Equality--carried on the militant side of
the struggle in Northern urban centers, and it involved many Northern
liberals in crusades to help the movement in the South.

The N.A.A.C.P. tended to be uncomfortable with the new direct action
techniques and preferred more traditional lobbying and legal tactics. It
did get involved on a massive scale in giving legal aid to the thousands
of demonstrators who were arrested for various legal infractions such as
marching without a parade permit, disturbing the peace, and for
trespassing. To some extent, the N.A.A.C.P. resented the fact that it had
to carry the financial burden for the legal actions resulting from these
mass protests, while the other organizations received all the publicity
and most of the financial aid inspired by that publicity.

By the time the 1960 Presidential election approached, both political
parties had become aware that the racial issue could not be ignored. In
several Northern states, Afro-Americans held the balance of power in
close elections. Also, by that year, over a million Afro-Americans had
become eligible to vote in the Southern states. John F. Kennedy, the
Democratic candidate, easily out-maneuvered his Republican opponent,
Richard M. Nixon, in the search for Afro-American votes. Kennedy had
projected an image of aggressive idealism which captured the imagination
of white liberals and of Afro-Americans.

The move which guaranteed the support of most Afro-Americans for Kennedy
came in October, a mere three weeks before the election. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and several other Negroes had been arrested in Atlanta,
Georgia, for staging a sit-in at a department store restaurant. While the
others were released, King was sentenced to four months at hard labor.
Kennedy immediately telephoned his sympathy to Mrs. King. Meanwhile, his
brother and campaign manager, Robert Kennedy, telephoned the judge who
had sentenced him and pleaded for his release. The next day, King was
freed. The news was carefully and systematically spread throughout the
entire Afro-American community. When Kennedy defeated Nixon in November,
Afro-Americans believed that their vote had been the deciding factor in
the close victory.

Two months after Kennedy took office, C.O.R.E., under the leadership of
James Farmer, began an intensive campaign, involving "freedom rides."
Scores ind scores of whites and blacks were recruited from Northern
cities and sent throughout the South