By
the time the Bill passed in the spring of 1964, civil rights
supporters felt that Johnson was as dependable an ally as
Kennedy had been. Instead of the vehement opposition to the
public accommodations provision of the Bill which had been
expected, compliance was fairly wide-spread and came with
relatively little opposition.
It soon became clear, however, that the passage of the Civil
Rights Act was not the victory which would end the racial
conflict. In fact, violence on both sides escalated. A
Washington, D. C., Negro educator, Lemuel Penn, was gunned down
by snipers as he drove through Georgia on his way home from a
training session for reserve officers. Two Klansmen were charged,
but they were acquitted. In Philadelphia, Mississippi, three
civil rights workers--two white and one black--disappeared. The
youths were later found brutally murdered. In spite of national
protests, local justice was not forthcoming.
At the same time, forewarnings of anger and violence had begun
to rumble in many Afro-American communities across the land. In
spite of the legislative victories, most ghetto Negroes found
that their daily lives had not changed.
Pages:
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387