In 1963, when a soldier on leave participates in the Danville protests while wearing his uniform, Secretary of Defense McNamara (architect of the Vietnam War) says: "You can go overseas and fight in a uniform, but you can't come back over here picketing and demonstrating in your uniform. That's un-American."  —  Sing for Freedom

Left, protesters singing on City Hall steps. Below, a wounded demonstrator at a make-shift, first-aid station in a local church after police attack with clubs and firehoses.

We're going to march in St. Augustine...

"This was about the roughest city we've had — 45 straight nights of beatings and intimidation. In church every night we'd see people sitting there with bandages on. Some would sit with shotguns between their legs. We sang before we went out to get up our courage. The Klan was always waiting for us — these folk with the chains and bricks and things." — Dorothy Cotton, SCLC.

The KKK mobilizes in St. Augustine to suppress the Freedom Movement with clubs, guns, whips, and bombs.

St. Augustine, FL, police ensuring that the beach remains "White Only."

"I remember the wade-ins because the bump hasn't gone off my jaw yet. They started yelling obscenities at us, but we went on — myself and a group of teen-age girls. We were afraid but we felt we just had to go on." — Dorothy Cotton, SCLC.

June, 1964. Black children integrate the swimming pool of the Monson Motel. To force them out, the owner pours muriatic acid into the water.

Orangeburg, SC. 1963

Mass meeting, Orangeburg, SC. 1963.

Prayer protest, Orangeburg, SC. 1963.

Orangeburg, SC. Fall, 1963. So many students from Claflin College and South Carolina State are in jail for protesting that classrooms are almost empty.

Boycott picketers, Orangeburg, SC. 1963.

We have served our time in jail
With no money for to go our bail
But we'll never turn back
No, we'll never turn back

Morgan State students in jail after protests at Baltimore's segregated Northwood theater, 1963.