Mississippi Burning
Background

Although the civil rights movement gained tremendous popularity and support in the 1960s, its roots were in earlier times. Although the Civil War effectively ended slavery, and the passage of the Thirteenth (1865), Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth (1870) amendments gave American black men equal political rights, African Americans still faced considerable difficulties. For example, the south in 1865 and 1866 passed black codes restricting the movement of blacks. The Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups used violence and lynchings to keep the southern black population "in its place." Many politicians passed laws, known as Jim Crow laws, that caused blacks to be separated from whites and kept blacks from exercising their political rights; for example, many states made blacks take literacy tests in order to vote. In 1896, in the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case, the Supreme Court supported separate-but-equal laws. This decision allowed the creation of separate schools and other public facilities, such as restrooms and drinking fountains, for whites and blacks.

While African-American leaders such as Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. DuBois spoke out against these racist practices, African Americans weren't able to make great strides in civil rights until the middle of the 20th century. By then, African Americans and their supporters were focused on ending segregation, securing voting rights in the south, and receiving fair treatment at work. The civil rights movement was powerful because the activities and motivation for change came from a large number of ordinary people at the local level - not from a central organization. Hence, although civil rights supporters had some common goals, they gathered in different groups with different priorities and tactics.

One of the oldest civil rights organizations is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Founded in 1910 to promote equality, this organization set out to end the horrible practice of lynching, commonly practiced in the south. Later, the NAACP worked to create fair housing and education legislation. Its major victory was the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which attempted to secure equal education for all. While the NAACP appealed mostly to middle- and upper-class African Americans, it also welcomed the support of whites. However, because the NAACP focused on legal equality, some people believed the organization was out of touch with the challenges of living everyday life faced by many African-American citizens.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942, took a different approach. Working to end segregation, CORE wanted to create change through peaceful confrontations. In 1943, CORE organized its first sit-in when it desegregated the Jack Spratt Coffee House in Chicago. At a sit-in, African-American CORE members (usually accompanied by white members) simply sat down in a segregated establishment and refused to leave until they were served. CORE used a similar tactic in 1961 when it placed groups of African Americans and white members on interstate buses heading south. Known as the Freedom Riders, these people faced extreme violence in the south, where blacks were not permitted to sit in the front of buses.

In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. and other African-American clergymen founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). This organization sought to make social change in the American south through nonviolent resistance. Like CORE, SCLC organized sit-ins, but it also created lengthy protest marches. One of SCLC's most famous protest marches occurred in Albany, Georgia, in 1961. SCLC members demanded desegregation of bus terminals, and they sought open talks with white community leaders to address racial injustices. Because Martin Luther King Jr. was their charismatic leader, SCLC also used the media to focus national attention on the cause.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick") was an offshoot of SCLC created in 1961. SNCC was designed to appeal to and involve young people in the civil rights cause. Perhaps because it was directed toward youth, SNCC tended to use more militant measures than the other groups. Led by the soft-spoken Bob Moses, SNCC created the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, which is the focus of this unit.

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