Civil Rights Movement

People

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Originally a preacher for a Christian church.

  • Nonviolent Philosophy

  • Helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • Became a face of the Civil Rights Movement.

    • Feature on TIME magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1963, and in 1957 for his actions in the Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • Gave various famous speeches, such as "I Have a Dream" and “Letters from Birmingham Jail” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”


Malcolm X

  • Was imprisoned

  • Joined the Nation of Islam, which combined Black nationalism with the Islamic Faith

    • Promoted the Idea of Black Self Defence

  • Encouraged followers to achieve power by “Any Means Necessary”

    • A key speech is the ballot or the bullet

  • Believed that black Americans should all register to vote to gain power within the government

    • Started a voters registration drive in Harlem

  • Split from the Nation of Islam after a controversial comment when JFK was assassinated

    • “The chickens have come to roost”

  • Key member of the civil rights movement

  • Critiqued the Nonviolent protests

  • Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam


John F. Kennedy

  • President of the United States 

  • Believed that the civil rights were a “moral issue”

    • Progressive president believing that change had to occur

  • Proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Assassinated in 1963


Lyndon B. Johnson

  • Vice President of JFK, becoming president after his assassination

  • Supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signing it into law after JFK’s death

  • Proposed and supported the Voting Acts of 1965, playing a crucial role in it’s passing through congress

    • Gave a speech to congress called “Voting Rights and the American Promise” in 1965.

  • Was a teacher within the South (Cotulla, Texas) 


Rosa Parks

  • Helped initiate the civil rights movement after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955

    • Boycott lasted for over a year, until courts ruled bus segregation was unconstitutional 

  • Did not refuse to give up her seat because she was tired, but refused because she wanted to fight segregation


Thurgood Marshall

  • Lawyer within the NAACP

  • Became the chief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1940

    • Predecessor was Charles Hamiliton Houston

  • Helped win many historical cases such as Murray v. Maryland, Gaines v. Missouri, Sweat v. Painter, McLaurin v. Oklahoma State, and Brown v. Board of Education

    • Helped overturn Plessy v. Ferguson


Groups

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

  • Founded in 1909

    • Founded in response to a wave of anti-black violence in 1908

  • Supported the civil rights movement through many important legal cases such as Brown v. Board of Education.

  • Helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

  • Originated due to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the role played by African American ministers

    • Ministers such as MLK, and Reverend Ralph David Abernathy

  • Was the forefront of many protests, providing leaders with churches to be used build up the civil rights movement

  • Trained many leaders and activists in the philosophy of Christian Non-violent resistance.

  • Operated a leadership training and citizenship school in Midway, Georgia

    • This is where the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, campaign was planned

  • Filled class action lawsuits against local governments for maintaining segregated public facilities

  • Conducted voting drives

  • Organized Boycotts against segregated stores

  • Played important roles in the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965

  • Helped desegregate schools after the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

  • Grassroots organization established in 1960 due to college student lunch counter sit-ins

  • Leading force for voter registration in the rural South

    • Rural south had not yet been targeted by other civil rights organizations

  • Originally started as “youth wing” of the SCLC, but due to the actions of Ella Baker (who believed the civil rights movement should be led by the youth) became an independent organization.

  • Believed in Nonviolent forms of protest

Nation of Islam (NOI)

  • Founded by Wallace D Fard

    • Taken over soon after by Elijah Muhammad

  • Focused on Africanism, African identity, and Black Nationalism

  • Desired racial separation, economic self-reliance, and self-governance.

  • Important force in the civil rights movement, especially in urban areas of the North.

  • Founded private schools to educate young African Americans in the teachings of the NOI

  • Malcom X was a major character within the NOI

    • Caused a surge in popularity during time as a minister and principal spokesperson.

  • Advocated forceful self defense.


Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)

  • Established in 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.

  • Lead by MLK, non-violent philosophy

  • Organized and orchestrated the Montgomery Bus Boycotts

  • Focused national attention on racial segregation in the South

  • Resulted MLK becoming a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and the desegregation of buses.


Terms

Interposition 

  • A constitutional tool used in the civil rights movement to protest federal actions that states considered unconstitutional.

    • Interposition is a state's formal protest against a federal action that it believes is unconstitutional. It's based on the idea that the states are sovereign and have the right to "interpose" themselves between the federal government and the people of the state.

    • An example of interposition is the Virginia Massive Resistance, where following Brown v. Board of Education Virginia “interposed” themselves and decided not to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling to prevent desegregation.

Civil Disobedience

  • A form of political protest in which individuals purposefully break laws in order to express their discontent

    • The Greensboro sit-in in 1960 and the Freedom Rides in 1961 were both examples of civil disobedience in the civil rights movement.

Segregation (de facto & de jure)

  • "De jure" segregation refers to segregation enforced by law, meaning it is legally mandated separation of groups,

    • Examples include Jim Crow Laws

    • “De Jure” means “by law”

  • "De facto" segregation refers to segregation that exists in practice even without a legal requirement, often arising from social patterns or personal choices.

    • Example: A predominantly Black neighborhood leading to a mostly Black student body in a nearby school, even if there is no law requiring segregation

Jim Crow

  • A term used to refer to laws that segregated African Americans from most public facilities, forbid interracial marriages, and separated schools and business.

    • Many “Whites only” or “Colored” signs were used to remind individuals of Jim Crow laws.

  • Was upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896

  • Was considered unconstitutional by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Grass roots

  • Grassroots activism is used to refer to ordinary individuals take collective action to advocate for a change

    • Some famous examples of grassroots activism include: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, Selma, Alabama, March, and the Birmingham Campaign

    • Some influential grassroots organizations include the SCLC and the SNCC.

Boycott

  • Term used to describe a collective non-violent protest against something by refusing to interact with it.

    • Example is the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, as many people refused to use the buses until change occurred.

Sit-in

  • Term used to describe when individuals occupy a location as a form of protest

    • Example: Black college students sitting at white lunch counters taking up seats to protest against segregation.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Law proposed by JFK and signed by Lyndon B Johnson

  • Outlawed discrimination in hiring, promoting, and firing based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

  • Outlawed segregation in public places like restaurants, hotels, theaters, swimming pools, and libraries.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • Caused by “The murder of voting-rights activists in Mississippi and the attack by white state troopers on peaceful marchers in Selma, Alabama,”

    • Led to President Lyndon B. Johnson to create new legislation on national voting rights

  • Enforced the 15th amendment

  • Law proposed and signed by Lyndon B. Johnson

  • Outlawed discriminatory practices within polling places, such as having literacy tests.

  • Outlawed intimidation and physical violence towards anyone who attempted to vote

24th Amendment

  • Eliminated poll taxes within federal elections