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S7 History - Eyes on the Prize -
USA Civil Rights in the 1960s |
Last
update -
07 May 2023 |
| "The
Time Has Come" (1964–1966) |
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The Time Has Come (1964-66)
After a decade-long cry for justice, a new sound is heard in the
civil rights movement: the insistent call for power. Malcolm X
takes an eloquent nationalism to urban streets as a younger
generation of black leaders listens. In the South, Stokely
Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
move from "Freedom Now!" to "Black Power!" as the fabric of the
traditional movement changes. |
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| Two
Societies (1965-68) |
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Two
Societies (1965-68)
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) come north to help Chicago's civil rights
leaders in their nonviolent struggle against segregated housing.
Their efforts pit them against Chicago's powerful mayor, Richard
Daley. When a series of marches through all-white neighborhoods
draws violence, King and Daley negotiate with mixed results. In
Detroit, a police raid in a black neighborhood sparks an urban
uprising that lasts five days, leaving 43 people dead. The
Kerner Commission finds that America is becoming "two societies,
one black, one white, separate and unequal." President Lyndon
Johnson, who appointed the commission, ignores the report. |
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Power! (1966-68) |
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Power! (1966-68)
The call for Black Power takes various forms across communities
in black America. In Cleveland, Carl Stokes wins election as the
first black mayor of a major American city. The Black Panther
Party, armed with law books, breakfast programs, and guns, is
born in Oakland. Substandard teaching practices prompt parents
to gain educational control of a Brooklyn school district but
then lead them to a showdown with New York City's teachers'
union. |
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| The
Promised Land (1967-68) |
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The Promised Land (1967-68)
Martin Luther King stakes out new ground for himself and the
rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. One year before his
death, he publicly opposes the war in Vietnam. His Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) embarks on an ambitious
Poor People's Campaign. In the midst of political organizing,
King detours to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis,
where he is assassinated. King's death and the failure of his
final campaign mark the end of a major stream of the movement. |
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| Ain't
Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-72) |
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Ain't
Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-72)
A call to pride and a renewed push for unity galvanize black
America. World heavyweight champion Cassius Clay challenges
America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, a minister of Islam who
refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University in
Washington, D.C., fight to bring the growing black consciousness
movement and their African heritage inside the walls of this
prominent black institution. Black elected officials and
community activists organize the National Black Political
Convention in Gary, Indiana, in an attempt to create a unified
black response to growing repression against the movement. |
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| A
Nation of Law? (1968-71) |
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A
Nation of Law? (1968-71)
Black activism is increasingly met with a sometimes violent and
unethical response from local and federal law enforcement
agencies. In Chicago, two Black Panther Party leaders are killed
in a pre-dawn raid by police acting on information supplied by
an FBI informant. In the wake of President Nixon's call to "law
and order," stepped-up arrests push the already poor conditions
at New York's Attica State Prison to the limit. A five-day
inmate takeover calling the public's attention to the conditions
leaves 43 men dead: four killed by inmates, 39 by police. |
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Further links |
PBS website for the series
Wikipedia on Eyes on the Prize |
