Herold - Unit 4: Civil Right Movement

African Americans

-treated as second class citizens

-rights and freedoms have been oppressed and subject to abuse since arrival to the country

Civil Rights Movement

movement in the United States beginning in the 1950-60s and led primarily by Blacks in an effort to establish the civil rights of individual Black citizens

Jim Crow Laws

allowed for legalized segregation of the races

Plessy v Ferguson

"Separate but equal"

allowed for segregation

de jure segregation

segregation by law

de facto segregation

segregation by unwritten custom or tradition

WWII

provided an opportunity for things to change for people of color in America

*a chance at equality*

Jackie Robinson (#42)

first African American to play in the MLB (1947)

-played for the Brooklyn Dodges

-#42 is a retired number

-MLB was now desegregated

Desegregation of military

1948 President Truman used his executive power to enforce integration among blacks and whites

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

-main focus was to fight segregation

Federal court system

NAACP sought to use this to combat some of the inequalities of segregation and discrimination

"Rule of Law"

American Education System

was in need of reform, particularly in terms of desegregation

Thurgood Marshall

African American lawyer who was chosen to lead the NAACP legal team to help to desegregate US schools

*First African American supreme court justice*

Brown v. Board of Education

supreme court case that lead to desegregation of public schools

-overturned "separate but equal"

Justice Earl Warren

In the court case of Brown vs. Board of Education he said that there was no place for separate but equal in education

Emmett Till

14 year old boy murdered in Money, Mississippi in 1955

-from Chicago

-accused of whistling at a white woman

-kidnapped at gun point by 2 white men

-beat, mutilated, shot in the head, tied to a cotton gin and thrown into the Tallahatchie River

Mississippi Delta

where Emmett Till was visiting family

Tallahatchie River

the place where Emmett Till's body was found 3 days after he was murdered

open casket funeral

Till's mother had Emmett's funeral like this to draw national attention and solidify support for civil rights in America

-Jet Magazine published photos of his body

Montgomery Bus Boycott

a protest held by African-Americans who boycotted the city bus transit system in order to end racial segregation

Rosa Parks

refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in the front of the bus and was arrested

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

leader of the civil rights movement

-believed in non violence

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, churches link together to inform blacks about changes in the Civil Rights Movement, led by MLK Jr., was a success

Little Rock, Arkansas

where a famous battle over school desegregation took place

Central High School

School in Arkansas: 9 African Americans enrolled here for the fall semester

-there was a racial uproar

-students and parents blocked their entrance into the school

Little Rock Nine

The 9 students who enrolled at Central High School were known as this

Dwight Eisenhower

Sent federal troops to Central High School to force integration for the Little Rock Nine

1 year

how long the federal troops had to escort the Little Rock Nine into Central High School

Governor Faubus

The governor of Arkansas who tried to halt integration by calling in the Arkansas National Guard.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

*First civil rights act since Reconstruction

*Stimulated by Brown v. Board of Edu. of Topeka and civil rights activism

*Created a panel to ensure that voting rights of African Americans were not violated

Student activists

young people in America who knew things needed to change for Blacks in America; enrolled in colleges and universities

Sit in

nonviolent protests in which a person sits and refuses to leave; *food services*

Greensboro, NC

where sit ins first took place

SNCC

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

-goal was to create a grass-roots movement to defeat white racism to obtain equality

Freedom Ride/ Freedom Riders

1961

student activists rode buses through the Southern States that traveled across state boundaries

*interstate transportation

Alabama

whites firebombed buses and attacked freedom riders in _______.

President JFK

advocate for civil rights

-protected freedom riders

James Meredith

attempted to enroll at University of Mississippi with the support of Medgar Evans and NAACP

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 Ku Klux Klan.

Birmingham, Alabama

most segregated city in America

-MLKJ arrested during peaceful protest

O'Connor

ordered police dogs and fire hoses to be cast out on protesters in Birmingham, Alabama

Letter from Birmingham Jail

A letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. after he had been arrested when he took part in a nonviolent march against segregation. He was disappointed more Christians didn't speak out against racism.

"moral issue"

JFK played a role in promoting civil rights for African Americans because America had a _________.

Robert Kennedy

Attorney General

-new possible civil rights legislation

March on Washington

nonviolent protest to put pressure on Congress to pass a new civil rights bill

August 28, 1963

-step of the Lincoln memorial

200,000

_____ demonstrators were at the march on washington

"I have a dream"

speech given by MLKJ during the march on Washington

-forever changed America

Black Church in Birmingham

bombed three months after the march on washington

-killed 4 african american girls

JFK Assassination

killed in Dallas, TX

-major blow to civil rights movement

Lyndon Johnson

successor after JFK was assassinated

passed the civil rights act of 1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

EEOC

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Enforces laws to prevent unfair treatment on the job due to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, or age.

Freedom summer

1964 effort to register African American voters in Mississippi

Murder of three volunteers

murdered in Mississippi killed by the KKK

Fannie Lou Hamer

a SNCC organizer and former sharecropper who had been evicted from her farm after registering to vote & thrown in jail for urging other African Americans to register to vote; helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party & challenged the legality of the segregated Democratic Party at the Democratic Convention

Selma, Alabama

put pressure on the federal government to enact voting rights legislation; protests held here

-Bloody sunday

Edmund Pettus Bridge

bridge that led to Montgomery Alabama

-3 attempts before succeeding

Bloody Sunday

peaceful march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that led to many being hurt

Voting Rights Act of 1965

banned literacy tests and empowered federal government to oversee voter registration

24th Amendment

banned poll taxes

Discrimination and poverty

lead to violent protests in American cities

Watts Riots

riots in LA

-worst race riots in history

-beatings, murders, and theft

-additional riots happened in Newark, NJ and Detroit, MI

Kerner Commission

group set up to investigate the causes of race riots in American cities in the 1960s