The United States Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s was the centerfold of the 1900’s. The Movement came about because not all Americans were being treated fairly. In general white Americans were treated better than any other American people, especially black people. There were many events of the Civil Rights Movement some dealt with black people not getting a fair education. Some events came about because people were advocating that people should be able to practice their American rights. The term paper that you are about to read is composed of events that occurred as apart of the Civil Rights Movements.
The events re all in chronological order with the brutal murder of Emmett Till first in order. After that is the story of Arkansas’ Central High School’s integration. Keeping with the idea of equal education, you will be able read how the University of Mississippi was integrated by James Meredith with the assistance of the U. S. Government. Lastly you will see the power the Ku Klux Klan had in the deep South, especially Mississippi, with the murder of three members of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). These events are just a glimpse of what the Civil Rights Movement truly was. Now here is the strory of young Emmett Till.
Emmett Till Not knowing the customs of Mississippi was the downfall for young Emmett Till. While visiting family near Money, Mississippi, Emmett Till, age 14, was murdered. Emmett grew up on Chicago’s South side, where he was a fun loving child with a bit of a smart mouth. Living in Chicago, Emmett knew of segregation but had white play mates. On one occasion he had showed his cousins a picture of a white girl and had told them that she was his girl. His friends were some what impressed and had dared Emmett to speak to a white woman who was inside of the store, that they were standing in front of.
Emmett went in and bought some candy and as he left, he said to the woman, “Bye-baby. ” That would be the biggest mistake of his life. When the woman’s husband got back from out of town, there was trouble for Emmett. The woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and her brother, J. W. Milam, paid a visit to the cabin of Mose Wright, Emmett’s grandfather. The white men did not listen to Mose Wrights suggestion that since Emmett was not from Mississippi, that they may just whip him. Instead, the men kidnapped Emmett and took him to the Tallahatchie River. When they got to the River, they made him carry a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the river bank.
The men ordered Emmett to strip, then they beat him and gouged his eye out. After that, they shot him in the head and then threw his body into the river. When his body was discovered, he was so badly mangled that his grandfather was only able to recognize Emmett by the ring that he wore, which bore his father’s initials. The authorities of Mississippi wanted Emmett’s body buried quickly in Mississippi, so that the news would just stay in Mississippi. Emmett’s mother (Mamie Bradley) did not want her son’s body buried in the land that let his killers go free.
Emmett’s body was shipped to Chicago, where his funeral was held. Emmett’s funeral was attended by thousands, at which his mother left the casket open. A picture of Emmett’s distended corpse was published in Jet magazine. Mamie Bradley decided to have the funeral delayed because she wanted the world to see what “those animals that call themselves men” had done to her son. In less than two weeks after the body of Emmett was buried his murderers were put on trial in a segregated court room. The two were acquitted of murder, because the jury claimed the state failed to identify the body.
Blacks in other states saw Mississippi as the ultimate symbol of white supremacy for the ignoring the urder of black children. The public’s reaction was further fueled when Milam and Bryant were not indicted on charges of kidnapping. Till’s murder is seen as an engine for the Civil Rights Movement, since it affected adolescents that were apart of the movement. Mamie Bradley lectured around the country calling herself a “nobody” and her son ” a little nobody that shook up the world”. She used to believe that the business of blacks in the South was their own business, but then saw that it was everyone’s business.
The murder of Emmett Till gave the first spark to the civil rights movement. A few months later Mrs. Rosa Parks did not give up her seat. Little Rock Nine On September 25, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus was pushed to the side by President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower, ordered federal troops to integrate Central High School. Nine black students desegrated Central High School, after weeks of being turned away by Governor Faubus and a mob of white people. The mob of nearly a thousand had threatened to enter the school and lynch the black students a few days before the president had ordered troops to let the students enter the school.
September 3rd was the first day of school. Daisy Bates, the president of Arkansas’ NAACP, escorted eight of the nine students to school. Elizabeth Eckford the student that Mrs. Bates was not able to pick up, was met by a mob and national guardsmen who would not let her into the school. The guardsmen left her to the mob who threatened her and spat on her. Elizabeth was able to get away from the crowd when a nice white woman helped her get onto a bus. The other eight students who rode to school with Mrs. Bates, also were turned away by the national guards. The students continued to try to enter the school, but each time they were turned away.
On September 23rd, the nine were able o sneak into the school and later left when being threatened with being lynched. Melba Pattillo, one of the students, remembers the day. She remembers that they were put into a car in the basement of the school, and a police officer escorted them out. As they left they were told to put their heads down so that the mob of people would not be able to see them. The students could see hands going over the windows of the car as the car went through the crowd. After that incident Mrs. Bates said the students would not be back until there is assurance from the president that the students will not be abused.
Two days later the students were escorted by more than a thousand paratroopers form the U. S. Army’s Airborne Division. That was the first time in eighty-one years that a president had placed American troops in the South to defend the constitutional rights of blacks. The first year of integration at Central High School ended on May 27, 1958, with the graduation of Ernest Green, the first black graduate of Central High School. James Meredeth Segregation at the University of Mississippi “Ole Miss” ended on September 30, 1962 when James Meredith was escorted onto the campus of the University of Mississippi. The
University of Mississippi was a quality university that was one of the best in the South but only for whites. The university was not integrated with the slightest of ease at all. James Meredith before he had applied for admissions into the university severed on the U. S. Airforce for nine years. Also James attended Jackson State University from which he wanted to transfer. James was accepted into Ole Miss when he applied because he did not fill in the race section of the application thinking that it was irrelevant. When the University found out that he was black his application was nullified, James sued the University and won in the 5th U.
S. Circuit Court, with the help of Thurgood Marshall. On September 3, 1962 President John F. Kennedy ordered that the University of Mississippi be integrated. On September 30, 1962, arrived 123 deputy marshals, 316 border patrolmen, and 97 federal prison guards who stood in front of the University. There was a mob of white people in front of the administration building expecting Meredith to enroll there. Instead Meredith was secretly taken to his dorm room. The president had reserved backup enforcement but they were not able to make it to the University to stop the riot that broke out upon James arrival.
Meredith was protected by twenty-four federal agents for about two weeks to ensure his safety. Two years later in 1963 James Meredith gratitude from the University of Mississippi. COFO Members Many activist of the Civil Rights Movement were harassed, beaten, and even killed. This was no different for three members of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were members of COFO who decided to go to Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The members of the summer Project were not appreciated by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The White
Knights lived in the area in which COFO concentrated most of their operations. Michael Schwerner really was not liked by the White Knights. Since, Schwerner was a Jew from New York he was seen as a target for the White Knights. The White Knights referred to him as a “Nigger loving agitator. ” Knowing the dangers of their trips, on June 20, 1964, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner set out for Philadelphia, Mississippi. The three went there to check out the remains of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which had been bombed by the White Knights. After leaving the church the three were arrested upon fabricated charges of speeding by Deputy
Sheriff Cecil Price. While they were in jail a Klan pick team was formed. The three were released and were never seen alive again. Hours after the three were missing, COFO confirmed the three as missing, but state authorities stated as a hoax. When news of the three reached the White House, President Johnson stated their disappearances as kidnappings. Soon after President Johnson sent J. Edgar Hoover to Philadelphia, Mississippi to search for the missing members of COFO. In just one day they found the members car which had been badly burned. When Hoover saw the car he called the president and confirmed the three as dead.
As a part of he FBI investigation, FBI agents acted as members of the White Knights and were able to locate where the COFO members were buried. Twenty-one men, including Deputy Price were arrested. the FBI was able to put what happened the night the three disappeared together. The three left the jail and were forced over, on the highway, by Deputy Price along with two other White Knight members. Price approached the car of the COFO members and ordered them into his patrol car. Then they were taken to a secluded part of the woods. One of the Klan members dragged Michael Schwerner from the car and asked him, “Are you that Nigger lover? , then shot him.
Andrew Goodman was dragged from the car and was shot. One of the men yelled “Hey save one for me! ” Chaney was dragged from the car and was shot. The gunman said “You didn’t leave me anything but a Nigger but at least I killed me a Nigger. ” The state of Mississippi refused to bring up indictments but the federal government did. Most of the men were found not guilty but some of them were convicted of depriving the three men of the Civil Rights. There were many events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement that I was not able to make apart of my paper. Like the story of the “Four Little Girls” who were killed in an
Alabama church bombing. Also, I was not able to include the power that sit-ins had in the impact of the Movement. I wanted to inform you on the story of the Freedom Riders and how they rode through the South demanding equality. Also, I wanted to include how they were allowed by the police chief to be beaten for about fifteen minutes in Anniston, Alabama. Furthermore, I was not able to mention the end of “separate but equal” with the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision on the case Brown vs. Board of Education. Inclusion to this paper I hope that you have enhanced your knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement.