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1965 Camden, Alabama civil rights demonstration...
1965 Camden, Alabama civil rights demonstration...
Item # 724626
April 01, 1965
THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 1, 1965
* Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama
* Negroes - African Americans students
* Civil Rights protest - demonstration
The top of the front page has a four column heading: "Negro Students are Dispersed by Smoke Bombs in Camden, Ala." with related photo. (see images)
Complete with 72 pages, light toning and a little wear at the margins, generally in nice condition.
background: The April 1, 1965, edition of The New York Times serves as a stark historical record of the intense grassroots struggle for voting rights in Wilcox County, Alabama, a region where, despite a Black majority, not a single African American was registered to vote at the start of that year. The front-page report details an escalation in Camden where local authorities, led by Sheriff P.C. "Lummie" Jenkins, used "smoke bombs"—a contemporary euphemism for tear gas—to forcefully disperse hundreds of African American students who had gathered at the Antioch Baptist Church to march toward the county courthouse. This confrontation occurred in the immediate, high-tension aftermath of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, illustrating that the push for the Voting Rights Act was not confined to Selma but was a systemic, county-by-county battle against a "moderate" but firm segregationist power structure. Because this issue remains complete with all 72 pages, it preserves not only the primary headline and the accompanying photography of the dispersal but also the broader national and international context of 1965, making it a significant artifact of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Category: The 20th Century
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$57.00
