University of New Orleans, SUNO, then a center of student actvism.Oretha joined the protest marches and went on to became a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement and other causes.
The 1954 US Supreme Court decision,Brown v. Board of Education, undermined the legal foundation of seperate-but equal- racial segregation.The landmark court decision emboldened the cause for civil rights.The 1955 murder of Emmett
Till in Mississippi, and subsequent miscarriage of justice drew national attention to the brutal and unfair treatment of African Americans in the South. In late 1955,the arrest of Rosa Parks led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.The boycott lasted almost a year and its success launched the career of Martin Luther King and demonstrated the power of non-violent political action.
The first protests marches she participated in were sponsored by the Consumers League of Greater New Orleans (CLGNO).When Oretha and several fellow protesters sought to stage sit-ins at segregated lunch counters,both the Consumers League and the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP) took no interest. The CLGNO and NAACP were involved in sensitive litigations and negotiations and shunned the publicity.In the summer of
1960,Oretha,Ruby Lombard and Jerome Smith pioneered their own organization and sought sponsorship from a national organization. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference,SCLC,was not active in New Orleans. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was the first activist group dedicated to non-violence founded in 1942 and based in Chicago. The newly formed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commitee (SNCC) rapidly grew in prominence. SNCC's powerbase became the Nashville chapter founded by Diane Nash & John Lewis. Oretha and
her and her coharts chose to ally their local group with core, and developed their power base in New Orleans. SNCC and CORE both concentrated on street-level,
direct-action activism,and often compared. The NAACP,SCLC,CORE and SNCC
cooperated in many endeavors, and each are credited with playing a major role
in the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
On September 17,1960, Oretha and three of her fellow student-protesters were arrested for sitting in at the counter of McCrory's, a Canal street five-and-dime store in New Orleans.These protests were based on how stores in Central City
"wouldn't hire African American clerks or cashiers, in spites of the fact that the majority of customers in the shopping district were African American." Oretha, Cecil Carter,Sydney Goldfinich and Rudy Lombard were charged with criminal mischief, " which makes it a crime to refuse to leave a place of business after being ordered to do so by the person charge of the premises.
There were no laws particularly allowing racial segregation in businesses in the town,however public announcements explaining a zero tolerance on sit-in demonstrations by the mayor and superintendent of the police had been made.
Those charged were sentenced to a $350 fine and 60 days in prison, or if the fine could not be paid 120 days in prison.
This case first went to Louisiana State Trial Court.The case was appealed by CORE attroneys to the Louisiana State Supreme Court,which upheld the conservative decision of the Trial Court.
The case was appealed and brought to the US Supreme Court. The USSC,headed
by chief justice Earl Warren,overturned the ruling in an eight to one decision on May 20,1963.In the opinion to the court justice Warren indicated that due
to the announcements made by public officials,restaurant owners had felt compelled to maintain segregated facilities even if it was not their will or official law.As a result, the court overturned the Trial Court and Louisiana State Supreme Court decisions.Futhermore, the court cited violations to the 14th amendment as grounds for their decision.
In 1961,CORE pioneered the Freedom Riders,a novel method of non-violent protest against segregation in interstate transportation.SNCC played a major role. Trained and committed volunteers boarded Greyhound and Trailway buses in Washington D.C. and other northern cities,and headed south. At various stops,they occupied the white-only waiting rooms to draw attention to the segregated facilities. The Freedom Riders were scheduled to finish in New Orleans. The first Freedom Riders drew national attention in mid-may.Two buses left Atlanta,GA heading for Birmingham, AL. The first bus was commandeered by an angry mob in Anniston AL. The passengers were beaten by a waiting mob as local police stood by.
Oretha' house served as the New Orleans headerquarters for the Freedom Riders.With help from here mama Virgie and sister Doris,their home housed and fed hundreds of Freedom Riders coming and going throughout the summer. New Orleans CORE staged a demonstration at Police Quarters.
Oretha was one of fifteen arrested.Attroney General Robert F.Kennedy was
delegated the task of solving the problem.He petitioned and pressured the Interstate Commerce Commission,ICC, and finally on November 1, "the white only" signs were removed. The success of the Freedom Riders raised the profile and bolstered the reputation of CORE.
Toward the end of 1961 Ruby Lombard departed, and Oretha Castle was appointed president of the local chapter of CORE. A prominent fellow activists characterized her " the guiding force... the backbone... a woman of extraordinary capabilities.With its new notoriety,the New Orleans chapter of CORE attracted a growing membership.James Farmer had founded CORE to
be an interracial organization.In 1962,Oretha and African American coharts
began to the question the participation of whites in their organization. Whites were assuming leadership roles in an organization dedicated to empowering African Americans.Oretha suspendded the white members and came into conflict with the national office dispatched Richard Haley to resolve the issue.
The suspensions were declared invalid, whites slowely rejoined, yet the chapter never fully regained the members it lost. Richard remained with the organization for the next five years.Oretha & Richard married 1967,and had two sons , in addition to the two sons Orerha was already raising.
In 1963 and 1964,nightly marches targeting segregated stores,hotels,theaters,and an amusementpark continued. The Scwegmann's
grocery store chain closed its lunch counters in response to a CORE lawsuit.
A Freedom March on city hall resulted in the desegregation of the municipal cafeteria. The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited segregation in public accommodations,so the protest marches came to an end. The next battle was
voter registration. CORE joined a coalition of civil rights organizations that combined their resources for the Freedom Summer project, what become known as Freedom Summer.In the spring of 1964,Oretha relinquished her
presidency and moved upstate to Ouchita Parish to act as field secretary.
In November,she was promoted to field for all of northern Louisiana.For more than a year,Oretha applied the protest techniques she helped to develop in Monroe, Jonesboro and Bogalusa,Louisiana.Freedom Summer accomplished its goal when the 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in
voting.
Bayard Rustin and James Farmer pioneered the use of non-violent disobedience in the United States inspired by Gandhi and other writers for almost ten years,non-violent methods led to the many triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement culminating with the March from Selma to Montgomery in March,1965.In August,Watts Rebellion initiated three consecutive summers of urban rebellions. Many actvists questioned their faith in non-violence , including Oretha.Disenchanted by Selma and other unsuccessful strategies,the
Black Panther party emerged. Stokely Carmichael ( later known as Kwane Ture) and Charles V. Hamilton wrote the book, Black Power: The Pollitics of
Liberation (1967), encouraging self-determination for African American communities. CORE fractured in a dispute over criticizing Viet Nam War,and many long-time leaders left the organization.The original members of the New
Orleans chapter of CORE all quit by 1965,including Oretha.CORE led by Roy Innis, is still active in New York.
Oretha returned to New Orleans in 1966 and re-enrolled at SUNO to complete her degree. Her grass-roots organizational experience qualified her to take the lead in several organizations sponsored by the Federal War on Poverty.
She led a successful campaign to desegregate playgrounds. In 1971,she led
the election campaign of Dorothy Mae,Taylor,who became the first African-American woman state legislator in Louisiana. In the 1980s, she served as
deputy administrator of Chairty Hospital where she instituted several reforms. While there, she was central in creating the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation.She remained married to Richard Haley until her death,caused
by cancer, in 1987 at the age of 48.
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