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Published by vernonthegreat, 2016-12-01 15:47:05

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You didn’t know what you were going to encounter. You had night

riders. You had hoodlums . . . You could be antagonized at any tim

point in your journey.” “Traveling in the segregated South for blac

people was humiliating. The very fact that there were separate b

facilities was to say to black people and white people that we as

were so subhuman and so inferior that we could not even use pub

facilities that white people used.” “I spoke to a innocent passeng

who was sitting there and said, ‘I’m sorry I got you into this.’ And
Findsaid, ‘So am I.’” “I felt so nervous walking up there. It felt like

actually walking into a lunch room. When I sat down and p
headphones on I felt like I was there. As the person was screa
in my ear and I looked at myself, and all I could do is stare.
and wait for whatever happen to happen. Fortunately, I was
to get up and walk out, an but many of people weren’t so luc

Inspirationwas very a moving” “Hearing what political figures would s
shocking! They were on national television talking about bl
people as if if they didn’t even matter.” “I often wonder whethe

Insidewe do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws
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it dies

no constitution, no law, nor court can save it. The blood of these

innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry to transform th

negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes o

bright future.” “So much history, so little time. I want so to b

my grand children and teach them about history. Ta My his

OUR history.” “There is an amazing democracy about death

is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy fo

all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and p

men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes

the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreduc

common denominator of all men.” “God still has a way of

wringing good out of evil. And, history has dark city.”





Center For Civil And
Human Rights
100 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd NW,
Atlanta, GA 30313
678.999.8990
10am - 5pm

Find
Inspiration
Inside

Experience The American Civil Rights Movement



Contents

6 Introduction
11 The American Civil Rights Movement
13 Segregationists
17 Jim Crow Laws
20 Lunch Counter
25 Bull Connor
29 Freedom Riders
33 Speeches
36 Four Colored Girls
43 Then and Now
49 MLK The thinker/writer/activist
53 Kings Collection
61 Death of MLK
67 The Cost of Freedom
74 Martyrs
83 Requiem
88 I AM
93 Credits

5



Introduction

Atlanta native, Ashley Jones, has been lived in Atlanta her whole life,
but never visited the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Follow her
through her journey through the exhibit, hear how she and others
describe the experience of seeing history in physical form.
The Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta is an
engaging cultural attraction that connects the American Civil Rights
Movement to today’s Global Human Rights Movements. Our purpose
is to create a safe space for visitors to explore the fundamental rights of
all human beings so that they leave inspired and empowered to join the
ongoing dialogue about human rights in their communities.
The Center was first imagined by Civil Rights legends Evelyn Lowery
and former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young and was
launched by former Mayor Shirley Franklin. The effort gained broad–
based corporate and community support to become one of the few
places in the world educating visitors on the bridge between the
American Civil Rights Movement and contemporary Human Rights
Movements around the world.

7







Rolls Down
Like Water

The American Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement gallery presents the brave fight for
equality in The American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s
and 1960s. Visitors will be immersed in a visceral experience of
sights, sounds and interactive displays depicting the cwourageous
struggles of individuals working to transform the United States
from Jim Crow laws to equal rights.

11



Turn to the Segregationists By the mid–20th century the American
South was caught between tradition and
change. In the decades following the
end of Reconstruction, a “new South”
had sprung into existence as commerce
and industry gradually replaced
agriculture as the cornerstone of the
economy. Cities like Birmingham and
Atlanta grew to become urban centers.

13

14

“Segregation now,
segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever”

– George C. Wallace, Alabama Governor

“Hearing what political figures
would say is shocking! They were
on national television talking about
black people as if they didn’t even
matter.”

– Jerode Blanks, age 24. New Orleans, Louisianna

15



Study the Jim Crow Laws Beginning in the 1890s, every Southern
state and countless communities passed
laws to keep the races separate. Named
after a 19th century “black face” minstrel
performer, these “Jim Crow laws”
gradually extended to include all aspects
of life—movie theaters and restaurants,
water fountains and elevators, parks and
schools, streetcars and buses, hospitals,
and even the Bibles that people swore
upon in court. These laws were upheld
by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled
that “separate and equal” facilities were
constitutional. The Jim Crow laws are
hard to believe. But they did exist, and
they had a very real and very harsh
effect on the daily lives of many.

17

“The schools for w
and the schools f
shall be conducte

white children
for negro children
ed separately”

“Seeing these laws was breathtaking.
They are so crazy, how did people really
think like this?”

– Leena Swain, age 42. Springfield, Tennessee

Sit–In at the Lunch Counter“I felt so nervous walking
up there. It felt like I was
actually walking into a lunch
room. When I sat down
and put the headphones
on I felt like I was there. As
the person was screaming
in my ear and I looked at
myself, and all I could do
is stare. Stare and wait for
whatever happen to happen.
Fortunately, I was able to get
up and walk out, but many
of people weren’t so lucky. It
was very a moving”

– Ashley Jones, age 24. Atlanta, Georgia



In February 1960, four freshmen at
North Carolina A & T University in
Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at
the “whites–only” lunch counter of the
local Woolworth’s department store and
ordered a cup of coffee. The staff refused
and asked them to leave, but the students
remained seated until the restaurant
closed. The next day the four returned to
try again, only this time they were joined
by several others. Each day they were
denied service, but each day more came.
On the sixth day over a thousand students,
including female African American
students from Bennett College and three
white female students from nearby
Greensboro Women’s College. Opposition
also grew in numbers and intensity
as crowds of white men harassed the
protestors, cursing and spitting at them.

22





That’s Bull, Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor,
The Police Commissioner the longtime Commissioner of Public
Safety in Birmingham, Alabama,
oversaw the city’s police and the fire
departments. His title and job, which
called for the protection of all citizens,
contrasted with his racial views and goal
of viciously and relentlessly protecting
segregation. He once ran through
City Hall shouting, “Long as I’m police
commissioner in Birmingham, the
niggers and white folks ain’t gonna
segregate together in this man’s town.”

25

Theophilus Eugene
“Bull” Connor, Police
Commissioner, directed
the use of fire hoses
and attack dogs in
1963 against peaceful
protestors, including
children, and I quote:
“Send the dogs forth!”

26

“Even the police were after us. I don’t
know if I could have handled that.
Racism was so blatant And so many
people agreed with it!”

– Nikitta Gomez, age 16. San Diego, California

27



Hear the Freedom Riders Even though federal courts in 1960
had outlawed segregation on interstate
travel, many Southern states simply
ignored the rulings.  A band of young
men and women, many of them
trained veterans of the sit–ins and
other nonviolent protests, took it upon
themselves to act. They began boarding
buses in May 1961, pressuring the
federal government to enforce existing
laws.  Uncertain of their fate, many had
written their last letters to family and
friends in case they were killed. On
May 14, near Anniston, Alabama, one
of the buses was firebombed. Crowds
mobbed another bus in Birmingham,
badly beating many Freedom Riders,
both black and white.

29

“You didn’t know what you were going to encounter.
You had night riders. You had hoodlums . . . You
could be antagonized at any point in your journey.”

– Charles Person, Freedom Rider

“Traveling in the segregated South for black people
was humiliating. The very fact that there were
separate facilities was to say to black people and
white people that we as blacks were so subhuman
and so inferior that we could not even use public
facilities that white people used.”

– Diane Nash, Freedom Rides Organizer

“I spoke to a innocent passenger who was sitting
thereand said, ‘I’m sorry I got you into this.’ And he
said, ‘So am I.’”

– Genevieve Houghton, Freedom Rider

“You could hear him say, ‘Throw it in! Throw it in.’
And asking, ‘Where is the gas? Where is the gas?’”

– Mae F. Moultrie Howard, Freedom Rider

“Nonviolence and legal action must be twin weapons– either

one being used when it seems to be most applicable, with each

bolstering the other”

– William Harbour, Freedom Rider
30

“Hearing their
voices was a bit
spooky. They are
voices of history.
Their story is so
very unique.”

31



Experience the Speeches The speeches that day offered a mix
of political rally, religious sermon,
and optimism. Martin Luther
King’s electrifying and inspirational
speech remains the best known of
the ten official speeches given at the
March. His prepared remarks had
largely ended when King began the “I
have a dream” section of the speech.
For the next twelve minutes, he
extemporaneously drew from previous
sermons and speeches he had given.
John Lewis’s fiery speech also was
noteworthy. Lewis strongly condemned
entrenched segregation and the
brutality leveled against the movement,
as well as the inadequate response of
the Kennedy administration.

33

34

“I wonder if
they knew
then that
their words
would be
immortalized”

– Jessica Cotton, age 27. Sandy Springs, Maryland
35



Four Little Girls Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley,
Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair
were killed by falling rubble while
they were in the basement of the
church. Clashes between protestors
and police heightened the national
attention on the bombing and the
aftermath. Despite the fact that the
FBI had information on the bombers,
no one was convicted for the bombing
until 1977, with the last two bombers
convicted in 2001 and 2002.

37

The blood of these innocent girls
may cause the world to transform
the negative extremes of a dark
past into the positive extremes of a
bright future.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

42

43

“The innocent blood of these little girls
may serve as a redemptive force that
will bring new light to this dark city.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.





Then & Now From its outset SNCC included both
African Americans and some young
whites, and operated by a consensus
style of democracy. By 1966, the
organization’s leadership had moved
to a more militant position, with Black
Power advocate Stokely Carmichael
replacing John Lewis.

43

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44

“So much history, so little time. I want to bring
my grand children and teach them about
history. My history. OUR history.”

– Sonya Carter, age 59. Peoria, Illinois

45






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