Transcript Black Power in the South

Black Power in the South
KEY THEMES & ISSUES
1. Selma & The Impact of the Voting
Rights Act
2. The Transformation of SNCC
3. The Diverse Strands of Black Power
Voting Rights: Selma, 1965
SNCC v SCLC Tensions
White Selma disunited
Joseph Smitherman
Jim Clark vs Wilson Baker
“Bloody Sunday”, March 7
1965
MLK “March” March 9, 1965
Selma to Montgomery March,
March 21 1965
LBJ & Voting Rights Act of
1965
Voting Rights
Black Votes
Maynard Jackson
Post-Voting Rights Act of ’65
Rise of Black elected officials
Julian Bond, GA. State rep,
1966
Andrew Young (Ga) Congress,
1972
Maynard Jackson, Mayor of
Atlanta, 1973
New White Resistance
gerrymandering/redistricting
annexation (eg: Richmond)
white suburban flight
“defection” to Republicans
Thurmond, Helms
SNCC After Atlantic City
Waveland Retreat, 1964
Bob Moses rejects interracialism
White Folks Project
Questioning of nonviolence
“Floaters” vs “Hardliners”
James Forman
1966: Stokely Carmichael
replaces John Lewis as chair,
1967: Student NATIONAL
Coordinating Committee
blacks only
Alliance with Black Panthers
Black Power, 1
Floyd McKissick, MLK,
& Stokely Carmichael
The Meredith March, June
1966
James Meredith
MLK (SCLC)
Stokely Carmichael (SNCC)
Floyd McKissick (CORE)
Frustration:
with limits of white liberalism
persistence of systemic
racism
political organizing needs
Black Power, 2
Influence of Malcolm X
armed self-defense
Robert Williams, NC
Deacons for Defense,
LA & Miss
Racial pride
soul music, soul food…
Vietnam
race, class & militarism
1968
SCLC Poor People’s Campaign
Memphis Sanitation Workers
Strike
MLK killed, April 4, 1968: riots
CORE & SNCC radicalize more
White Backlash
Wallace & Nixon
Civil Rights Act of 1968 (& riots!)
Housing
Green & Alexander Decisions,
1968 & ’69
More pressure for
desegregating school systems
Conclusions
1. A mass southern civil rights movement using
nonviolent direct action had won statutory equality by
the mid-1960s.
2. After 1965, raised black pride, expectations & the
continuing gap between racial theory & practices
encouraged more radical tactics & more interest in
separatist ideas, as well as continued attempts to
harness black political power.
3. The numbers of black elected officials in the South
rose dramatically.
4. Some white southerners sought new methods of
resistance to minimize the impact of the end of Jim
Crow.