ɴᴇᴡ ғʀᴏɴᴛɪᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ

                23 - 25

fragile Democratic majority in Congress

old New Deal coalition could easily lose southern

white members if president did too much to empower

southern blacks

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             Civil Rights

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1930s - New Deal Coalition

African Americans overwhelmingly vote for Dem ticket

southern Democrats for important legislation, Kennedy 

avoid civil rights at first

promised to eliminate racial discrimination "with a stroke

of the pen", delayed action for 2 years

civil rights groups sent him thousands of pens as part of

"Ink for Jack" protest

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           Sit-Ins of 1960

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Feb 1960 - 4 black college students say down at segregated

lunch counter in Greensboro, NC

store a part of Woolworth's

not served by the end of first week

thousands of white counter-protesters scream abuse

police only arrest participates in sit down strike, not whites

who attacked them

UChicago students found Congress of Racial Equality

(CORE) in 1942

James Farmer, George Houser, Bernice Fisher all versed

in teachings of Mahatma Ghandi

April 1960 - sit ins spread to 78 cities, 70,000 partiicpants

4 factors: TV, sit ins livestreamed

public discourse shifted when it came to racial

difference, WWII had effect 

improved econ aspects made African-American custoemers

into economic force to be reckoned with

postwar surge in college education, had time and social

environment for political activism

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

4 major organizations: NAACP, SNCC, CORE, Southern

Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

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          Freedom Riders

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May 4, 1961 - travel on buses through Deep South

James Farmer - organizer of Freedom Riders

test Supreme court rulings from 1946 (Morgan v. Virginia),

1960 (Boynton v. Virginia)

first bus: Anniston, AL, May 14

second bus: Birmingham, AL

third bus: Montgomery, AL

arrested for violating local segregation ordinances

Kennedy initially dismiss as unpatriotic, compromise by asking

for "cooling off period"

James Farmers: we've been cooling off for 350 years

Nov 1961 - Interstate Commerce Commission began to 

enforce desegregation

sit ins and freedom rides show nonviolent resistance works

at high price, face extreme violence and jail time

activists willing to pursue alternate strategies

Robert Kennedy urge SNCC to focus on registering South's

disfranchised black citizens, activists embrace suggesstion

 flood Mississippi with volunteers in summer of 1964