The Struggle Continues, 1964

Abstract

The historic March on Washington on 28 August 1963 dramatized widespread support for the Civil Rights Bill. But the enthusiasm engendered by the March was short-lived, for black Americans soon faced the grim reality that their long, hard struggle against Southern racism was not over. On 15 September 1963, 18 days after the March, a bomb was tossed into the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham during Sunday school, killing four black girls, aged 11 to 14, and injuring 21 other children. Weeks later, on 22 November, the nation was stunned when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, leading many blacks to fear for the fate of the pending Civil Rights Bill. King was among the 1200 people invited to attend the President’s funeral in Washington. Although Kennedy had initially vacillated on civil rights, the Birmingham campaign had played a major role in prodding him to fulfil his campaign pledge to introduce legislation guaranteeing civil rights. Black Americans were relieved when it became clear that the next Administration would continue Kennedy’s efforts. On 27 November, the new President, Lyndon Johnson, declared in his first address to Congress: ‘No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s s memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long’.¹