&quot;Or Does It Explode?&quot;

Problem of the 20th century
1. "Color line"
  1. President Truman appointed a Committee on Civil Rights
    1. Recommended that the civil rights section of the Department of Justice be expanded and there be a permanent Commission on Civil Rights
      1. Congress should pass laws against lynching and stop voting discrimination and suggested new laws end racial discrimination in jobs
      2. It's about time somebody stand up for this
      3. Moral reason and economic reason
      4. View integration of blacks into society as an economic gain is disgusting
      5. Blacks are humans too, this makes me disgusted
2. Supreme Court tries to take steps towards racial equality
  1. Brown v. Board of Education
    1. Separation of schoolchildren generates a feeling of inferiority that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone
      1. Separate but equal has no place in public education
      2. It's necessary to integrate black and white students in the same schools
3. Rosa Parks
  1. Decided to sit down in the "white" section of the bus
    1. She was truly a brave and inspirational force
4. Martin Luther King Jr.
  1. Activist
    1. His home was bombed
      1. Famous I had a dream speech
      2. He inspired millions of people to demand racial justice
      3. The protest not just over buses but things that have deep meaning in history
      4. Stressed loved and nonviolence
      5. Two methods that could be effective in building a sympathetic following throughout the nation
      6. Various sitins that spread to 15 cities in five southern states
  2. I have a dream
    1. 18 days after the gathering a bomb exploded in the basement of a black church in Birmingham
      1. 4 girls attending Sunday school were killed
      2. Malcolm X spoke about this as the black revolution
      3. in 1963 nonwhite unemployment was at 12.1%
      4. 1/2 of blacks below the poverty line
      5. Blacks who had voted for years still lived in rat-infested slums
      6. This caused riots
Art
1. Art expressed the complexities of society
  1. Secret thoughts revealed in various pieces of arts
    1. Black Society
      1. In particular jazz
      2. Harlem Renaissance
      3. Countee Cullen wrote a poem about childhood
      4. Claude McKay writes a poem about dangerous trends among young blacks
      5. Langston Hughes
      6. His poems reveal innerstruggles that many people can relate too
    2. Art. for some, is a way to release your emotions that may not be able to be spoken
Communist party
1. Known to pay special attention to the problem of race equality
  1. Scottsboro case
    1. Communist party became associated with the defense of these young black men imprisoned
      1. The party was accused by liberals and the NAACP of exploting the issue for its own purposes
      2. I do see how they're using this case to their benefit, but at the same time someone needs to stand up for them
  2. Herndon
    1. Became a Communist party organizer in Atlanta
      1. He and fellow communists organized block committees of Unemployment councils
      2. Demonstrations in which many attended
      3. Soon after, he was arrested and charged with violating a Georgia statue against insurrection
      4. He was convicted and spent 5 years in prison until in 1937 the Supreme court ruled unconstitutional
      5. I feel like if the government finds a person a threat to exposing the truth, he or she will be jailed
New Groups
1. CORE
  1. Congress of Racial Equality
    1. Organized freedom rides
      1. Blacks and whites traveled together on buses trying to break the segregation pattern
      2. Eventually freedom riders were attacked with fists nd iron bars
      3. The FBI did nothing to stop this
      4. It's so appalling to hear this
2. Explosion of marches, sitins
  1. Shows demand for change
    1. Department of Justice recorded 1412 demonstrations in 3 months of 1963
      1. Imprisonment became commonplace
3. League of Revolutionary Black Workers
  1. Created possibility of blacks and whites uniting on the issue of class exploitation
    1. This creates fear
4. "Black capitalism"
  1. Jobs to some blacks through Office of Economic Opportunity
    1. Nixon sets up an Office or Minority Business Enterprise
      1. Patricia Robinson tied male supremacy to capitalism and says the black woman allies herself with the have-nots in the wider world and their revolutionary struggles
      2. It's sad to see such discrimination still exisiting
Democratic National Convention And Other Government activities
1. Mississippi -blacks asked to be seated as part of the state delegation to represent the 40% of the state's population
  1. Turned down by the liberal Democratic leadership
    1. Included the Vice Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey
      1. Then Congress began reacting to the black revolt
      2. Civil rights laws were passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964
      3. These laws promised voting equality, employment equality
      4. Of course, poorly enforced
      5. This causes dissatisfaction with the federal government
2. 1952
  1. A million southern blacks registered to vote
    1. Then in 1968 it reached 3 million, 60% the same percentage as white voters
      1. This demonstrates how the blacks want to vote just as much as whites do
Violence
1. 1964/5
  1. Black outbreaks
    1. Killings, bomb threats, discrimination against blacks
      1. Nonviolence of the southern movements was not enough anymore to deal with the entrenched problems of poverty in the black ghetto
      2. These black ghettos became the greatest urban riots of American history
      3. Commission reported 8 major uprisings, 38 serious, and 123 minor disorders
      4. Report blamed white racism and identified ingredients of the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of the second world war
      5. It is no surprise these riots occurred...
2. Black power
  1. New slogan
    1. Expressed distrust on any progress given or conceded by whites, a rejection of paternalism
      1. Also a pride in race, independence, but sometimes separation to achieve this independence
  2. Black Panthers
    1. Huey Newton
      1. Had guns and said blacks should defend themselves
3. COINTELPRO- Counterintelligence Program
  1. FBI took 295 actions against black groups
    1. Was this out of fear that blacks would gain power and change?
Civil Rights Act of 1968
1. Stronger laws prohibiting violence against blacks
  1. Increased penalties against those depriving people of their civil rights
    1. How many laws and acts need to be passed before something is actually effective?
  2. King became scared over the current state of affairs
    1. Became a chief target of the FBI
      1. His calls were tapped, got threats
      2. The FBI tried to destroy MLK
      3. He was assasinated by an "unseen masked man"
      4. This makes me question if the FBI committed this crime
      5. The killing of King led to an urban outbreak
      6. Took place in Detroit, Mississippi, Boston, Georgia
      7. Killings and death is not right
      8. These senseless crimes persisted because of the deep sense of racism embedded in our nation
Voting and Other Rights
1. Blacks voting in large numbers in the South
  1. 1968 Three blacks admitted into Mississippi delegation
    1. More blacks attending universities
      1. Small black middle class created
      2. However still grave problems
      3. Blacks much more likely to die of diabetes, be apart of homicidal violence, poverty
      4. This is very troubling still
      5. Racism still existed
      6. In Boston busing of black children to white schools and vice a versa set off a wave of white neighborhood violence
      7. Textile mills still saw problems
      8. When will this end?