Virtual Conference - March 5-7, 2021
Framing the Civil Rights Movement
Chair and Commentator Dr. Julie de Chantal, Georgia Southern University
For These Things We Fight!’: The Radical Politics and Activism of the National Negro Labor Council, 1950 – 1956
Kendra B. Grissom, Spelman College
Abstract: This paper examines how the members of the National Negro Labor Council (NNLC) espoused radical politics amid the climate of repression that defined the early years of the Cold War. Drawing upon archival sources, it is argued that the NNLC filled an existing need for Black progressive activism. As evidenced through their agenda, tactics and defiance of social norms, the Council projected a radical vision of freedom.
The Sanitation Workers' Strike in Memphis, Tennessee 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Event
Sadie Ingram, Georgia Southern University
Abstract: The events leading up to the death of MLK disrupted everyday life in Memphis and showed how protests were going on across the nation that were started by average men and women. Using digital history, this project uncovers the events leading up to the Sanitation Workers’ Strike of 1968 and how it progressed from a local city strike to an assassination. The project includes the reasons for the strike, the city officials’ reactions, and the strikes attraction of prominent Civil Rights activists.
Emmett Till's Murder Trial: An Epitome of Jim Crow
Rachel Oliver, Georgia Southern University
Abstract: My presentation is a prospectus for a senior capstone. It deals with the murder trial of Emmett Till in 1955 and how it personified Jim Crow in its entirety. My goal with the capstone project is to understand why Till's killers were acquitted.