Back Ground:
In the century following Reconstruction, African Americans in the South faced overwhelming obstacles to voting. Despite the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which had enfranchised black men and women, southern voter registration boards used poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic impediments to deny African Americans their legal rights. Southern blacks also risked harassment, intimidation, economic reprisals, and physical violence when they tried to register or vote. As a result, African Americans had little if any political power, either locally or nationally. In Mississippi, for instance, only five percent of eligible blacks were registered to vote in 1960. (Congress of Racial Equality)
Negroes and white sympathizers continued demonstrations for equal rights for Negroes throughout the United States in the 1960’s; the goal of the movement were improved education, nondiscriminatory voter registration, equal opportunity in employment, and open occupancy in housing. Martin Luther King, winner of Nobel peace prize, led groups in nonviolent direct action demonstrations.
Student Unrest in the 1960’s resulted in demonstration at more than 100 colleges and universities. Dissenters included revolutionaries intent on destroying the system, students protesting the gap between the ideals of democracy and the conditions of American life, and war protesters. Some sought greater Black recognition. Others demanded a voice in policymaking. Some segments of society promised reform, but others doubted the ideals of the college generation.
In 1963, over 200,000 people, Negro and white, joined a “March on Washington” to demonstrate for equality in public facilities, education, job opportunities, housing and voting rights. They wanted to impress on Congress the importance of the Civil Rights Bill, which President Kennedy wanted, passed. The Civil Rights bill was brought before Congress in 1963 and in a speech on television on 11th June, Kennedy pointed out that: "The Negro baby born in..........
