Martin Luther King and his Impact

 Starts after arrest of Rosa Parks -Was a friend of white liberals -Trained in activism  Boycott of Bus line (90% first day)  Form Montgomery Improvement Association

 Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested as leader  Lasts until  Supreme Court rules bus segregation illegal in Nov.  MIA changes to Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

 King leads SCLC there  Wants confrontation for national attention  Bull Connor, Public Safety Dir., gives it  He wore battle helmet, drove a white tank  King is jailed early on

 Writes Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to white ministers  Thur, , Children march; 700 arrested  Mon, , 2500 arrested, 2000 children  Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs  , Klan rally, King’s hotel bombed

 Kennedy forced to act, makes speech on June 11 th  Leads to March on Washington,  King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech

 1965 Voting Rights Campaign  Dallas Co, Alabama is 57% African American, but only 2% of blacks can vote  March on a Sunday results in police beatings (Bloody Sunday)  Was televised to the country

 The march had been banned by AL governor George Wallace  Following court decision, march is allowed  Marchers go on to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Mississippi: The Most Southern Place on Earth

 NAACP is led by Medgar Evers  Most vocal and visible leader in state  Gunned down in driveway  Killer not convicted until 1990s  Ghosts of Mississippi about this

 Robert Moses starts organizing for SNCC in 1961  Events in McComb, MS shown in “Freedom Song”  SNCC tries to attract more attention with Freedom Summer

 1964 Mississippi Summer Project  Led by Moses and SNCC  Northern White students register blacks to vote  Mississippi calls it “an Invasion”

 During training in OH, three workers reported missing in MS  2 White: Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman  1 Black MS Native: James Chaney

 FBI finally forced to act by Johnson  Bodies found 2 months later in earthen dam  No one found guilty of murders; some for civil rights violations later

Key Legislation and Amendments of Civil Rights Era  Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS (1954) – Rules “Separate but Equal” is unconstitutional in public schools  Civil Rights Act of 1957 – Establishes Civil Rights division in Justice Department  Boynton vs. Virginia (1960) – Bus Integration in Interstate Travel is required

Key Legislation and Amendments of Civil Rights Era  24 th Amendment (1964) – Prohibits Poll Taxes in national elections  Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Desegregation of Public Accommodations, bans discrimination in voting and employment  Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Establishes federal guidelines to be followed in Southern states for voter registration