More Civil Rights History.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, new changes came to America in 1964 and beyond. The fight for freedom wasn't over yet. By August of 1964, Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act. It gave federal funds for legal representation of Native Americans in both civil and criminal suits. It allowed the ACLU and the American Bar Association to represent Native Americans in cases that later would win them additional civil rights. By this time, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenged the seating of the all-white racist Mississippi representatives at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The MFDP group wanted no compromise, but an agreement came. This caused many from SNCC and the MFDP to reject the Democratic Party. Some came onward to the path of political independence and ultimately into the Black Power movement. In the convention, Fannie Lou Hamer gave the heroic, accurate speech about America condemning the policies of the state brutalizing African American men, women, and children. Fannie Lou Hamer made the point that she was a victim of abuse from racists and she desired freedom 100 percent. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964. He was the youngest person to be honored during that time. Dr. King gave the money that he had received from Oslo, Norway to the Civil Rights Movement. Coretta Scott King was with him in Oslo too. On December 14, 1965, the Heart of Atlanta v. United States case upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 1965 became a monumental year of the Civil Rights Movement in general. The early part of the 1965 year saw the Selma movement growing into new heights. On February 18, 1965, a peaceful protest march in Marion, Alabama led to Jimmie Lee Jackson being shot by Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson died on February 26, and Fowler was indicted for his murder in 2007. Malcolm X by 1965 supported the Selma voting rights movement. He became more international, advocated for pan-Africanism, believed in women's equality, and worked with many liberation movements worldwide. Malcolm X became more progressive. Later, he was assassinated in Manhattan, New York City at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. He had a funeral, and the world mourned. Malcolm X was one of the greatest black heroes in human history, and we are inspired by his words and his deeds. Then, on March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday happened. This was when civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin the Selma to Montgomery march but they were forcibly stopped by a massive Alabama State trooper and police blockade as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many marchers were injured by police clubs. This march, initiated and organized by James Bevel, became the visual symbol of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. John Lewis, Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911-2015), and others were assaulted by police officers. Condemnation of the actions of the crooked cops on Bloody Sunday was massive worldwide. By March 15, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson used the phrase "We Shall Overcome" in a speech before Congress on the voting rights bill. The Selma to Montgomery March was completed ultimately. On March 25, 1965, a white volunteer Viola Liuzzo was shot and killed by Ku Klux Klan members in Alabama, one of whom was an FBI informant. The black deputy sheriff Oneal Moore was murdered in Varnado, Louisiana on June 2, 1965. July 2 1965, was when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was opened.


The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on August 6, 1965. It eliminated literacy tests, poll tax, and other subjective voter tests that were widely responsible for the disfranchisement of African-Americans in the Southern States and provided federal oversight of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such discriminatory tests were used. After this time, there was an acceleration of the amount of African Americans in political positions among all levels of government. From August 11-15, 1965, the Watts rebellion happened. For years in Los Angeles before 1965, many black people were victims of poverty, discrimination, racism, and police brutality. The Watts rebellion occurred after the accusations of mistreatment and police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department towards the city's African-American community. Watts existed in South Central Los Angeles. The results of the rebellion were over 34 people were killed, 1,032 injured, 3,438 arrested, and cost over $40 million in property damage. Dr. King came to Watts to advocate nonviolence and he was booed by some in the crowd which was rare back then. Dr. King later realized that civil rights isn't enough and that you need to also address the economic conditions of the people in order for real freedom to come about. By September 1965, Raylawni Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong became the first African-American students to attend the University of Southern Mississippi. Bill Cosby co-starred in I Spy, becoming the first black person to appear in a starring role on American television on September 15, 1965. For the record, I don’t agree with Bill Cosby’s adultery and his using drugs to have sex with women (which he admitted in his disposition). Cosby is an evil person. I cite this fact for a historical reference. President Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 requiring Equal Employment Opportunity by federal contractors on September 24, 1965. By January 10, 1966, NAACP local chapter president Vernon Dahmer was injured by a bomb in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He died on the next day. By January 1966, Dr. King and the SCLC went into Chicago to fight for housing rights, civil rights, educational opportunities, and economic justice among African Americans. By June 5, 1966, James Meredith started a solitary March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. Shortly after he started, he was shot with birdshot and injured. Civil rights leaders and organizations rallied together and continued the march leading to a large rally at the capital of Mississippi. On June 16, Kwame Ture first used the slogan Black power in a speech. Black Power is one of the most distorted philosophies in human history. Kwame Ture meant Black Power as saying that he wanted black people to define their own identity, control their own communities, and form institutions to eliminate racism. Black Power was a call for independence politically and socially for black people. It wasn't an advocacy of segregation as Jim Crow was about the government to force segregation while depriving black people of basic human rights. It was about independence. Many moderate NAACP leaders condemned Black Power like Roy Wilkins since he felt that it was a veiled plus slick reference to black separatism and black supremacy. Dr. King took a nuisance view while praising the positives of Black Power that embraced self-determination and the love of Blackness while rejecting separatism. While this was going on, the Chicago Open Housing Movement continued. Dr. King, Bevel, and Al Raby (from Chicago) were leaders of the movement. They made massive rallies in the summer of 1966 and demanded Mayor Richard J. Daley to end housing discrimination. The Summit conference ended the campaign. Before, there was a white racist backlash so fierce in Chicago and in the suburbs like in Cicero that Dr. King was hit in the head with a rock. By September of 1966, Nichelle Nichols was cast as a black woman officer on television's Star Trek. She briefly considered leaving the role but was encouraged by Dr. King to continue as an example for the black community. The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California by October of 1966. It merged Black Nationalism, socialism, and other revolutionary philosophies into one. Its goal was to end police brutality, allow socialism to exist in the black community, end imperialism, and give power to the people. It lasted for many years and became a symbol of the progressive side of the Black Power movement. On November 1966, Edward Brooke was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. He was the first black senator since 1881.

By January 9, 1967, Julian Bond was seated in the Georgia House of Representatives by order of the U.S. Supreme Court after his election. Many racist Southerners opposed Bond, because Bond publicly opposed the Vietnam War and opposed the draft (that forced people against their wills to join the military to fight in the Vietnam War). The Vietnam War in 1967 was front and center in foreign policy debates by this time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his courageous “Beyond Vietnam” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church. He wanted the defeat of “the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism.” In that speech, he eloquently exposed the Vietnam War as immoral and how it stripped the necessary resources from the poor in America to benefit the military industrial complex. Dr. King was heavily criticized for criticizing the Vietnam War from conservatives (including some editorial writers) to moderate African American civil rights leaders. Yet, Dr. King continued to fight for what was right, which was the ending of the unjust Vietnam War. By June 12, 1967, in Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws that prohibited interracial marriage was unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall was the first African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court on June 13, 1967. The Detroit rebellion happened from July 23-27, 1967. It came after a raid by the Detroit Police Department. The police wanted to put a raid on an unlicensed club that celebrated the returning Vietnam Veterans hosted by mostly African Americans. Detroit was a city filled with economic inequality, police brutality, etc. Over 43 people (33 black human beings and ten white people) were killed, 467 injured, 7,231 arrested, and 2,509 stores looted or burned during the rebellion. It was one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in United States history, lasting five days and surpassed the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot. The movie In the Heat of the Night was released on August 2, 1967. It starred Sidney Poitier. On November 17, 1967, there was the Philadelphia Student School Board Demonstration. This was when 26 demands were peacefully issued by students, but the event became a police riot. The Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner movie was released on December 11, 1967. It starred Sidney Poitier again. In the trial of accused killers in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, the jury convicts 7 of 18 accused men by the end of 1967. Conspirator Edgar Ray Killen was later convicted in 2005. James Earl Jones starred in the play of The Great White Hope based on the life of the heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson. The book Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools was published in late 1967 too.


1968 was one of the most dynamic years in human history. On February 1, 1968, two Memphis sanitation workers were killed in the line of duty. They wanted to escape the rain and weren’t allowed to go into certain areas because of racist policies. These African Americans experienced low wages, lax benefits, and disrespect by employers plus by the reactionary Mayor Loeb. After this tragedy, black garbage workers executed a strike. Their wives and children supported the strikers. The movement was local at first and spread nationally. The Orangeburg Massacre occurred during a university protest in South Carolina. Black people were murdered by cops. The first day of the Memphis Sanitation strike happened on February 12, 1968. On March of 1968, while filming a prime-time television special, Petula Clark touched Harry Belafonte's arm during a duet. Chrysler Corporation, the show's sponsor, insisted the moment be deleted, but Clark stood firm, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the completed program to NBC with the touch intact. The show was broadcast on April 8, 1968. Later, there was on American television, an interracial kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner on Star Trek. Also, it is important to praise Black Love as Black Love is Beautiful and a Revolutionary Act.


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported the Memphis strikers and had great support among black people and many labor activists in the city of Memphis. By April 3, 1968, Dr. King gave his famous Mountaintop speech. In that speech, he predicted the future and realized that the work for justice will continue. He knew that he would live long enough to see the Promised Land, but black people in the future would see it. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by a rifle. From April 4-8 and on one in May 1968, rebellions exist in more than 150 U.S. cities in response to the assassination of Dr. King. The revolts existed in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, Kansas City, NYC, etc. By April 11, 1968, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed. The Fair Housing Act is Title VIII of this Civil Rights Act. This law banned discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. The law was passed following a series of contentious open housing campaigns throughout the urban North. The most significant of these campaigns were the Chicago Open Housing Movement of 1966 and organized events in Milwaukee during 1967–68. In both cities, angry white mobs attacked nonviolent protesters. By May 12, 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign marched on Washington, D.C. They formed the location of Resurrection City at Washington, D.C.. Their goals which were progressive (in billions of dollars to help the poor in housing, education, and jobs) and these legitimate demands weren’t met. Yet, their efforts contributed to investments (like Medicaid, Head Start, etc.) to fight poverty in general. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a Civil Rights advocate, was assassinated on June 6, 1968, after winning the California presidential primary. His appeal to minorities helped him secure the victory at the California primary. On September 17, 1968, Diahann Carroll starred in the title role in Julia, as the first African American actress to star in her own television series where she did not play a domestic worker. In October 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to symbolize black power and unity after winning the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. Both men wanted oppression to end. They are readily praised today, but they were heavily disrespected by extremists back in 1968. In Powe v. Miles, a federal court held that the portions of private colleges that are funded by public money are subject to the Civil Rights Act. By the end of 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American woman elected to Congress.


By Timothy