1. Please have your mini- poster on your desk and a writing utensil for notes! That is all!!!

2. Civil Rights Movement
Post WWII America experienced social and political movements resulting in federal legislation ensuring equal rights for African Americans.

3. “Non-violence works best when resistance and suffering is witnessed by many people.” - Gandhi

4. Brown v. Board of Education

5. Brown v. Board of Education
Video
Claimed separate facilities were inherently unequal
Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas: Governor calls forces to block black students’ entry
Little Rock Nine: President Eisenhower sends troops to escort 9 black students (1957)

6. Brown v. Board of Education
In a series of cases collectively identified as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court ruled that
“….any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Brown v. BOE overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (????)
It violated the 14th Amendment.

8. Civil Disobedience…Nonviolent Protest
The active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power

9. SNCC

10. SNCC Video *Sit-ins video *Freedom Rides video *
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
College age students organizing civil disobedience/non-violent resistance
Sit-ins, freedom rides
Goal: grassroots movement that involved all classes of African Americans to defeat racism and obtain equlaity

11. Jackie Robinson

12. Jackie Robinson
His number 42 has been retired for all MLB teams!!
Video
•Joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947
• The Dodgers, ended racial segregation that had required black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.
•He braved death threats and rough treatment, but won the hearts of millions throughout his career for remaining resilient.
•Won MLB Rookie of the Year in 1947 and was inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1962 •
•He paved the way for the integration of other major sports

13. MLK, Jr. and SCLC

14. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King, Jr. was the most prominent civil rights leader of the 50s and 60s.
He was the head of the (SCLC) Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
SCLC: African American ministers organized non-violent protests
Worked in Birmingham with segregation protests and facilitated many of the most famous protests
led peaceful demonstrations and marches to protest discrimination
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi in India.
Video *

15. Rosa Parks

16. Rosa Parks
1955, Rosa Park challenged the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Her arrest for refusing to give her bus seat to white man sparked a year long bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama.
Instead of taking the bus to work, African Americans organized car pools, walked the distance, biked, or rode mules.
In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling declaring the racial segregation of Alabama’s busses unconstitutional.
Its eventual success demonstrates the potential of nonviolent mass action and brings the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC to national attention.
Video

17. Letter from a Birmingham Jail

18. Letter From Birmingham Jail
The mayor was a segregationist and the police commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Conner was known for his hostile and sometimes violent treatment of blacks.
In March King, and a few other SCLC organizers, set up headquarters…
King personally led a march on Good Friday, April 12th. All protestors were quickly arrested. Birmingham police separated King placing him in solitary confinement, and denying each man his rightful phone-calls to the outside world.

19. Letter From Birmingham Jail
Letter Video *
Coretta Scott King called the White House.
Kennedy Administration sent FBI agents to Birmingham, and King promptly received more hospitable treatment.
Moreover, this intervention by Kennedy gave the movement greater momentum.
King spent eight days in his cell. During that time he composed his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." The letter was conceived in response to a letter that had recently run in a local newspaper, which had claimed that the protests were "unwise and untimely.”

20. On May 3rd the police commissioner had his forces blast the young protestors with fire- hoses, and released attack dogs against them. It was these acts of violence– broadcast on national television– that pricked the national conscience, and marked a turning point not only in Birmingham but also in the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. Telegrams flooded the White House conveying outrage, and it became clear that the Kennedy Administration would have to confront civil rights issues more directly.

21. March on Washington and I Have a Dream Speech

22. I Have a Dream Speech & March on Washington, August 28th, 1963
Full Text Audio *Bet You Didn’t Know Video King at Washington video
March on Washington to put pressure on Congress to pass Civil Rights Bill
200,000+ demonstrators gathered in front of Lincoln Memorial
1st time the NAACP, SNCC, and SCLC come together
King’s I Have a Dream Speech emphasized a colorblind society

23. King Assassination *
Assassination
April 4, A sniper assassinates Dr. King as he stands on the balcony of his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
King was there to lead a peaceful march in support of striking sanitation workers.
He dies in St. Joseph's Hospital from a gunshot wound in the neck.
James Earl Ray is later captured and convicted of the murder.

24. Civil Rights Act of 1964

25. Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Kennedy voiced his commitment to federal civil rights legislation. He had been holding off, preoccupied by the Cold War, but Birmingham had pressed the issue.
Kennedy's commitment culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson after Kennedy's assassination in November 1963.
The act federally enforced desegregation and equal employment opportunities.
It also gave the federal gov’t power to enforce desegregation laws in schools by withholding funds from noncompliant districts. This act confirmed desergreation by law in employment, public accommodations, and public schools. Sought to end discrimination based on sex, race, color, national origin.

26. Voting Rights Act of 1965

27. Voting Rights Act of 1965
LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
The law applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote.
Following the act, local and state jurisdictions were prohibited from using discriminatory practices, including "literacy" examinations, poll taxes, violence, and other methods of intimidation aimed at keeping black Americans from the polls. This was enforced by the 24th Amendment. Not only did such tactics make voting difficult, it also made it very difficult for blacks to be elected to Congress.
Within months, voter registration among African Americans rose to 70% in the South.

28. Malcolm X

29. Malcolm X Video * Adopted “X” to represent his lost African name
Converted to Nation of Islam in prison
Advocated for African Americans to be able to defend themselves against brutality and promoted a violent struggle to achieve equality.
Triggers “Black Power” movement
Opposed MLK policies; claimed it was integration into white society
Assassinated: Feb 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally in New York City.

30. Black Panthers

31. Black Panthers Video * American chapter formed in California in 1966
Became symbol of young militant African Americans
Armed patrols of urban neighborhoods to protect people from police abuse
Created anti-poverty programs for African American children
Belief in the necessity of violence and armed self- defense in order to obtain freedom from white oppression