Welcome to Civil Rights Movement: The Role of Students. On this blog we will explore several different points on the role in which students played in the Civil Rights Movement through entries, pictures, videos, and primary sources. This blog was created for a project for HS308 at Monmouth University.
This is the full length film as scene on PBS in 2011. This film depicts what was the Freedom Rides of 1961. The premise of the Freedom Rides was to bring black and white students on busses starting in the north and going further and further down south. The movement was organized by CORE - Congress of Racial Equality.
The March on Washington occurred in the summer in Washington DC on August 28th, 1963. It is best known for the speech in which Martin Luther King Jr. gave. His speech he would give on this day would be known in the future as the "I Have a Dream" speech. On this day people of all ages, including students, of both black and white came together.
Freedom Summer of 1964
The Freedom Summer of 1964 in Mississippi was one of the occurrences were you saw a coming together of black and white students for the rights of blacks. The premise of the Freedom Summer was to help Mississippi black citizens to be able to vote with the pre Voting Rights Act of 1965 rules in place. Through out the summer a large number of white students from the North came down to help. There was one particular incident that brought a lot of attention to the Freedom Summer in which two white men, and one black men, was killed by the KKK. The men were Andrew Goodman, Michael Shwerner, and James Chaney.
Free Speech Movement of 1964-1965
The Free Speech Movement began in 1964 at Berkeley University. This is a clip from the movie, Berkeley in the Sixities, which details the student fight at Berekely on several issues, including Civil Rights. The Free Speech Movement began when a student got in trouble and arrested for passing out information on the Civil Rights Movement, just because he did not produce identification. It sparked a sit in around the car in which he was arrested on October 1st and then a large sit in on December 2nd 1965 in Sproul Hall. After the second sit in provisions were made to campus rules which would allow for political information to be passed around on the campus - including materials on the Civil Rights.
SDS - Students of a Democratic Society
SDS - Students of a Democratic Society was an organization made up of primarily white students. It was formed at a time when the civil rights was in full swing and the Vietnam War was at hand. They were the youth fighting for what they believed was to be rights. This clip is from the movie, Rebels with a Cause.
Remember the Titans, is a Disney Film that came out in 2000. It potrays a football team in Alexandria, Virigina in 1971 at TC Williams High School. The school is forced to desegrate, including the high school having a change of head coaches. The new coach, Coach Boone, played by Denzel Washington, is black. He replaced the famed and well like, Coach Yoast, a white male. The movie depicts the team coming together despite the issue of race, which leads to a winning season. The movie is based off of true events.
This link is to website detailing information on the real Titans 71' football team.
The 71' Titans Footabll Team
Glory Road
Glory Road, a Disney film,which came out in 2006, deptics the first NCAA basketabll team with an all African American starting line-up in 1966. The events show in the film are based on true events that took place at Texas Western with the 1966 team. There were some added theatrical changes. The movie shows how the team came together and what they had to overcome.
Ruby Bridges Movie
The Ruby Bridges movie came out in 1998 by Disney. It shows the story of Ruby Bridges in a theatrical way.
During the Civil Rights Movement, students played a vital role in helping to end segregation and racism in the south during this time. People have heard the wonderful things that the "Little Rock Nine" did down in Arkansas along with those four brave young men that sat down at the lunch counter in that North Carolina company store. However, you may not have heard about a small, private, liberal arts college in Madion County of Jackson, Mississippi. This college was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association to provide teacher education and industrial training for African Americans in Mississippi. Although a historically black college, from its start, Tougaloo College served all races. Tougaloo students and white students at nearby Millsaps College, a white Methodist school, formed academic and social bonds, setting, for at least the time, a rare example of racial cooperation and peace. In 1960 Tougaloo installed a president who would lead the college through the turbulent years of the civil rights movement. Dr. Adam Beittel began a successful exchange program with several northern schools, including Brown University, which brought white students to Tougaloo. Because Tougaloo College was a private institution administered by a board in New York, it was free from State control. Students at Tougaloo began protesting racial discrimination in Jackson, and led a boycott of restaurants in the city which refused to serve blacks. Many students were arrested for protesting at the businesses and for trying to attend segregated white churches and concerts. President Beittel frequently bailed the students out of jail. The students also led a successful campaign to encourage white entertainers not to participate in segregated performances in Jackson. In the 1960s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members Bob Moses and James Lawson held voter registration and nonviolence workshops on campus.Resistance to the civil rights activities of the students brought violence to the Tougaloo campus, as faculty housing on the edge of the school often became the target of drive-by shootings. In 1964 the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (created by the legislature to defend the state from the encroachment of federal authority) successfully prevailed on Tougaloo's Board of Trustees in New York to dismiss Dr. Beittel as college president by threatening trouble between the college and the State if Beittel remained. The Board removed Dr. Beittel, but by this time the student movement on campus was waning.Tougaloo College has continually sought to enhance the education of its students, as well as to promote harmonious racial relations between whites and blacks. As the center of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, Tougaloo College played a vital role in advancing the black community in the State.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was an African American organization during the Civil Rights Movement.
SCLC's first president MLK Jr.
The organization was founded on January 10th, 1957 following the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Martin Luther King Jr. served as the organizations first president.
The platform that the group adhered to was one of nonviolence, based off of Martin Luther King Jr's own beliefs in non-violence.
Pin worn by members of the SCLC
In addition, the group was largely involved in local black communities in order to help the people overcome racial segregation.
One of the most important aspects of the SCLC was their involvement with Citizenship Schools. These schools helped teach African Americans how to read and write so that they could pass the literacy tests for voter registration.
Students at SCLC run Citizenship School
The SCLC was also involved with numerous other Civil Rights activities such as the March on Washington and the Selma Voting Rights campaign.
SCLC was involved in the Selma Voting Rights Campaign
The SCLC had a unique feature in the SCOPE (Summer Community Organization on Political Education) project. It was a volunteer force that placed mostly white college students to help register black voters in southern states between 1965-1966.
Above is a video from a documentary from the Discovery Channel, highlighting the critical role that students played during the Civil Rights Movement, with particular respect to the Brown v Board of Education case.
The video explains how some of the most important 'battles' of the Civil Rights Movement were fought by students and within the classroom, and that without these battles and the Civil Rights Movement would not have achieved its great success.
The SNCC legacy has been said to live on due to present day "The Wall Street Movement". The goal of the SNCC was non violence in actions and for their voices to be heard not through violent action but through large demonstration. The SNCC consisted of mostly southern students who wanted to live on not like their parents and grandparents, but as new free individuals. Both black and white individuals joined the SNCC movement. Sit-ins and walking protests were the most common form of non-violent protest conducted. SNCC was brought together to bring students and young individuals together who wanted their voice heard. The organization typically just supported with large numbers other non-violent protests already held. SNCC also helped voting rights and to get the word out nation wide.
This video is a look into the overall goal of the SNCC, reasons behind their decisions regarding demonstrations and the events leading up to the establishment of the SNCC. The commentary is depicted by past members and organization founders of the SNCC and told through their eyes.This video is a glimpse into the long history of the SNCC and the legacy that it has left on America today. CNN created this special on the members of the SNCC for the 50th anniversary since the beginning of the SNCC.
These individuals were brave, determined and strong individuals who sometimes put their lives on the line, to go up against societies norms and gain equality the American way.
In 2002, ABC News, put together a new piece on the legacy of James Meredith with it being the 40th anniversary of his fight to enter the University of Mississippi. Below is the link to the clip that originally aired.
Norman Rockwell painting for Ruby Bridges the day she was the first child to desegregate an elementary school.
PBS (Public Broadcast System) in 1997 interviewed Ruby Bridges - Hall on her experience in 1960. She was as previously noted the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school. Below is a link to the transcript of the interview.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is an organizations associated with the Civil Rights Movement. It was founded in April of 1960 after Ella Baker, a student at Shaw University began holding student meetings.
Ella Baker
Sign at Shaw University
Within a few years SNCC's numbers grew and it was especially supported by volunteers from the North who helped to raise funds and volunteered their time to help the Southern efforts.
SNCC played a major role in several well-known events of the Civil Rights Movement, such as the sit ins, the March on Washington, and the Mississippi Freedom Summer
Crowd at the 1963 March on Washington
SNCC was largely known for its efforts to register blacks to vote and they held voter registration drives throughout the South to encourage and help African Americans to do so.
Voter registration drive organized by SNCC
In 1966 Stokely Carmichael became the chairman of SNCC. Under his leadership SNCC began to advocate for the idea of black power and organizing protests against the Vietnam War.
Carmichael in 1966
Carmichael giving a speech at the University of California
In 1969 SNCC officially changed its name to reflect their changing beliefs and idea. It's acronym and nickname remained "SNCC" but the official name became the Student National Coordinating Committee. The group continued into the 1970's, when it eventually came to an end.
SNCC's Legacy - Video Clip
The SNCC
legacy has been said to live on due to present day "The Wall Street Movement".
The goal of the SNCC was non violence in actions and for their voices to be
heard not through violent action but through large demonstration. The SNCC
consisted of mostly southern students who wanted to live on not like their
parents and grandparents, but as new free individuals. Both black and
white individuals joined the SNCC movement. Sit-ins and walking protests were
the most common form of non-violent protest conducted. SNCC was brought together
to bring students and young individuals together who wanted their voice heard.
The organization typically just supported with large numbers other non-violent
protests already held. SNCC also helped voting rights and to get the word out
nation wide.
This video is
a look into the overall goal of the SNCC, reasons behind their decisions
regarding demonstrations and the events leading up to the establishment of the
SNCC. The commentary is depicted by past members and organization founders of
the SNCC and told through their eyes.This video is a glimpse into the long
history of the SNCC and the legacy that it has left on America today. CNN
created this special on the members of the SNCC for the 50th anniversary since
the beginning of the SNCC.
These
individuals were brave, determined and strong individuals who sometimes put
their lives on the line, to go up against societies norms and gain equality the
American way.
