American Civil Rights Movement

Vocabulary terms and definitions based on the lecture transcript regarding the leaders, organizations, and legal milestones of the American Civil Rights Movement.

De facto segregation

Segregation of the races in fact rather than in the law.

De jure (or legal) segregation

The legal segregation of the races, set down in laws in the South until 1964.

14th Amendment

The amendment through which citizenship was granted to Black people.

Great Migration

Early twentieth-century northward movement of black Southerners.

Ida B. Wells

Born into slavery in Mississippi, she became a teacher and newspaper owner who sued a railroad company after being forced into a smoking car and founded several suffrage organizations for Black women.

WEB DuBois

A Black Southern educationalist who advocated accommodationalism, encouraging Blacks to focus on economic improvement rather than social, political, and legal equality.

Booker T. Washington

Black Northern academic that waged a propaganda war against the status quo and helped to establish the NAACP.

A. Philip Randolph

Left-wing African American who led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized the 1963 March on Washington, and pushed for equal pay and unionization.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

An all-black labour union set up in 1925 that grew to 15,000 members by the 1940s.

Ella Baker

SCLC employee who helped King organize the group but later left to help student activists form the SNCC, believing the movement made Martin rather than the reverse.

Bayard Rustin

Key organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, advisor to King, and head of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

Emmett Till

A 14 year old Chicagoan who visited Southern relations and was unaware or defiant of Southern norms.

NAACP

Organization that attacked segregated facilities legally and took institutions to court to discredit the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Thurgood Marshall

Head of the NAACP Legal Fund who took cases like Sweatt v. Painter and Brown v. Board of Education to the Supreme Court.

Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

1950 cases resulting in the Supreme Court overturning rulings that barred Black students from white-only graduate and professional schools.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

A set of 5 cases brought to the Supreme Court in 1952 by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP addressing segregation in public schools.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, also known as ‘Snick,’ created in 1960 to encourage younger generation activism.

SCLC

Organization headed by King that pursued disaggregation through courtrooms and chose King as its president in 1957.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A 381-day protest starting in 1955 where almost all of the 40,000 riders participated after Rosa Parks refused to move for a white man.

Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)

Organization created during the bus boycott with MLK as president, advocating for first-come first-serve seating and Black bus drivers.

Rosa Parks

Active member of the Montgomery NAACP who was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, serving as a dignified face for the movement.

Martin Luther King, J

Atlanta-born Baptist minister and head of the MIA and SCLC, influenced by Gandhi’s non-violent civil disobedience and Christian teachings.

Malcolm X

Black nationalist leader and Nation of Islam convert who experienced racial hatred from the KKK and spent 7 years in prison for burglary.

Little Rock & Central High School (1957)

Event where 9 students were enrolled in an all-white school; President Eisenhower eventually sent 1200 members of the 101st Airborne Division to ensure their entrance.

Cooper v. Aaron

1958 Supreme Court ruling stating that states must follow the court’s decisions regarding segregation.

Woolworth Sit-ins

1960 protest started by 4 Black college students from North Carolina A&T College at a white-only lunch counter.

Freedom Rides

1961 CORE and SNCC initiative organized by James Farmer involving bus trips from DC to New Orleans to challenge segregation norms.

Albany Movement

1961 protests in Georgia where the Police Chief avoided violence and media attention by arresting protesters without creating a rallying point.

1964 Civil Rights Act

Legislation that challenged Jim Crow laws, established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and prohibited discrimination in public facilities and hotels.

Selma March

1965 event focused on voter registration where marchers faced a violent sheriff and restrictive registration practices.

Freedom Summer

1964 Mississippi Summer Project led by Bob Mosses, involving 1000 mostly white northern volunteers teaching in 40 Freedom schools.

1965 Voting Rights Act

Law signed by President Johnson on August 6, 1965, following a compromise to sue states that maintained poll taxes.