Key Figures in the Civil Rights Movement

These flashcards cover key figures in the civil rights movement and their contributions, significance, and the events surrounding them.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leader advocating nonviolence, led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, March on Washington; inspired change with his 'I Have a Dream' speech. Assassinated 1968.

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP lawyer who won Brown v. Board of Education (1954), ending school segregation; first Black Supreme Court Justice (1967), championed civil rights and equality.

Earl Warren

Chief Justice (1953-1969) leading liberal Warren Court; expanded civil rights, criminal rights, and school desegregation through Brown v. Board.

Rosa Parks

Refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, helping initiate the modern civil rights movement.

Orval Faubus

Arkansas governor who blocked Little Rock Nine (1957); symbolized Southern resistance to integration.

President Eisenhower

Supported Civil Rights Act (1957), sent troops to protect Little Rock Nine, enforced school desegregation.

John Lewis

SNCC leader, led Selma’s 'Bloody Sunday' march (1965); later served in Congress advocating civil rights.

Bayard Rustin

Key strategist of the civil rights movement, organized 1963 March on Washington; influenced MLK’s nonviolent activism.

W.E.B. Du Bois

NAACP co-founder, opposed Booker T. Washington’s gradualism, advocated immediate equality.

Booker T. Washington

Promoted Black economic self-reliance through vocational education, urged accommodation to segregation.

Marcus Garvey

Advocated Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and economic self-sufficiency through the UNIA.

Ella Baker

Influential behind-the-scenes organizer in NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC, emphasizing grassroots activism.

Robert Moses

SNCC organizer, led Freedom Summer (1964) to register Black voters in Mississippi.

James Meredith

First Black student at the University of Mississippi (1962); required federal troops for protection.

Emmett Till

14-year-old murdered in 1955 Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman; his murder galvanized the civil rights movement.

John F. Kennedy

Pushed civil rights legislation, enforced desegregation, managed Cold War crises.

Robert Kennedy

Attorney General under JFK, supported civil rights and voting rights; assassinated in 1968.

Eugene 'Bull' Connor

Birmingham’s racist police commissioner; his violent repression of protests (1963) shocked the nation.

Medgar Evers

NAACP field secretary investigating racial violence; assassinated in 1963.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Signed Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965), expanded Vietnam War.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Mississippi sharecropper turned SNCC activist, known for her powerful speeches against voter suppression.

Malcolm X

Black nationalist, leader of the Nation of Islam; advocated self-defense and was assassinated in 1965.

Elijah Muhammad

Leader of the Nation of Islam; expanded its influence and mentored Malcolm X.

Stokely Carmichael

SNCC leader who popularized 'Black Power', rejecting nonviolence.

Shirley Chisholm

First Black congresswoman (1968), first Black woman to run for president (1972); advocated for women's rights.

Betty Friedan

Wrote 'The Feminine Mystique' (1963), co-founded NOW, sparking second-wave feminism.

Cesar Chavez

Labor leader, co-founded United Farm Workers (UFW); led nonviolent protests for farmworkers' rights.

Dolores Huerta

Co-founded UFW, coined 'Sí se puede', led strikes for labor and women's rights.