The 1960s was a very active decade for the Civil Rights Movement. The Movement lost activists such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and President Kennedy was assassinated. The sixties was also a time of protests and riots. The civil rights movement repeatedly appealed to the federal government for protection and enforcement of federal law, but the government remained reluctant in responding. While the government remained reluctant, riots and uprisings swept through the nation, such as the Watts Riots in Los Angeles in 1965.
Instead of enforcing legislation, the government undermined the movement by ignoring civil right violation complaints, targeting black groups such as the Black Panther Party, and using illegal tactics to suppress them. This paper will use the topical methodology to analyze how the government remained reluctant in protecting the rights of African Americans and how their lack of action resulted in the formation of groups such as the Black Panther Party, who immediately became a target of harassment by the FBI under the direction of the White House.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was outraged by Black Nationalism and had a vendetta to destroy such hate groups that threatened the domestic security of the United States. In an attempt to discredit and destroy civil rights leaders and organizations, the government created a secret counterintelligence program which would utilize illegal tactics to eliminate the growth and influence of the Black Panther Party.
With the legislation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, most African-Americans believed that they had finally gained traction and that the security and well-being for African-Americans had finally demanded the attention of the government. African-Americans did not know that these pieces of legislation were to simply provide a "superficial impression of progress to disgruntled blacks".
Although Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had pushed for discrimination laws and equal rights, the federal government did not support the movement. With Congress being comprised of white southerners, very little was done when African Americans claimed that their civil rights were being violated. In the mid sixties, many African American communities were enraged due to escalating police brutality. African-Americans began to rebel against police brutality because the government refused to address their complaints.
[...] legislation were to simply provide a “superficial impression of progress to disgruntled blacks”.[ii] Although Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had pushed for discrimination laws and equal rights, the federal government did not support the movement. With Congress being comprised of white southerners, very little was done when African Americans claimed that their civil rights were being violated. In the mid sixties, many African American communities were enraged due to escalating police brutality. African-Americans began to rebel against police brutality because the government refused to address their complaints. [...]
[...] Although the FBI targeted civil rights leaders and groups such as SCLC, Martin Luther King Jr., the Nation of Islam Malcolm and Stokely Carmichael, the most intense operations were directed toward the Black Panther Party. The FBI initiated The FBI'S Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party in August 1967. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.[xiii] The FBI's COINTELPRO program was supposedly created to gather intelligence in order to prosecute those who were creating havoc in the nation, in this case, the BPP. [...]
[...] President Johnson announced that FBI needed to gain control of the riots by finding and prosecuting the instigators.[viii] This was an open invitation for J. Edgar Hoover to ignore the law and stomp on the constitutional rights of blacks that spoke out against injustices. History of the Black Panther Party Instead of waiting on the government to take action, young black activists began to take matter in their own hands. What was the purpose of legislation without enforcement and a government agency (FBI) that was charged with responsibility of investigating yet refused to do so? [...]
[...] The failure of white policemen to provide adequate protection for black people, particularly for black people who participated in protests, along with police brutality and violence, led to the formation of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party, founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966, advocated for defensive action against hostile police forces in black communities. The Black Panther Party chose the name because the panther is known to be an animal that never makes an unprovoked attack, but will defend itself when attacked. [...]
[...] Churchill & Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, p.106 [iii] O'Reilly, The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement During the Kennedy Years-From the Freedom Rides to Albany, p O'Reilly, The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement During the Kennedy Years-From the Freedom Rides to Albany, p Churchill & Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, p.106. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
