PJ

The Civil Rights Era

  • Claudette Colvin

    • first african american woman to refuse to give up her seat

    • was not well-known because she was a pregnant teenager, and did not want a bad image

  • Rosa Parks

    • followed in her footsteps nine months later, gaining national attention for her act of defiance

    • arrested

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    • african americans is alabama refusing to take buses

      • walking, biking, taxi…

    • led by baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr

      • followed a non-violent form of protest → key to success of protest

  • The Birmingham Campaign

    • freedom rides → civil rights activist jumping on buses to check if they were desegregated

    • Bull Connor

      • police commissioner of birmingham obtained an injunction barring the protests subsequently raised bail bond for those arrested from $200 to $100

      • on mother’s day, he told all the police to stay home and ordered kkk to shove bus of road while kkk burned the bus and beat those inside

      • used fire hoses and police dogs against a.a.s

    • knee-ins

    • letter from birmingham jail → mlk wrote while in jail

    • children’s crusade

      • took day off school to go on non-violent protest

      • more than 600 arrested

  • March on Washington

    • over 200,000 black and white americans marched down the mall in washington, dc

    • famous speech

      • wasn’t his original one

        • he was not getting the attention he was expecting, so used the “i have a dream” speech

  • Greensboro 4

    • african american college males do to lunch counter, which is for whites-only

    • they refuse to go to blacks corner and instead sit at the counter, initiating a sit-in that challenges segregation laws and sparks a wider movement for civil rights.

    • servers refuse to serve

    • calls cops (bomb threat)

    • this sit-in opens the doors for more sit-ins

    • had to make sure those participating in sit-ins did not react