History 261 Section 12A: Documents on Civil Rights/Black Power

Note: in the event of a GEO walkout, discussion sections will be canceled for March 25-26 and the Section 12A assignment of King's Why We Can't Wait plus the documents below will be covered in the Thursday/Friday sections instead. If this happens, the Section 12B assignment (including Discussion Project #6) will be moved to Section 13B.

Why We Can't Wait, published in 1964 by Martin Luther King, Jr., raises many questions about the meaning of the American Creed, the issues of civil rights in the South and the North, the links between race and economics, the tensions between "color-blind" public policy and race-based affirmative action programs, and much more. In addition to the King book, watch and/or read the following primary documents for Section 12A:

**"The Negro and the American Promise" (1963 program on Boston public television featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Click on the four links to the video segments: the introduction and the three interviews. Although transcripts are also available, you should watch this program to get the full experience)

**President Lyndon Johnson, "To Fulfill These Rights" (June 4, 1965)

**Stokely Carmichael, "Black Power" (1966 speech at UC-Berkeley by the head of SNCC)

**Black Panther Party, "Ten-Point Plan" (1966 platform by the group based in Oakland, California)

**Martin Luther King, Jr., "Where Do We Go From Here?" (August 16, 1967)

**President Ronald Reagan, Radio Address on Martin Luther King, Jr., and Black Americans (Jan. 18, 1986)