Civil Rights VFL

Thurgood Marshall

Lawyer dedicated to fighting racism, desegregated schools, involved in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

A 1954 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” education for black and white students was unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks

Arrested for sitting in the white section of the bus, influenced a bus boycott

Martin Luther King Jr.

Appointed to lead the Civil Rights Movement against segregation.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

An organization formed in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders to work for civil rights through nonviolent means.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

An organization formed in 1960 to coordinate sit-ins and other protests and to give young blacks a larger role in the civil rights movement.

Sit-In

A form of demonstration used by African Americans to protest discrimination, in which the protesters sit down in a segregated business and refuse to leave until they are served.

Freedom Riders

Civil rights activists who rode buses through the South in the early 1960s to challenge segregation.

James Meredith

Enrolled in an all-white university but wasn’t allowed to register as a student, a riot broke out due to his enrollment

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A law that banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion in public places and most workplaces.

Freedom Summer

A 1964 project to register African-American voters in Mississippi.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Was the voice of the MFDP, described how she was jailed and beaten for registering to vote, she declined a compromise from Johnson

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A law that made it easier for African Americans to register to vote. It removed literacy tests and allowed federal examiners to enroll voters who were denied to vote at their local poll.

de facto segregation

Racial separation established by practice and custom, not by law.

de jure segregation

Racial separation established by law.

Malcolm X

Studied and taught about the Nation of Islam, created the slogan “Ballots or Bullets“ to try and earn voting rights for African Americans

Nation of Islam

A religious group, popularly known as the Black Muslims, founded by Elijah Muhammad to promote black separatism and the Islamic religion.

Black Power

A slogan used by Stokely Carmichael in the 1960s that encouraged African-American pride and political and social leadership.

Black Panthers

A militant African-American political organization formed in 1966 to fight police brutality and to provide services in the ghetto.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

A law that banned discrimination in housing.

Affirmative Action

A policy that seeks to correct the effects of past discrimination by favoring the groups who were previously disadvantaged.