1. Civil Rights Movement
How it started, who was involved, who resisted and what were the movements accomplishments 1

2. Review of African American Struggles
Limitations:
Black Codes: restricted the freedoms of former slaves
Jim Crow Laws: segregated the South
Plessy vs. Ferguson: set up de jure segregation in America (“separate but equal”)
Literacy tests, grandfather clause, poll tax and KKK intimidation to disenfranchise AA
Opportunities:
Emancipation Proclamation: freed slaves in the Confederacy
13th Amendment: freed slaves everywhere in US
14th Amendment: gave former slaves citizenship and equal protection under the law
15th: granted former slaves suffrage
Civil Rights Act of 1866
NAACP
Truman integrated the armed forces 2

3. Civil Rights Organizations
C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality): played major role in gaining equality for African Americans
NAACP had been working for equality since the Progressive Era
S.N.C.C. (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee): started in Raleigh, NC and composed of students who supported non-violent tactics
S.C.L.C. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference): set up by Dr. King to teach non- violence 3

4. Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954
Case was introduced by NAACP with Thurgood Marshall on the legal team
Chief Justice at the time was Earl Warren and the Supreme Court unanimously decided that separate was inherently (naturally) unequal ending segregation in public schools
Little Rock Nine: nine African Americans volunteered to enroll in an all white school…governor of Arkansas had National Guard block the students way in
Eventually, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the students to class for a whole year 4

5. Action Montgomery Bus Boycott:
Started after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
African Americans in Montgomery refused to ride the buses and this eventually spread throughout the South
Eventually segregated buses were outlawed
Freedom Rides: African Americans rode buses across the South and defied segregation laws at bus stops…buses were attacked along the way
Greensboro Sit-Ins: nonviolence tactic started when four A&T students refused to leave an all white lunch counter at Woolworth’s 5

6. “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Resistance
James Meredith was 1st African American ever accepted to Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) but the governor tried to prevent his entrance, eventually president Kennedy had to intervene
Governor of Alabama (George Wallace) created the most problems and was quoted as saying….
“Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” 6

7. March on Washington
200,000 demonstrators rallied at the Lincoln Memorial in non-violence
Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” 7

8. Same Goal, Different tactics
Malcolm X
Dr. King
While in prison he converted to the Nation of Islam
Radical
Supported separation of the races
Assassinated in 1965
Non-violent preacher
Accepted by white community
Assassinated in 1968 by James Earl Ray 8

9. Black Power Movement
Started by Stokely Carmichael after James Meredith was shot and left for dead
Often associated with black violence but Carmichael suggested the African American use their economic and political muscles to gain equality 9

10. Militant group of young African Americans promoting self-defense
Black Panthers
Militant group of young African Americans promoting self-defense
not intentionally violent but when met with white resistance situations escalated 10

11. Gains
Civil Rights Act of 1964: banned discrimination in public facilities and employment
24th Amendment: outlawed the poll tax
Voting Rights Acts of 1965: banned the literacy test and any other barrier to voting 11