1. The Civil Rights Movement 1954-1968

2. Read Plessy vs. Ferguson
1. Who was Plessy? Describe him.
2. Why did he challenge the Separate Car Act?
3. How did the Supreme Court rule in 1896?
4. What were the horrific consequences of the ruling? Who dissented and what does that mean?
5. How did this decision effect public life?
6. What do you think about separate but equal?
14th amendment forbid the government from trying to restrict people’s rights.

3. Brown vs. Board of Education
This case challenged “Separate but Equal”
Separate but Equal is the legal doctrine in the US that allowed racial segregation. This was defined as a result of Supreme Court case of
Plessy vs. Ferguson

4. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” *
Brown v. Board of Education

5. 1955 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.
Her refusal led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement in which African Americans created and relied upon their own forms of transportation.
The Supreme Court later rules bus segregation unconstitutional.
Martin Luther King., Jr. gains national attention during the boycott.

6. Before Rosa Parks
Read the article about the first person who took a stand on public buses.
Claudette Colvin-15 year old black high school student.
“Its my right!”

7. 1957 Little Rock Nine, Little Rock Arkansas
Nine black students entered Central High School under the protection and surveillance of federal troops.
These students faced constant threats as they entered the high school.
Little Rock was one of the first cities to try to desegregate their schools.

8. 1. What would you have done when you realized you were surrounded by a hostile and angry mob? 2.What qualities of character do you think Ms. Eckford had to call on/employ in that moment?
Ms. Eckford was walking alone from the rest of the other 8 students because she lacked a telephone and did not
know the exact time they were all to meet up.

9. Little Rock 9

10. 1960 “Greensboro Sit-ins: Woolworth Counter”
Feb.1st, 1960 Four NC A&T students peacefully demonstrated a sit-in at the local Woolworth Counter to protest against the refusal of service.
This demonstration was the first of many sit-in movements throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
Woolworth Counter

11. Greensboro 4 Letter to protesters

12. 1961 Freedom Rides
Two groups, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) used buses to travel to the deep south to challenge and solve racial discrimination and segregation.
Readings from summer recollections.

13. Mississippi Burning

14. Mississippi Burning-1964

15. 1964 Mississippi Burning Case
Three student activists during Freedom Summer were murdered by members of the KKK as a way to stop the volunteers of the movement in the south
First 6 minutes
Reopening of the case
Results of the new trial

16. August 28,1963 Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream Speech
Martin Luther King gives his most famous speech to a crowd of over 200,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in which he calls for racial equality and an end to racial discrimination

17. I Have A Dream Too! After listening to Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, create your own “I Have a Dream” Speech using the sheet you receive from me. What do you want for you and your family?

18. 1965 March from Selma
Bloody Sunday
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a march from Selma Alabama to the capital of Montgomery (50 miles). The purpose of the march was to gain national attention to the struggle for voting rights. The march was halted with police brutality. This event became known as Bloody Sunday. Three weeks later protesters continued the march. This time it was successful. This led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965

19. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination
During the Vietnam War, King began to rethink his mission and turned his focus from racial discrimination to problems of poverty and economic injustice.
(King started to face criticism from young African Americans who wanted more violence in seeking change. So he want to widen his appeal.)

20. April 3rd, gave a speech that seemed to predict his death.
In April of 1968, called to Memphis to support a sanitation worker’s strike.
April 3rd, gave a speech that seemed to predict his death.
On April 4th, after 6 p.m. he was standing on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, he was shot by James Earl Ray.
He was struck in the
neck and pronounced
dead at the hospital an
hour later at age 39.

21. Major Accomplishments of the Movement
Civil Rights Act
Voting Rights Act

22. 1964 Civil Rights Act
Landmark legislation signed by Lyndon B. Johnson which eliminated discrimination in schools, workplace, and other public facilities

23. 1965 Voting Rights Act
“The resolution, signed into law on August 6, 1965, empowered the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in counties that had used tests to determine voter eligibility or where registration or turnout had been less than 50 percent in the 1964 presidential election. It also banned discriminatory literacy tests and expanded voting rights for non-English speaking Americans.”