The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in United States History Read Online Free
Author: David K. Fremon
service. McNeil returned to Johns and plotted action.
In early February 1960, four black students entered Woolworth’s and made small purchases. When one student requested something to eat at the lunch counter, the waitress told him that the store did not serve blacks. He pulled out a receipt and said, “You just finished serving me at a counter two feet from here.” 8 The waitress still refused to serve him. The store’s manager did nothing. All four students remained until closing time.
The next day, they brought company. When the students were refused service, they remained at the counter and read books. Day after day, the number of protesters at these “sit-ins” grew. The idea spread to other stores in Greensboro and across the South. Some stores retaliated by closing their lunch counters.
City officials agreed to negotiate the dispute. Students agreed to call off the sit-ins during negotiations. But the city kept delaying. By the first of April, many students felt they were the victims of an April Fool’s prank. They returned to the lunch counters.
By the middle of summer, Woolworth’s yielded. The store allowed blacks to be served at its lunch counters. Other stores grudgingly made the same decision. The success of the sit-ins led to read-ins at libraries, wade-ins at beaches, and kneel-ins at all-white churches.
Johns returned to the background, but not before receiving a notable visitor. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., came to him and said, “Mr. Johns, I want you to know that someday our people will know what you have done, and they will thank you for it.” 9
Freedom Riders
Congress had the authority to pass laws to protect the rights of American citizens. But was anyone paying attention to those laws? In early 1961, a courageous group of activists decided to find out.
James Farmer, the director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), said, “We knew we had to get the support of the country behind us to end segregation. We had to have some kind of dramatic project to attract the attention of the press, and especially television.” 10 That project turned out to be an interracial bus trip known as the Freedom Ride.
The Freedom Riders set out in two buses from Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961. They planned to stop in several Southern cities before arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana. At each stop, they would compare washroom and food facilities available for blacks and whites. The riders documented many racial inequalities along their way.
Neither bus would make it to New Orleans. Federal authorities did little to help the riders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had informants who warned of violence in Alabama. Yet the FBI did nothing to block such violence.
A mob of about two hundred people awaited the riders when they stopped at the northeastern Alabama town of Anniston. Members of the mob started beating on one bus and smashing in the windows. Demonstrating a point for civil rights would have to wait for another time. The bus and its passengers hurried out of town without stopping.
Five miles outside of town, the Freedom Riders’ bus stopped. Its tires had been slashed by angry whites. The mob followed the bus to its stopping point. At first, riders locked themselves inside the bus. Then someone threw a firebomb inside.
Ironically, the bomb saved the Freedom Riders. It caused an explosion of the bus’s gas tank, which scattered many of the attackers. Even so, others moved forward to attack the Freedom Riders. E. L. Cowling, an undercover official of the Alabama State Police, had been riding on the bus. At the last moment, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the members of the white mob. He was able to hold them off until an ambulance could bring the riders to safety. The riders regrouped in Birmingham, Alabama, where they decided to abandon their mission.
The failure of one mission, however, did not mean the end of all missions. Another group of Freedom Riders came from
In early February 1960, four black students entered Woolworth’s and made small purchases. When one student requested something to eat at the lunch counter, the waitress told him that the store did not serve blacks. He pulled out a receipt and said, “You just finished serving me at a counter two feet from here.” 8 The waitress still refused to serve him. The store’s manager did nothing. All four students remained until closing time.
The next day, they brought company. When the students were refused service, they remained at the counter and read books. Day after day, the number of protesters at these “sit-ins” grew. The idea spread to other stores in Greensboro and across the South. Some stores retaliated by closing their lunch counters.
City officials agreed to negotiate the dispute. Students agreed to call off the sit-ins during negotiations. But the city kept delaying. By the first of April, many students felt they were the victims of an April Fool’s prank. They returned to the lunch counters.
By the middle of summer, Woolworth’s yielded. The store allowed blacks to be served at its lunch counters. Other stores grudgingly made the same decision. The success of the sit-ins led to read-ins at libraries, wade-ins at beaches, and kneel-ins at all-white churches.
Johns returned to the background, but not before receiving a notable visitor. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., came to him and said, “Mr. Johns, I want you to know that someday our people will know what you have done, and they will thank you for it.” 9
Freedom Riders
Congress had the authority to pass laws to protect the rights of American citizens. But was anyone paying attention to those laws? In early 1961, a courageous group of activists decided to find out.
James Farmer, the director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), said, “We knew we had to get the support of the country behind us to end segregation. We had to have some kind of dramatic project to attract the attention of the press, and especially television.” 10 That project turned out to be an interracial bus trip known as the Freedom Ride.
The Freedom Riders set out in two buses from Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961. They planned to stop in several Southern cities before arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana. At each stop, they would compare washroom and food facilities available for blacks and whites. The riders documented many racial inequalities along their way.
Neither bus would make it to New Orleans. Federal authorities did little to help the riders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had informants who warned of violence in Alabama. Yet the FBI did nothing to block such violence.
A mob of about two hundred people awaited the riders when they stopped at the northeastern Alabama town of Anniston. Members of the mob started beating on one bus and smashing in the windows. Demonstrating a point for civil rights would have to wait for another time. The bus and its passengers hurried out of town without stopping.
Five miles outside of town, the Freedom Riders’ bus stopped. Its tires had been slashed by angry whites. The mob followed the bus to its stopping point. At first, riders locked themselves inside the bus. Then someone threw a firebomb inside.
Ironically, the bomb saved the Freedom Riders. It caused an explosion of the bus’s gas tank, which scattered many of the attackers. Even so, others moved forward to attack the Freedom Riders. E. L. Cowling, an undercover official of the Alabama State Police, had been riding on the bus. At the last moment, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the members of the white mob. He was able to hold them off until an ambulance could bring the riders to safety. The riders regrouped in Birmingham, Alabama, where they decided to abandon their mission.
The failure of one mission, however, did not mean the end of all missions. Another group of Freedom Riders came from
Readers choose
Christopher Nuttall
Leighann Dobbs
P.S. Power
Daniel J. Boorstin
Erica Orloff
Brian Morton
Carol Durand, Summer Prescott
Gerry Tate
Susan Cooper