1. “We Shall Overcome” Objectives:
US History
Objectives:
**Discuss the changing role of the federal government in Civil Rights enforcement
**Explain the efforts to establish voting rights for African-Americans
SOL – VUS.14
Timeline –

2. NAACP on the offensive (1909-1954)
Wanted to focus on school desegregation to defeat
Plessy ruling
(separate but “equal”)

3. Thurgood Marshall + Oliver Hill
NAACP Legal Defense Team
Argued 32 cases in front of the Court (29 wins)

4. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Linda Brown
**not allowed in an all-white school
9-0 ruling said segregated schools are “unequal” and must desegregate
Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children….A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn….
Justice Earl Warren

5. Massive Resistance (est. 1956)
Policy to slow desegregation in the South
Senator Harry Byrd
Virginia

6. Methods Close schools rather than desegregate
Started “private” academies – not required to admit all students
White flight away from urban, desegregated schools

7. The Arrest of Rosa Parks (December 1, 1955)
Montgomery, Alabama
Violated a Jim Crow law by refusing to give up her seat to a white person

8. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Organized a bus boycott by blacks in Alabama
(December 3, 1955 to December 20, 1956)
S. Court ruled against bus segregation

9. Non-Violent Resistance
Refuse to obey unjust laws
Peaceful protests to gather empathy from US public

10. Methods Sit-ins Freedom Rides Protests and Marches
Suffered violent responses in segregated South - hoses, clubs, dogs, murder, etc.

11. March on Washington (August 28, 1963)
250K attendees
Showed power of nonviolent, mass protest
“I Have A Dream” speech

12. President Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969)
Pushed Congress to pass Civil Rights legislation

13. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (passed July 2, 1964)
Desegregated public facilities
Forbade discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.

14. Voting Rights Act of 1965 (passed August 4, 1965)
Outlawed literacy tests
Federal officials sent to the South to prevent voter intimation, increase black registration