The Civil Rights Movement

Central Idea

• Civil Rights activists protested against segregation in the South and successfully changed laws.

Supreme Court Ruling

• Brown v Board of Education (1954)

  • Declared racial segregation in schools unconstitutional.

  • Weakened legal basis for Jim Crow Laws.

Challenges to Desegregation

• Opposition to Desegregation

  • Southern states defied Supreme Court rulings.

  • National Civil Rights law was lacking.

• Little Rock, Arkansas (1957)

  • Governor Faubus opposed desegregation.

  • President Eisenhower intervened with US Army troops.

Successful Protests

• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

  • Rosa Parks arrested for bus seat refusal.

  • Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr.

• Greensboro Sit-Ins (1960)

  • College students protested at lunch counters.

  • Spread nationwide, leading to desegregation.

• Freedom Rides (1961)

  • Protested segregation on interstate buses.

  • Federal desegregation order issued due to violence.

NAACP

• National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

  • Funded court cases challenging discrimination.