June 17 - BlackFacts.com Black History Minute

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 17.

 

Tuskegee Boycott began. 

 

The issue of the boycott was segregation and voting rights.  The voting districts for the city of Tuskegee were changed dramatically to prevent black citizens from electing local officials. 

 

The Tuskegee Civic Association (TCA), a predominantly black organization working for civil rights, challenged the new district  boundaries and took it to court.

 

The leader of the Civic Association was Dr. Charles Gomillion, a Tuskegee Institute professor. As a strategy to gain victory, he told the citizens to "Trade with your friends". 

 

This had an immediate result on the local businesses because even though blacks were to enter stores from the rear, and had to wait for white customers before they were served, they were significant consumers of goods in Tuskegee.

 

The Boycott also resulted in local Macon County black businesses thriving and multiplying. 

It effectively created devastating economic consequences for Whites, who preferred to go out of business than give Blacks the right to vote. 

 

The use of redrawing voting district lines was ruled illegal and became a landmark case for the United States Civil Rights Movement.

 

Participants in the Tuskegee boycott engaged in unwavering civil activism to end the expulsion of black city residents and re-establish their voting rights.

 

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