Unit 6: Civil Rights Movement

Malcolm X

Black Muslim who argued for separation, not integration and was an advocate of the Black Power movement. He changed his views, but was assassinated in 1965.

Rosa Parks

United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama), which helped to trigger the nationwide Civil Rights Movement.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, or national origin.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s who fought for racial equality in the United States. He believed in nonviolent protest and led movements like the the March on Washington, where he gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. His efforts helped lead to major civil rights laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

This 1954 Supreme Court case overturned the earlier Plessy v. Ferguson case declaring “separate but equal” unconstitutional.

African Americans

The leaders and communities who played a central role in driving the most significant civil rights changes of the 1950s and beyond.

March on Washington (1963)

Important because it gave the civil rights movement great respectability.

Bracero Program

Permitted over 4 million Mexican men to work legally in the US on short-term labor contracts

Little Rock Nine

Black students who enrolled in a former all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Selma March

Three marches that marked the political and emotional peak of the American Civil Rights Movement. They grew out of voting rights efforts and included "Bloody Sunday."

Medgar Evers

Director of the NAACP in Mississippi and a lawyer who defended accused Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a member of the KKK.

Cesar Chavez

Farm worker, labor leader, and Civil Rights activist who helped form the National Farm Workers Association, later the United Farm Workers (UFW). He helped to improve conditions for migrant farm workers and unionize them.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places.

The Great Society

A set of domestic programs proposed or enacted in the United States by President Lynden B. Johnson. Two main goals of the social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice.

Equal Rights Amendment

Constitutional amendment passed by Congress but never ratified by enough states that would ban discrimination on the basis of gender.