Chapter 33 - The Civil Rights Movement

Segregation

• The belief that African Americans and whites shouldn’t share the same facilities
• Enforced by Jim Crow laws
• ^^1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that “separate but equal” was acceptable, indirectly allowing segregation^^
• 1971 - The Supreme Court banned all segregation

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Little Rock, Arkansas

• 1957
• Nine African American students attended an all-white high school
• They were protected by the US Army against white violence and disagreement with them attending the school
• Became the center of the struggle to desegregate public schools in the United States, especially in the South

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Emmett Till

• ^^1955 - A 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store^^
• His white murderers were found innocent
• Was the event that started the civil rights movement

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Rosa Parks

• Founded the NAACP
• 1955 - Rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the "colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "White" section was filled
• Started the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

• 1956
• Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first leadership role
• ^^A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama^^
• African Americans walked or carpooled instead of using the buses
• The Supreme Court eventually ended bus segregation

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

• An important leader of the SCLC
• Believed in non-violent resistance championed by Henry David Thoreau
• Wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• Gave the famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington
• 1965 - Led the civil rights march in Selma

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The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• 1957
• ^^Used to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South^^
• Used nonviolent resistance to protest
• Advocacy of boycotts and other forms of nonviolent protest was controversial among both whites and blacks

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• 1909
• Fought for African American equality and to end racial prejudice
• Became targets of the KKK, who were angry that they were protesting
• Lobbied the government for civil rights legislation

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Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• 1942
• ^^Pioneered the use of nonviolent direct action in America’s civil rights struggle^^
• Used direct protest tactics
• Provided advice and support to Martin Luther King during the Montgomery bus boycott
• Organized the Journey of Reconciliation, a multi-state integrated bus ride through the upper South in order to test the previous year’s Supreme Court ruling against segregation in interstate travel

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Sit-Ins

• 1960
• In protest, African Americans would sit down at white lunch counters and refuse to leave
• A form of nonviolent protest, employed during the 1960s in the civil rights movement and later in the movement against the Vietnam War
• Aroused sympathy for the demonstrators among moderates and uninvolved individuals
• Used as the main strategy of African American youth revolts

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Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• 1961
• The youth version of the SCLC
• Used non-violent protest tactics
• Participated in sit-ins to protest racial segregation
• ^^Played an integral role in the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and such voter education projects as the Mississippi Freedom Summer^^
• Led by John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael

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James Meredith

• 1962 - Became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi
  • State officials, initially refusing a U.S. Supreme Court order to integrate the school, blocked Meredith’s entrance
  • Following large campus riots that left two people dead, Meredith was admitted to the university under the protection of federal marshals
• Began a solitary protest march, which he called the March Against Fear, from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, when he was shot by a sniper

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Freedom Rides

• 1963
• ^^A series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South^^
• Challenged segregation and the separation of Blacks and whites on busses
• Exposed the injustices of the South

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Medgar Evers

• An American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi
• Led voter registration drives and promoted African American boycotts
• Engaged in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities for African Americans
• Eventually assassinated by a white supremacist

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Birmingham, Alabama

• Nicknamed “Bombingham”
• ^^Activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched one of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement: Project C, better known as The Birmingham Campaign^^
• Featured MLK writing his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• White police officers used police dogs and high pressure hoses to disperse African American protests

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March on Washington

• 1963
• A massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• MLK gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech
• Aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation
• 1964 - The Civil Rights Act was eventually passed

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Voting Rights Act

• 1965 - Passed by Lyndon B. Johnson
• ^^Removed barriers to vote and gave African Americans more opportunities to vote^^
• Voting registration would be supervised, especially in the South, to ensure that African Americans weren’t purposely left out
• The most significant statutory change in the relationship between the federal and state governments in the area of voting since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War; and it was immediately challenged in the courts

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Twenty-Fourth Amendment

• 1964
• Abolished the use of poll taxes in national elections

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Freedom Schools

• 1963
• ^^Temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South^^
• Used to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States
• Taught African American history and encouraged non-violent protests
• Targets of the KKK and frequent bombings

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Selma, Alabama

• 1965 - White policemen violently dispersed a SNCC riot using tear gas
• In an effort to register Black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups
• Raised awareness of the difficulties faced by Black voters, and the need for a national Voting Rights Act

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Malcolm X

• ^^An African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement^^
• A vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community
• Believed the civil rights movement should be violent
• Eventually assassinated

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Stokely Carmichael

• A prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement
• A key leader in the development of the Black Power movement, first while leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• One of the original SNCC freedom riders of 1961

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Black Power

• ^^Emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions^^
• Advocated for militancy and racial separation
• Focused on expressing African American heritage

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Black Panthers

• 1967
• Were a militant civil rights organization which frequently got into shoot-outs with the police
  • An ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality
• Broke from the integrationist goals and nonviolent protest tactics of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Shunned by many non-violent civil rights leaders

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BIG PICTURE

• AA activists → Civil Rights Movement
• Civil rights associations - Protests + mobilize communities
• Non-violent protest - Voter registration + desegregation
• White supremacist campaigns
• Militant activism - “Black Power” + “black nationalism”

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