User:Popsgoestheweasel/Congress of Racial Equality

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"By 1961 CORE had 53 chapters throughout the United States. By 1963, most of the major urban centers of the Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and West Coast had one or more CORE chapters, including a growing number of chapters on college campuses. In the South, CORE had active chapters and projects in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky. " *original article ends here

Irene Morgan *major edit
In 1944, Irene Morgan, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to move from the front "white" seating section to the back "colored" seating section of a Greyhound interstate bus while traveling from Virginia to Maryland. After the Virginia state court upheld her conviction and arrest, Morgan's case was brought before the Supreme Court with Morgan v. Virginia on June 3, 1946.

Morgan v. Virgina
Initially, Morgan's legal team only included Spottswood Robinson III, but they were later joined by NAACP lawyers Thurgood Marshall and William H. Hastie. They used the Interstate Commerce Clause in the Constitution, which declared that states could not impose rules that interfered with passengers crossing state lines, as the prevailing tactic to argue her case. However, Virginia state courts did not find this argument convincing.

Contrarily, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Irene and asserted that the Virginia Legislature could not impose segregation among interstate bus travelers. This landmark ruling would go on to inspire CORE members to seek out non-violent ways to push back against segregation outside of the court system.

Journey of Reconciliation *minor edit added subheading
On April 10, 1947, CORE sent a group of eight white (including James Peck, their publicity officer) and eight black men on what was to be a two-week Journey of Reconciliation through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to test state’s compliance with the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding segregation within interstate travel. *minor edit to last sentence

The group was comprised of only men to get around certain laws of the time that restricted the mixing of males and females. These participants then underwent rigorous training aimed at equipping them with the necessary skills to react non-violently, even in the face of violent behaviors. They would act out intense role-playing exercises to simulate real-life scenarios they may encounter, in an attempt to better their resolve in the face of violence *minor edit added last two sentences. Throughout the two-week period, they completed a total of twenty-six demonstrations on buses or trains. Out of these twenty-six demonstrations, six resulted in arrests. The members of this group did receive a great deal of publicity and this marked the beginning of a long series of similar campaigns. *minor edits of last sentence wording

The First "Freedom Ride" *minor edit
In the early 1960's, James Farmer resumed his position as executive secretary of CORE with the objective of replicating the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, only this time under a new name - the Freedom Ride. *minor edit to sentence

On May 4, 1961, participants journeyed to the deep South, this time including women as well as men and testing segregated bus terminals as well. The riders were met with severe violence. In Anniston, Alabama, one of the buses was fire-bombed and passengers were beaten by a white mob. White mobs also attacked Freedom Riders in Birmingham and Montgomery. The violence garnered national attention, sparking a summer of similar rides by CORE, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other civil rights organizations and thousands of ordinary citizens.

Louisiana Chapter of CORE and The Support for Armed Self-Defense *major edit
CORE, at its heart, was an organization dedicated to non-violent philosophies and practices. In Louisiana, efforts were being made to increase voter registration among rural communities. Though their motives were noble, there was no national attention or support gathering around the work of the Louisiana members. As such, acts of violence or harassment against them often went unreported and the victims were not supported by the public. Compounding this issue, both the national and local government felt no responsibility to protect these members or supply federal intervention. These underlying issues in Louisiana stirred up support among local CORE members for the idea of allowing armed self-defense within their ranks.

The idea of armed-self defense was even supported by CORE co-founder James Farmer after an incident in Plaquemine, Louisiana. On September 1, 1963 local police of Plaqumine threatened to lynch Farmer after a CORE demonstration in the city turned violent. As a result, he had to be smuggled out of the city accompanied by two armed men. After this event, Farmer would go on to permit armed guards to attend CORE meetings.

CORE in Kentucky
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Beginning of CORE in Kentucky
CORE made significant strides in the civil rights movement in Kentucky, establishing its first chapter in Lexington in 1959. This chapter went on to be the strongest and longest-lasting chapter in Kentucky history. With other branches established in Louisville, Frankfort, Richmond, and Covington, CORE often collaborated with the NAACP and also other organizations that were a part of the same movement. One of the most notable collaborations with the NAACP was the successful challenge against Louisville’s residential segregation ordinance in the case Buchanan v. Warley on November 5, 1917. This victory marked a big turning point in the history of CORE, especially in the state of Kentucky. It attracted over 1000 new members in Kentucky and was also one of the first major civil rights victories. Although this was a big moment in Kentucky history, the NAACP had initiated direct action protests in Louisville even before CORE entered the state. This offered a base for the members of the CORE chapters in Kentucky to work off of and helped make strides in the movements of CORE.

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Movements Made in Kentucky
CORE provided more interracial cooperation than other organizations, especially in the Lexington chapter, which consisted of mostly teachers and clergymen from the University of Kentucky. Their inaugural sit-in on July 11, 1959, at the Varsity Village Restaurant near the University of Kentucky campus, attended by both black and white members, set a precedent for peaceful protest. Despite their nonviolent approach, resistance from store managers often resulted in violence. This led to training sessions that were in place to prepare demonstrators for physical and verbal abuse, which many of the members encountered at these early sit-ins. They would also often use new strategies such as the “integrated sandwich plan” which was a plan where African Americans would sit next to a white member and the white member would order them a sandwich. These acts were only available to them as they were a group that encouraged interracial cooperation. Overall, CORE's presence and outlook on protests catalyzed momentum for civil rights advancement in Kentucky.

Minor edit In the 1960s, the Chicago chapter of CORE began to challenge racial segregation in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), addressing disparities in educational opportunities for African American students. By the late 1950s, the Chicago Board of Education's maintenance of the neighborhood school policy resulted in a pattern of racial segregation in the CPS. Predominantly black schools were situated in predominantly black neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city, while predominantly white schools were located in predominantly white areas in the north, northwest and southwest sides of Chicago.

Minor edit Between 1960 and 1963, CORE diligently wrote letters addressing the conditions of schools to various authorities, including the Board of Education (led by Superintendent Benjamin Willis), Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Illinois House of Representatives, and the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, advocating for improvements in educational equality. In addition, CORE attended the Board's school budget hearings, speaking against segregation and asking for the Board to implement transfer plans to desegregate the schools. In July 1963, CORE staged a week-long sit-in and protest at the Board office in downtown Chicago in response to the Board's inaction. Finally, Board President Claire Roddewig and Willis agreed to meet with CORE to negotiate integration, but no significant changes came to the schools.

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International activities
CORE has an African branch based in Uganda, with Fiona Kobusingye as its director. Bringing attention to the malaria crisis is one of the organization's main activities, and it has championed the use of DDT to fight the disease, and it has partnered with a variety of conservative and libertarian think tanks in this effort. In 2007, CORE organized a 300-mile walk across Uganda to promote DDT-based interventions against malaria.

Minor edit Many segregated schools were very overcrowded. To ease this overcrowding, the Board instated double shifts at some of the schools which helped with the overcrowding but provided new issues. Double shifts meant that students in affected schools attended less than a full day of class. In another measure to alleviate overcrowding at some schools, the Board sanctioned the construction of mobile classroom units. Moreover, a significant proportion of students dropped out before finishing high school. Faculty was segregated, and many teachers in predominantly black schools lacked full-time teaching experience compared to teachers in white schools. In addition, the history curriculum did not mention African Americans. According to CORE, "school segregation [was] a damaging bacteria, a psychological handicap, which [festered] a disease generating widespread unemployment and crime in Chicago".

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CORE, SNCC, and COFO collaborated to establish 30 Freedom Schools in towns across Mississippi. As a group, the three organizations collected volunteers that taught in the schools and the curriculum now included black history, the philosophy of the civil rights movement. During the summer of 1964 over 3,000 students attended these schools and the experiment provided a model for future educational programs such as Head Start.