Studied by 676 people
Civil Rights
Political and social freedom and equality
Jim Crow laws
Enacted by Southern states and local governments to separate white and black people in public and private facilities. De Jure Segregation.
Public accommodations
Facilities which are open to the public. Examples include hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, places involved with interstate travel
Desegregation/integration
The elimination of laws under which people from different religions, ancestries, races, ethnic groups, etc., are restricted to specific or separate public facilities, neighborhoods, schools, organizations, etc.
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
An organization founded in 1909 to promote full racial equality. Used the legal system to fight against lynching and other racial injustices.
Little Rock Nine
A group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Rosa Parks
The NAACP secretary of the Montgomery chapter of who refused to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger in order to challenge bus segregation. The action became the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Freedom Riders
Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years in order to challenge segregation on interstate facilities. Their buses were attacked and firebombed. The result: the Interstate Commerce Commission enforced that passengers were permitted to sit wherever they pleased on interstate buses and trains; "white" and "colored" signs were removed from the terminals.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. He was assassinated in 1968.
March on Washington
August 28, 1963. One of the largest political rallies for human rights in U.S. history and demanded civil and economic rights for African Americans when thousands of Americans joined to listen to speeches demanding the passage of a civil rights bill. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Law that banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion in public places and most workplaces. Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson.
Freedom Summer
A 1964 project to register African-American voters in Mississippi.
Selma Campaign
A series of marches that were organized by activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Only 3% of eligible African Americans were registered to vote there so it was believed to be a strategic location to push for equality in voting. Culminated in attacks on marchers on "Bloody Sunday" and later a successful, peaceful march.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A law that made it easier for African Americans to register to vote by eliminating discriminatory literacy tests and authorizing federal examiners to enroll voters denied at the local level. Signed by LBJ after the Selma campaign.
Malcolm X
An African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who criticized white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in 1963.
Stokely Carmichael
An activist who eventually become active in the Black Power movement, first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), later as the a leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Popularized the term "Black Power".
Black Panthers
A militant African-Ameican political organization formed in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobbly Seale to fight police brutality and to provide services in the ghetto.
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Law that banned discrimination in housing.
Segregation
The separation of people on the basis of race.
Plessy vs. Ferguson
An 1896 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that separation of the races in public accommodations was legal, thus establishing the "separate but equal" doctrine. Legally created segregation.
Brown vs. Board of Education
A 1954 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" education for black and white students was unconstitutional. Reversed Plessy vs. Ferguson
Thurgood Marshall
Was instrumental in ending legal segregation and became the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. The great achievement of his career as a civil-rights lawyer was his victory in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Emmett Till
An African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. His murder is noted as a pivotal catalyst (an event that prompts a change to happen) to the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans boycotted the bus system in 1957 to protest unjust segregation and the following year the Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC in conjunction with the NAACP.
James Meredith
A Civil Rights Movement figure, writer, political adviser and Air Force veteran. In 1962, he became the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, after the intervention of the federal government.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
A organization formed in 1960 to coordinate sit-ins and other protests and to give young blacks a larger role in the civil rights movement.
Black Power
A slogan that encouraged African-American pride and political and social leadership.
De facto segregation
Racial separation established by practice and custom, not by law.
De jure segregation
Racial separation established by law.
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Law that banned discrimination in housing.
James Meredith
United States civil rights leader whose college registration at Ole Miss caused riots in traditionally segregated Mississippi.
Letter from a 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 disappointed more White Christian Leaders didn't speak out against racism.
John F. Kennedy
President during part of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. Assassinated November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
Robert F. Kennedy
He ran for President in 1968; stirred a positive response from workers, African Americans, Hispanics, and younger Americans; would have captured Democratic nomination but was assassinated in California in June 1968.
The Children's Crusade in Birmingham
African American Children led a nonviolent protest in Birmingham. Police attacked the children and arrested over 1000. Eventually led to desegregation of the city, although violence continued.
13th Amendment
Amendment abolishing and continually prohibiting slavery. With limited exception, such as those guilty of committing a crime, it also prevents indentured servitude.
14th Amendment
Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws regardless of race
15 Amendment
Voting rights (suffrage) for African American males granted officially in 1868 nationwide.
Fannie Lou Hamer
American voting rights activist. Organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer for SNCC.
Mahalia Jackson
gospel singer (1911-1972); popularized gospel music; a trusted adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. and sang at many Civil Rights rallies.
Bull Connor
Racist Police official of Birmingham and supported racial segregation.
Medgar Evars
NAACP official whose efforts helped desegregate the University of Mississippi. Murdered
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means. Led boycotts and used Christian ideals to appeal to citizens and politicians for change.
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (1960)
student-created & led civil right organization that worked for desegregation through sit-ins, freedom rides, & civil disobedience.
John Lewis
student leader of SNCC who organized sit-ins, spoke in Washington, & marched in Selma. Current Congressman from Georgia.
Edmund Pettus Bridge (Bloody Sunday)
A Bridge where local law enforcement and anti-segregationists attacked marchers on their way to the Alabama State Capitol in the Selma-Montgomery March
Crisis in Little Rock
Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas was forced to integrate in 1957, however, they were resistant in letting 9 African American students attend the school, so President Eisenhower sent sent in Federal troops to help with school attendance and integration. The school was closed at the end of the year.
W.E.B. DuBois
Co-founded the NAACP to help secure legal equality for minority citizens.
Booker T. Washington
Prominent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society, was head of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. His book "Up from Slavery."
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 disappointed more Christians didn't speak out against racism and encouraged white religious leaders to stand up against injustice.
Note
Flashcard