Freedom Riders faced many dangers in their quest to promote civil rights. In this instance one of their buses was set on fire.
Credit: Image courtesy of PBS Freedom Riders
I was an original 'Freedom Rider.' I was attacked and beaten by the Klu Klux Klan [sic] in Alabama; and I walked among the giants of the Civil Rights Movement and I felt at home. The lumps and bruises on my head are a daily reminder of my commitment and my obligations."
Most lessons on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement focus on key national leaders-Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and President John F. Kennedy. This lesson is no exception; however, it will also look at less well-known members of the civil rights struggle, those whose courageous actions triggered a federal response. This lesson will help students learn more about these members of the grassroots civil rights struggle through the use of primary documents, audio sources, and photographs.
The first part of this lesson focuses on the Freedom Riders. It demonstrates the critical role of activists in pushing the Kennedy Administration to face the contradiction between its ideals and the realities of federal politics. In this case, the Kennedy Administration finally acted in defense of individual rights at the risk of offending powerful Southern politicians.
The second activity revisits the famous Birmingham Movement of 1963. It allows students to learn something about the grassroots protests against segregation and exclusion, the reaction of Alabama and Birmingham officials, and President Kennedy's public response-a renewed commitment to civil rights.
Finally, the 1963 March on Washington remains a touchstone of the Civil Rights Movement, and the "I Have A Dream Speech" will be familiar to teachers and students. Here, that speech is contextualized by three other speeches: President Kennedy's June 11, 1963 speech on civil rights, the John Lewis speech given at the March (in the slightly censored version demanded on the day of the March), and a Malcolm X speech critiquing the March. Collectively, these readings will give students a fuller perspective on the "I Have a Dream" speech, one shaped by the diverse viewpoints of contemporaries.
How did students, civil rights activists, state and local officials in the South, and the administration of President Kennedy come into conflict during the early 1960s?
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to
Much of The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s hinged on the relationship between grass roots activists, segregationist state and local governments, and a Federal Government bound (sometimes ambivalently) to uphold the Constitution. These lessons examine this relationship first of all with a look at the Freedom Rides. Student activists from the newly-formed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the older Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the Freedom Rides in 1961, challenging and helping to destroy Jim Crow. By traveling as a racially integrated group on interstate buses through the South, the Freedom Riders sought to confront the Southern state authorities who enforced segregation, and to pressure the Federal Government to implement the Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960) that outlawed segregation in interstate travel.
Riding from Washington, DC to Montgomery, Alabama, the Freedom Riders were violently attacked by white segregationist mobs. Several riders were brutally beaten and some were permanently injured, but the rides continued as new students and activists took the place of those forced to drop out because of their injuries. Widespread media coverage of assaults on the riders gripped the nation and played a role in pushing the Kennedy Administration to intervene on the riders' behalf. After a summer in which the Federal Justice Department struggled to accommodate the conflicting demands of the Civil Rights activists and Southern politicians, the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed segregation in interstate bus travel in a much more detailed and forceful manner than the Supreme Court had. The Freedom Rides had achieved their aim.
However, the Freedom Rides gave rise to friction within the movement between the student protesters who became the backbone of the rides and Martin Luther King, Jr., who actively supported the rides, but did not directly participate. They also heightened tensions between the Kennedy Administration and the increasingly militant student wing of the movement, which viewed the administration's willingness to compromise with Southern politicians with great suspicion.
Despite the assistance of black and pro-civil rights voters in winning the 1960 Presidential Election, Kennedy had done little to push civil rights in his first year in office. Violence surrounding civil rights protests in the South, however, spurred him to action on the side of the growing movement. The Freedom Rides and attempts to integrate southern state universities prompted him to deploy federal marshals in defense of blacks demanding equal rights. Yet perhaps the most decisive influence on President Kennedy's civil rights agenda were the civil rights protests that rocked the city of Birmingham in 1963 and garnered worldwide attention. The shock and outrage that followed television and newspaper images of police dogs and fire hoses attacking black children and the racial violence that accompanied the protests made Kennedy feel that broad federal civil rights legislation was necessary. On June 11, 1963, he spoke to the country in a televised address in which he asked the American people to support the strongest civil rights bill since the Reconstruction Era.
To show that this bill had widespread support and to press their own demands further onto the national political agenda, civil rights groups around the country mobilized in support of a March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Today, the March is remembered primarily for the memorable speech that Martin Luther King gave on that day, known as the "I Have a Dream" speech.
It is important to understand, however, that the same historically creative tensions that marked events such as the Freedom Rides played an important role in the March's organization, program, and impact. The Kennedy Administration, Martin Luther King, and the militant student civil rights activists supported the March's overall demands, but they differed significantly in their assessment of the political landscape surrounding the March. In fact, the Kennedy Administration had initially opposed the idea of the March. There was also an ongoing mistrust of federal power within the black community, personified at that moment by black nationalists such as Malcolm X. These contrasting perspectives would continue to exercise influence as the civil rights movement grew and diversified.
The following EDSITEMENT-reviewed websites provide helpful background material to review before teaching this lesson:
In this initial step, students learn background information through doing two readings before going on to the next activities. They are asked to take notes on the reading.
For homework, students should read an online summary of President Kennedy's civil rights record, from the EDSITEment-reviewed Center for History and New Media website, and the King Encyclopedia entry on the Freedom Rides. Additionally, students should consult the PBS documentary Freedom Riders for background on the issues faced by the Freedom Rides campaign.
Students should take notes on what they read, listing:
Students should then read the following online documents, linked to the EDSITEment-reviewed Center for History and New Media website:
Then, in the final part of this activity, students should respond in writing to the following questions:
What do President Kennedy's comments tell us about:
And, judging by these comments, to what extent does President Kennedy appear to support or oppose the Civil Right Movement in Birmingham at this time? Please use evidence from the press conference reading to support your answers.
Questions on the reading:
Following the class discussion, return the students to the "jigsaw" group from Activity 3, in which each student read a different speech (if all students have read all of the speeches, any groups will work). Assign each group a different newspaper: a Northern newspaper, a Southern newspaper, or an African American newspaper.
Students, acting as the editorial board for their assigned newspaper, will write an editorial commenting on the speeches given at the March on Washington. Which position would the editorial board endorse for the African American community? What would they have the Administration endorse (bear in mind Kennedy's initial opposition to the March)? How should the majority of Americans, who were not at the March, respond to the issues raised that day?
2 class periods