1. My Research Question
• Did Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”
speech or the violence in American cities have
more to do with African Americans getting Civil
Rights in the United States?

2. THE VIOLENCE IN AMERICAN
CITIES, 1963

3. • Nowadays you think of the police officers and
firefighters as people who would never harm
you for no reason, and as people you can trust.
However, when the peaceful marchers and
protestors gathered in the heavily segregated
cities in the South, they found that the exact
opposite was true.

4. In many American
cities including
Danville, Virginia,
Cambridge, Maryland,
and Birmingham,
Alabama, nonviolent
African American
marchers and
protestors were met by
police brutality.

5. • The year 1963 was filled with nonviolent
demonstrations by African Americans and
supporters that were turned violent by the
whites that were living in the South. In the
summer of ’63, over 30 homes and churches
were bombed or burned, at least 10 people
were killed, and more than 20,000
demonstrators were arrested.

6. • Police officers and citizens
were violent towards not
only the protestors, but
also towards bystanders
that were African
American. They shocked
them with cattle prods,
unleashed police dogs
onto them, sprayed them
with high pressure fire
hoses, and beat them with
clubs. These acts were
shown on newscasts
around the nation, which
brought attention to the
wrongdoings and gained
sympathy from viewers.

7. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Protest in
Birmingham
• As leader of the SCLC (Southern Christian
Leadership Conference), King chose Birmingham to
have protests in because he thought if they could end
segregation there they could end it anywhere
• Both adults and children were brutally attacked by
police forces and citizens
• The police officers that used brutality on the
demonstrators were encouraged by a local judge who
prohibited the marches
• Hundreds of demonstrators were jailed

8. • The demonstrations in Birmingham turned violent
after the home of Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother and
the motel where King stayed were bombed.
• Demonstrators started burning buildings, and stoning
police officers and passing cars
– A nine-block portion of the city was burned
• When the demonstrators had requested federal protection,
the president had announced that no federal agency could
act. When the black demonstrators stoned white police
officers and other white people, federal troops were
dispatched within hours

9. Medgar Evers
• On June 12, 1963, 37-year-old Mississippi NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People) field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered by a
sniper right outside his home.
• After his murder he was given martyr’s rights, and his
family was greeted at the White House by President
Kennedy
• The man who murdered him was not declared guilty
of murder until 1994

10. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Bombing
• On September 15th, 1963, a bomb went off at
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
Alabama. This church was well known as a place for
civil rights meetings.
• Four girls named Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins,
Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were killed by
the bomb while attending Sunday school.
• Following the bombing, riots broke out all across
Birmingham. This led to the death of two more
African Americans.

11. THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON
AND THE “I HAVE A DREAM”
SPEECH

12. • The March on Washington was the largest civil
rights demonstration ever
• It took place on August 28, 1963
• Thousands of people attended, both blacks and
whites.

13. Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?
• January 15, 1921- April 4, 1968
• Civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and an
amazing public speaker
– Had a huge impact on the African American Civil
Rights Movement
– Organized nonviolent protests to protest the
segregation and unfair treatment of African
Americans in the United States

14. MLK Jr. (continued)
• Helped found the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
– Nonviolent protest group; African American civil
rights organization
– Led to the March on Washington
– This is where he gave the famous “I Have A
Dream” speech

15. “I Have a Dream”
• Delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28,
1963
• In the first two paragraphs of the speech, he speaks
about how even one hundred years after the
Emancipation Proclamation was signed by
Abraham Lincoln, the African Americans are still
not free
– “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still
sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the
chains of discrimination”

16. “I Have a Dream”
• Other points in the speech included:
– The African Americans still did not have access to the
rights of the Constitution
– Even though they are American citizens they are “exiled
in his own land”
– “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men
as well as white men, would be guaranteed the
"unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness."”
– They still live in immense poverty because they cannot
get adequate jobs

17. “I Have a Dream”
• He compares the lack of justice to a check marked
“insufficient funds”
– “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is
bankrupt”
– “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in
the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”
• He says that the time for justice is Now and that
there is no more time to delay giving the African
Americans the rights they have long deserved

18. “I Have a Dream”
• He mentions that if anyone thinks that the African Americans
“needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a
rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual” and
“And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until
the Negro is granted his citizenship rights”
• He reminds the African Americans that they must not resent or
distrust the whites despite what they have done to them; “Let us
not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the
cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our
struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must
not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical
violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights
of meeting physical force with soul force”

19. “I Have a Dream”
• They must not give up until they have all of the
same rights as the white people
• Some mentioned:
– Lodging in hotels
– No more only living in the ghetto
– No more degrading of the children by the signs that
say “Whites only” and things like that
– Voting rights
– End to brutality and no justice

20. “I Have a Dream”
• He says he has a dream that:
– “one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the
sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table
of brotherhood.”
– “one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into
an oasis of freedom and justice.”
– “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.”
– “one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor
having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and
"nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and
black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls
as sisters and brothers.”
– “one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall
be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked
places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together.”

21. “I Have a Dream”
• He ends the speech with:
– With faith, the brutality and unfairness can be
changed into brotherhood between the races
– “Let freedom ring”
– “Thank God Almighty we are free at last”

22. Interviewed: My grandpa Jim and grandma Nancy
ORAL HISTORY

23. Q: Did you know any African Americans in
1963?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• Yes • Yes

24. Q: What was your relationship with them?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• No close relationships with • They were my teammates
any, just casual on sports teams, and
relationships. everyone on the team got
along very well and they
were all friends.

25. Q: Can you think of any events that changed these
relationships?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• There was racial tension all • No, it did not change. They
over the country because of were all very close despite
what was happening in what was happening
other places nationwide. elsewhere.

26. Q: How did you experience this change?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• I knew a girl in high school, • There were no changes.
and she was very nice and
there was no racial tension
between her and everyone
else. But when we came
back for the reunion, she
wouldn’t talk to a single
person.

27. Q: Did you know anything about the March on
Washington or MLK?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• I remember it happening, • (didn’t ask this question)
watching the coverage on
TV.

28. Q: Did you know about any instances of discrimination
or violence concerning race relations?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• Nothing specific, but yes. • I had a close friend that I
was travelling with that was
discriminated against at a
bar and at a restaurant. The
people working at the
entrance would not let him
in and the rest of us brought
food out and ate on the bus
with him.

29. Q: Did this change your relationship in any way?
Grandma Nancy Grandpa Jim
• No, the relationship was not • No, but it was horrible to
close enough. watch and it’s hard to look
back on the way they
treated him.

30. Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Sixth-grade education was established as a presumption of literacy for
voting purposes
• Segregation and discrimination in places of public accomodation were
outlawed
• Public facilities (parks, playgrounds, libraries, ect.) were desegregated
• The attorney general was authorized to file school desegregation suits
• Discrimination was outlawed in all federally assisted activities
• Discrimination by employers or unions with 100 or more employees
or members was outlawed
• The attorney general was authorized to intervene in private suits in
which persons alleged denial of equal protection of the laws under the
Fourteenth Amendment

31. Research Question Answer
• The conclusion that I have made from my research is that both
the violence in American cities and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I
Have a Dream” speech had significant impacts on African
Americans gaining civil rights, to the point where it is hard to
tell which had a bigger impact. However, the speech and the
March on Washington where it was presented had the bigger
impact. Thousands of people were a part of it in person and
many more saw it happen on the television. It gained more
national attention than the violence, even though the riots and
violence gained a lot of sympathy and attention too. The
publicity leads directly to the passing of the Civil Rights Act
happening sooner.

32. Thanks 