Civil Rights Actions

• 1. Freedom Riders• Protesting segregation in

Interstate Travel• Traveling from D.C. to New

Orleans• May 14-buses split in

Alabama• Buses firebombed in

Anniston• Birmingham-the police

were given the day off by Governor George Wallace

Freedom Riders

Birmingham, Alabama

• Nicknamed “Bombingham”• Since 1957 over 50 cross

burnings and 18 bombings• Police Commissioner Eugene

“Bull” Connor arrests 2200 over 5 weeks

• Protest w/ Children• Fire Hoses, Electric Cattle Prods,

Attack Dogs• “Are we to say to the world

that we are a land of the free except for Negroes?” – JFK

• King got his needed victory, Birmingham began to integrate!

March on Washington

• August 28, 1963• “I Have a Dream

Speech”• Over 250,000 people in

attendance• Helps pass the Civil

Rights Act of 1964

March on Selma

• Dr. King marches to bring awareness about voting rights in the South• Alabama Governor

George Wallace opposes the march• LBJ protected marchers

w/ federal troops• Brought about Voting

Rights Act of 1965

Freedom Summer

• 1964, a campaign to register voters in the South• 1000 College Students went

to Mississippi• June 21- 2 white New

Yorkers and an African-American were abducted and killed• 1964-6.7% Miss. Blacks

registered to vote• 1969-66.5% Miss. Blacks

registered to vote

Watts Riots

• August 11-16, 1965• Frustration when a routine

arrest by an LA police officer turned into a riot. • National Guard restored

order- 34 dead, 898 injured, 4000 arrested• $100 million in damage

• Kerner Commission-white racism was responsible for the tensions that led to the riots