CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (1954-1963)

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1954-1963

Even though Black Americans were granted the rights of U.S. citizens during Reconstruction, racism persisted in the South, Southern states passed "Jim Crow" laws based on the "separate but equal” status of Black Americans established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), this ruling concerned a New Orleans man of mixed heritage who tried to ride the whites-only streetcar & was arrested when The refused to leave. The ruling gave legal license to racial segregation, which separated places in the South by race. Jim Crow restricted Black people to inferior treatment & facilities.

In 1954, the Supreme Court reversed the "separate but equal" doctrine in the Brown v Board of Education which concerned the segregation of schools. This was not honored in the South, and as Southern schools desegregated, Black students had to be escorted to schools.

Civil disobedience began, such as Rosa Parks. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized in response to Parks's arrest was one of the largest mass protests against racial segregation & set the stage for Martin. Luther King, Jr (MLK) to become a leader of the Civil Rights movement. Other tactics of civil disobedience were sit-ins & freedom rides.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized most of these freedom rides, but some were organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On August 28th, 1963, an estimated 250,000 people gathered for the March on Washington. It was here that MLKC gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech”. President John F. Kennedy began to push for legislation that would respond to the concerns of the Civil Rights movement but was assassinated in 1963. Lyndon B. Johnson, his successor, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

After protesters were violently stopped on their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, President Johnson ordered federal protection for a second organized march; the Selma to Montgomery march led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT VOCABULARY

Jim Crow laws- state and local laws ordering racial segregation named

after an insulting slang term

Separate but equal- doctrine that justified the legal status of racial segregation because it did not violate the right to "equal protection of the laws

Plessy v. Ferguson - U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1896 that gave legal status to laws ordering racial segregation.

racial segregation- systematic separation of people by race

Brown v. Board of Education- U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1954 that declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional 

civil disobedience - refusing to obey rules as a form of nonviolent protest. 

Rosa Parks- African-American woman who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus

Montgomery Bus Boycott- mass protest against segregated seating on Montgomery city buses from Dec 5th, 1955 to December 20, 1956

Martin Luther King Jr- organizer who became the most recognizable voice of the Civil Rights movement until his assassination in 1968

Sit-in- occupying a place and refusing to leave as a form of nonviolent protest

Freedom Ride- an interracial group of bus riders who challenged racial segregation on interstate buses.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) - a group founded in 1942 that organized nonviolent protests during the Civil Rights movement

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)- a group formed in 1960 to give younger Black people more of a voice

Selma to Montgomery March- mass protest for voting rights that was met with violence and then reattempted with federal protection

March on Washington - the mass demonstration that occurred in August 1963 when an estimated 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D. C.,

 "I Have a Dream" Speech- memorable speech given by MLK on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington 

Civil Rights Act of 1964- the law that ended discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

Voting Rights Act of 1968-law that outlawed practices that prevented Black Americans from voting

literacy test- test determining one's ability to read & write, required for voting