Civil Rights, 1964-1968

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On June 19, 1964, the United States Senate -- after a lengthy filibuster and vote of cloture -- passed the landmark Civil Rights Act (see below). Three days later, it was reported that three civil rights workers, conducting a voter registration drive in
Nashoba county Mississippi, were missing. The workers were Andrew Goodman and Michael Shwerner of New York and James Chaney, a young local black man helping the two in the registration drive.

President Lyndon Johnson, as transcripts of his telephone conversations reveal, followed and actively oversaw the investigation. LBJ first talked to Senator James Eastland from Mississippi where the theme of a "hoax" was repeated:

        LBJ: Jim, we got three kids missing down there. What can I do about it?
        EASTLAND: I don't know. I don't believe there's three missing. I believe its
        a publicity stunt. [see Michael Beschloss, Taking Charge, p. 432]

Johnson was also in constant contact with FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. He prodded and questioned Hoover on the FBI investigation. Initially, the FBI found the car used by the three and, on August 4th, found their bodies buried in an earthen dam. The three had all been shot.

In October, the FBI "broke" the case when a Ku Klux Klan member, James Jordon, revealed that he was a witness to the murders. It was discovered that the three were initially arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price for an alleged traffic violation and taken to the jail in Neshoba Country. They were released that evening and on the way back to Meridian, Mississippi were stopped by two carloads of white men on a remote rural road. The men approached their car and then shot and killed Schwermer, then Goodman, and finally Chaney.

The Justice Department, reasoning that those responsible would be acquitted by an all white jury, charged nineteen individuals (under an 1870 federal law) with conspiring to deprive the three of their civil rights. The charges were lodged against Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and 17 other men.

Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price, and others tried in the "Mississippi Burning" Trial

On October 21st, 1967, seven of the men were found guilty of conspiring to deprive Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney of their civil rights. Those found guilty included Deputy Sheriff Price (the ringleader of the group). Their sentences ranged from 3 to 10 years in prison. Sheriff Rainey was acquitted. This story is told is the movie entitled
Mississippi Burning.

Although Congress had passed civil rights bills in 1957 and 1960, most analysts agree that the measures were weak and ineffective. Not so with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act banned segregation in all public facilities and authorized the Department of Justice to bring legal action against segregation. When Johnson assumed office after Kennedy's assassination, he made passage of the bill, introduced by JFK in June of 1963, a priority. In LBJ's words, "no memorial or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought." Note the prominence of Martin Luther King at the signing ceremony.

During the civil rights era, there arose a new religious movement, anchored largely in northern urban areas. The Nation of Islam was founded in the United States by Elijah Muhammad.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. The son of a Baptist minister, he dropped out of school after being discouraged by a racist teacher and later drifted toward a life of crime in Boston and New York. While serving a term in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam and a follower of Elijah Muhammed. He took the name Malcolm X (where the X represented, according to Muhammed, the African surname that would be never be known).

Malcolm X quickly rose to prominence as a leader in the Nation of Islam and among northern blacks generally. His philosophy differed quite substantially from the southern-born Martin Luther King. Malcolm X emphasized black nationalism. He argued that blacks must overcome racism and oppression "by any means necessary." While not an advocate of violence, Malcolm X argued that blacks must be prepared to defend themselves from violence. He thus disagreed, philosophically, with Martin Luther King's strategy of "turning the other cheek" in direct action confrontations.

In 1964, Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad had a falling out and Muhammad "cast him out" of the Nation of Islam. This was the product of internal political disputes and Malcolm X continued to be an activist. On February 21, 1965, he was about to begin a speech at the Audobon Ballroom in Harlem. As he stood on the stage, an assassin in the audience rose and opened fire. Malcolm X died from the gunshot wounds. Three men -- all members of the Nation of Islam and followers of Muhammad -- were arrested and convicted for the murder.

In March of 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with other civil rights groups planned a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. The plan was designed to protest the growing violence against civil rights activists throughout Alabama. As the marchers neared the Edmund Pettus bridge, they were met by Sheriff Jim Clark and his Alabama State Troopers. They were confronted and then attacked by Alabama State troopers.

Footage of the attack was broadcast to the nation by ABC News. As Isserman and Kazin write (American Divided, p. 136), "ABC News interrupted the network's Sunday night movie, the premiere showing on television of Judgment at Nuremburg (a movie about bringing to justice the Nazis guilty of war crimes in World War II), to show 15minutes of raw and dramatic footage from the attack on the Edmund Pettus Bridge."

On the evening of March 9th, James Reeb, a Unitarian minister from Boston and civil rights activist, was attacked by four whites after eating dinner in a black restaurant in Selma. Reeb was struck in the back of the head with a club and died from the injuries the next day. His attackers were later acquitted in a jury trial.

On the evening of March 15, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress and a national television audience. His response to the violence in Alabama was to propose a law that would "strike down restrictions to voting in all elections--Federal, State, and local--which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote." The most dramatic moment of LBJ's speech came when he invoked the anthem of the civil rights movement:

    "But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in
    Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and
    State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves
    the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because
    it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the
    crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome."

President Johnson also intervened to facilitate the march from Selma to Montgomery. Following a federal court ruling on March 17th that the march could proceed, Johnson met with Governor Wallace at the White House, federalized the Alabama National Guard, and sent an additional 2200 troops from the U.S. Army to protect the marchers. On March 25th, over 3000 marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge and were joined by thousands of others for the rally in Montgomery.

Viola Liuzzo was a Detroit homemaker, the wife of a Teamster Union official and mother of five. She traveled to Selma in March of 1965 and served as a volunteer during the Selma to Montgomery march. Throughout the day on March 25th, she drove participants back and forth from Montgomery to Selma. That night, she was driving back to Montgomery after dropping a load of passengers in Selma. With her was a black teenager, Leroy Moton. Four men in another car noticed Liuzzo and Moton and began chasing the car. Soon, the driver pulled alongside Liuzzo's car and two of the passengers emptied their pistols into the car. Liuzzo, shot twice in the head, died instantly. Moton managed to steer the car to safety and then "played dead" until the attackers drove off.

Within a day, the suspects were found. Lyndon Johnson made a national television appearance to announce the arrest of four suspects.

One of the suspects, Gary Rowe, was actually an FBI informer and testified against Wilkins, Thomas, and Eaton at their trials. Rowe was sitting in the back seat of the car driven by Thomas but claimed he never fired his gun. Wilkins, Thomas, and Eaton were tried in federal district court and convicted (under the 1870 statute) for conspiring to deny Liuzzo her civil rights. Each was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Thomas and Wilkins were tried in Alabama for murder but both were acquitted.

The Voting Rights Act, proposed by Lyndon Johnson in his speech on March 15th, moved quickly through the Congress. The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 77 to19 (May 26) and in the House of Representatives by a vote 333 to 48 (July 9th). In early August, both chambers passed the conference report on the bill. The Voting Rights Act gave the federal government broad regulatory and enforcement powers to supervise voter registration and elections in counties that had a history of discrimination in voting.

In August of 1965, violence broke out in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California. A minor police incident escalated into five days of arson, looting, and violence. This required a force of 16,000 policy, highway patrol, and National Guardsmen to quell the violence. At the end, there were 34 dead, 1,000 injured, and 4,000 in jail. Over 250 buildings were burned (Isserman and Kazin, America Divided, p. 141)

The outbreak of such violence was repeated during the summers of 1966 and 1967. In 1966, the cities included were Brooklyn (NY), Chicago (Ill), Cleveland and Dayton (Ohio), San Francisco (Cal). The unrest spread during the summer of 1967 and included Tampa (Fla), Boston (Mass), Cincinatti (Ohio), Buffalo (NY), Newark (NJ), Toledo (Ohio), South Bend (Ind), New Haven (Conn), Chicago (Ill), Rochester (NY), and East Harlem (NY). The worst of the episodes occurred in Detroit, Michigan. The governor of the state certified to President Johnson that Michigan could not guarantee "public safety" and, as a result, President Johnson ordered 4700 U.S. paratroopers to the city to help restore order.

In March and April 1968, Martin Luther King make several trips to Memphis in support of the striking sanitation workers. While in Memphis, King and his aides stayed at the Lorraine Motel.

On the evening of April 3rd, King spoke at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple, the home of the Church of God in Christ. King was introduced by Ralph Abernathy and spoke in what many termed a prophetic voice about his own death. His talk that evening came to be called the "Promised Land" sermon.

The next evening, the evening of April 4, 1968, King was standing on the balcony of the motel when he was shot and killed.

The assassin of King was James Earl Ray, a chronic criminal and drifter. Ray was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. On one occasion he escaped but was recaptured. Near the end of his life, he made claims of innocence and knowledge of a conspiracy to murder Dr. King.

After the assassination of Martin Luther King, the divisions within the civil rights movement increased. Former members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) became increasingly dubious of the "King approach." There was debate, at times vitriolic, about whether to work from "inside" or "outside" the system. The Nation of Islam retained its influence. The Black Panthers gained prominence in the urban non-South, particularly in California and Illinois.

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