The Freedom Summer and the Strategies it Used in the 1960s
Prompt
Below is a list of strategies commonly used by activists who participated in the social movements of the 1960s. Choose 2 strategies from the list below and discuss how one movement used those strategies to affect change. For guidance, please be sure to read Chapter 27 and Chapter 28.
Legal Strategies
Nonviolent Direct Action (Includes Sit Ins; Bus boycotts and Freedom Rides; Desegregating lunch counters)
Legislating Civil Rights (
Self Determination (Includes Black Nationalism/ Black Power; The Young Lords; The Chicano Movement; AIM; Raising Feminist Consciousness; Gay and Lesbian Movement)
Make sure that you discuss the extent to which these strategies were successful. Your essay should include specific examples to support your points and use the names of key figures, organizations, laws, legislative acts, and marches when you refer to them.
Criteria
Devote adequate attention to each of the two strategies discussed.
Stay focused on one specific movement (women’s rights, gay rights, black civil rights, etc.)
Include references to key figures, organizations, and laws etc. and refer to them correctly by name.
Demonstrate that the student understands the strategy being discussed (and how it was different from similar strategies).
Include specific examples of how these strategies were used.
Discuss the extent to which these strategies were or were not successful.
Show evidence proofreading
Have effective organization
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Strategies used by Activists in the 60s
Introduction
African Americans received the foulest treatment in America. From being the minority to being treated as second-class citizens, Blacks were to use often substandard facilities, which were set apart from those used by Whites. African Americans were treated with contempt to the point that airing their grievances was almost impossible. For instance, they were expected to vacate their seats for their white counterparts in busses among other places. Black revolutionaries thus set out to defend their dignity and obtain equality in a rather partial society. This paper seeks to unravel the tactics they used to appeal to the government and the international community.
The Freedom Summer
The event was organized in June 1964 to resist deep-seated segregation in the South, especially in the Mississippi belt, and to register as many black voters as possible. More assassinations characterized the segregation compared to any other regions (Wehmeyer et al. 561). The locals in Mississippi participated a great deal in the summer. This is because key figures like Robert Moses, Dave Dennis, and Lawrence Guyot alongside the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) only took part in the organization of the event while the locals showed up in numbers to support the activity.
The summer was pioneered with the integration of the history of black cultures in the curriculum of newly established freedom schools and the establishment of new political parties that represented African Americans (Wehmeyer et al. 565). The organizers held similar elections alongside the discriminatory elections that barred African Americans from voting. They also dared the Party’s delegation, which was composed of whites only, to attend the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on behalf of Mississippi in August, and in Washington in January 1965. The event was accompanied by mass killings, tortures, kidnappings, and bombings, all to demoralize blacks.
The project was successful since it terminated in a discussion on national television, which caught the attention of US citizens on civil rights matters for the very first time.
Self Determination and Nationalism
African Americans believed that they were often sidelined for taking up their oppressors’ identity yet they had a different background. As such, the 60s was a time for setting themselves apart through name choices and black power. In 1964, Cassius Marcellus Clay renamed to Muhammad Ali, a decision announced by Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI). In Muhammad Ali’s opinion, holding his previous name inferred embracing the slave masters. Dropping the name was thus an inch closer to freedom. Several black leaders joined Ali in a quest to relinquish their American surnames to define and determine themselves as African Americans. A renowned NOI minister, Malcolm Little swi...