Highlights From The Turbulent 1960s Civil Rights Movement

Voter registration campaigns for black people

Buoyed by the tenacity of freedom riders, in 1962 civil rights organizations began to organize voter drives for black people in the Southern States. Black people who registered to vote faced beatings, arrests, shootings, and murder. Many black voters were fired by their employers for having the temerity to register.

Source: Teaching for Change

In some areas, strict education tests were made a mandatory part of the voter registration process and were specifically designed to prevent black voters from registering to vote. The tests were so hard that the majority of college educated people of any race couldn’t have passed them. Despite the efforts to prevent these campaigns, they continued to grow across the Southern States.