The March Against Fear: The Last Great Walk of the Civil Rights Movement and the Emergence of Black Power

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Ann Bausum. The March Against Fear: The Last Great Walk of the Civil Rights Movement and the Emergence of Black Power

CONTENTS

A NOTE ABOUT LANGUAGE

PROLOGUE. A TREMOR. BLAM!

CHAPTER 1. WILD IDEAS

CHAPTER 2. REACTIONS

CHAPTER 3. REVIVED

CHAPTER 4. DELTA BOUND

CHAPTER 5. BLACK POWER

CHAPTER 6. EARTHQUAKE

CHAPTER 7. WHITE RAGE

CHAPTER 8. SUPREMACY

CHAPTER 9. REUNITED

CHAPTER 10. FINALE

CHAPTER 11. AFTERSHOCKS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

CITATIONS

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“There is nothing

more powerful

.....

For nearly a century, southern whites had denied blacks their share of political power by denying them their right to vote. But now, for the first time since the post–Civil War era of Reconstruction, the newly enacted Voting Rights Act of 1965 enforced rights that had been granted in 1870 with the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A year after the latest legislation, though, the majority of the state’s African Americans had not yet registered to vote. The key remaining obstacle on that path, as Meredith saw it, was fear: fear of the consequences blacks might face if they chose to vote. By walking from Memphis to Jackson, Meredith hoped to inspire African Americans in his home state to become a bit less afraid. They, too, could take a walk against fear, a short walk that led to the ballot box.

Meredith speculated that the concerns of his mother and other southern blacks might be unwarranted, might be a lingering habit developed during earlier eras filled with real terror. Was their fear “just operating on its own accord”? Meredith wondered. And what about the white citizens of Mississippi? They were afraid, too, afraid that the advancement of one race meant the inevitable decline of another. That didn’t have to be so, Meredith believed. He’d try to prove his point and conquer his own inherited fears by walking through his home state.

.....