Civil Rights Movement

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP):

Founded in 1909 to combat racial discrimination and segregation through legal challenges, political advocacy, and publications.

W.E.B. Du Bois:

Co-founder of the NAACP, editor of The Crisis, and advocate for the 'Talented Tenth' leadership class.

Ida B. Wells:

Journalist and activist who led anti-lynching campaigns and co-founded the NAACP.

William Pickens:

NAACP leader, field secretary, and influential public speaker.

Mary Ovington:

White reformer, suffragist, and co-founder of the NAACP.

Joel Spingarn:

Early NAACP board chairman; promoted interracial cooperation.

The Garland Fund (American Fund for Public Service):

Progressive foundation that financed early NAACP legal battles.

Nathan Margold:

Lawyer who authored the Margold Report (1931), outlining the NAACP's legal strategy against segregated education.

Charles Hamilton Houston:

NAACP legal director, mentor to Thurgood Marshall; called 'The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.'

Thurgood Marshall:

NAACP lawyer who argued Brown v. Board; first Black Supreme Court Justice.

Carter Wesley:

Civil rights activist and publisher of the Houston Informer newspaper.

James Weldon Johnson:

NAACP leader, diplomat, and author of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.'

Walter White:

Executive secretary of the NAACP, exposed lynchings and racial violence.

Roy Wilkins:

NAACP leader after White; promoted legal and legislative strategies.

Ella Baker:

Grassroots organizer in the NAACP and later SNCC, emphasized community leadership.

Smith v. Allwright (1944):

Supreme Court case outlawing white-only primaries in Texas.

Sweatt v. Painter (1950):

Supreme Court case requiring admission of Heman Sweatt to UT Law School, challenging 'separate but equal.'

Brown v. Board of Education (1954):

Landmark Supreme Court case declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

National Urban League (NUL):

Founded in 1910 to support Black migration to cities and promote jobs and housing equality.

George Haynes:

Co-founder of the NUL, focused on economic opportunities.

Eugene Kinkle Jones:

Early leader of the NUL.

Opportunity Magazine:

NUL publication promoting Black writers during the Harlem Renaissance.

Lester Granger:

NUL leader during WWII; fought for fair employment practices.

Executive Order 9981 (1948):

Truman's order desegregating the U.S. armed forces.

Whitney M. Young Jr.:

NUL director in the 1960s, promoted social programs and the War on Poverty.

Rev. William DeBerry:

Springfield pastor and activist linked to NUL programs.

Camp Atwater:

Youth summer camp founded in 1921 for African American children in Massachusetts.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP):

First successful Black labor union, founded by A. Philip Randolph in 1925.

A. Philip Randolph:

Founder of BSCP, key civil rights and labor leader.

March on Washington Movement (MOWM, 1941):

Randolph's campaign threatening mass protest, pressured FDR to issue EO 8802.

Executive Order 8802 (1941):

Banned racial discrimination in defense industries.

Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC):

Government body created to enforce EO 8802.

Negro American Labor Council (NALC):

Founded in 1960 by Randolph to fight racial discrimination in labor unions.

African Blood Brotherhood (ABB):

1920s radical Black liberation and Marxist-influenced group.

James Hemanway Morton:

Houston-based activist involved in labor and community leadership.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE):

Founded in 1942, pioneered sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and nonviolent direct action.

James Farmer:

Founder of CORE and key Freedom Rides leader.

Bayard Rustin:

CORE strategist, focused on non-violent protest, later organized the 1963 March on Washington.

Direct-action protest:

Nonviolent confrontations such as sit-ins, boycotts, marches.

Journey of Reconciliation (1947):

First Freedom Ride testing interstate bus desegregation laws.

Non-violent civil disobedience:

Gandhian strategy adopted by CORE and later MLK.

Organization of Afro-American Unity

black nationalist organization founded in 1964 by Malcolm X. Modeled on the Organization of African Unity, its purpose was to fight for the human rights of African Americans and promote cooperation among Africans and Afro-Americans in the Americas.

Booker T. Washington

African American progressive who supported segregation, believed in an accomodationist approach that contrasted with W.E.B. Dubois

Heman Sweatt

Plaintiff in Sweatt v. Painter (1950), challenged UT law school segregation.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Established separate but equal

Interracial Coalition

Alliance of black and white activists in South.

Civil Libertarianism

Emphasis on protecting individual rights and freedoms (speech, due process) as part of civil rights struggle.

Militant Race Consciousness

Strong awareness of racial identity and the need for assertive defense of rights.

Militant Class Consciousness

Linking racial struggles with working-class and labor movements.

Accommodationism

Strategy popularized by Booker T. Washington, for achieving black progress through vocational/industrial training and an acceptance of the racial status quo, including segregation.

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56)

Sparked by Rosa Parks, propelled MLK to leadership.

Little Rock Crisis (1957)

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.

Sit-in Movement (1960)

Begins with 4 black college students in NC attempting to get served at a "whites only" diner.

Freedom Rides (1961)

Whites and Blacks ride the bus across the South to protest segregation and promote civil rights.

Birmingham Campaign (1963)

Movement organized for a nonviolent protest by Southern African Americans, but were arrested, hosed down, and attacked by police dogs.

March on Washington (1963)

a large political rally where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

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

Voting Rights Act of 1965

a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African-American suffrage

Meredith March (1966)

James Meredith's march, SNCC's Stokely Carmichael popularized "Black Power."

MLK assassination

Sparked uprisings nationwide; Poor People's Campaign unfinished.

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) 1967

Allowed public access to government records, later exposing COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program).

Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO)

The FBI program involved methods of espionage, infiltration, framing, and targeted killings of Black Panthers during a time of heightened fears of revolutionary violence in the late 1960s.

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