Civil Rights

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization founded in 1957 and led by MLK Jr

De Jure Segregation

Segregation that is written into law

De Facto Segregation

Segregation that is not enforced by law, but by practice like housing systems and social biases

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Led by MLK Jr and Rosa Parks, this boycott lasted from Dec 1, 1955 to Dec 20, 1956. Forced Supreme Court to rule Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional in Nov 1956.

The Black Panthers

Founded in 1966, this party worked to protect Black Americans from police brutality, started social programs, and confronted politicians

Freedom Summer of 1964

Also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, this was a voter registration drive sponsored by civil rights organizations with the goal of registering Black Americans as voters. The KKK, police, and state authorities attacked and murdered at least three people.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Signed into law by LBJ, this was an act to enforce the fifteenth amendment that removed voting qualifications and prerequisites that deny the right of any US citizen to vote because of their race

Selma Campaign

This protest led to Bloody Sunday, where police, state troopers, and citizens violently attacked civil rights marchers trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The protest was against Alabama’s lack of voting access for Black Americans. Pushed Congress to pass Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Children’s March/Birmingham protest 1963

This massive 8 day march was made up of children in the most racist city in the South, where Bull Connor ordered police to sick their dogs on the children and make mass arrests. MLK Jr was in jail at the time, and the children organized through codes sent by radio stations.

March on Washington

MLK Jr’s I have a dream speech, purpose of the march was to demand an end to segregation, fair wages, proper housing, and employment protections.

Roe v Wade

A 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected a woman’s choice to have an abortion, overturned in 2022.

Brown v Board of Education

A 1954 Supreme Court ruling that said racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

United Farm Workers and the grape boycott

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta led this boycott from 1965 to 1970 to support a strike by grape pickers in Delano, California

Effects of the Civil Rights Movement

banned discrimination in public places, public education, and employment, and prohibited race-based restrictions on voting

Stonewall Riot

Riot protecting a gay club for LGBTQ+ rights from police

Capitol Crawl

The 1990 protest for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act where activists abandoned their wheelchairs and crawled up the Capitol’s steps

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Little Rock Nine

The nine Black American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957

Sit-ins

A form of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, used at Greensboro, North Carolina

Urban riots

These broke out after MLK Jr’s assassination

Feminine Mystique

A book by Betty Friedan about how women have been forced into the role of housewife and mother, and talks about sex-based discrimination

Assassination of Dr. King

This civil rights leader was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968