December 1965: Lowndes County Freedom Organization

     Black voters in Lowndes County, Alabama, using a provision in state law, form an independent political party: the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (also known as the Black Panther Party). The party fields a slate of 7 candidates for county offices in the November 1966 general election.

     Until 1965, not one black person was registered to vote in Lowndes, though blacks made up 80% of the county's population. By October 1965 -- following a series of voter registration drives and the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in August -- nearly half the black population had registered to vote.

     -- Image from LCFO pamphlet: @

    -- Note: The LCFO based its symbol on the Panther mascot of Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. In turn, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (formed in October 1966), took its name and symbol from the LCFO.

May 3, 1966: Nominating convention

-- Photo by Flip Schulke: @

November 8, 1966: Election

-- Image from "The Story of the Development of an Independent Political Movement on the County Level" (Jack Minnis, 1967): @

RESOURCES
Newspapers
* "Student Rights Group Lacks Money and Help but Not Projects" (New York Times, December 10, 1965): @

* "Negro Party May Be Formed In Alabama" (Associated Press, December 16, 1965): @
* "Lowndes County Forms Local Political Group" (The Student Voice, December 20, 1965): @

* "The Same Tuesday, But A Different Election" (The Southern Courier, May 14-15, 1966, page 3): @

* "Lowndes County Negroes Work To Take Over County" (The Movement, June 1966): @

* "High Hopes In Lowndes" (The Southern Courier, November 5-6, 1966): @
* "A Good Day to Go Voting, but Black Panther Candidates Lose" (The Southern Courier, November 12-13, 1966): @
* "Sold His People for a Coke" (The Southern Courier, November 19-20, 1966): @

Books
* "Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt" (Hasan Kwame Jeffries, 2010): @
* "Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic" (2014; summary written by Jeffries): @
* "Carry It On: The War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, 1964-1972" (Susan Youngblood Ashmore, 2008): @
* "The Selling of Civil Rights: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Use of Public Relations" (Vanessa Murphree, 2013): @

Other resources
* LCFO pamphlet: @

* "The Black Panther Party" (The King Center, June 1966): @
* "Background Information on Freedom Elections" (Stokley Carmichael, May 3, 1966): @

* "What Would It Profit A Man ......" (SNCC pamphlet): @

* Entry from Encyclopedia of Alabama: @

* Entry from SNCC Legacy Project: @
* Entry from BlackPast.org: @
* Entry, links from Teaching for Change: @
* Links to summaries and articles (Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement): @

* Holdings in The Freedom Archives (San Francisco): @
* "Lowndes County and the Voting Rights Act" (Zinn Education Project; article by Hasan Kwame Jeffries): @

* "SNCC, Black Power, And Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama, 1964-1966" (Jeffries, The Journal of African American History, 2006): @

* "From Stokely Carmichael to Kwame Ture" (Africa News Service, 2000): @

* "Origin of the Black Panther Party logo" (H.K. Yuen Social Movement Archives, University of California Berkeley): @
* "From Selma to Black Power" (Benjamin Hedin, The Atlantic, 2015): @

* Photos from Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection (Alabama Department of Archives and History): @

* "The Voting Rights Act ... the first months" (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1965): @
* "Political Participation" (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1968): @ 

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Monday, December 20, 1965: 'The Dating Game'

-- Note incorrect date.

-- Photos from first prime-time show, October 1966. Karen Carlson, Miss America first runner-up, chooses from the three bachelors (at far right is "Man From U.N.C.L.E." star Robert Vaughn). Summary from The Paley Center for Media: @

* Summary from www.tv.com: @

* Summary, interviews from Archive of American Television: @

* Summary from "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" (2007 edition): @ 

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Friday, December 10, 1965: The Fillmore

The San Francisco auditorium holds its first rock 'n' roll concert (thanks to promoter Bill Graham), a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Unbilled but also playing that night: the Grateful Dead, having just changed its from the Warlocks.

-- Image from jerrygarcia.com: @

* Summary (thefillmore.com): @

* "Fillmore History" (www.thefillmoredistrict.com): @

* Handbill: @

* San Francisco Chronicle ad (published December 5; from Rock Archaeology 101): @

* Column by Chronicle's Ralph J. Gleason (published December 13: text @ and image @

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Thursday, December 9, 1965: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'

Even Christmas threatens to add a bit of "good grief" to the worrisome world of Charlie Brown when the wispy-haired youngster and his "Peanuts" friends, favorites of millions of comic-strip readers throughout the world, make their debut as stars of a television special in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," animated-cartoon presentation in color Thursday, Dec. 9 on the CBS television network (7:30-8:00 pm).

     -- from Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, December 3, 1965: @

     -- Image from The Vernon (Texas) Daily Record, December 8

* TV Guide, December 9, 1965: @

* Reviews by Associated Press (Cynthia Lowry) and United Press International (Rick DuBrow): @

* " 'A Charlie Brown Christmas': The Making of a Tradition" (Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, 2000): @

* "A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz" (Stephen J. Lind, 2015): @ 

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Wednesday, December 1, 1965: Freedom Flights

A new chapter in the long, often dangerous and always dramatic exodus of Cubans from their Communist homeland opens today with the start of a refugee airlift. The first plane, a Pan American World Airways DC7C, will leave Miami's International Airport at 7 a.m., carrying only its crew and two officials of the U.S. Public Health and Immigration departments. It will return three hours and 35 minutes later from Varadero, Cuba, with 90 refugees, the first of up to 100,000 expected in the new wave of immigration.

     -- Associated Press, December 1, 1965: @

     -- "First Cubans Begin Flights to US Haven" (AP, December 1): @

     -- "First Refugee Plane Lands" (AP, December 1): @

The last of more than 260,500 Freedom Flight refugees from Fidel Castro's Cuba limped off a plane here yesterday.

     -- Associated Press, April 6, 1973: @

-- 1965 photo from Public Health Image Library, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Resources
* "The Cuban Experience in Florida: Revolution and Exodus" (State Library & Archives of Florida): @

* Freedom Flight Memories and database (The Miami Herald): @

* "In Search of Freedom: Cuban Exiles and the U.S. Cuban Refugee Program" (University of Miami Libraries): @ 
* "Cuban Migration to the United States: Policy and Trends" (Ruth Ellen Wasem, Congressional Research Service, 2009): @

* "An Historic Overview of Latino Immigration and the Demographic Transformation of the United States" (David G. Gutierrez, National Park Service): @

* "Freedom Tower, Miami, Florida" (National Park Service): @

* "The 'Other' Boatlift: Camarioca, Cuba, 1965" (U.S. Coast Guard): @
* "The Cuban Refugee Program" (William L. Mitchell, Social Security commissioner, March 1962): @

* "Cuban Refugees in the United States" (John F. Thomas, The International Migration Review, 1967): @

* "Analysis of Federal Expenditures to Aid Cuban Refugees" (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1971): @ 
* "Cubans in the United States" (Pew Research Center, 2006): @

* Photos (The Miami Herald): @

* Photos (University of Miami Libraries): @

* Cuban Research Institute (Florida International University): @

Books

* "Desperate Crossings: Seeking Refuge in America" (Norman L. Zucker and Naomi Flink Zucker, 1996): @

* "Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America's Half-Open Door, 1945-Present" (Gil Loescher and John A. Scanlan, 1998): @
* "Cubans in America: A Vibrant History of a People in Exile" (Alex Anton and Roger E. Hernandez, 2003): @
* "Encyclopedia of Cuban-United States Relations" (Thomas M. Leonard, 2004): @

* "Americans at the Gate: The United States and Refugees During the Cold War" (Carl J. Bon Tempo, 2008): @
* "International Migration in Cuba: Accumulation, Imperial Designs, and Transnational Social Fields" (Margarita Cervantes-Rodriguez, 2011): @

* "American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change" (James Ciment and John Radzilowski, editors, 2015): @ 

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