says, "serve them, i'm losing money." this -- you know, i don't want to sound sort of trite about this, but this is -- this is how ordinary the situation was. a group of people who got together and said, we're going to challenge racial segregation. they didn't have any grand scheme or plan or strategy. they just decided to do it. and it resonated. it caught on. and essentially, once it was declared successful in greensboro, then, of course, other college students began to join in. the movement spread to raleigh, it spread to durham. i'm particularly very much aware of raleigh, because one of the schools that was the earliest participant in these demonstrations was saint august cities college. that's my old college. i wasn't there. i was still in brownsville at the time. i was young. but essentially, students were my campus from that campus participated in protests.

students at the university participated in protests. and then much to the surprise of a lot of folks, students from duke university joined in the protest. now all of a sudden there are integrated groups who are sitting in. and they are breaking down this wall of segregation in the cities across north carolina. the protest spread across almost every town, every city in north carolina. they had colleges, they had black colleges, at least, and by the end of february -- remember, the first demonstration was february 1st. by the end of february -- february 28th -- that was a leap year. february 29th. by february 29th, every major city in north carolina had seen its public facilities desegregated. this was a major victory. an un -- a surprising victory. an unexpected victory. now, that's not to mean that racial discrimination ended in north carolina. i'm not suggesting that at all. what i am suggesting is that the sit-ins had initially at least

been successful. the sit-ins had done what they had intended to do, and that was the focused attention on segregated public facilities. once the success came to north carolina, it began to spread across the south. it spread to atlanta, it spread to richmond, it spread to nashville. atlanta -- the atlanta sit-ins were led by a 20-year-old college student named julian bond. how many of you heard of julian bond? okay. julia bond is still an activist -- that's not julian bond. those are some other folks. but essentially, college students -- college students would decide to get involved in this. i'll explain this photograph. these are the kids from nashville -- i shouldn't call them kids. these are the college students from nashville. and they were led by a remarkable woman named diane nash. and i wish we had more time to talk about her. she was, again, one of those ordinary students, an ordinary college student, who becomes

extraordinary. she is one of the leaders. this is not in the script, so -- but she becomes one of the leaders of the freedom rides. she becomes so important that she literally defies the federal government and continues the freedom rides when the kennedy administration wants to shut them down. and robert kennedy asks famously, "who the hell is diane nash?" because she has -- because she has effectively defeied the federal government and continues to lead the demonstrations. and eventually, there will be the integration of the buses. that's another story. i don't have time for that. but that's another story. but that's an idea -- that's an example, i should say, of what's going on at this particular time. let me give you the stats. by march 14th, 1960 -- by march 14th, there were 17 separate demonstrations or sit-ins in atlanta alone involving over 1,000 students. yes, this is a movement. yes, these are students. these are ordinary people who

are getting engaged in these kinds of protests. i love this photograph on the left. you guys should never complain again about taking an exam or studying for an exam. these are kids who are studying for their midterm while they're in jail, okay? and what they're saying is that our freedom is as important as our education. our freedom is as important as our education. the man on the right, reverend james lawson, is one of the leaders, he's one of the older leaders of the sit-ins spreading out across nashville. by june 1960 -- now, remember, we're talking february to june. by june 1960, sit-ins and other demonstrations had occurred in 112 cities across the south. that is, from virginia to the texas border. from virginia to the texas border. the first demonstrations came in

houston in the summer, later in june, 1960. and i'll tell you how they came about. sort of numerous. lyndon johnson, the vice president -- well, yeah -- he's just recently inaugurated as the vice president, lyndon johnson, when asked about the civil rights demonstration sweeping across the south, says that, yeah, i don't understand what's going on, but what i do know is that our students -- or our kids in texas are not stupid enough to get wrapped up in these kinds of civil rights demonstrations. the next day, the first demonstration was in houston. okay? in other words, over and over and over again, students are going to take to the streets. they're going to challenge racial segregation. i'll give you another footnote here, too. the person who covered the first civil rights demonstration in houston, texas, the first sit-in, in houston, texas, was a young reporter from east texas

who would eventually come to identify with the movement. that reporter's name was dan rather. dan rather. this is a -- like i said before, this is a movement that is sweeping fast. indeed, it's sweeping across the south so fast, so very fast, that the elder civil rights leaders, the people in the naacp especially, are becoming concerned, or maybe i should use the term alarmed. in other words -- and it's not -- it's not simply the fact that the elders don't like the fact that all these young people are doing this stuff. it's the fact that the elders also understand that when these kids go to jail, naacp funds are used to bail them out. so there is a draw or a drain on naacp resources. and so as a consequence of this, the naacp, along with scoc, the other civil rights organization of martin luther king, decided

they had better try to get control over these students. they had better try to organize these students and orchestrate these students and lead these students, rather than have these civil rights demonstrations take place, you know, sort of ad hoc all across the south. so a conference was called in raleigh, north carolina. at shaw university. in 1960. in april of 1960. and the consequence of this three-day conference was a new organization, an organization of these young people, an organization that's supposed to represent these young people. and that organization was going to be called the student nonviolent coordinating committee, or sncc. the student nonviolent coordinating committee. let me explain these two people. you may know them. ella baker was the naacp leader, the elder who was given the responsibility for organizing sncc. she was one of the few elders that the students trusted. and marion berry was the first

chair of sncc. how many of you know who marion berry is. ooh. you probably know him in a different context, don't you? i didn't say civil rights leaders were infallible. they were brave. and marion berry in 1960 was brave. he, like a lot of student leaders, and i'm not recommending this, i'm not suggesting this, he dropped out of school in order to become a full-time participant in the movement. but he would lead sncc in his early days. and i think he would be a very vibrant and dynamic leader. let me talk about sncc for a minute. this is how sncc differed from the other organizations. first of all, sncc was committed to the tactics, but not the philosophy of nonviolence. sncc was committed to the tactics, but not the philosophy of nonviolence. this was a reference to martin luther king. remember, king had always talked about how nonviolence was going

to transform america, that it was not just a tactic for him, it was a way of life. the sncc people said no to that. as a matter of fact, eventually the sncc people would have great disdain for martin luther king for a whole host of reasons i won't go into now. but the sncc people always said that nonviolence is a tactic to be used in the struggle. it's not a philosophy that we embrace. secondly, the sncc people argued that confrontation brings more results than closed-door negotiations. again, this was a slap at the naacp and scoc. one of the things that would happen often is that scoc -- and maybe i should talk about scoc. southern christian leadership conference. this essentially was the organization of martin luther king. after martin luther king led the successful boycott in montgomery, some people suggested that he ought to have an organization, that there ought to be an organization that forms around him. and essentially, this is a

southern christian leadership conference became his organization. he was the head of it for most of the -- well, all of his life. and people gravitated toward it. mostly menominsteres gravitated toward it because of their respect for king. but sclc had a particular idea about the civil rights movement. they -- as i said before, they had this idea they were going to completely transform american society, and sncc didn't buy it. sncc didn't buy into that, and one of the things that sncc was critical of was sclc would come in, organize public demonstrations and then almost immediately after the public demonstrations would begin, they would go behind closed doors and negotiate a settlement. sncc said no to that. sncc said, we are going to confront racism where it is, we are not going to negotiate with anybody. we're going to fight until we win this particular campaign.

thirdly, sncc saw its role, or the sncc leadership saw their role as assisting local leaders rather than dominating a local campaign. again, a contrast for martin luther king. with marlin martin luther king, leaders would can him to come in, he and sncc will fly in, and they will take over the movement. they will make all of the decisions. the sncc people were just the opposite. they were very, very quiet. they didn't put themselves in front of the tv cameras. they said that our job is to help local leadership develop and to help local heleadership achieve its goals. i'm going to give you one example of this. and it's actually -- it's a local example. tent city in fayette county, tennessee. you know, i told you i grew up in brownsville. fayette county, tennessee is the next county over. both haywood county and fayette

county experienced rampant voter intimidation. remember i said earlier that my parents hadn't voted in 1960? they had never voted? the reason they had never voted was because the last person who attempted to organize black voters in haywood county, tennessee in 1940 was lynched. it's that simple. the last person was lynched. and his body was dismembered, and it was thrown into the tal hatchy river, and eventually it was discovered and it was horrific. what was fished up was horrific. and it was designed to -- well, it was designed to make a statement. is and that statement was if you attempt to vote, you will lose your life. and so it seemed then that that was going to hold -- except by 1960, there's a new generation of people coming along, and they're going to try again. they're going to try to vote. and most of these folks were share croppers. again, ordinary people. but these were share croppers who said, we want the right to

vote. and unfortunately, if you're a sharecropper and you try to vote in haywood county or fayette county, tennessee, the landowner can come in and say, you know, get off my land. if you want to try to vote, you're not going to work here. you're not going to be a sharecropper any longer. and at that point, about three black landowners, two in haywood county, one in fayette county, at considerable risk to themselves, allowed these share croppers who had been kicked off the various properties to come and build or establish tent cities on their properties. the leaders of this effort -- i shouldn't say the leaders, the people who assisted the folks in fayette county and haywood county, were sncc people. including a guy named haroyd brown, who eventually in the late 1960s became known to the world as h. rap brown. by the late 1960s, he was a guy

who wanted to kill everybody. in 1961, haroyd brown was a guy who dropped out of college and came to brownsville, tennessee or came to the area surrounding brownsville, tennessee and risked his life to help develop the leadership that would help get my parents and other people the right to vote. so this is -- this is sncc. this is what they do. this is what they're about. and they want, and they will, challenge the system. and not just the system of racial segregation. they will also challenge the elite status, if you will, of the other civil rights organization. or what they call the tore midty. fourthly, finally, sncc seriously commits itself to voter registration. and we see what reflected in what happens in brownsville and also reflected in what happens in mississippi. they be the organization that

goes into the heart of mississippi, and they will -- they will help blacks register to vote. as a matter of fact, let me pull up bob moses. i don't know how many of you guys are familiar with bob moses. steve is, shaking in affirmation. bob moses is legendary among self rights leaders. he was the leader of the sncc registration efforts in mississippi. first of all, he's extremely brave to do that. extremely brave to do that, given what happens in mississippi. given the mississippi sovereignty commission and all of the rest that we talked about. moses was a kind and gentle and almost angelic figure. i've only heard him speak once. and even now, even years later, he barely speaks above a whisper. and that was the way in way he was -- he was able to organize a whole host of people or help local people organize, like you see here. he's working with clee jordan, civil rights leader.

bob moses is there to assist clee jordan. bob moses is also at 25, the old man of sncc. at 25, he is the oldest person involved in sncc at that time. again, ordinary people. and young. very, very young ordinary people at that. okay. let's talk about what's going on here. larger context. sncc is founded, the civil rights demonstrations are sweeping across the south. one would imagine that there is a great deal of progress. unfortunately -- and there is. there is. no question that there are some places that are being successfully challenged. some segregationist institutions that are being successfully challenged. but there is also -- there are also places like albany, georgia, where the local sheriff outsmarted martin luther king in the civil rights demonstrations, or demonstrators, and as a result, they didn't get what they wanted. in other words, we talk about the successes, like birmingham.

we also need to remember that there were failures. there were places where civil rights demonstrations simply didn't work. but i think there was something else going on. it's not just that sometimes they failed. it's the very u pick whichty of the demonstrations themselves. let me give you some figures to reflect on this. and i think you'll see both the prospect and the problem. by 1963, there had been over 2,000 civil rights demonstrations across the south. by 1963, by early 1963, there had been over 2,000 civil rights demonstrations across the south. let me pull up this image. by 1963, an estimated 150,000 people had been involved in civil rights demonstrations. talk about a grass roots movement. 150,000 people had been involved. by 1963, 10,000 people had been

arrested. 10,000 people had been arrested. by 1963, hundreds of people were injured or beaten by mobs and the police. in other words, it's hard to know. and by the best guesstimate of the civil rights leadership, the various civil rights organizations, at least 17 people had been killed because of their activity in civil rights demonstrations between 1960 and 1962. in other words, this was slow progress. this was very, very slow progress. and as you can imagine, a number of people were becoming upset with this. a number of people were becoming increasingly impatient. as a matter of fact, and i'll pull this -- these are the freedom rides. none how much -- i don't know how much i want to say about that. i'll come back and say something about it. but the point of this assessment by all of these civil rights activists is that as one said, if we continue at this rate --

if we continue at this rate, it will take them until 1980 before all of the south is desegregated. if it we continue at this rate, it will take until 1980, before all of the south is integrated. and as a result, some people began to talk about doing something. doing something big to try to focus national attention on the civil rights campaigns. let me -- i'm going to sort of move away from the script for a minute. and let me show you some images that reflect on the civil rights campaigns. i mean, they're very poignant images, and well, this one is, certainly. the freedom rides of 1961. here again, there are young people, although -- in this instance, young people and old people with the congress of racial equality who decide to test what is already a law. what would already be a law, the law of interstate travel that says that anybody who travels across the south or anywhere can

use the bus facilities. that's supposed to be the law. when they attempt a freedom ride that begins in washington, d.c. and is supposed to end in washi and is supposed to end in new orleans, as they get far and far south, you can see the line as they get farther and farther into the south, more and more violence takes place and finally, the bus is burned outside aniston, alabama. at this point, the freedom ride has become a national crisis. i think wayle do here is put on reserve a document on the freedom rides. i don't have enough time to talk about them now. it is a very, very powerful story. in fact, there were people from up here, people from the pacific northwest that went down to participate in the freedom rides, whites that went down to

join blacks on the buses. it was a scary situation, because there was a tremendous amount of violence. the freedom riders were supposed to go from washington, d.c. to new orleans. they never made it. they got as far as jackson, mississippi, where they were all thrown, not in jail but in the penitentiary. that's hard time, really, really hard time. at any rate, my point here is that all of these activities are going on. it was tent city, the freedom rides, the voter campaign. it is the efforts, the sit-ins, to try to open up the lunch facilities and the other facilities. all this is going on. it is all heroic but is it enough as we get farther and farther into the 1960s and we realize that there is no national change. there is no action at the national level. again, i'm just going to go

through a group of slides here. i am going to share with you some slides at the very end of this hour. so then this is jackson, mississippi, 1963. this is toward the end of the sit-in movement. you can see the violence. you can see the violence that's involved here. birmingham, alabama, everybody in this room has probably heard of birmingham. you know about the violence in birmingham. you know what happened in 1963. thousands, not hundreds, thousands of people would be arrested. many of them would be children. the fire hoses, the famous fire hoses would be turned on people and, of course, the worst of this was, if you want to call it that, the worst of this was the four little girls that were killed, who were bombed in a sunday school in september of

1963. this is birmingham and the man who orchestrated much of this is beau o'connor, the same guy that went after eleanor roosevelt in 1937. he is still the head of the police. he is called the commissioner of public safety. interesting phrase. commissioner of public safety. he is also the person who is responsible for orchestrating violence throughout northern alabama, not just in birmingham but throughout northern alabama in the early 1960s. of course, there ismaker everett who was assassinated on june 12th, 19636789 you can see his funeral procession. medgar evars was the most important leader in the naacp throughout the country. i want to end the discussion tonight by pulling up what i

think is a very poignant letter from mississippi in 1964 written by a young lady who i believe, i'm not certain on this but i believe is from seattle. in other words, a number of white college students and black college students went from the pacific northwest down to mississippi and other areas of the south to try to challenge racial segregation. this is the letter from her wherever she is from. these are the words that explain why she gets involved and why others should get involved in the civil rights campaign. i will wrap up the class, guys, by allowing you to read that letter i think that letter says volumes about why people would no longer accept the status quo, why they would decide to get involved. bonnie, like the four students at greensboro and all the other people we have been talking

about are ordinary people. otherwise, ordinary people who decide to challenge the racial status quo. that's the genius. that's literally the genius of the civil rights movement at that particular time. okay, guys, we will stop it at this point here. i don't know if i am supposed to say something official or more he o figures than that. lec terse lec tours in history airs each saturday at 8:00 p.m. and sunday at 1:00 william. to keep up with american history tv during the week or to send us your questions and comments, follow us on twitter. we are at twitter.com/cspanhistory. all weekend long, american

history tv is featuring the history of wichita, kansas, the largest city in kansas with a population of 400,000. hosted by our cox communications cable partner, c-span's local content vehicles recently visited many historic sites show kating the city's rich history. learn more all weekend long on american history tv. lorenzo lewelling was the first populist governor not only of kansas but of the nation. >> what led to the populist movement was a rural versus urban environment. there was the agrarian west where you had the railroads taking the money and the bankers taking the money. the farmers weren't ending up with anything. one of the things that i think makes a pop u list movement is that it touched everybody. it was here at the wichita auditorium that lorenzo

lewelling, at that point an unknown gave this talk that so impassed the people he was elected governor. >> his speech was a fiery speech. his rhetoric was that of a war general leading troops into battle. he talked about taking down the prola tear yut government that had been in bed with the railroads. he also talked about cooperation with the state's other political party, the democrats. that's really what kind of won him over, won the people over here at this pop u list convention, was the fact that he was willing to accept this fusion ticket, which would become such a point of contention among the populists in later years. in 1892, they needed those democratic votes to secure an electoral victory. that's what he promoted. that's basically what won him this nomination. >> he took office on january 10th of 1893. almost immediately, there was this power play between the

populist and the republican party. neither one was going to yield power. it was up to lewelling to decide what was going to happen. he ends up calling in the militia. there is 250 militia men surrounding the kansas capital with gat ling guns. you could hear drumming beating. all these men are there. pop you lists are not yielding and neither are the republicans. food has to be sent up and down to the capital building. valentine's day comes. no one is going home. finally, it goes to the supreme court and they decide that the republicans meet in one part of the capital. the populists have to meet in another part. that's what ends the war. >> at the heart of the issue was an election dispute. there were 12 seats in the house that were contested by -- that the republicans had said that they won, that the populists were contesting. so the day comes to convenient

the house and we have 24 people show up for 12 seats. obviously, that is not going to work. they divide on party lines. that's where we kind of get this legislative war kind of happening. basically, it is a stalemate in the house of representatives. no legislation is getting passed. desperate kansans who have been suffering the drought for the last five years aren't getting the help they need from their government. there is this bash lash against the populist coming out of this legislative war of 1893. llewellyn kind of becomes a scapegoat. he remains a populist up until 1896 when williams jennings bryant runs for the united states president and ends up winning the nomination, not only the populist party but the democratic party as well. after that, he becomes more of a socialist. he is not accepted really by his