The Civil Rights Movement: Neshoba County

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. (History) He was an activist, a fighter for civil rights, and was destined to a life of serving God as a pastor. His father and grandfather were pastors. He later followed in their footsteps and became the pastor of his father. Along with being involved in the church community he became a non-violent activist for human rights and the black communities during the times of segregation. Because he had graduated from high school, received his Bachelor’s Degree from Morehouse College, and then went on to get his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University proved that he was a well-educated black man. His education and strong beliefs for his race landed him as a chairman in the NAACP and in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as president. King sought

Throughout the long fourteen year span of the Civil Rights Movement, countless monumental and historical events took place, but one stood out among the rest. That event was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and with that the death of four innocent African American girls. The bomb had the most impact to the segregation status quo and the overall success of the Civil Rights Act.

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

The civil rights movement of the sixties is one of the most controversial times of the last century. Many, if not all, who lived through that time, and the generations following were enormously impacted. At the time passions ran so high that violence at peaceful

Slavery and Mississippi during the nineteenth and twentieth century went hand and hand. Along with this slavery came prejudice, bigots, racism, and perhaps the worst of all; lynching. Lynching was commonly accepted in the south during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Governors approved, sheriffs turned a blind eye, southern blacks accepted, and for the most part the rest of the United States ignored it. Lynching in the south was seen as check on society, not a criminal offence it helped keep 'those niggahs in order.' However, there was one lynching in the summer of 1955 that the nation could not ignore; the press, NAACP, and Mrs. (Mammie) Till Bradley made sure of this. The lynching sent shock waves through most of the

In 1957 john Lewis left Alabama to be in the American baptist theological seminary in Nashville Tennessee he learned about nonviolent protest and helped to organize sit- ins at segregated lunch counters he was arrested while the demonstrations were going when that happened it made his mother upset but Lewis still continued the civil rights movement and went to be in the freedom rides in 1961.

The south was a dangerous place for African Americans during that time period. For example earlier that summer of 1955 in Mississippi, according to Heather Pool, two African American men by the names of George Lee and Lamar Smith, both worked on organizing and registering black voters, had been murdered (Pool). George Lee was shot in his car and it was ruled in court as a traffic accident, even when they found the slug still in his body (Pool). As for Lamar Smith, he was shot in broad daylight in front of police officers and a large crowd of bystanders in the middle of town square, yet no one could identify the shooter (Pool). According to The Murder of Emmett Till documentary on YouTube, in the seventy five years before Emmett till, in Mississippi

Missing, the three men are nowhere to be found. James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman have disappeared. The last time anybody heard about them was when they were imprisoned in the Neshoba County Jail. The three men were on the road, leaving Meridian, when a racist policeman pulled them over (supposedly from speeding). He took the men to jail and after a few hours released them. They had not even left Neshoba when the policemen named Cecil Price pulled them over. But he

Eventually, the occurrence of the Orangeburg Massacre led to the racial integration of Orangeburg and many other parts of South Carolina. If the Orangeburg Massacre had not occurred, South Carolina might not have become the racially equal society it is today. However, not everybody agreed with the change that was being brought as a result of the event. Many caucasians at the time attempted to cover the incident up, and to blame whatever could not be hidden on the protesters. Nevertheless, civil rights protesters were not going to let the killing of their fellow pupils be in vain. The students of Orangeburg demanded the punishment of highway patrolmen and other law enforcers on scene the night of the massacre. “They wished to see the officers punished to the fullest extent of the law so that justice could be served to the families of the three young men who were killed” (Pulaski 10). But, as an attempt to hide the massacre, many white-owned newspaper companies either simply refused to report the event, or blamed the massacre on the protesters that participated that night (3 Negroes 1). “A skirmish line of highway patrolmen and city police returned the fire of demonstrating college students last night” (3 Negroes 1). After a scant two weeks, no white-owned newspaper business covered the event at all.

The main gigantic direct activity in the social equality development came in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Under SCLC authority, the dark group boycotted the city's transport system,which obliged them to ride at the back of the transports.

The history of the United States is bursting with instances of extreme racism, discrimination, segregation and prejudice. The gruesome murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year old, Chicago teenager shined a light on these subjects. The Mississippi Trial of 1955 which was the trial held for Emmett Till’s murder, became a sensational case that was watched and followed around the United States. The response followed by the trial would shape the history of racism in the United States, catalyzing many civil right movements, protests. Without massive coverage of the event through the Chicago Defender, the trial never would have become famous, leading to an enormous draw back in civil right movements both at the time and throughout history.

Almost no event had such a singularly negative effect on the American Civil Rights movement as the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898, a white-supremacist coup d'état that occurred here in North Carolina shortly after the end of Reconstruction. On November 10, 1898, racial tension that had been clouding in the South ever since the end of the Civil War and the election of Republicans during Reconstruction broke in a destructive thunderclap of mob violence. The Wilmington race riots set back civil rights progress not only in Wilmington, but all across the nation. Only as recently as 2006 has the state legislature formally apologized for the event, which was responsible for turning Wilmington into a white-majority city and marking the end of several decades of progress in the state.

Over time, the Scottsboro boys grew from boys to men and with the progression of their age so to do the attitudes of this country toward racism. Granted, there are still bigots and racist in the United States and in the south especially, but they are not the majority or the accepted---they are the minority and the outcasts. No one would be proud to say things like, “’There shouldn't be any trial for them damn niggers-- thirty cents worth of rope would do the work and it wouldn't cost the county much.’ --Decatur lunchroom proprietor (p. 211)” Those ignorant phrases are not common place in our country now, but we had to grow to get there. This trial brought about some of that growth, for not only was this something wrongfully done against a group of African American teens, it was injustice done to Americans and there were some in the United States who saw that and color lines began to blur. My great grandfather marched in the Scottsboro march on Washington along side blacks and Indians, all fighting for the same cause. The growth all the way to 1976 when Clarence Norris, one of the Scottsboro boys, came back to Alabama for the first time since the trials and was greeted, not by a posse or mob, but by cheers and outstretched hands to shake of all races.

      Michael Schwerner joined forces with SNCC along with his chief aid, James Chaney, a black Mississippi native. They both had hopes that the federal government would be pushed by their numbers to increase FBI and federal protection for the students. The third man on their team was Andrew Goodman. He was a reasonably wealthy, white, 20 year old from Manhattan. Idealistic and eager to work, Andrew had no clue that his first day in Mississippi would also be his last. On the night of June 21st in Neshoba County the three young men disappeared after being stopped on a bogus traffic violation. After discovering their burned out car on the second day of the search, most everyone knew the three had been murdered. The press followed the search and brought the case to the nation’s attention. Many bodies of murdered civil rights workers and black citizens were recovered from the backwaters and swamps as federal agents and Navy seamen scoured Neshoba County. The killers in Neshoba County had made a very grave mistake. They hadn’t just murdered three local “colored boys” this time. The parents of Schwerner and Goodman had money; they had ties. So much so, that they were given an audience with

Mississippi Burning, the film that so brutally depicts the actions of the Ku Klux Klan in the South, actually takes place in the Neshoba County of Mississippi. While the film makes loose ties to the actual event, many of the specific details were altered in order to better make the film. The statements that I will include are those that coincide with reality. Three civil-rights activists: James Cheney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman; were charged with a false speeding violation and were taken to prison for a total of eight hours. The police department working in accordance with the Klan released the three advocates and