United States History Beyond 1920 The Civil Rights Movement

13th Amendment

freed enslaved people

14th Amendment

granted equal protection under the law

15th Amendment

granted the right to vote to African American males

Poll Tax

a fee you had to pay to be able to vote

Alabama Literacy Test

unfair test meant to prevent people from voting

Jim Crow Laws

series of laws passed in the South to create and enforce segregation

Plessey v Ferguson

ruled separate but equal is okay

Brown v Board of Education

overturned Plessey v Ferguson; ruled separate but equal is not okay; declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional

Emmett Till

African American boy from Chicago who was visiting his cousin in Mississippi; accused of offending a white woman and killed by Bryant and Milam, who were found not guilty by an all-white jury

Montgomery Bus Boycotts

refused to ride buses to protest segregated seating; first large-scale demonstration against segregation; Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system

Rosa Parks

African American woman and secretary for the NAACP; was arrested and fined for refusing to giver her seat to a white man

Martin Luther King Junior

led the nonviolent movement; born in Atlanta, Georgia; son of a Baptist minister

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference; organized black churches to conduct nonviolent protests; used media coverage to expose Jim Crow laws

Little Rock Nine

enrolled at a formerly all-white high school

Orval Faubus

called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the school

Ernest Green

first African American student to graduate from Central High

Dwight D. Eisenhower

sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock 9 into the school and have bodyguards the whole year

Greensboro Sit-Ins

staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolsworth's lunch counter and refused to leave after being denied service; movement spread to college towns throughout the South; protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct, or disturbing the peace; lunch counters were eventually integrated

SNCC

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; civil rights group formed to give younger black people/students more of a voice in the civil rights movement; led by Ella Baker

Freedom Rides

May 1961; interstate buses and terminals were still segregated; led by CORE (Congress on Racial Equality) and NAACP (provided bail money)

Violence in Birmingham

goal to integrate downtown businesses by boycotts, sit-ins, and marches; teenagers protested

George Wallace

governor of Alabama; strong segregationist

Eugene “Bull" Connor

commissioner of public safety; turned the firehoses and dogs on the student demonstrators

March on Washington

August 28th 1963; MLK Jr gave his “I Have a Dream" speech