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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Black Liberation

Contents of this tag:

CORE members pass out pamphlets in Pacoima protesting the jailing of Freedom Riders. From left, Michael Haimovitz, 19, Stevie Lipney, 17, and Ernie Dillard, 23. Mike Davis and John Weiner: "Members of CORE raise funds in Pacoima for jailed Freedom Riders, July 24, 1961. LA CORE sent five integrated groups of Freedom Riders to challenge segregation in Southern train and bus terminals. Most of them were jailed at Mississippi's Parchman Farm, perhaps the scariest prison in North America. "
ICNC - International Center on Nonviolent Conflict -"The Worst thing that happens is bombing... a boy or girl would wrap a stone or marble... and throw them... and it really hurt.... she walked into her english class and a bomb went whizzing by her ear... missed her and hit the wall. She was trembling and thought what can I do. She picked up the bomb and went back to the room and she smiled at the boy who threw it as she placed it on his desk. He turned a number of colors. She smiled at him. Students laughed nervously. The next english class, that boy greeted her at the door and said Good Morning Melba. He never again was found harassing her."
Nonviolence Workshops & Lunch Counter Sit-ins Organizing 1957-1969: Lawson is involved with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), 8 a pacifist organization founded in Europe at the outbreak of WWI and the oldest pacifist organization in the U.S. 9 He serves as a southern director of FOR and begins organizing workshops on nonviolence for community members & students at Vanderbilt and the city’s four black colleges (Tennessee State University, Fisk University, Meharry College, and American Baptist College). 10 He then enrolls at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville. As of 2011, Lawson identified himself as a member of FOR. From Jan.-May in 1958 Lawson held nonviolence workshops in Little Rock, a year after the Little Rock Nine had begun desegregation of the local high schools. In 1959, Lawson alongside Diane Nash, Marion Barry, John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette, & James Bevel plan nonviolent From Jan.-May in 1958 Lawson held nonviolence workshops in Little Rock, a year after the Little Rock Nine had begun desegregation of the local high schools. In 1959, Lawson alongside Diane Nash, Marion Barry, John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette, & James Bevel plan nonviolent demonstrations in Nashville & conduct test sit-ins. These organizers are met with resistance and considered “radical” in Nashville as the belief was that Nashville was a “moderate” city with “the best working relationships with Black people and that in fact the sit-in was not the way to do it.” In 1958, Lawson attended his first meeting with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) where he met with King and led his first workshop on nonviolence. Following the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins in 1960, Lawson and other activists launched similar protests in downtown Nashville. More than 150 students were arrested before the city began desegregating lunch counters. First sit-in in Nashville on February 13th 1960. The city of Nashville officially desegregated its downtown lunch counters in May of 1960. In 1960, Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt due to involvement with the desegregation movement.
Civil Rights Movement: Firemen turn hoses on demonstrators, Birmingham, Alabama - IRMINGHAM, Ala., May 3 -- Fire hoses and police dogs were used here today to disperse Negro students protesting racial segregation. Three students were reported to have been bitten and to have required hospital treatment. Two firemen and a news photographer were injured by bricks and broken bottles thrown from the top of a Negro office building near the major encounter, at 17th Street and Fifth Avenue North. [In Washington, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy warned that ``increasing turmoil'' would be made inevitable by a refusal to grant equal rights to Negroes, United Press International reported. But he questioned the timing of the demonstrations.] Marchers Are Dispersed This was the second day of major demonstrations by the students here. Yesterday, more than 900 students were sent out from the Negro section in groups of 10 to 50. Some succeeded in reaching City Hall and several downtown corners. More than 700 were arrested. Today, with the dogs and fire hoses, the police were largely successful in dispersing the student marchers before they left the Negro section. Fewer than 500 were able to leave the 16th Street Baptist Church before the police sealed its doors. Only two groups won their way through the police lines. One group of 20 reached City Hall, where they were arrested. Another group of 10 got as far as the bus depot on 19th Street, where they also were taken into custody. In all, more than 250 persons were reported arrested today. The demonstrators today appeared to be older than those who marched yesterday. They appeared to be mostly high school and college students. All the demonstrations were held between 1 and 3 P.M. They followed by less than three hours a declaration by the two principal leaders of the month-old direct action campaign against segregation here. The leaders said that the demonstrations would continue with increasing intensity until there were both ``promise and action'' from the city authorities and white merchants to start to end segregation. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Atlanta, Ga., and the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, head of the local affiliate, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, made the announcement. They told the news conference that they had no intention of relaxing the pressure without such action. ``We are ready to negotiate,'' Dr. King said. ``But we intend to negotiate from strength. If the white power structure of this city will meet some of our minimum demands, then we will consider calling off the demonstrations, but we want promises, plus action.'' Both said there was no lack of recruits from among the Negro community of 140,000 persons here. If there ever was any division within it over the timing of the campaign, it now has disappeared, they declared.
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act establishes affirmative action programs, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender, creed, race, or ethnic background: "to achieve equality of employment opportunities and remove barriers that have operated in the past" (Title VII). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is also established through Title VII to prevent job discrimination. The Bracero Program, the government program initially put in place during WWII, ends. It brought Mexican laborers into the country to replace the American men who were fighting overseas. When the war ended the program continued.