Natchez Civil Rights — The Civil Rights Movement

Natchez Civil Rights — The Civil Rights Movement. Natchez Trails. , Civil Rights Act , The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the catalyst for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The march, coupled with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech, were pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement. , On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which barred discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin and applied to all facilities open to the public except for private clubs. The act also assured equal access to public facilities, equal voter registration requirements, and encouraged desegregation of public schools. , The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the oldest Civil Rights group. Founded in 1909, the group's early efforts focused on stopping lynching. , A 1920s effort to sustain a Natchez NAACP chapter was unsuccessful. In 1940, local dentist Dr. Audley Maurice Mackel reopened the chapter. In 1954, the chapter launched a petition drive to integrate the schools. The white community retaliated by threatening the jobs of petition signers. Fearing for himself and family, Dr. Mackel left Natchez and moved with his family to Chicago. , Civil Rights Vocabulary , National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) , Organized in 1909 to insure the equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and discrimination. , Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) , Founded in 1942 by students at the University of Chicago; all are welcome who believe that “all people are created equal.”, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) , Founded in 1957 by clergymen, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with the mission of “one Nation, under God, indivisible.” , Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , Founded in 1960 at Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C., after Greensboro sit-ins; major contribution was its field work and organization of voter registration drives; became more militant and removed non-violent from its name in 1967; disbanded in the 1970s. , Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) , Organized in Mississippi in 1962 and included NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC; founded Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in April 1964 to challenge white establishment Democrats; launched Freedom Summer in June 1964 to register Mississippi African American voters; operated freedom schools, freedom houses, and community centers. , Freedom Summer , The Civil Rights Movement first became visible in Adams County when a freedom house was opened in Natchez in June 1964 .... , , Bertram J. Levine, Resolving Racial Conflict: The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights, 1964-1989., I always stayed with community folks who had weapons, but this was the first time I had been with a SNCC group who had guns. , , Bettie Mae Fikes, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in the SNCC, 2012. , James Lambert, editor of the Natchez Democrat, published few words about the arrival of COFO in Natchez in June 1964. In an editorial published on June 9, he advised readers to “completely ignore them.” , The first Natchez Freedom House stood on South Wall Street Extension across from Jerusalem Baptist Church and was rented by George Greene, a staff member of SNCC. On August 14, 1964, the Freedom House was a likely target of an explosion and fire that destroyed an adjacent tavern owned by an interracial couple. , No one would rent to SNCC after the bombing, so the group used donation money and bought a house on East Franklin Street, south of St. Catherine Street and west of Monmouth Street (see map above). This second Freedom House, identified variously as both 119 and 121 East Franklin Street, gained notoriety in the Civil Rights Movement when staff members stockpiled firearms.