Civil Rights - Prairie Fire | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2018

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the Civil Rights movement entered the Sixties, a new generation of activists took the fore. Frustrated by the pace of progress but emboldened by strides made in the previous decade, students embraced “nonviolent direct action,” protest techniques that were provocative but peaceful. Soon, a wave of sit-ins hit lunch counters across the South. The response was caustic, often violent; but the protesters’ persistence led to negotiations with business owners and civil authorities that led to successful desegregation.

The next wave of direct action - the Freedom Rides - met much worse and more violent resistance. Protesters were beaten, busses burned, and hope was nearly lost. Then, when activists moved into the rural South to organize the black vote, white supremacists’ ire turned murderous.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:08.0	Imagine your young black woman in Nashville, Tennessee.
0:21.0	It's February 13, 1960, and it's an unseasonably cold winter day.
0:26.6	You pull your coat tighter around your neck, trying to keep out the wind.
0:30.2	Your friend Maxine is walking with you.
0:32.0	I can't believe it's finally happening.
0:33.9	I know it.
0:35.0	All those months of preparation and waiting, I could hardly stand it anymore.
0:38.8	Well, in a couple of more blocks, you can put all that waiting to rest.
0:43.2	You look in front of you, and then behind at a long line of black faces stretching back
0:47.4	along the sidewalk, with a handful of white ones sprinkled in too.
0:51.1	How many are there today?
0:52.9	I heard somebody say they're more than a hundred.
0:55.3	Sure looks like it.
0:57.3	At the corner, your line starts to break off into smaller groups.
1:00.9	Each of them is headed toward a different store.
1:03.3	You and Maxine make your way with about 40 others toward the wallwards.
1:07.3	A young man up ahead of you, a student you recognize from one of your classes at Fisk
1:11.0	University, holds open the door leading inside.
1:14.4	You feel the warmth hit you as you file through.
1:17.5	You grab some toothpaste from the shelf, pretend to browse the rest of the aisles for a few
	...

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