In Cambridge, Maryland, a working-class city on the East Coast, SNCC`s Gloria Richardson led a movement that pushed for desegregation, but also called for low-income public housing, job training, public and private jobs, and an end to police brutality. [133] On June 11, fighting between blacks and whites escalated into violent riots, prompting Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes to declare martial law. When negotiations between Richardson and Maryland stalled, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy intervened directly to negotiate a segregation agreement. [134] Richardson believed that the growing participation of the poor and working-class blacks broadened both the power and the parameters of the movement, arguing that “the people as a whole really have more intelligence than some of their leaders.” [133] On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 — popularly known as the Fair Housing Act — which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also included provisions to combat riots and protect people exercising certain rights – such as going to school or serving on a jury – as well as civil rights activists who asked others to exercise those rights. It included the Indian Bill of Rights to extend constitutional protections to Native Americans not covered by the Bill of Rights. Johnson was in a better position than his predecessor to get civil rights legislation passed by Congress. An extremely accomplished politician, Johnson fully understood Congress and its complex operations. For many years, he was majority leader in the Senate. Charged with leading legislation in Congress, he had worked with colleagues from both parties and different points of view.
During his tenure, he mastered the art of compromise and won many victories for his party`s legislative program. He has also developed close relationships with senators and representatives of both political parties. He regularly used this personal knowledge, combined with charm, flattery, and threats, to achieve his legislative goals. This ability proved particularly useful in getting Congress to pass a major civil rights bill. President Johnson used another key strategy to pass the Civil Rights Act. He used national sympathy and grief for Kennedy`s tragic death. In public speeches and private conversations, he urged the passage of the Civil Rights Act as a lasting legacy for the martyred president. He gained broad public support and called on religious leaders across the country (especially in the South) to use their influence for the Civil Rights Act. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the most comprehensive civil rights legislation ever passed by Congress, paving the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, among other important laws. In 1964, a series of near-night protests wreaked havoc in Chester as protesters claimed that the Chester School Board was de facto segregated. The mayor of Chester, James Gorbey, issued “The Position of the Police to Preserve Public Peace”, a ten-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order.
The city has sent firefighters and garbage collectors to help treat protesters. [170] The state of Pennsylvania sent 50 state soldiers to support the 77 Chester police officers. [172] The protests were marked by violence and accusations of police brutality. [175] More than six hundred people were arrested during a two-month period of civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins. [170] Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton intervened in the negotiations and persuaded the industry to obey a court-ordered moratorium on protests. [173] Scranton created the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to hold hearings on de facto segregation in public schools. All protests ceased while the Board was holding hearings in the summer of 1964. [176] In 1975, the Elections Act was amended to regulate the right of linguistic minorities to vote. Sections 4 and 203 of the Act apply in territories with a significant number of electors with limited or no knowledge of English and require those territories to provide optional documents and assistance in the relevant languages in addition to English.
State and local governments responded to the uprising with a dramatic increase in minority attitudes. [201] After the turmoil, the Greater Detroit Board of Commerce also launched a campaign to find jobs for ten thousand “previously unemployable” people, the vast majority of whom were black. [202] Governor George Romney responded immediately to the 1967 riots with a special session of the Michigan Legislature during which he introduced sweeping housing proposals that included not only fair housing, but also “significant resettlements, tenant rights, and laws to enforce the Code.” Romney had supported such proposals in 1965, but abandoned them in the face of organized opposition. The bills were passed by both houses of the Legislative Assembly. Historian Sidney Fine wrote: Williams led the Monroe movement in another armed confrontation with white supremacists during a Freedom Ride in August 1961; He had been invited by Ella Baker and James Forman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to participate in the campaign. The incident (as well as his campaigns for peace with Cuba) led to him being targeted by the FBI and prosecuted for kidnapping. In 1976, he was acquitted of all charges. [279] Meanwhile, armed self-defense continued quietly in the Southern movement, with figures such as Amzie Moore of SNCC,[279] Hartman Turnbow,[280] and Fannie Lou Hamer,[281] all willing to use firearms to defend their lives from kicks. The Willamses fled the FBI to Cuba and began broadcasting Radio Free Dixie on Radio Progresso in the eastern United States in 1962. During this period, Williams advocated guerrilla warfare against racist institutions and saw the great ghetto riots of the time as a manifestation of his strategy. Robert Kennedy first dealt with civil rights in mid-May 1961 during the Freedom Rides, when photos of the burning bus and brutal beatings in Anniston and Birmingham went around the world. They came at a particularly embarrassing time when President Kennedy was about to hold a summit with the Soviet prime minister in Vienna.
The White House was concerned about his image among the populations of the newly independent nations of Africa and Asia, and Robert Kennedy responded with a speech for Voice of America in which he said great strides had been made on the issue of race relations. Meanwhile, the administration has been working behind the scenes to resolve the crisis with minimal violence and prevent the Freedom Riders from creating a new series of headlines that could distract from the president`s international agenda. The documentary Freedom Riders notes that “the issue of civil rights clashed with the urgent demands of Cold War realpolitik.” [289] The 1964 Democratic National Convention disillusioned many within the MFDP and the civil rights movement, but it did not destroy the MFDP. The MFDP became more radical after Atlantic City. She invited Malcolm X to speak at one of her conventions and opposed the Vietnam War. Because of the policy of segregation and disenfranchisement in Northern Ireland, many Irish activists took inspiration from American civil rights activists.