Civil Rights Movement Vocab

Segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court case that formally legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."

Jim Crow Laws

Laws throughout the U.S. designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Civil rights

the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality.

Civil Rights Movement

movement in the United States beginning in the 1960s in an effort to establish the civil rights of Black and other non-white citizens

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision (1896), ruling that "separate but equal" schools for blacks were always unequal and were therefore unconstitutional.

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A talented speaker, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations.

*Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)*

1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means

Claudette Colvin

young woman who at the age of 15, in March 1955, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus (before Rosa Parks)

Boycott

An act of resistance/protest in which people stop purchasing a certain product or stop using a certain service in order to influence change.

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.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

an organization formed in 1960 to coordinate sit-ins and other protests and to give young blacks a larger role in the civil rights movement

Sit-in

A method of protest in which you sit down (in a government building, a restaurant, school, etc) and refuse to move until your voice is heard or your demands are met.

Freedom Riders, 1961

A group of Black and white activists organized by SNCC in order to desegregate interstate travel & transportation in the south.

March on Washington

In August 1963, civil rights leaders organized a massive rally in Washington to urge passage of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. The high point came when MLK Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 marchers in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Black Power

A slogan signifying that Black Americans should be in control of their communities & lives, + should be proud of their identities.

Black Panther Party

A group formed in 1966, inspired by the idea of Black Power, that provided aid & services to black neighborhoods & rejected MLK's nonviolent philosophy.

Malcolm X

A Civil Rights leader who rejected MLK's nonviolent philosophy of change and felt that Black people needed to physically defend themselves & to fight back against racism more forcefully.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A federal law created as a response to pressure from civil rights activists. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin (including in matters of hiring, promoting, and firing in jobs).

Suffrage/ franchise

the right to vote

Disenfranchisement

Condition of being deprived of the right to vote

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A federal law created as a response to pressure from civil rights activists. It was designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage (voting).

*Fanie Lou Hamer*

A delegate sent to the 1964 Democratic National Convention from Mississippi; as a farmer on a cotton plantation was fired when attempting to vote; noted for voter registration drives

Ella Baker

Known as the "mother of the Civil Rights Movement" & leader of the SCLC. She urged student sit-in leaders to create their own organization (SNCC - Student Nonviolent Cooperating Committee)

activism

The practice of pursuing political or social goals through sustained action, often including protests and demonstrations

Integration/de-segregation

the act of uniting or bringing together, especially people of different races

non-violent resistance

Strategies of protesting that do not use violence, such as civil disobedience, boycotts, marching, making speeches/writing, sit-ins, etc. One does not physically fight back if attacked.

Civil Disobedience

A form of political participation that reflects a conscious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences.

President John F. Kennedy (JFK)

The 35th president of the U.S. He proposed a comprehensive Civil Rights bill to Congress which started the process of Congress passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ)

Took over presidency after JFK was assassinated, making him the 36th president. He signed the Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act into law.

Stokely Carmichael

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

*COINTELPRO*

An FBI spying program 1956-1971 that sought to expose, interfere with, and discredit groups and activists that were considered to be disruptive to U.S. society.

Mississippi Summer Project, 1964

A campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which up to that time had almost totally excluded black voters. Led to the murder of two white and one black activist who were registering black voters (Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman).

*Little Rock 9*

A group of nine African American students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, facing significant opposition and hostility.

N.A.A.C.P.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909, is a civil rights organization that fights for the rights of African Americans and seeks to eliminate racial discrimination.

President Harry Truman

The 33rd President of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. He is known for his desegregation of the armed forces and support of civil rights initiatives.

Literacy test

A method used to disenfranchise African American voters by requiring them to demonstrate reading and writing skills, often applied subjectively.

*Poll tax*

A fee required to vote, often used to restrict voting rights for African Americans and poor people, effectively disenfranchising them.

Ruby Bridges

An African American civil rights activist known for being the first black child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South, specifically in New Orleans in 1960.

*Browder v Gayle*

A landmark Supreme Court case in 1956 that ruled segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, was unconstitutional, leading to the end of bus segregation.