We Changed the World: African Americans 1945-1970For all of the continuity of African-American history, including the long history of struggle, the years between 1945 and 1970 represented a new moment. It was a time of new possibilities and new vision, a time when black Americans were determined to be the architects of an inclusive America that championed human rights for all. In We Changed the World, Vincent Harding, himself a participant in the Southern freedom movement, documents what was perhaps the most critical chapter in African-American history, the fight for civil and human rights. In the streets and in the courts, a new generation of black activists--including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, writers James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson--forced the federal government to admit that segregation was wrong and must be remedied. Their efforts paid off. In the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision upholding legal segregation. Americans could no longer easily avoid the implications of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s central message: "If democracy is to live segregation must die." By 1964, African Americans had much to be optimistic about. Protests in Birmingham and Mississippi and the much publicized murders of civil rights activists forced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public accommodations of every kind throughout the country. The civil rights movement freed all African Americans to move beyond protest and to take charge themselves. The Black Power movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the urban rebellions--all contributed to the transformation of American politics and the role of black Americans in the life of the nation. African Americans did indeed change the world, but only after a long struggle that began when the first Africans arrived in this country. It is a struggle that continues to this day. |
Contents
6 | |
10 | |
Chapter 1 PIONEERS AND VETERANS 19451950 | 17 |
THE ROAD FROM BROWN TO MONTGOMERY | 33 |
Chapter 3 OLD ORDER NEW ORDER | 61 |
THE STUDENT REVOLUTIONARIES | 77 |
ROOTING OUT FEAR AND GETTING OUT VOTES | 99 |
THE DAYS BEYOND FOREVER | 121 |
Chapter 7 THE FIRE THIS TIME | 135 |
Chapter 8 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? | 161 |
EPILOGUE | 182 |
CHRONOLOGY | 184 |
186 | |
189 | |
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action activists African Americans Alabama Albany Albany Movement arrested Atlanta became began Birmingham black Americans black community black leaders Black Power black students boycott buses called campaign Carolina challenge civil rights College color Coretta democracy Democratic dents desegregation E. D. Nixon economic fear federal fight forces freedom movement Freedom Riders freedom workers inspired jail James Johnson justice Kennedy King's knew later Lawson leadership lives lunch counter Malcolm Malcolm X marchers Martin Luther King mass meeting Mississippi Montgomery Moses move NAACP Nashville nation Nation of Islam Negro Nixon nonviolent North organization participants party police political poverty President programs protest race racial racism Reagon refused resistance riots Rosa Parks SCLC segregation Sherrod singing sit-in SNCC social songs South Southern strategy struggle tion U.S. Supreme Court urban victory violence voter registration white supremacy women young