Unit 2 Civil Rights Movement in USA 李伟荣 湖南大学外国语学院

Abraham Lincoln  Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the US. As President, he issued The Emancipation Proclamation ( 《解放黑 人奴隶宣言》 ) that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy ( 南部邦 联 ).

John F. Kennedy  John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the US. In his Inaugural Address ( 就职演说 ) he said: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation.

Martin Luther King Jr.  Dr. King was a pivotal ( 关键 ) figure in the Civil Rights Movement. His lectures and dialogues stirred ( 激起 ) the concern and sparked the conscience of a generation.  In one of his speeches, he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that... one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with the little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.”

Bobby Kennedy  Bobby Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy, was the brother of President John F. Kennedy. He was appointed attorney general ( 司法部长 ) of the United States in the early 1960s.  In September 1962, Attorney General Kennedy enforced a Federal court order admitting the first African American student — James Meredith — to the University of Mississippi. The riot ( 暴动 ) that had followed Meredith’s registration ( 注册 ) had left two dead and hundreds injured. Robert Kennedy saw voting as the key to racial ( 种族的 ) justice ( 正义 ) and collaborated ( 合作 ) with President Kennedy when he proposed the most far-reaching civil rights statute since Reconstruction, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed after President Kennedy was slain on November 22, 1963.

Timeline of Slavery  1619 — Slaves in Virginia  1705 — Slaves as Property  1775 — American Revolution Began  1776 — Declaration of Independence  1783 — American Revolution Ended  1808 — United States Banned Slave Trade  1860 — Abraham Lincoln Elected  1861~1865 — United States Civil War  1863 — The Emancipation Proclamation  1865 — Slavery Abolished