The Civil Rights Movement
The momentum of the previous decade's civil rights gains led by rev.Martin luther king, jr. carried over into the 1960s. but for most blacks,the tangible results were minimal. only a minuscule percentage of blackchildren actually attended integrated schools, and in the south, "jim crow"practices barred blacks from jobs and public places. New groups and goalswere formed, new tactics devised, to push forward for full equality. asoften as not, white resistance resulted in violence. this violence spilledacross tv screens nationwide. the average, neutral american, after seeinghis/her tv screen, turned into a civil rights supporter. Black unity and white support continued to grow. in 1962, with thefirst large-scale public protest against racial discrimination, rev. Martinluther king, jr. Gave a dramatic and inspirational speech in washington,d.c. After a long march of thousands to the capital. the possibility ofriot and bloodshed was always there, but the marchers took that chance sothat they could accept the responsibilities of first class citizens. "thenegro," King said in this speech, "lives on a lonely island of poverty in
the crowd began cheering, but king,never pausing, brought silence as he continued, "i have a dream that oneday on the red hills of georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons offormer slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table ofbrotherhood. king announced that as a "matter of conscience and in an attempt to arousethe deepest concern of the nation," he was "compelled" to lead anothermarch from selma to montgomery, alabama. " when King came to the end of his prepared text,he swept right on into an exhibition of impromptu oratory that wascatching, dramatic, and inspirational. in the march, whites, negroes, clergymen andbeatniks, old and young, walked side by side. president kennedy was never able tomobilize sufficient support to pass a civil rights bill with teeth over theopposition of segregationist southern members of congress. rioting mobsin the negro suburb of watts, california, pillaged, burned and killed,while 500 policemen and 5000 national guardsmen struggled in vain tocontain their fury. " "I have a dream," he went on, relentlessly shouting down thethunderous swell of applause, "that even the state of mississippi, a statesweltering with people's injustices, sweltering with the heat ofoppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. hour after hour, the toll mounted: 27 dead at theweek's end, nearly 600 injured, 1700 arrested, and property damage wellover $100 million. ihave dream," cried King for the last time, "that my four little childrenwill one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color oftheir skin but by the content of their character. rioting by urban blacks was to bea feature of every "long, hot, summer" of the mid-1960s. In 1965, King and other black leaders wanted to push beyond socialintegration, now guaranteed under the previous year's civil rights law, topolitical rights, mainly southern blacks' rights to register and vote.
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