The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

New Racial Turmoil 777

experimentation during the New Deal years, the pub-
lic judged the results of the Great Society and the
president who had shaped it skeptically.

Impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965at
http://www.myhistorylab.com

New Racial Turmoil

One reason for skepticism was that the adoption of the
Great Society coincided with increasing racial polariza-
tion. Black militancy, building steadily during World
War II and the postwar years, burst forth powerfully in
the mid-1960s. An important illustration was the
response of Black Muslims to Malcolm X’s 1964 deci-
sion to abandon the organization. A trip to the Middle
East had exposed him to Islamic doctrines of racial
equality and the brotherhood of man. In response he
founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity. In
1965, while making a speech in favor of racial har-
mony, he was assassinated by Black Muslim fanatics.
Even Martin Luther King, Jr., the herald of nonvi-
olent resistance, became more aggressive. “We are not
asking, we are demanding the ballot,” he said in
January 1965. A few weeks after Malcolm’s death, King
led a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery as
part of a campaign to force Alabama authorities to
allow blacks to register to vote. King chose Selma
because the county in which it was located had a black

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majority but only 325 registered black voters. He

expected the authorities to react brutally, thus attracting

public sympathy for the marchers, and he was not dis-

appointed. His marchers were assaulted by state police-

men who wielded clubs and tossed canisters of tear gas.

Many African Americans lost patience with

nonviolence. “The time for running has come to

an end,” declared Stokely Carmichael, chairman of

the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

(SNCC). “It’s time we stand up and take over.” He

began chanting “Black Power!” and other African-

Americans chimed in. Black Power caught on

swiftly among militants. This troubled white liber-

als, who feared that Black Power would antagonize

white conservatives. They argued that since blacks

made up only about 11 percent of the population,

any attempt to obtain racial justice through the use

of naked power was sure to fail.

Meanwhile, black anger erupted in a series of

destructive urban riots. The most important occurred in

Watts, a ghetto of Los Angeles, in August 1965. A trivial

incident brought thousands into the streets. The neigh-

borhood almost literally exploded: For six days Watts

was swept by fire, looting, and bloody fighting between

local residents and nearly 15,000 National Guardsmen,

called up to assist the police. The following two sum-

mers saw similar outbursts in scores of cities.

Then, in April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was

murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, by a white man,

Malcolm X, featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, broke

with the Black Muslims in 1964.

Police watch as the Watts section of Los Angeles burns during riots

in August, 1965.