are an essential part of democracy, segregation needs to end, andt all African Americans should reject segregation nonviolently. It was founded by Martin Luther King Jr., served as the fist president, Ralph Abernathy, who served as the treasurer, Fred Shuttlesworth, Bayard Rustin, and others. The two objectives of SCLC were to use only nonviolent protest methods and to appeal to the moral conscience of all Americans. Therefore, SCLC became the most significant organization in civil rights campaigning.

The SCLC coordinated the civil rights activities of other local organizations and it was involved in several protest campaigns including the desegregation of downtown Birmingham, Alabama, the March for Jobs and Freedom on Washington, voting rights in Selma, Alabama, and also many sit-ins and voter registration drives. It also coordinated the activities of black churches. In late 1957, King started the "Crusade for Citizenship" through the SCLC. This program intended to help register two million black voters in time for the 1960 presidential election, but was unsuccessful.

The SCLC drastically helped the African American Civil Rights movement as soon as it was joined by local activist and poor black populations. It was significant to this time because it helped create more organization in the civil rights protests.

Civil Right Issues in 1960:

The Pill

In 1960 Margaret Sanger invented the most influencial drug to the women's civil rights movement. The classic, simplistic contraceptive, the birth control pill, redefined the societal role of women.The pill fashioned a new strength for women because it ignited a sexual revolution and redefined women’s roles. The primitive establishment of women in society was based off reproduction and because of the interference with that societal standing, women were given freedom from the male supremacy that still lingered even after they gained suffrage.

Women had the chance to take up professions because of their infertility and could live outside of their roles at the home. Sanger fought to change the rights of women to allow them to truly achieve equality. Women became lawyers because law firms no longer had to worry that the woman was going to get pregnant in the middle of a big case. Women became doctors because they could space their child so that they had time to do the internships and the residencies. Women went to work.

The Pill did more for the equality of women than any other single factor, certainly, in the twentieth century. Women began to see themselves for the first time in all of history as economically self-sustainable units.

Nashville, Tennessee

In 1960, Nashville became the foundation of a nonviolent campaign to end racial segregation and held leaders that would later play a critical role in the United States Civil Rights Movement. The Nashville sit-ins took place in Tennessee in February to May, but the training ground set for ending segregation across the country was only the beginning.

A group of college students and the rest of the Nashville community organized the sit-ins, city marches and a store boycott all with the intention of using nonviolent protestation methods. Preliminary investigations began in December of 1959 for the participants, as the groups purchased items at stores in downtown Nashville and ordered food from lunch counters. The reconnaissance was done with the intention of determining the degree of discrimination and segregation in each setting. When the sit-ins began, over 150 students were arrested as a result despite the continued nonviolent policies of the protestors.

Those that were arrested were represented by a team of 12 lawyers, and although they received overwhelming amounts of support from the African Americans of the city, they were charged with disorderly conduct.

Greensboro Sit-Ins

The African American Civil Rights Movement was strong during the 1950's and the 1960's. There was an increasing amount of protests and segregation in the South was becoming an issue across the country. Almost all public places in the South were segregated, including lunch counters, and a particular store known as Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina.

On February 1, 1960, four African American students: Ezell A. Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain, sat at the counter of Woolworth's store, knowing that it was segregated and that blacks had to stand to eat. They were all students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically black college. The staff of the store refused to feed them, but they were allowed to remain at the counter. Soon after, a waitress notified the owner of the store, C.L. Harris, of the students, and he told her to leave them alone in the hopes that they would eventually leave. Harris soon became nervous that violence would arise, so he called the police, not to have them arrested, but to use them to make sure no violence would pursue.

The next morning, the same four students appeared at the store again, but this time they had twenty three other men and four women to protest as well. As the day continued, more and more students came to take part in the peaceful protest. Then by February 5th, three hundred students had stopped by Woolworth's to support the protest, so by February 6th, the white population became more violent towards the sit-in. Someone called the store threatening the use of a bomb, scaring the protesters out of Woolworths and forcing Harris to close his store for over two weeks. The phone call did occur, but many people believe that the anonymous caller was just using the threat of a bomb to halt the protest. Either way, the protest ended.

The Greensboro Sit-Ins sparked other sit-ins in other North Carolina towns, such as Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh, ad Charlotte. The majority of these sit-ins were peaceful and ended in positive results. The Greensboro Sit-In received significant media and government attention and was fully reported around the country, which helped other demonstrations spread throughout the Southern states. Dozens of lunch counters were closed and even President Eisenhower supported the students and expressed sympathy towards those fighting for civil rights.

In many towns, the sit-ins were successful in achieving desegregation of lunch counters and even in other public places. The Greensboro Sit-Ins themselves were successful because on July 26, 1960, Harris desegregated the lunch counter at Woolworth's store, making the four students heroes.

Atlanta University Protests

Demonstrations organized by Atlanta University students Lonnie King and Julian Bond began in March of 1960, as eighty students launched a series of simultaneous protests. Bond led a group of students to a sit-in at the City Hall cafeteria, where they hung a sign with the words “public is welcome”. Lonnie King led thirty-five more of the students to Rich’s Department Store, where they joined Martin Luther King Jr. in protest.

The protestors at Atlanta University later launched a campaign to offer African American adults buying power at the Department Store. They used publicity to put out messages such as “close out your charge account with segregation” and “open up your account with freedom”. The pressure invoked by the student protestors led to Rich’s Department Store acceptance of their terms.