Ch 16

Grassroots Activism

Community-driven efforts to achieve social or political change, central to the 1950s-1960s civil rights movement.

Walter White

NAACP leader (1931-1955) who fought for anti-lynching laws and civil rights advancements.

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP lawyer who argued Brown v. Board and became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

Bayard Rustin

A civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocating nonviolent resistance.

James Farmer

Founder of CORE, leading nonviolent protests like Freedom Rides to challenge segregation.

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality, a civil rights group using nonviolent tactics like sit-ins to fight segregation.

Mary Church Terrell

An African American activist who fought for women's suffrage and civil rights in the early 20th century.

PCCR

President's Committee on Civil Rights, formed in 1946 to investigate and recommend civil rights reforms.

William H. Johnson

An African American artist whose work depicted Black life and culture, influential in the Harlem Renaissance.

Billie Holiday

A jazz singer whose song "Strange Fruit" protested lynching and racial injustice in the 1930s-1940s.

Odetta

A folk singer whose music inspired the civil rights movement, performing at protests and rallies.

Bob Dylan

A folk musician whose 1960s protest songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" became civil rights anthems.

James Baldwin

An African American writer whose works like The Fire Next Time explored race and identity in America.

Dehumanized

The act of denying human dignity, often used to describe the effects of racism and segregation.

William Hastie

The first African American federal judge, appointed in 1937, advocating for civil rights.

Mendez v. Westminster

A 1947 case ending segregation in California schools for Mexican Americans, a precursor to Brown v. Board.

Sweatt v. Painter

A 1950 Supreme Court case ruling that segregated law schools for African Americans were unequal.

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

A 1950 case striking down segregation within a university, advancing equal education rights.

Integrated

The process of ending racial segregation, allowing mixed-race access to schools, facilities, and services.

Brown v. Board of Education

A 1954 Supreme Court ruling declaring school segregation unconstitutional, overturning "separate but equal."

Earl Warren

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-1969) who led liberal rulings like Brown v. Board.

Desegregation

The process of ending racial segregation, especially in schools and public facilities, post-Brown.

Little Rock Nine

Nine African American students who integrated Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, facing resistance.

Civil Rights Act of 1957 & 1960

Laws strengthening voting rights protections, though limited in impact, marking early federal civil rights efforts.

Rosa Parks

An African American woman whose 1955 refusal to give up her bus seat sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Civil Disobedience

Nonviolent resistance to unjust laws, used by civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr.

Jo Ann Robinson

A leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, organizing the Women's Political Council to fight bus segregation.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A 1955-1956 protest against bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, led by African American activists.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leader advocating nonviolent resistance, famous for 'I Have a Dream' speech and SCLC leadership.

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded in 1957 by MLK to coordinate nonviolent civil rights actions.

Mohandas Gandhi

Indian leader whose nonviolent resistance inspired U.S. civil rights activists like MLK.

Sit-ins

Nonviolent protests where activists occupied segregated spaces, like lunch counters, to demand integration.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a 1960s group organizing sit-ins and voter registration drives.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

A 1964 group challenging Mississippi's segregated Democratic Party, advocating for Black voting rights.

Freedom Riders

Activists who rode buses in 1961 to challenge segregated interstate travel, facing violence in the South.

Robert F. Kennedy

U.S. Attorney General and later senator who supported civil rights, including protecting Freedom Riders.

Eugene T. 'Bull' Connor

Birmingham official who used violence against civil rights protesters, drawing national attention in 1963.

Solitary Confinement

Isolation used to punish civil rights activists in jail, highlighting the brutality they faced.

George Wallace

Alabama governor who opposed integration, famously blocking a university doorway in 1963.

Medgar Evers

NAACP leader in Mississippi, assassinated in 1963 for his civil rights activism.

March on Washington

A 1963 rally where MLK delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech, demanding civil rights and equality.

Voter Registration Drive

1960s efforts to register African American voters in the South, often met with violence and intimidation.

Freedom Summer

A 1964 campaign to register Black voters in Mississippi, led by SNCC and CORE, facing violent opposition.