Anti-Slavery Acts Durning the Civil Rights Era

During the Civil Rights Era many people were opposed to equality for all. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- hailed by some as the most important legislation in American history -- was signed into law 50 years ago. Although there were many people for this law, there were also people against it.

Assassinations

During the civil rights movement, anybody who stood up for the rights of African Americans was a possible target for assassination.

• Medgar Evers

• Evars was a World War II veteran who would become the Secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi helping to integrate the University of Mississippi. Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens Council shot Evers at his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

• Fred Hampton

• Was a leader for the Black Panther Party in Chicago, Illinois. He was killed in his apartment during a police raid while sleeping, unarmed in 1968. The police raid was in retaliation for a previous shoot out police had with members of the Black Panther Party that killed two policemen. The policeman who killed Hampton were acquitted in court, but members of the Black Panther Party would call it an assassination.

• Harry and Hariette Moore

• Harry and Hariette Moore were a husband and wife team of civil rights activists and teachers who founded the NAACP in Florida. In 1951, the couple’s house was bombed and both of them were murdered. 55 years after the bombing, the state of Florida concluded an investigation into the bombing and found that three, since deceased members of the Ku Klu Klan were responsible.

• Malcolm X

• Malcolm X, one the the most prominent Black leaders of the 20th Century rose from prison inmate to spokesman for the Nation Of Islam. While Malcolm X clashed with the government and other Black leaders, it was the members of the Nation Of Islam who would be convicted of his killing.Years later, it was revealed that the FBI used COINTELPRO agents to infiltrate the Nation Of Islam and cause tension between them and Malcolm; and created false letters between the Malcolm and the Nation.Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King was the face and voice of the civil rights movement. Martin would serve as a martyr for the movement after he was killed in Memphis in 1968. King was shot while outside his hotel room in Memphis. Escaped convict, James Earl Ray would confess to killing King but would later recant his confession. While there have been allegations of a conspiracy, no charges were ever made.

Another person against the abolishment of Slavery was a man named George Wallace.

• He was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Alabama.

• He was a U.S Presidential candidate for 4 consecutive elections.

• He served 2 non-consecutive and 2 consecutive terms as a Democrat.

• George Wallace is remembered for his Southern States’ Rights Democratic Party and his “Jim Crow” positions during the mid-20th century period of the Civil Rights Movement.

• He eventually renounced segregationism but remained a social conservative.

• Wallace survived an assassination attempt in Laurel, Maryland in 1972, perpetrated by Arthur Bremer, but remained wheelchair-bound until his death in 1998.