March Against Fear
March Against Fear | |||
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Part of the Civil Rights Movement | |||
Date | June 5 – June 26, 1966 | ||
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Resulted in |
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Lead figures | |||
Solo marcher SCLC member SNCC members CORE member DDJ member Sniper |
The March Against Fear was a major 1966 demonstration in the
On the second day of his walk, June 6, 1966,[4] Meredith was shot and wounded by James Aubrey Norvell, a white sniper, and was hospitalized for treatment.[5] Thornton Davi Johnson suggests that Meredith was a target for such rituals of attack because he had made highly publicized challenges to Mississippi's racial order, and had framed his walk as a confident repudiation of custom.[6]
Major civil rights organizations rallied to the cause, vowing to carry on the march in Meredith's name through the Mississippi Delta and to the state capital. The state committed to protecting the marchers. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) took part, with Deacons for Defense and Justice from Louisiana providing armed protection. The different groups and leaders struggled over tactics and goals, but also cooperated in community organizing and voter registration. They registered more than 4,000 African Americans for voting in counties along the way.[7] Some people marched for a short time, others stayed through all the events; some national leaders took part in intermittent fashion, as they already had commitments in other cities. In addition, labor leader Walter Reuther, along with his wife May, had traveled from Chicago to march and brought 10 buses full of union supporters.[8]
During the latter days of the march,
History
Disappointed by the slow pace of change following passage of civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965,
On the second day of the march, a white sniper, later identified as
When they learned of the shooting, other
SNCC and MFDP worked to expand community organizing and achieve voter registration by reaching out to the black communities in the Delta. In most places, few blacks had registered to vote since passage of the
Governor
On the early evening of Thursday, June 16, 1966, when the marchers arrived in
King, who had flown to
In Canton, Mississippi, on June 23, after marchers tried to erect tents on the grounds of McNeal Elementary School, they were pressed and tear-gassed by the Mississippi Highway Patrol, which was joined by other police agencies. This contradicted the governor's commitment to protect them. Leaders felt the violence took place because President Lyndon B. Johnson had not offered federal forces to protect them following the violence in Philadelphia. Before that, while relations were often tense, the police had mostly respected the marchers. Several marchers were wounded in the Canton attack, one severely. Human Rights Medical Committee members conducted a house-to-house search that night looking for wounded marchers. The marchers sought refuge at Holy Child Jesus Catholic mission. There the Franciscan sisters extended their help and hospitality to the marchers, especially to the wounded.[12] The following night the marchers returned to stay on the grounds of McNeal School without incident, as they did not attempt to erect tents.
After a short hospital treatment, Meredith was released. He planned to rejoin the march, then withdrew for a time, as he had not intended it to be such a large media event. He rejoined the March on June 25, the day before it arrived in Jackson and walked in the front line next to Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders.
The march stopped at
The next day, June 26, marchers entered the city of Jackson from several different streams and were estimated to number 15,000 strong, the largest civil rights march in Mississippi history. They were warmly welcomed in the black neighborhoods and by some whites. However, many whites jeered and threatened the marchers; others simply stayed indoors. The Highway Police and other forces were out in number, as the city and state had vowed to protect the marchers after the attacks in Philadelphia and Canton. As a result of negotiations with authorities, the marchers gathered at the back of the state capitol to hear speeches, sing protest and celebration songs, and celebrate their achievements.
In total, the march expressed "both the depths of black grievances and the height of black possibilities," and it had to do with "oppressed people controlling their own destiny."[13]
Legacy and honors
- The march "defied Jim Crow's culture of intimidation" by the very act of blacks asserting themselves through the different communities, celebrating their identities, and organizing.[13]
- In the counties along the route, 4,077 African Americans registered to vote, many for the first time. Federal examiners registered 1,422 and county clerks did the rest.[13]
- Later black veterans of the Mississippi Movement noted that the march had longstanding political and cultural effects, serving to galvanize community organizing among blacks in the state.[13]
- In 1967 Jack R. Thornell won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his photograph of James Meredith struggling on the road in Mississippi after being shot.[14]
References
- ^ "Civil Rights James Meredith 1966". AP Images. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
- ^ "The March Against Fear".
- ^ "1966 March Against Fear", Eyes on the Prize
- ^ "James Meredith Shot Pulitzer 1967". AP Images. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
- ^ Michael Lollar "Meredith march explored through Memphis author's powerful new book", The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 20 February 2014
- .
- ^ Aram Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Meredith March Against Fear (MacMillan, 2014), pp. 246–247
- ISBN 978-1-4263-2665-3.
- ^ "6 June 1966: Black civil rights activist shot". BBC News – On this day. June 6, 1966. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-201-63278-1.
- ^ David Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, William Morrow and Company (1986), p. 481.
- ISBN 978-0-374-19220-4.
- ^ a b c d Aram Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014, p. 246
- ^ "Photography", The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-13.
Bibliography
- Goudsouzian, Aram. Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 2014.
External links
- SNCC Digital Gateway: Meredith March Digital documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee & grassroots organizing from the inside-out