Civil Rights Movement: study guide with answers

Civil Rights Movement Study Guide

Key Terms:

• Discrimination

the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.

• Segregation

Separating people based on race

• De jure/de facto

De jure: “by law” segregation, legally enforced

De facto: segregation encoded in our systems, under the table

• Civil disobedience

• the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest.

• Black power/nationalism

Black power: movement that advocates for Black rights

Black nationalism: movement that seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity

• Reverse discrimination

Claimed that affirmative action discriminated against white people. 

• Pay equity

the practice of paying employees equally for work of similar value, regardless of their race, gender, or other characteristics

• Affirmative Action

(in the context of the allocation of resources or employment) the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups regarded as disadvantaged or subject to discrimination.

Key People/Groups:

• Martin Luther King Jr.

Advocated for civil disobedience, used non-violence to direct people’s energy towards one goal at a time. His “I have a dream” speech warned against gradualism. 

• Rosa Parks

Refused to move out of her seat in a staged/planned act of civil disobedience. Worked with MLK Jr. and led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Inspired by 15 yr old Claudette Colvin. 

• John Lewis

Civil rights activist and politician who served as a Representative from Georgia starting in 1987. He was a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Freedom Rides. 

• Malcolm X

Leader in the Civil Rights movement, spokesperson for the Nation of Islam until March 1964. He clashed with its leader, Elijah Muhammed, because Muhammed wasn’t really following Islam’s teachings like Malcom X saw them. Allegedly, NoI and NYC police may have been involved in X’s assassination. He believed in self-defense, any-means-necessary action, the possibility of peaceful racial integration, and Black nationalism/self-sufficiency.

• Huey Newton/Bobby Seale

Worked together to create the Ten Point platform, which later became the Black Panthers. It was a party that believed in armed self-defense against police brutality, Black nationalism, and socialism. It organized political activism and community services, especially notable was its legal aid and healthcare. Newton and Seale were later accused of conspiracy and starting riots, and Newton specifically of murder, assault, kidnapping, and drug and weapons charges. 

• Stokely Carmichael

Advocated for Black power and was iffy about integration → believed that in order for integration to work, first the Black community must become self-sufficient so they don’t become reliant on the White community to help them. He saw nonviolence as a tactic, not something to live by. Used riots and nonviolence. He didn’t believe in shifting the Civil Rights movement to pander to White concerns (valid!!). 

• James Meredith

Integrated the University of Mississippi, had to be escorted in by federal marshalls (1962)

• President Truman

Pres. after FDR died in 1945, served until 1949. In 1948, he issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the US armed forces. Established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, which documented widespread discrimination and laid groundwork for future reform. His campaign being pro-civil rights pushed away some of his Southern Democrat voters, who began switching Republican despite the Republican party being the originally anti-slavery party. 

• President Eisenhower (“Ike”)

Conservative on $, liberal on social issues. He tried to balance the budget, push social regulation, new Dept. of Health, education, welfare. However, he tried to avoid the Civil Rights Movement (except for passing Civil Rights Act 1957 and called in the 101st Airborne Division of US Army to protect Little Rock 9) and escalated fear of nuclear fallout on the homefront by encouraging Americans to invest in bomb shelters and telling them they were under the constant threat of Soviet attack.

• President Kennedy

Elected 1960, Johnson as VP, beat Nixon. Won by being pro-civil rights, and still managed to win a lot of the South bc of white southerners’ loyalties to the Dems (this wouldn’t last). Mobilized the National Guard to protect Freedom Riders, worked closely with MLK Jr., and was very helpful in CRM. 

• President Johnson

Signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, helped poor and oppressed people through legislation, lost votes in the South, was pro-Vietnam War → “it’s too dangerous not to go to war”. 

• Black Panthers

It was a party that believed in armed self-defense against police brutality, Black nationalism, and socialism. It organized political activism and community services, especially notable was its legal aid and healthcare.

• CORE

Congress of Racial Equality, it is a civil rights organization that used nonviolent direct action to fight segregation in the US. Founded in 1942 by a group of students in Chicago. It helped organize the Freedom Rides, Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the 1963 March on Washington. 

• NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Works to end discrimination in education, housing, employment, voting, and transportation. Founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington.

• SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They trained students that planned on joining in on peaceful protests and civil disobedience to not physically fight back when attacked and how to safely get through attacks. 

• SCLC

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was a civil rights organization that coordinated nonviolent protests in the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. founded the SCLC in 1957. It believed in confronting segregation with civil dissent and disobedience, and that churches should be involved in political activism. 

Key Events:

• Murder of Emmett Till

Emmett Till was a 14 yr old boy accused of flirting with white woman Carolyn Bryant while she was working in her family’s grocery store in Mississippi, and was then abducted and lynched by the woman’s husband and friends in 1955. He was from Chicago, Illinois, and was murdered in Money, Mississippi. The story of his brutal murder was widely televised, as were the court proceedings. The men were found not guilty, and the prosecuting lawyer for Till’s family was assassinated in his driveway in June 1963. His mother insisted that they have an open casket wake so everyone could see what those white men did to her child. Till’s murder fueled the CRM and became a symbol of the fear Black people had to face daily. 

• Montgomery Bus Boycott

Joann Robinson was accosted by a Montgomery (Montgomery, Alabama) bus driver for sitting closer to the front despite it being practically empty. Other women experienced similar things and wanted change. They were inspired by Rosa Park’s arrest. It was supported by the Montgomery Improvement Association, and it lasted from Dec. 1st, 1955 to Dec. 20th, 1956. Black people in Montgomery bought/used their larger cars and vans to bus each other around on their own schedules for free and the drivers were all volunteers. The US Supreme Court ruled Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional in Nov. 1956. 

• Little Rock 9

Little Rock, Alabama, 1957. Central High School was integrating 9 Black students, but the governor, Orval Faubus, called on the National Guard to bar the school’s entrance so they couldn’t get in. Elizabeth Eckford was, at 15 yrs old, the first to try to enter the school and she tried alone. Eisenhower called in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army to guard the 9 children and bring them in and out of school. There were a total of 1200 paratroopers. Daisy Bates, pres of NAACP Arkansas branch, provided lawyers to support their integration in reaction to governor Faubus. MLK Jr. also wrote to Eisenhower to request the students be assisted in integration. Ernest Green was the 1st Black graduate of Central High School in 1958. Faubus tried to close all public schools in Arkansas to get around integration laws. 

• Woolworth’s Sit In (Greensboro Sit-Ins)

February 1st, 1950 in Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Black students protested at this lunch counter because only White people were allowed the counter seats (not a solid rule, more of an invisible line). They bought school supplies first to point out the hypocrisy of the store taking their money at that register but not at the lunch counter. The original four students were David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, and Joseph McNeil. The students occupied the counter in shifts all day, overwhelming the police department with lots of nonviolent people in the jails. It inspired sit-ins across the country. On July 25, 1960, the company ordered the Greensboro store to give in and all the counters were officially desegregated. The SNCC taught/trained people not to respond to verbal and physical threats/violence. 

• Freedom Rides

1961. CORE sponsored event. Many people of different races and backgrounds rode together on these buses side by side to protest the Jim Crow ideology. It pushed the government to enforce Boynton v Virginia which made segregation unconstitutional. Started in Washington, D.C., and the target ending was New Orleans in Louisiana. Diane Nash led the Nashville sit-ins and helped push for more Freedom Rides. Robert Kennedy (Attorney Gen.) sent the National Guard to rescue MLK Jr. and his congregation in Montgomery, Alabama when they were arrested for participating in the Freedom Rides. This showed the nation that the federal government was willing to support the CRM. Interstate travel was finally truly de-segregated. Flown to New Orleans to finish the Rides. They were bombed in Anniston and rioted against and Birmingham. 

• Children’s March

Located in Birmingham, Alabama, the most racist city in the South. Bull Connor was the Comissioner of Public Saftey with the motto “keep the streets safe” → was very anti-civil rights. On day 2 of the march, he ordered dogs and tanks to be brought out against the child protestors and many were hospitalized. MLK Jr. had tried to organize a protest in Birmingham but everyone was too scared of being lynched to participate. James Bevel helped MLK Jr. He would broadcast music and talk about Civil Rights. Kids joined the movement → started with athlete students being recruited, then they recruited everyone else with their popularity influence. DJ’s talked in code over the radio to signal that it was the day to protest (“D-Day”) → “bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served”. Teachers turned their backs to the students so they could escape school and march, students came from towns up to 18 miles away. MLK Jr. was scared the kids would get hurt protesting and in jail. Police arrested busloads of kids. On day 2, police weren’t peaceful: ordered firemen to open water hoses against the kids, plus Bull Connor’s orders for dogs and tanks. Pres. Kennedy was mad and told MLK Jr. he couldn’t support the protests bc kids were involved. Every child in jail was interrogated. By May 7th, 1963, police gave up and 3000 students took a victory lap. Finally, integration was agreed on and Connor was removed from office. Legally required to integrate. 

• March on Washington

Demanded equal treatment in the workforce regardless of race. 

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a massive civil rights demonstration that took place on August 28, 1963. It was the largest civil rights gathering in the United States at the time. 

• Freedom Summer

AKA Mississippi Summer Project, a 1964 voter registration drive sponsored by CORE and SNCC. Workers included black Mississippians and more than 1000 out-of-state, predominantly white volunteers. The KKK, police, state, and local authorities carried out a series of violent attacks against the activists, including arson, beatings, false arrests and the murders of at least three people. 

The project was run by the local COFO (Council of Federated Organizations), SNCC was the most active member in it. Only registered 1200 African Americans. Freedom Summer deepened the division between people who believed in integration and nonviolence and those who doubted whether racial equality was achievable by peaceful means. 

• Selma

The Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 being passed. The marches took place in Alabama. They were to protest Alabama’s lack of voting access for Black Americans, and their discriminatory practices and groups that made it harder for Black Americans to vote. On Bloody Sunday, March 7 1965, hundreds of people tried to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge but were violently attacked by police, violent citizens, and state troopers. More than 15 marchers were hospitalized. Bloody Sunday was highly televised and the violence towards the peaceful protestors outraged people across the country. 

• Watts Riots → Kerner Commission

August 11th to 17th in 1965, Watts, LA. The riots began because police officers wrongly stopped and beat up two black men they’d pulled over: Marquette and Ronald Frye. There was a large crowd surrounding all of them by the time police arrested the men and their mother. The crowd was furious, so they hurled rocks at officers, cars, and buses. 34 died, 1000+ injured, around 4000 arrested, $340 million in damage. These riots represent the rightful anger and resentment in the black community against the government and police finally bubbling over. The Kerner Commission concluded that the United States was moving toward two separate and unequal societies, one Black and one white. The commission blamed white racism as the cause of violent riots in the 1960s. The commission's report was released in 1968. 

Key Legislation/Supreme Court Decisions:

• Plessy v. Ferguson → Brown v. BOE

May 1954, Supreme Court/Brown v. Topeka, Kansas BOE got rid/overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which was the “separate but equal” ruling. Essentially, segregation was no longer protected by the Constitution. 

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

Prohibited discrimination in all public places, legal integration of schools and public facilities required, illegalized job discrimination, most effective civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Signed into law by Pres. Johnson. 

• Voting Rights Act of 1965

Passed to enforce the 15th Amendment. It banned voting qualifications, prerequisite voting requirements, and it banned not allowing people to vote because of their race. 

• Civil Rights Act of 1968

The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, outlawed discrimination in housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968. 

MLK Jr. was assassinated in this state. 

Memphis, Tennessee. 

Linda Brown of Brown v BOE was born in this state.

Kansas. 

Three Freedom Summer workers were killed by the KKK in this state.

Mississippi. 

The Montgomery Bus Boycott happened in this state. 

Alabama. 

The Children’s March occurred in this state. 

Alabama. 

Emmett Till was murdered in this state. 

Mississippi. 

Emmett Till was from this state. 

Illinois.

The first sit-in happened at this lunch counter in this state.

Woolworth’s (Greensboro), North Carolina. 

The Watts Riots occurred in this state. 

California. 

James Merideth integrated a university in this state. 

Mississippi. 

Bloody Sunday occurred in this state. 

Alabama. 

Freedom Riders started here. 

Washington, D.C.

Freedom Riders were trying to reach this state.

New Orleans, Louisiana. 

The Little Rock 9 integrated Central High School in this state. 

Alabama.