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Civil Rights Movement
Resistance and Backlash
Resistance and Backlash

Resistance and Backlash

Find out how civil rights activists faced resistance and retaliation from segregationists. Lawmakers, law enforcement officers, public officials, and private citizens all worked hard to maintain the status quo of racial inequality. Their tactics included violence, from Ku Klux Klan rallies to bombings, as well as political opposition to the desegregation of schools and public facilities.

  • Photograph of the Scottsboro Boys, who were falsely accused of raping two white women, 1931

    Acme News Pictures

    Photograph

    View Full Item  in The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
  • Photograph Mamie Till with her son Emmett, who was murdered in Money, Mississippi, 1955

    Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Miss.

    View Full Item  in UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
  • Photograph of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus with President Eisenhower after a two hour conference on the Little Rock integration controversy, 1957

    Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Naval Photographic Center. (12/1/1959 - ca. 1998)

    View Full Item  in National Archives and Records Administration
  • Editorial from The Nashville Tennessean encouraging the prosecution of those responsible for the bombing of Z. Alexander Looby’s home, 1960

    An editorial from page ten of The Nashville Tennessean newspaper dated April 20th, 1960 stresses the need for the community to come together and do everything in its power to not only find and prosecu…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Howard Zinn’s files on violence and intimidation of Mississippi blacks and civil rights workers, 1961-1964

    Zinn, Howard, 1922

    This folder includes many reports of violence and intimidation of Mississippi blacks, especially those involved in registering to vote, and of civil rights workers from 1961 on, COFO's hopes for unive…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Copy of telegram from President Kennedy to Governor Ross Barnett about James Meredith’s entrance into the University of Mississippi, 1962

    President (1961-1963 : Kennedy). Office of the Personal Secretary. 1961-1963

    This item is a copy of a telegram from President John F. Kennedy to Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett regarding the entrance of James Meredith into the University of Mississippi.

    View Full Item  in John F. Kennedy Library
  • Violence and harassment summary reports during and following Freedom Summer in Mississippi, 1963-1965

    Congress of Racial Equality. Mississippi, Fourth Congressional District

    This entire folder documents some of the many acts of violence, economic reprisals, threats, and intimidation experienced by civil rights workers before, during, and after Freedom Summer. Reprinted ar…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Speech by James Baldwin after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963

    After the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963, James Baldwin spoke to an overflowing crowd at the New York Community Church. Baldwin spoke against th…

    View Full Item  in Pacifica Radio Archives
  • Photograph of Governor George Wallace blocking the entrance of two black students to the University of Alabama, 1963

    Governor George C. Wallace blocks the entrance of two black students to the University of Alabama.

    View Full Item  in Chapman University, Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives
  • News releases, newsletters, and miscellaneous publications relating to the murder of Andrew Goodman, Civil Rights worker, 1964-1965

    Goodman, Carolyn

    This folder contains three documents, all relating to the murder of Andrew Goodman: Andrew Goodman's Mississippi death certificate stating that he had died of "gun shot wounds of an undetermined origi…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Photograph of Andrew Goodman, slain civil rights worker

    A posed photograph of Andrew Goodman wearing a dark shirt, used in the poster produced by the FBI after his disappearance. Andrew Goodman was a civil rights activist and volunteer for the Freedom Summ…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Audio of the memorial service held for murdered civil rights worker James Chaney, 1964

    Hollander, Edward

    This audio is from the memorial service held at the site of Mt. Zion Baptist Church for James Chaney. Both the minister present and Fannie Chaney remember the lives of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, an…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Voter Registration Program reports written by Program Director Michael Schwerner before his murder in June, 1964

    Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Lauderdale County

    This folder consists primarily of program reports, dating January to October of 1964, relating to the CORE and COFO Community Center and Voter Registration Program in Meridian, Mississippi. Most repor…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Photograph of Alabama State Troopers beating black marchers on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965

    Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty. Office of Natural and Human Environment. National Scenic Byways Program. 1991

    Original caption: Alabama State Troopers Beat Black Marchers on Bloody Sunday - John Lewis Receives blow to the head.

    View Full Item  in National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures
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Civil Rights Movement
Resistance and Backlash

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