Civil Rights Organisations & Key People

CORE - Congress of Racial Equality

 * Founded in 1942


 * A non-violent organisation
 * Provided advice and support to Martin Luther King during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955
 * Abandoned non-violence in mid 1960s as it turned towards black separatist policies


 * Supported southern blacks during the sit-ins of 1960 and advised student activists on non-violent techniques.
 * Organised the Freedom Rides in spring 1961


 * FOR - an international peace and justice organisation
 * Some of the CORE activists had been involved with FOR, who organised the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947
 * A multi-state bus ride through parts of the south to protest against interstate segregation in travel - forerunner to the Freedom Rides in 1961

NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

 * The oldest and largest civil rights organisation in the USA.
 * Founded in in 1910- New York
 * Founded to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination


 * Just under 200 000 members in the mid-1920s
 * By 1945 around 450 000 people had enroled


 * Thurgood Marshall
 * A prominent black lawyer
 * Appointed as the first black justice of the Supreme Court in 1967
 * Took on cases for the NAACP concerning segregation Brown v. Topeka Board of Education


 * LDF - The Legal Defence and Educational Fund
 * Was the non-profit-making legal arm of the NAACP - established in 1940
 * In the 1950s, under the guidance of Thurgood Marshall, the LDF llawyers filed several lawsuits questioning the legality of school segregation.
 * Won the significant Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case in 1954

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference

 * Formed in 1957
 * Led by Martin Luther King


 * An organisation of black ministers
 * a coordinating movement for civil rights activities
 * Based in Atlanta and utilised the influence and idependance of black churches to widen its field of activity


 * The SCLC's mission statement argued that movements could be generated, coordinated and nurtured by activist clergy, supportive congregations and organised black masses working in harmony; mass protest, mobilised through the churches


 * Agumented small, local grass-roots movements, notably Albany, Birmingham and Selma.
 * Played a major role in the March on Washington in August 1963
 * Assisted the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965


 * Considered wieder issues such as poverty, lack of opportunity, economic inequality and aimed to encourage black entrepreneurial independence
 * At this time the SCLC was viewed by some black organisations as being to moderate, too much of a do-gooder movement and ultimately too dependent on white liberal Democrats.

SNCC - Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee

 * Founded in April 1960
 * Evolved out of the Greensboro sit-in
 * Worked for black voter registration

COFO - Council of Federated Organizations

 * An asociation of civil rights groups of which the SNCC was the most active member

Early life and background
Malcolm Little was born on the 19th of May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was one out of eight children, taken care of by their mother, Louise Norton Little, who was a homemaker. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Garvey was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism movement, to which end he founded "Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League", also known as UNIA-ALC or just UNIA. The UNIA was at its peak in the 1910's and 1920's, and was the most powerful black nationalist movement to date, claiming 11 million members. The name Black Nationalism is pretty self-explanatory but it basically advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of national identity. The principles of all Black Nationalist ideologies are unity and self-determination, with other words separation, or independence, from Western-world society.

As a kid, Malcolm attended West Junior High School, where he was the only black student. The other children treated him well and eventually elected him as class president. But Malcolm later said that he felt that his classmates treated him more like the class pet rather than an actual human being. At the age of 15 he dropped out of high school, having been told that there are no uncertain terms that there was no point in a black child pursuing education. His english teacher responded to Malcolm wanting to become a lawyer saying: "One of life's first needs is for us to be realistic... You need to think of something you can be. Why don't you plan on carpentry?".

Black Legion
Because of Malcolm's father's civil rights activism the family received death threats from white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and especially from one of its splinter factions; the Black Legion. Because of the threats and harassment from the organizations the family was forced to move twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday. Despite the family's desperate efforts to elude the organizations their home in Michigan was in 1929 burned to the ground. Two years later, in 1931, Earl Little's dead body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks. Malcolm's mother, Louise, suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of Earl and was committed to mental institution, and her children were in the meanwhile split up among various foster homes and orphanages. Even though the police declared both the burning of their home and Earl's death as accidents, the Little's were certain that the Black Legion was responsible. Malcolm later remembered that when his home in Michigan burned, the town's all-white emergency respondents refused to do anything. Malcolm said that "the white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned to the ground".

Nation of Islam

When Malcolm's brother Reginald told Malcolm he had converted to Islam and further on belonged to the organization Nation of Islam, or also called NOI. Malcolm was intrigued and began to study the teachings of NOI-leader Elijah Muhammad. Elijah taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economical and social success. The NOI fought for (among other things) a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people. In 1952, when he was paroled, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname 'X'. He considered 'Little' a slavename since his grandfather had gotten the name from his grandfather who in his turn had gotten it from the slavemaster. He therefore chose 'X' as his surname to signify his lost tribal name.

Malcolm was appointed as a minister and spokesman for NOI and Elijah also made him in charge of establishing new mosques in Hartford and Philadelphia. He became the minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, his indictments of racism and his advocacy of self-defense eliciting admiration, as well as fear, far beyond the New York black community. Whites were especially fearful, recoiling from his sustained pronouncements of crimes against his people. While most contrasted him with Martin Luther King Jr., with whose philosophy they were much more at ease, white college students found ugly truths in his searing rhetoric of condemnation. Malcolm, however, grew increasingly restive as the Nation of Islam failed to join in the mounting civil rights struggle and became convinced that Elijah Muhammad was lacking in sincerity, a view painfully validated by corruption at the highest level of the organization. For his part, Muhammad seemed threatened by the popularity of Malcolm, whose influence reached even into the respected Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He also created a newspaper called "Muhammad speaks", and appeared on radio and television to spread the message of NOI all over USA. His conviction, charisma and drive attracted a huge number of new members. He was also credited with increasing the amount of members in the NOI from 400 to 40 000 in 8 years. In the early 60's Malcolm had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of the civil rights movement, presenting and alternative to Dr Martin Luther King Jr's vision of a racially integrated society achieved by peaceful means. King was highly critical of what he viewed as Malcolm's destructive demagoguery (=a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument). He once said: "I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice".

Turning point
In 1963 Malcolm became deeply disillusioned when he learned that his hero and mentor (NOI-leader Elijah Muhammad) had violated many of his own teachings. Malcolm's feelings of betrayal combined with Elijah's anger over Malcolm's insensitive comment regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy lead Malcolm to leave the NOI in 1964. The same year Malcolm embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the Middle East. His journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning point in his life, because of him having discovered that orthodox Muslims preach equality of the races, which led him to abandon the argument that whites are devils. Malcolm also made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

The same year he had left Nation of Islam and went on his pilgrim journey to Mecca, Malcolm also founded his own Islamic organization, called The Muslim Mosque, Inc. In comparison to NOI, it was a rather small group, yet it did attract some. It collapsed after Malcolm was assassinated, but it has a successor called the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood.

Assassination
At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965, three members of the NOI rushed Malcolm onstage. Those three men; Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3x Butler and Thomas 15x Johnson shot Malcolm 15 times at a close range. Malcolm X became 39 years old. 1500 people attended Malcolm's funeral in Harlem on February 27, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ. After the ceremony, friends took the shovels from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves.

Martin Luther King
A front figure for the american civil rights movement, Martin Luther King achieved great success in improving living conditions for colored people in the southern United States.

Background
King was born on the 15th of January 1929 in the city of Atlanta. He was born into a well standing family, his father was a baptist minister in the city, and his mother was a teacher. At birth he was given the name Micheal like his father, but after attending a religious conference 1934. His father decided to change his and his sons name to Martin, as a tribute to the German theologian: Martin Luther.

He entered Morehouse College in 1944 and then went to Crozer Religious Seminary to undertake postgraduate study, receiving his doctorate in 1955.

Civil Rights
Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilize the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955.

In 1957, King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to co-ordinate protests against discrimination. He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi, who led protests against British rule in India culminating in India's independence in 1947.

In 1963, King led mass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama where the white population were violently resisting desegregation. The city was dubbed 'Bombingham' as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.

After his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march on Washington in August 1963, and delivered his famous 'I have a dream' speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the south.

Last years
As the civil rights movement became increasingly radicalized, King found that many in the younger generation did not share his message of peaceful protest. King began to protest against the Vietnam war and poverty levels in the US. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 during a visit to Memphis, Tennessee.

Background
African-American Rosa Parks was born in February, 1913, in Alabama. She had a brother, called Sylvester, and her parents, Leona and James McCauley both worked with racial issues. Parks went to school up until age 11; she then  left to take care of her sick mother. Despite this, she earned a high school degree in 1933 with the help of her husband, Raymond Parks. She worked as a seamstress and later on as a secretary.

Civil Rights
Parks was an influential NAACP member as well as Civil Rights Movement activist, and is mostly recognized for her actions (refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man) that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, Parks contributed to the fight for racial equality in more ways than so.

Last Years
The arrests of Parks and her husband led to them losing their jobs, which made them move to another town in order to make a living.Thus, they moved to Detroit. There, Parks founded an organisation for the African-American youth of Detroit together with her husband. She has also written an autobiography of her life. She has too received several awards for her work, such as the Congressional Gold Medal (the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom Eventually, Parks passed away of natural causes in October 2005 at the age of 92.