Living in Turmoil: Civil Rights Vocabulary

Freedom Rides

A series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and Whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961

de facto segregation

Segregation by unwritten custom or tradition

Sit-ins

Protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South.

Black Power

A social movement that called for African American power and independence and pride in Black culture

March on Washington

Held in 1963 to show support for the Civil Rights Bill in Congress. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream..." speech. 250,000 people attended the rally

de jure segregation

segregation by law

Civil Rights Act of 1964

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

Southern Cristian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Founded by Martin Luther King and other minister whose purposes was to carry on nonviolent crusades against segregation

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage. Allowed federal officials to register voters.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Student organization whose purpose was coordinate a nonviolent attack on segregation and other forms of racism

Thurgood Marshall

NAACP legal counsel and the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. Argued Brown v Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court

Nation of Islam

A group of militant Black Americans who profess Islamic religious beliefs and advocate independence for Black Americans

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city buses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Rosa Parks

Refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Little Rock Nine

A group of students who were enrolled in Little Rock all white Central High School

Little Rock Crisis

Governor Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. Eisenhower sent in U.S. paratroopers to ensure the students could attend class.

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 defending his actions and methods against those who were criticizing him for pushing too fast

Freedom Summer

Effort to register African American voters in Mississippi

Malcom X

African-American civil rights leader who encouraged violent responses to racial discrimination and for Blacks to separate from whites. Blacks needed to control their own political and economic resources

Selma March

A march that was attempted three times to protest voting rights, with many peaceful demonstrators injured and killed. Led by MLK. Resulted in Voting Rights Act.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

is a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1896 that upheld the rights of states to pass laws allowing or even requiring racial segregation in public and private institutions such as schools, public transportation, restrooms, and restaurants.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Interracial organization founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination and to achieve political and civil rights for African Americans.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

An interracial group founded in 1942 by James Farmer to work against segregation in Northern cities

James Meredith

The first African American student at the University of Mississippi.

I Have a Dream

Given August 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the March on Washington - all men are created equal

Stokely Carmichael

Coined the phrase "black power" and led SNCC away from a nonviolent approach.

Black Panthers

A black political organization that was against peaceful protest and for violence if needed. The organization marked a shift in policy of the black movement, favoring militant ideals rather than peaceful protest. Advocated Black Pride and community development of Black neighborhoods

Civil Rights Act of 1968

A law that banned discrimination in housing (selling or renting)

Affirmative Action

A policy in educational admissions or job hiring that gives special attention or compensatory treatment to traditionally disadvantaged groups in an effort to overcome present effects of past discrimination.

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

Greensboro, NC Sit-ins

Members of the SNCC organized "sit - in" of all-white lunch counters at the Woolworth. Despite white harassment, it eventually led to the desegregation of lunch counters.

Chicago Freedom Movement (1966)

Launched by Martin Luther King. He demanded an end to discrimination by employers & unions, equal access to mortgages, integration of public housing, & construction of low-income housing scattered throughout the region. He failed to make the city an "open city."