The Events at Birmingham, Alabama in 1963
The city authorities of Birmingham Alabama, closed parks, playing fields, swimming pools as well as other public facilities to avoid integration. So in 1963, Martin Luther King organised marches and demonstrations that ensured loads of television coverage. The local policeman was extremely anti-black, so set dogs on the demonstrators when the rest of the demonstrators refused to leave he turned the five hoses on them. These demonstrations were broadcast around the US; many Americans were horrified at the brutal way Black Americans were being treated. The marches and demonstrations were not all for nothing as it put an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama and other cities.
The March on Washington DC in 1963
Dr King organised a massive march on Washington DC, the original message was to ask for more jobs for black people. However at the last minute it was changed to demanding the passage of President Kennedy’s Civil Rights Bill. More than 250000 people attended the march, including over 50000 white supporters. The colossal gathering in Washington DC is where Martin Luther King delivered his legendary `I have a dream` speech.
Malcolm X and Black Power
Civil rights campaigners slowly but surely brought results, however for many Black Americans the laws were being passed too slowly. They argued that non-violent civil disobedience was just trying to convince white people they were `nice`. They didn’t want to be `nice` they wanted to take what they thought was rightly theirs, they wanted it now. Consequently if force was need then so be it. From this emerged a view of `black power`, groups known to hold this view was the Black Muslims, better know by Malcolm X, who strongly and openly criticised Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach. Instead he recommended the use of weapons (guns) for self-defence. The chairman of SNCC, Strokely Caramichael believed in `black power`, he said that black people should control all aspects of their lives, whether it was political, social or economic.
Riots against Racism
Malcolm X lead a lot of `riots against racism` as he thought this was the way to get noticed as well as getting things changed, his view was shared by many people. Controversially Martin Luther King thought this was the way to stir up hate for Black Americans and delay the new laws being passed. Dr King thought that if violence wasn’t used, then White Americans wouldn’t have a reason to hate Black Americans. Malcolm X once said that if `whites use guns why can’t blacks`, which is true, as whites weren’t just using guns and knives, they were lynching blacks and beating them up for no reason as well as destroying black communities too. Malcolm wanted white people to pay for the damage they had caused to blacks over the years, and had got away with it; he didn’t want to be around whites. So Malcolm X was opposed to integration, as he thought blacks were superior to whites, so should have the best of everything, not the other way around. Throughout the 1960’s `riots against racism` were not rare like the one in Watts, Los Angeles in August 1965, which lasted for six whole days, where 34 people died, 1072 people were injured, 4000 people were arrested and almost 1000 buildings were destroyed costing the US nearly US$40 million. This was one of many riots that got out of hand and were made worse by police firing without aiming.
The Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X
Martin Luther King-On the 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Dr King had been standing on his balcony when he was shot at; he was a great man who spent thirteen years of his life dedicated to non-violent protests against racism, had died by a single bullet to the neck. The FBI investigated into finding the assassin of Martin Luther King, who is said to be James Earl Rat, who was sentenced to 99 years in prison. When Dr King’s death spread throughout the US nation, the reaction for most black people throughput the country was to take to the streets in a wave of violent riots, they couldn’t understand why anybody would want to harm Dr King as he had never harmed anybody. In remembrance, Dr King has his own holiday held on the 15 January named Martin Luther King Day.
Malcolm X-On the 21 February 1965 black civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated whilst addressing a rally in New York; three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage and shot him 15 times at close range. Malcolm was pronounced dead at the arrival at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital. His assassins were three black Muslims called Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3x Butler and Thomas 15x Johnson who all belonged to the Nations is Islam, which Malcolm X was a member of. Malcolm X’s funeral was attended by fifteen hundred people, there his close friends and family took shovels and buried Malcolm themselves, later that year his wife Betty gave birth to twin daughters. Malcolm X was a controversial civil rights campaigner who is now buried at the Ferndiff Cemetery in Hartsdale on New York.
Civil Rights Legislation-1960’s
- 6 May 1960-Presidnt Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act into law
- 1964-Civil Rights Act-outlawed racial discrimination in employment, restaurants, hotels and amusement areas, as well as anybody receiving government money including schools. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up to investigate complaints
- 1965-Voting Rights Act-stopped racial discrimination with the respect to vote
- 1967-Supreme Court-ruled that state laws forbidding inter-racial marriages were unconstitutional
- 1968-Civil Rights Act (Fair Housing Act)-made racial discrimination in housing illegal
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King was born Michael Luther King on the 15 January 1929 in Alabama, he was one of three children and at the age of six, he was renamed to Martin Luther King. His father, Martin Luther King senior, was a pastor at the church and his mother Alberta King was a former schoolteacher. Martin Luther King was well educated and enrolled in college in 1944. When Dr King received his bachelor’s degree in 1948 he attended the Crozer Theological Seminary and graduated an outstanding student.
On the 18 June 1953, Martin Luther King married Coretta Scott, and then he returned to the south to become pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr King had his first child (Yolanda Denise) who was born on the 17 November 1955 in Alabama. Here in Montgomery, Alabama was where Dr King made his first major break through by mobilizing the black community in a 382 day bus boycott. King was arrested and received other violent harassment including the bombing of his home. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was `unconstitutional`. On the 27 January 1957 an unexploded bomb was sound on Martin Luther King’s front porch. In 1957 a meeting was held which was attended by a number of black leaders about an organisation called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King was elected president of it, in which he soon began helping other communities organise protests against discrimination.
Dr King published his book Stride Toward Freedom: Montgomery on the 17 September 1958, when autographing his book at a department store in Harlem he was attacked by a deranged black woman who tried to stab him. On the 30 January Dr King’s third child (Dexter Scott) was born and then on the 28 March 1963 his fourth child (Bernice Albertine) was born. After the births of his third and fourth children, writing a book and travelling to India, he returned to the US to become a co-pastor with his father of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Three years later a mass protest at Birmingham, Alabama which really put Martin Luther King’s non-violent method to test, when the police brutality used force against the marchers. Dr King was arrested, but his voice and views were not to be silenced. He wrote the infamous `Letter from a Birmingham jail` to upset his critics.
On the 28 August after a meeting with President Kennedy, Dr King delivered his famous `I have a dream` speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd estimated to be over 25000 people. Later that year Martin Luther King became a speaker at the historic `March on Washington`, where he delivered another of his many passionate speeches. Time magazine named him `Person of the Year` in 1963. A few months later he received a Nobel Prize in Norway for Peace in 1964. All this publicity was doing wonders for civil rights campaign that ended in the Selma to the Montgomery Freedom March. King’s next target was to launch better housing programs in Chicago.
Many people didn’t approve of his method of non-violence that Martin used, but many professors, intellectuals, students, clergymen and reformers did. To get more support he addressed the Vietnam War issue which many Americans disapproved of. Martin felt that the war in Vietnam was pointless, and Vietnam’s struggle with poverty was the same as other countries. So he called for a guarantee
For family income and he threatened national boycotts and spoke id disrupting cities with `camp-ins`. Now Dr King was planning one of the biggest marches, to make the US government sit up and listen to what Americans wanted, this was the `March on Washington`.
Death was on Martin Luther King’s door on the 4 April, when he was assassinated by James Earl Ray; his death caused a wave of violence across major cities. In 1969 Martin’s widow Coretta Scott King, organised the Martin Luther King junior Centre for Non-Violent Social Change. On Dr King’s birthday there is a national holiday in America in his honour. To add the Lorraine Motel where Dr King was shot is now the `National Civil Rights Museum`.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on the 19 May 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a white American preacher called Earl Little who a great supporter the black civil rights movement as well as Marcus Garvey. His mother was a black housewife that looked after all eight of her children. Due to Earl Little’s firm belief in Marcus Garvey and being a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) it not only got him, in trouble with Ku Klux Klan, but his whole family as they were threatened many times and moved to Lansing and Michigan. However Malcolm’s father’s support for the UNIA got his house burned down in 1929.
In 1931 Malcolm’s father Earl Little was found dead, however nobody was convicted of his murder. This sent Malcolm’s mother Louise Little of the edge, so she was moved into a State Mental Hospital at Kalamazoo in 1937, were she lived he rest of her 26 years. Malcolm was moved to Boston to live with his sister and worked as a waiter in Harlem. Later he became addicted to cocaine and turned to a life of crime. In 1946 he was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Whilst in prison he converted to the Muslim faith.
Malcolm was released from prison in 1952, and met Elijah Muhammad soon after, who was the leader of the Nations of Islam. Malcolm Little changed his family name to X as Elijah Muhammad consider that a black family name were slave names, so from then on Malcolm was known as Malcolm X. Soon Malcolm became one of the leading figures of the Nations of Islam, so went on many speaking tours and established several mosques. Eventually he was assigned to be minister if all mosques in a New York’s Harlem area. He rejected integration as he was a firm believer in `black power`.
Malcolm X was suspended from the `civil rights movement` by Elijah Muhammad after having made a series of extremists speeches including one of many comments made about President Kennedy’s assassination, Malcolm said it was `a case of the chickens coming out to roost`. March 1964, Malcolm left the Nations of Islam to establish his own religious organisation, the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X reject his former `black power` beliefs and `advocated brotherhood`. He blamed the western culture for racism, and urged African Americans to join sympathetic whites and bring an end to discrimination and racism.
On the 21 February 1965, Malcolm X was hot dead at a party meeting in Harlem. Three black Muslims were later convicted of his death, as they ran onstage on shot Malcolm 15 times on close range. Malcolm’s assassins were all members of the Nations of Islam their names were Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3x Butler and Thomas15x Johnson, who were all convicted of first degree murder in March 1966. Malcolm’s funeral was attended by many, and was buried by close friends and family. His widow Betty later gave birth to twin daughters.
Malcolm’s legacy lives on, although he doesn’t have his won national holiday like Martin Luther King, he has a numerous amount if books, documentaries and movies. Especially the film about his life by Spike Lee, where he is played by Denzel Washington which is very popular.
The Civil Rights Movement
To conclude, my opinion is peaceful action was more effective during the civil rights movement, as it brought more achievements than violent action did. All violent action caused wad deaths, hatred, tragedy as well as the government money; the best way to change things isn’t to try and put the government in debt with riots destroying state property. To add it caused hatred almost ordinary people as well as people high up in the government, and this time it wasn’t just because the colour of their skin.
Peaceful action brought results such as the end to segregation on buses in Montgomery thanks to the bus boycott in 1956. Mass non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama brought about the civil rights legislation, which later became an act. In addition the March on Washington helped bring about the `voting rights act` in 1963, this was a massive break-through as black people could help make decisions in the way the country was run and help improve it.
This is why peaceful action was more effective in bringing results. Violence brought awareness that made the government sit up and see why riots were happening in the first place, however caused more hatred towards black people. Some white racist Americans thought that `if blacks act like animals, without rights, why should blacks have rights`, this of course was referring to the out break of riots. This kind of thinking brought no results, it probably delayed them. So this just proves that my conclusion that peaceful action was the only way to bring results that mattered.
The most effective civil rights leader in the 1960’s has to be Martin Luther King, in his lifetime he achieved what nobody else at that time could with the civil rights movement, as well as raising a family, not even Malcolm X. Dr King helped integrate buses through the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He set up organisations such as the Student Non-Violent Co-0rdinating Committee (SNCC) and moved his members so much so, that some dropped their studies to work full-time in areas most resistant to integration. He lea mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1963, which forced President Kennedy to submit the civil rights legislation that later became an act.
Dr King organised the March on Washington o the 28 August 1963 that brought about the Voting Rights Act. Martin Luther King is probably best known for his `I have a dream` speech which is known worldwide and still moves people to this very day. Lastly when the other strong civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, the black community mourned, however when Martin Luther King was assassinated a wave of violence spread throughout the US nation, and the President even announced an official day of mourning for the whole of America. In addition 300000 people attended his funeral and today he has a national holiday in America called Martin Luther King Day held on his birthday the 15 January.
In the USA at the end of the 1960’s racial inequality still existed, although there were acts to stop this. Black people had many basic rights that were made law, unlike white people who were born with this right (ie. right to vote). Black Americans had the right to vote (Voting Act 1965), equal education (Little Rock, 1954), a civil rights act passed in 1957 which made discrimination illegal and another one in 1964 that outlawed racial discrimination in employment and a Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 made racial discrimination in housing illegal. Although these cats were passed, lynching of black people still happened even in the 1980’s when a `young black man` called `Douglas McDonald` was `lynched on the 12 October 1981`. This lynching shows the issue of race hadn’t gone away.
