Civil rights movement

== Popular reactions ==
=== American Jews ===
{{See also|African American–Jewish relations|New York City teachers' strike of 1968|Brownsville, Brooklyn}}{{Main article|Jews in the civil rights movement}}
[[File:March on washington Aug 28 1963.jpg|250px|thumb|Jewish civil rights activist [[Joseph L. Rauh Jr.]] marching with [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in 1963]]

Many in the [[American Jews|Jewish]] community supported the civil rights movement. In fact, statistically, Jews were one of the most actively involved non-black groups in the Movement. Many Jewish students worked in concert with African Americans for CORE, SCLC, and SNCC as full-time organizers and summer volunteers during the Civil Rights era. Jews made up roughly half of the white northern and western volunteers involved in the 1964 Mississippi [[Freedom Summer]] project and approximately half of the civil rights attorneys active in the South during the 1960s.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/itvs/fromswastikatojimcrow/relations.html ''From Swastika to Jim Crow''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722212600/http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fromswastikatojimcrow/relations.html |date=July 22, 2015 }}—PBS Documentary</ref>

Jewish leaders were arrested while heeding a call from Martin Luther King Jr. in [[St. Augustine, Florida]], in June 1964, where the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history took place at the Monson Motor Lodge. [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]], a writer, rabbi, and professor of theology at the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]] in New York, was outspoken on the subject of civil rights. He marched arm-in-arm with King in the 1965 [[Selma to Montgomery marches#The march to Montgomery|Selma to Montgomery march]]. In the 1964 [[murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner]], the two white activists killed, [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]] and [[Michael Schwerner]], were both Jewish.

[[Brandeis University]], the only nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored college university in the world, created the Transitional Year Program (TYP) in 1968, in part response to the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] The faculty created it to renew the university's commitment to social justice. Recognizing Brandeis as a university with a commitment to academic excellence, these faculty members created a chance for disadvantaged students to participate in an empowering educational experience.

The [[American Jewish Committee]], [[American Jewish Congress]], and [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL) actively promoted civil rights. While Jews were very active in the civil rights movement in the South, in the North, many had experienced a more strained relationship with African Americans. <!-- In communities experiencing white flight, racial rioting, and urban decay, Jewish Americans were more often the last remaining whites in the communities most affected.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} --> It has been argued that with Black militancy and the [[Black Power]] movements on the rise, "Black Anti-Semitism" increased leading to strained relations between Blacks and Jews in Northern communities. In New York City, most notably, there was a major socio-economic class difference in the perception of African Americans by Jews.<ref>Cannato, Vincent "The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and his struggle to save New York" Better Books, 2001. {{ISBN|0-465-00843-7}}</ref> Jews from better educated Upper-Middle-Class backgrounds were often very supportive of African American civil rights activities while the Jews in poorer urban communities that became increasingly minority were often less supportive largely in part due to more negative and violent interactions between the two groups.

According to political scientist [[Michael Rogin]], Jewish-Black hostility was a two-way street extending to earlier decades. In the post-World War II era, Jews were granted [[white privilege]] and most moved into the middle-class while Blacks were left behind in the ghetto.<ref>{{cite book |title=How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America |author=Karen Brodkin |date=2000 |publisher=Rutgers University Press}}</ref> Urban Jews engaged in the same sort of conflicts with Blacks—over [[integration busing]], local control of schools, housing, crime, communal identity, and class divides—that other [[white ethnics]] did, leading to Jews participating in [[white flight]]. The culmination of this was the [[New York City teachers' strike of 1968|1968 New York City teachers' strike]], pitting largely Jewish schoolteachers against predominantly Black parents in [[Brownsville, New York]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=va8wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |title=Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot |last=Rogin |first=Michael |date=May 29, 1998 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-21380-7 |pages=262–267 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Public profile ====
Many Jews in the Southern states who supported civil rights for African Americans tended to keep a low profile on "the race issue", in order to avoid attracting the attention of the anti-Black and antisemitic Ku Klux Klan.<ref name="My Jewish Learning" /> However, Klan groups exploited the issue of African-American integration and Jewish involvement in the struggle in order to commit violently antisemitic [[hate crime]]s. As an example of this hatred, in one year alone, from November 1957 to October 1958, temples and other Jewish communal gatherings were bombed and desecrated in [[Atlanta]], [[Nashville]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], and [[Miami]], and [[dynamite]] was found under [[synagogue]]s in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], and [[Gastonia, North Carolina]]. Some [[rabbi]]s received [[death threat]]s, but there were no injuries following these outbursts of [[violence]].<ref name="My Jewish Learning">{{cite web |last1=Sachar |first1=Howard |author-link1=Howard Sachar |title=A History of Jews in America |url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1948-1980/America/Liberal_Politics/Black-Jewish_Relations/Civil_Rights_Movement.shtml?p=2 |website=My Jewish Learning |publisher=Vintage Books |access-date=March 1, 2015 |date=November 2, 1993  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140721012334/http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1948-1980/America/Liberal_Politics/Black-Jewish_Relations/Civil_Rights_Movement.shtml?p=2 |archive-date=July 21, 2014}}</ref>

=== Black segregationists ===
Despite the common notion that the ideas of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[Malcolm X]] and [[Black Power]] only conflicted with each other and were the only ideologies of the civil rights movement, there were other sentiments felt by many blacks. Fearing the events during the movement was occurring too quickly, there were some blacks who felt that leaders should take their activism at an incremental pace. Others had reservations on how focused blacks were on the movement and felt that such attention was better spent on reforming issues within the black community.

While Conservatives, in general, supported integration, some defended incrementally phased out segregation as a backstop against assimilation. Based on her interpretation of a 1966 study made by Donald Matthews and James Prothro detailing the relative percentage of blacks for integration, against it or feeling something else, Lauren Winner asserts that:

{{blockquote|quote=Black defenders of segregation look, at first blush, very much like black nationalists, especially in their preference for all-black institutions; but black defenders of segregation differ from nationalists in two key ways. First, while both groups criticize [[NAACP]]-style integration, nationalists articulate a third alternative to integration and [[Jim Crow]], while segregationists preferred to stick with the status quo. Second, absent from black defenders of segregation's political vocabulary was the demand for [[self-determination]]. They called for all-black institutions, but not autonomous all-black institutions; indeed, some defenders of segregation asserted that black people needed white paternalism and oversight in order to thrive.<ref>Winner, Lauren F. "Doubtless Sincere: New Characters in the Civil Rights Cast." In The Role of Ideas in the Civil Rights South, edited by Ted Ownby. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002, pp. 158–159.</ref>}}

Oftentimes, African-American community leaders would be staunch defenders of segregation. Church ministers, businessmen, and educators were among those who wished to keep segregation and segregationist ideals in order to retain the privileges they gained from patronage from whites, such as monetary gains. In addition, they relied on segregation to keep their jobs and economies in their communities thriving. It was feared that if integration became widespread in the South, black-owned businesses and other establishments would lose a large chunk of their customer base to white-owned businesses, and many blacks would lose opportunities for jobs that were presently exclusive to their interests.<ref>Winner, Lauren F., 164–165.</ref> On the other hand, there were the everyday, average black people who criticized integration as well. For them, they took issue with different parts of the civil rights movement and the potential for blacks to exercise consumerism and economic liberty without hindrance from whites.<ref>Winner, Lauren F., 166–167.</ref>

For Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and other leading activists and groups during the movement, these opposing viewpoints acted as an obstacle against their ideas. These different views made such leaders' work much harder to accomplish, but they were nonetheless important in the overall scope of the movement. For the most part, the black individuals who had reservations on various aspects of the movement and ideologies of the activists were not able to make a game-changing dent in their efforts, but the existence of these alternate ideas gave some blacks an outlet to express their concerns about the changing social structure.

=== "Black Power" militants ===
{{Main|Black Power|Black Power movement}}
[[File:John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman 1968cr.jpg|thumb|Gold medalist [[Tommie Smith]] ''(center)'' and bronze medalist [[John Carlos]] ''(right)'' showing the [[1968 Olympics Black Power salute|raised fist on the podium]] after the 200&nbsp;m race at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]]; both wear [[Olympic Project for Human Rights]] badges. [[Peter Norman]] ''(silver medalist, left)'' from Australia also wears an OPHR badge in solidarity with Smith and Carlos.]]

During the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, numerous tensions within the civil rights movement came to the forefront. Many blacks in [[SNCC]] developed concerns that white activists from the North and West were taking over the movement. The participation by numerous white students was not reducing the amount of violence that SNCC suffered, but seemed to exacerbate it. Additionally, there was profound disillusionment at Lyndon Johnson's denial of voting status for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/384127 |title=SNCC, the Federal Government & the Road to Black Power |access-date=July 29, 2016|last1=Davies |first1=Tom Adam }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.studythepast.com/4333_spring12/acrm/ACRM%205.1.pdf|title=Allen J. Matusow "From Civil Rights to Black Power: The Case of SNCC", in ''Twentieth-Century America: Recent Interpretations'' (Harcourt Press, 1972), pp. 367–378}}</ref> Meanwhile, during [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]]'s work in Louisiana that summer, that group found the federal government would not respond to requests to enforce the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or to protect the lives of activists who challenged segregation. The Louisiana campaign survived by relying on a local African-American militia called the [[Deacons for Defense and Justice]], who used arms to repel white supremacist violence and police repression. CORE's collaboration with the Deacons was effective in disrupting Jim Crow in numerous Louisiana areas.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/any-means-necessary?page=0,0 |title=By Any Means Necessary |magazine=The Nation |access-date=July 29, 2016 |date=June 18, 2004 |last1=Marqusee |first1=Mike |author-link1=Mike Marqusee |archive-date=March 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313004902/http://www.thenation.com/article/any-means-necessary?page=0,0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427044144/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html |archive-date=April 27, 2010 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Robert Hicks, Leader in Armed Rights Group, Dies at 81|first=Douglas|last=Martin|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 24, 2010}}</ref>

In 1965, SNCC helped organize an independent political party, the [[Lowndes County Freedom Organization]] (LCFO), in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt, also Klan territory. It permitted its black leaders to openly promote the use of armed self-defense. Meanwhile, the Deacons for Defense and Justice expanded into Mississippi and assisted [[Charles Evers]]' NAACP chapter with a successful campaign in [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]]. Charles had taken the lead after his brother [[Medgar Evers]] was assassinated in 1963.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H9Me8LZ488C&pg=PA206|title=The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement|first=Lance|last=Hill|date=February 1, 2006|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-5702-1|via=Google Books}}</ref> The same year, the 1965 [[Watts Rebellion]] took place in Los Angeles. Many black youths were committed to the use of violence to protest inequality and oppression.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebellion-los-angeles|title=Watts Rebellion (Los Angeles)|date=June 12, 2017|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref>

During the [[March Against Fear]] in 1966, initiated by [[James Meredith]], SNCC and CORE fully embraced the slogan of "black power" to describe these trends towards militancy and self-reliance. In Mississippi, Stokely Carmichael declared, "I'm not going to beg the white man for anything that I deserve, I'm going to take it. We need power."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_201.html |title=American Experience. ''Eyes on the Prize''. Transcript |publisher=PBS |access-date=July 29, 2016 |archive-date=April 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423154235/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_201.html}}</ref>

Some people engaging in the Black Power movement claimed a growing sense of black pride and identity. In gaining more of a sense of a cultural identity, blacks demanded that whites no longer refer to them as "Negroes" but as "Afro-Americans," similar to other ethnic groups, such as Irish Americans and Italian Americans. Until the mid-1960s, blacks had dressed similarly to whites and often [[Hair straightening|straightened their hair]]. As a part of affirming their identity, blacks started to wear African-based [[dashiki]]s and grow their hair out as a natural [[afro]]. The afro, sometimes nicknamed the "'fro," remained a popular black hairstyle until the late 1970s. Other variations of traditional African styles have become popular, often featuring braids, extensions, and dreadlocks.

The [[Black Panther Party]] (BPP), which was founded by [[Huey Newton]] and [[Bobby Seale]] in [[Oakland, California]], in 1966, gained the most attention for Black Power nationally. The group began following the revolutionary pan-Africanism of late-period [[Malcolm X]], using a "by-any-means necessary" approach to stopping racial inequality. They sought to rid African-American neighborhoods of [[police brutality]] and to establish [[socialist]] [[dual power|community control]] in the ghettos. While they conducted armed confrontation with police, they also set up free breakfast and healthcare programs for children.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KogCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 |title=We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination |last=Rickford |first=Russell |date=January 14, 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-986148-4 |language=en}}</ref> Between 1968 and 1971, the BPP was one of the most important black organizations in the country and had support from the NAACP, SCLC, [[Peace and Freedom Party]], and others.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D7UwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |title=Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party |last1=Bloom |first1=Joshua |last2=Martin |first2=Waldo E. |date=October 25, 2016 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29328-1 |pages=223–236 |language=en}}</ref>

Black Power was taken to another level inside prison walls. In 1966, [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]] formed the [[Black Guerrilla Family]] in the California [[San Quentin State Prison]]. The goal of this group was to overthrow the white-run government in America and the prison system. In 1970, this group displayed their dedication after a white prison guard was found not guilty of shooting and killing three black prisoners from the prison tower. They retaliated by killing a white prison guard.

{{listen
| filename=Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) sample.ogg
| title="Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud"
| description=[[James Brown]]'s "[[Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud]]" (1968)
| filetype=[[Ogg]]
| pos=left}}

Numerous popular cultural expressions associated with black power appeared at this time. Released in August 1968, the number one [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|Rhythm & Blues single]] for the [[Billboard Year-End|''Billboard'' Year-End]] list was [[James Brown]]'s "[[Say It Loud&nbsp;– I'm Black and I'm Proud]]".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R%26B/Hip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1968 |title=Year End Charts&nbsp;– Year-end Singles&nbsp;– Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs |magazine=Billboard |access-date=September 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211040751/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+R&B%2FHip-Hop+Songs&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1968 |archive-date=December 11, 2007}}</ref> In October 1968, [[Tommie Smith]] and [[John Carlos]], while being awarded the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the [[1968 Summer Olympics]], donned human rights badges and each raised a black-gloved Black Power salute during their podium ceremony.

King was not comfortable with the "Black Power" slogan, which sounded too much like [[black nationalism]] to him. When King was assassinated in 1968, Stokely Carmichael said that whites had murdered the one person who would prevent rampant rioting and that blacks would burn every major city to the ground. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities across the country. Some cities did not recover from the damage for more than a generation; other city neighborhoods never recovered.

===Native Americans===
King and the civil rights movement inspired the [[Native American rights movement]] of the 1960s and many of its leaders.<ref name="Natives King">{{cite web |last1=Bender |first1=Albert |title=Dr. King spoke out against the genocide of Native Americans |url=http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/dr-king-spoke-out-against-the-genocide-of-native-americans/ |website=People's World |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=February 13, 2014}}</ref> Native Americans had been [[dehumanized]] as "merciless Indian savages" in the [[United States Declaration of Independence]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Facebook labels declaration of independence as 'hate speech' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/05/facebook-declaration-of-independence-hate-speech |access-date=September 7, 2020 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> and in King's 1964 book ''[[Why We Can't Wait]]'' he wrote: "Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rickert |first1=Levi |title=Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Our Nation was Born in Genocide |url=https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/ |website=Native News Online |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=January 16, 2017 |archive-date=November 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126092832/https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/}}</ref> John Echohawk, a member of the [[Pawnee people|Pawnee tribe]] and the executive director and one of the founders of the [[Native American Rights Fund]], stated: "Inspired by Dr. King, who was advancing the civil rights agenda of equality under the laws of this country, we thought that we could also use the laws to advance our Indianship, to live as tribes in our territories governed by our own laws under the principles of tribal sovereignty that had been with us ever since 1831. We believed that we could fight for a policy of self-determination that was consistent with U.S. law and that we could govern our own affairs, define our own ways and continue to survive in this society".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cook |first1=Roy |title='I have a dream for all God's children,' Martin Luther King Jr. Day |url=http://americanindiansource.com/mlkechohawk.html |website=American Indian Source |access-date=November 25, 2018}}</ref> Native Americans were also active supporters of King's movement throughout the 1960s, which included a sizable Native American contingent at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.<ref name="Natives King"/>

=== Northern Ireland ===
{{See also|Northern Ireland civil rights movement}}
[[File:Malcolm X Ireland.jpg|thumb|Mural of [[Malcolm X]] in [[Belfast]]]]

Due to policies of [[Segregation in Northern Ireland|segregation]] and disenfranchisement present in Northern Ireland many Irish activists took inspiration from American civil rights activists. [[People's Democracy (Ireland)|People's Democracy]] had organized a [[Burntollet Bridge incident|"Long March" from Belfast to Derry]] which was inspired by the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]].<ref name=kingireland>{{Cite web |url=https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/how-martin-luther-king-inspired-north-uprising |title=How Martin Luther King inspired a Northern Ireland uprising|website=irishcentral.com|access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref> During the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland protesters often sang the American protest song [[We Shall Overcome]] and sometimes referred to themselves as the "negroes of Northern Ireland".<ref name=civilrightsireland>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/dr-king-s-impact-fight-civil-rights-northern-ireland-n495701 |title=Dr. King's Impact on the Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland|website=NBC News|date=January 18, 2016 |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref>

=== Soviet Union ===
There was an international context for the actions of the U.S. federal government during these years. The Soviet media frequently covered [[Racism in the United States|racial discrimination in the U.S.]]<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/soviet-propaganda-back-in-play-with-ferguson-coverage/511975.html |title=Soviet Propaganda Back in Play With Ferguson Coverage |last1=Quinn |first1=Allison |access-date=December 17, 2016 |date=November 27, 2014 |work=[[The Moscow Times]]}}</ref> Deeming American criticism of [[Human rights in the Soviet Union|its own human rights abuses]] hypocritical, the Soviet government would respond by stating "[[And you are lynching Negroes]]".<ref>{{citation |work=[[The Diplomat]] |access-date=December 17, 2016 |url=https://thediplomat.com/2015/05/the-history-behind-chinas-response-to-the-baltimore-riots/ |title=The History Behind China's Response to the Baltimore Riots |first=David |last=Volodzko |date=May 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428092343/https://thediplomat.com/2015/05/the-history-behind-chinas-response-to-the-baltimore-riots |archive-date=April 28, 2016 |quote=Soon Americans who criticized the Soviet Union for its human rights violations were answered with the famous tu quoque argument: 'A u vas negrov linchuyut' (and you are lynching Negroes).}}</ref> In his 1934 book ''Russia Today: What Can We Learn from It?'', [[Sherwood Eddy]] wrote: "In the most remote villages of Russia today Americans are frequently asked what they are going to do to the [[Scottsboro boys|Scottsboro Negro boys]] and why they lynch Negroes."<ref name=sherwoodeddy>{{citation |first=Sherwood |last=Eddy |title=Russia Today: What Can We Learn from It? |pages=73, 151 |publisher=Farrar & Rinehar |year=1934 |location=New York |oclc=1617454}}</ref>

In ''Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy'', the historian [[Mary L. Dudziak]] wrote that Communists who were critical of the United States accused it of practicing hypocrisy when it portrayed itself as the "leader of the free world," while so many of its citizens were being subjected to severe racial discrimination and violence; she argued that this was a major factor in moving the government to support civil rights legislation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyT1r03nTCAC&q=Cold+War+Civil+Rights:+Race+and+the+Image+of+American+Democracy|access-date=July 13, 2019|isbn = 978-0-691-15243-1|last1 = Dudziak|first1 = Mary L.|date = July 31, 2011| publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref>

===White moderates===
A majority of [[White Southerners]] have been estimated to have neither supported or resisted the civil rights movement.<ref name=NPRprof>{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15290717 |title=White Southerners' Role in Civil Rights
|website=NPR|access-date=April 19, 2020}}</ref> Many did not enjoy the idea of expanding civil rights but were uncomfortable with the language and often violent tactics used by those who resisted the civil rights movement as part of the [[Massive resistance]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47477354 |title=The white Southerners who fought US segregation
|work=BBC News
|date=March 12, 2019
|access-date=April 19, 2020}}</ref> Many only reacted to the movement once forced to by their changing environment, and when they did their response was usually whatever they felt would disturb their daily life the least. Most of their personal reactions, whether eventually in support or resistance were not in extreme.<ref name=NPRprof/>

=== White segregationists ===
{{see also|Neo-Nazism#United States}}
[[File:Rc17739 03.jpg|250px|thumb|Ku Klux Klan demonstration in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964]]

King reached the height of popular acclaim during his life in 1964, when he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]]. After that point, his career was filled with frustrating challenges. The [[Liberalism|liberal]] coalition that had gained passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] began to fray.

King was becoming more estranged from the Johnson administration. In 1965 he broke with it by calling for peace negotiations and a halt to the [[Operation Rolling Thunder|bombing of Vietnam]]. He moved further [[Left-wing politics|left]] in the following years, speaking about the need for economic justice and thoroughgoing changes in American society. He believed that change was needed beyond the civil rights which had been gained by the movement.

However, King's attempts to broaden the scope of the civil rights movement were halting and largely unsuccessful. In 1965 King made several attempts to take the Movement north in order to address [[housing discrimination]]. The SCLC's campaign in Chicago publicly failed, because Chicago's Mayor [[Richard J. Daley]] marginalized the SCLC's campaign by promising to "study" the city's problems. In 1966, white demonstrators in notoriously racist [[Cicero, Illinois|Cicero]], a suburb of Chicago, held "white power" signs and threw stones at marchers who were demonstrating against [[housing segregation]].<ref name="Urgency 7">{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w835AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT128 |title=The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society |last=Zelizer |first=Julian E. |date=January 8, 2015 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-60549-3 |chapter=Chapter Seven}}</ref>

Politicians and journalists quickly blamed this white [[backlash (sociology)|backlash]] on the movement's shift towards Black Power in the mid-1960s; today most scholars believe the backlash was a phenomenon that was already developing in the mid-1950s, and it was embodied in the "[[massive resistance]]" movement in the South where even the few moderate white leaders (including [[George Wallace]], who had once been endorsed by the NAACP) shifted to openly racist positions.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/16794/reviews/17020/gillman-klarman-jim-crow-civil-rights-supreme-court-and-struggle-racial |title=Gillman on Klarman, 'From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality' {{!}} H-Law {{!}} H-Net|website=networks.h-net.org|access-date=March 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326202852/https://networks.h-net.org/node/16794/reviews/17020/gillman-klarman-jim-crow-civil-rights-supreme-court-and-struggle-racial|archive-date=March 26, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2000/marchapril/feature/racism-redemption |title=Racism to Redemption |website=National Endowment for the Humanities |access-date=March 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210064143/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2000/marchapril/feature/racism-redemption |archive-date=December 10, 2017}}</ref> Northern and Western racists opposed the southerners on a regional and cultural basis, but also held segregationist attitudes which became more pronounced as the civil rights movement headed north and west. For instance, prior to the Watts riot, California whites had already mobilized to [[California Proposition 14 (1964)|repeal the state's 1963 fair housing law]].<ref name="Urgency 7" />

Even so, the backlash which occurred at the time was not able to roll back the major civil rights victories which had been achieved or swing the country into reaction. Social historians Matthew Lassiter and [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] note that the backlash's primary constituency was [[suburban]] and middle-class, not working-class whites: "among the white electorate, one half of blue-collar voters…cast their ballot for [the liberal presidential candidate] [[38th Vice President of the United States|Hubert Humphrey]] in 1968…only in the South did [[George Wallace]] draw substantially more blue-collar than white-collar support."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_a0EAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |title=The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South |last=Lassiter |first=Matthew D. |date=October 24, 2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4942-0 |pages=6–7, 302–304}}</ref>