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The Sixties: African American Civil Rights

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Introduction

During the last half of the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, African Americans conducted a concerted campaign for the social justice and prosperity they deserved. African-Americans had died fighting for the United States in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In large parts of the United States, there was discrimination. In the South, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynching and sundown towns were a fact of life for African Americans.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, thousands of leaders, organizers, activists, intellectuals and artists, radicals, and seekers of justice put their lives on the line for the justice they believed was their right. Here are just a few of those.

For further information on African American history, follow this link.

Non-violence and the Civil Rights Movement

Photograph: Mahatma Gandhi      

Studio photograph of Mohandas K. Gandhi, London, 1931
Author: Elliott & Fry
Source: Wiki Common

Photograph: Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Portrait by Benjamin D. Maxham     
Source: Wikimedia Commons

If anything represented the revolutionary change in America, it was Dr. King's strategy of non-violence to achieve Civil Rights for African-Americans. His message and his leadership were so powerful that soon other movements, including  the Anti-War Protests, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Farm Worker Rights, Indigenous People's Rights and the Environmental Movement, adapted this strategy. This philosophy of non-violence was based on Henry David Thoreau's "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" and Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent campaign for an independent India.

African-Americans Breaking Barriers

  • Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, politician: First African American Senator since Reconstruction. (1966).
  • Ralph Bunche, diplomat. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
  • Diahann Carroll, actress: First African American actress to star in a TV series (Julia '68-'71).
  • Shirley Chisholm, activist: First African American woman elected to Congress (1968).& candidate for a major party's nomination for President (1972).
  • Helen Claytor: First African-American president of the national YMCA (1967).
  • Bill Cosby, comedian, actor: First African American actor in a leading TV role (I Spy 1965 - 1968).
  • Samuel Delany: First African American to win the Nebula (1966) and the Hugo (1967).
  • Barbara Jordan, politician: First African American woman to serve in Texas State Senate (1967).
  • Thurgood Marshall, attorney. First African American on the US Supreme Court (1967).
  • Gordon Parks, Sr., director. First African American to direct a major studio-backed Hollywood film, The Learning Tree.
  • Sidney Poitier, actor: First African American actor to win Oscar Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963).
  • Leontyne Price, soprano: First African American to sing a leading role at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy (May 21, 1960).
  • Charley Pride, singer. Broke the color barrier in country music in the 1960s.
  • Bill Russell, athlete. First African American head coach of an NBA team, the Boston Celtics, in 1966.
  • Robert C. Weaver, economist. First African American to Cabinet Dept. Secretary in 1966.
  • Mary Washington Wylie. First African American woman to be a CPA, founding the accounting firm Washington, Pittman & McKeever in 1968.

The Pioneers: Preparing the Way

  • Marian Anderson
  • Ralph Bunche
  • W.E.B. DuBois
  • Langston Hughes
  • Zora Neale Hurston
  • Mahalia Jackson
  • Vernon Johns
  • A. Philip Randolph
  • Paul Robeson
  • Gloria Richardson
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Jo Ann Robinson
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Ida B. Wells

The Leaders: Parting the Waters

  • Rev. Ralph Abernathy
  • Ella Baker
  • Daisy Bates
  • James Farmer Jr.
  • James Forman
  • Aileen Hernandez
  • Coretta Scott King
  • Rosa Parks
  • Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
  • Roy Wilkins
  • Andrew Young
  • Whitney Young

The Radicals: Speaking the Truth

  • H. Rap Brown
  • Stokely Carmichael
  • Eldridge Cleaver
  • Kathleen Cleaver
  • Angela Davis
  • Fred Hampton
  • Ericka Huggins
  • Huey Newton
  • Bobby Seale
  • Robert F. Williams

The Activists: Maintaining the Faith

  • Leah Chase
  • Unita Blackwell
  • Julian Bond
  • Amelia Boynton (Robinson)
  • Dorothy Height
  • Casey Hayden
  • Jesse Jackson
  • Mary King
  • Joyce Ladner
  • Robert Parris Moses
  • Daine Nash
  • Eleanor Holmes Norton
  • Judy Richardson
  • Beulah Sanders
  • Charles Sherrod
  • Ruby Doris Smith

Seekers of Justice: Walking the Path

  • Ruby Bridges
  • Linda Brown
  • John Carlos
  • James Chaney
  • Myrlie Evers
  • Andrew Goodman
  • Mary Hamilton 
  • Fannie Lou Hamer
  • Joseph Lee Jones
  • Herbert Lee
  • James Meredith
  • James Reeb
  • Michael Schwerner
  • Betty Shabaz
  • Tommie Smith

Organizations

  • Alabama Christian Movement for Civil Rights 
  • ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
  • Black Arts Movement
  • Black Panthers
  • The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
  • Chicago Freedom Movement
  • CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)
  • Council of Federated Organizations
  • Fellowship of Reconciliation
  • League of Revolutionary Black Workers
  • MFDP (Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party)
  • NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
  • National Urban League
  • NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization)
  • Revolutionary Action Movement
  • SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)
  • SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
  • Urban League
  • The Voter Education Project
  • Women's Political Council

The Artists: Shining the Light

  • Maya Angelou
  • James Baldwin
  • Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
  • Harry Belafonte
  • Ray Charles
  • Ossie Davis
  • Sammy Davis Jr.
  • Ruby Dee
  • Nikki Giovanni
  • Dick Gregory
  • ​Lorraine Hansberry
  • Lena Horne
  • Chester Himes
  • Abbey Lincoln
  • Sidney Poitier
  • Nina Simone
  • Nancy Wilson

12 Civil Rights songs

Photograph: Odetta 1961

Odetta, 1961 (Public Domain photo)

  • Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday (1939)
  • We shall overcome (Civil Rights Anthem), Mahalia Jackson (1963)
  • A Change is Gonna Come, Same Cooke (1964)
  • Too Many Martyrs, Phil Ochs (1964)
  • Is It Because I'm Black, Syl Johnson (1969)
  • Paths of Victory, Odetta (1965)
  • Pride (In the Name of Love), U2 (1984)
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron (1970)
  • Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud, James Brown (1968)
  • To be Young, Gifted and Black, Nina Simone (1970)
  • Abraham, Martin and John, Marvin Gaye (1970)
  • What's Going On, Marvin Gaye (1971)
  • When Will We Be Paid, the Staples Singers (1971)

Source:allmusic.com
Songs found on Spotify

Films of African American life

Graphic Novels

Events

  • Sept. 22, 1862. President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • June 19, 1865. Juneteeth: The effective end of slavery in the United States.
  • Dec. 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery in the US, ratified.
  • 1927. Showboat, the first racially integrated musical on Broadway.
  • 1935. George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess first Broadway play with an all African-American cast.
  • 1932-1972. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. 
  • July 26, 1948. President Truman integrate U.S. military.
  • May 17, 1954. Brown v. Board of Education
  • Aug. 28, 1955. The death of Emmett Till
  • Dec. 1, 1955. Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat.
  • Dec. 5, 1955 - Dec. 21, 1956. Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott.
  • March 11, 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's play, Raisin in the Sun, opens on Broadway.
  • Feb. 1, 1960. Greensboro sit-ins begin.
  • April 16 - 18, 1960. SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) founded.
  • May 4, 1961. The Freedom Rides Summer begins.
  • Sept. 22, 1961.Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation.
  • Oct. 1, 1962. James Mereditth enrolled at Ole Miss.
  • April 16, 1963. Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".
  • June 12, 1963. Medgar Evers assassinated.
  • Aug. 28, 1963. March on Washington. Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech.
  • Sept. 15, 1963. Four girls killed in Birmingham bombing.
  • Nov. 22, 1963. President Kennedy assassinated.
  • Jan. 23, 1964. The 24th Amendment ratified.
  • April 1964. Hamilton v. Alabama.
  • June 21, 1964. 3 Freedom Riders murdered in Mississippi.
  • July 2, 1964, Civil Rights Act.
  • Oct. 14, 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Feb. 21, 1965. Malcolm X assassinated.
  • March 7-25, 1965. Selma to Montgomery Marches
  • Aug. 6, 1965. Voting Rights Act.
  • Aug. 11 - 17, 1965. Watts Riots.
  • July 1966. Marvel's Black Panther's first appearance in Fantastic Four #52.
  • Oct. 15, 1966. Black Panther Party founded. Drafts 10-Point Program.
  • Dec. 26, 1966. Kwanzaa first celebrated.
  • April 4, 1967. Martin Luther King Jr. denounces the Vietnam  War.
  • June 12, 1967. Loving v. Virginia.
  • July 26-27, 1967. Algiers Motel Killings in Detroit.
  • July 28, 1967 - Feb. 29, 1968. Kerner Commission investigates causes behind US race riots.
  • Aug. 30, 1967. Thurgood Marshall becomes an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • 1968. Black Panther Party launches Free Breakfast for Children Program in Oakland, CA 
  • 1968. Poor Peoples Campaign.
  • 1968. First Black Studies Program established at San Francisco State University.
  • March 28, 1968. Memphis sanitation workers march.
  • April 3, 1968. Dr. King's "I have been to the mountaintop speech."
  • April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
  • April 11, 1968. Fair Housing Act passed.
  • June 5, 1968. Robert F. Kennedy assassinated.
  • Oct. 18, 1968. Tommie Smith & John Carlos protest at Mexico City Olympics medal ceremony.
  • 1968. Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress.
  • 1969. Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook found Dance Theatre of Harlem
  • May 1970. First issue of Essence for African-American women.
  • May 1, 1970. 15,000 students protest at Yale University over jailing and trial of Black Panther leaders.
  • May 15, 1970. Police kill two students and injure twelve others at Jackson State College.
  • August 1970. First issue of Black Enterprise on African-Americans in the business world.
  • 1971. University of Alabama integrates its football team.
  • 1972. Shirley Chirsholm, first African-American candidate of a major party to run for President.
  • 1976. President Ford officially recognizes February as Black History Month.

Additional References

Books

Gates, H. L., & Burke, K. M. (2015). And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK. Ecco Press.
Thoreau, H. D., & Cramer, J.S. (2012). The Portable Thoreau. New York: Penguin Books
Farber, D. R., & Bailey, B. L. (2005). The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press.
Gandhi, & Fischer, L. (2002). The essential Gandhi: An anthology of his writings on his life, work and ideas. New York: Vintage Books.
Smithsonian Timelines of history: The ultimate visual guide to the events that shaped the world. (2018). New York: DK Publishing.
Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America, 1954-1974. Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Urdang, L. (2001). The Timetables of American History: History and Politics, the Arts, Science and Technology, and More in America and Elsewhere. Simon & Schuster.
Williams, J. (2013). Eyes on the prize: America's civil rights years, 1954-1965. New York: Penguin Books.

Website

https://blackpast.org/