Freedom Rides and Sit-Ins vocab

Freedom Rides (1961)

Blacks and whites rode buses together through the American south as a political protest against the segregation of interstate transport and its facilities. CORE and SNCC were involved

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

Civil rights organization that organized the first Freedom Ride. Focused on using civil disobedience to incite the government to take action.

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

Civil Rights organization founded by students to harness the momentum of the sit-ins and use non-violent group-led protests.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Civil rights organization founded by MLK to coordinate local organizations and teach leaders to help advance the Civil Rights Movement

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Civil rights organization created in the early 1900s that moved forwards civil rights for all through means of the court.

James Farmer

Civil rights leader who co-founded CORE and led the Freedom Rides

John Lewis

Co-founder of SNCC who helped organize the Freedom Rides

Bayard Rustin

Civil rights leader who advised MLK during the MBB and organized the March on Washington. He also participated in the Journey of Reconciliation

A. Philip Randolph

Organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which was the first African-American labor union.

Medgar Evers

Was the NAACP’s first field secretary and organized protests/voter registration drives.

Sheriff' “Bull” Connor

Politician in Alabama who had extreme segregationist views. He ordered police to attack black protestors with fire hoses and attack dogs. These events were broadcast nationally and outrage emerged.

Greensboro Four

Four young Black students who sat-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter to protest the segregation of the counters.

Sit-ins

A non-violent protest movement in 1960 where blacks would go to segregated lunch counters and sit until they were provided service.