Turmoil in the late 60s
There are many reasons that the civil rights movement began to falter during the mid- to late- 1960s. This paper will discuss several reasons including economic changes and leadership clashes for this fractionalization. It will also discuss goal changes in housing, public education, police brutality and how the Vietnam War affected the progress of the struggle.
The leadership of the civil rights movement during the mid- 1960s were split into two main types. Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael were great leaders in the antiviolence movement. King and Carmichael preached for a non-violent movement and held freedom marches to get them heard. Stokely Carmichael became president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1966 where he gained national prominence as the originator of the term "Black Power." He had been active in the organization during the Freedom Rides and had run a successful campaign to increase voter registration in Lowndes County, Mississippi.
English: Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have...
Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...
Malcolm XIn 1967, Carmichael left the SNCC and joined the Black Panthers where he rose to the position of Prime Minister.
Malcolm X began his real education in a prison library where he was serving time for robbery. Upon his release, he joined the Nation of Islam whose leader Elijah Muhammad preached that the black race was superior to the white, that the white race was inherently evil, and that total separation was the only way to achieve racial equality. Malcolm X rose quickly through the ranks, attracting numerous converts with his fiery oratory skills, organizational abilities, and tireless work. In 1964, disturbed by Elijah Muhammad's accumulation of wealth, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and started his own organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which vowed to promote greater harmony among all nationalities and races. He was warned repeatedly that some of...