1. Civil Rights
1950’s

2. 1947
April Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in Major League Baseball- plays for the Brooklyn Dodgers

3. Segregation in schools
1896- Plessey v Ferguson- separate but equal schools
1952 Brown v BOE Topeka Kansas
Thurgood Marshall- lawyer for the NAACP argued for Brown
Court ruled in racial segregation illegal in public schools
1955- Supreme Court issued ruling instructing federal courts to end school segregation “with all deliberate speed”

4. Linda Brown

5. 1957
Little Rock
9 African Americans (Little Rock 9) went to an all white Central High School
Eisenhower orders the 101 Airborne (1,000+ soldiers) to protect
State National Guard ordered by governor to not go.

7. Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec. 1, Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up her seat on bus to a white man.
To protest her arrest, @50,000 African Americans boycotted bus system. Boycott led by 26 year old Martin Luther King Jr.
Boycott worked
Nov Supreme Court ruled segregation laws unconstitutional

8. Civil Rights Act of 1957
Made it a federal crime to prevent qualified persons from voting.
Set up Civil Rights Commission
1960 strengthened courts power to protect voting rights of African Americans

9. 1960’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Nonviolent resistance or passive resistance (like Gandhi in India)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Sit-ins at lunch counters

10. Freedom Rides Supported by JFK Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Freedom riders took bus trips through the South to draw attention to Civil Rights law violations
Busses were attack and fire bombed

11. 1962- University of Mississippi
James Meredith- 1st African American admitted to Ole Miss
Governor Ross Barnett refused to allow Meredith in (was there in person to block the door)
JFK federal marshals, Meredith enrolled

12. 1963 Medger Evers- NAACP Field Secretary assassinated
A 1961 protest in Albany Georgia was nonviolent on both sides- protesters and police.
Birmingham 1963-much different
Nonviolent protesters
Police turned fire hoses on the protesters
MLK arrested, writes famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

13. 1963 August 28, 1963- March on Washington
MLK gives “I have a dream” speech
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14. 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
JFK wanted a Civil Rights bill to pass, LBJ got it passed
June Voter Registration Drives in Mississippi: Freedom Summer
3 college students disappeared: Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney
Bodies were found 6 weeks later
Story became subject of movie Mississippi

15. 1965 Selma Alabama Protest march from Selma to Montgomery (March 1965)
Governor George Wallace banned protest
Police attack marchers
More came to join march
Shocked by violence- LBJ presses for a speedy passage of a voting rights act in a joint session of Congress
Voting Rights Act of passes in August

16. Nation of Islam
Malcolm X (aka Malcolm Little, son of a Baptist Minister)
Supported separatism & freedom to be brought about “by any means necessary”
Assassinated in February 1965

17. Black Power Called for black separatism
David Dennis-June tired of nonviolent approach
“I’m sick and tired of going to the funerals of black men who have been murdered by white men…. I’ve got vengeance in my heart tonight”
Stokley Carmichael would become associated with Black Power movement

18. The Black Panthers Liked Black Power message
Organized by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland California
“Black people will not be free until we are free to determine our own destiny.”
Called for:
Land
Bread
Housing
Education
Clothing
Justice
Peace

19. Bobby Seale Panthers today in Philadelphia on election day 2012
Panthers today in Philadelphia on election day 2012

20. Created black defense groups dedicated to defending their communities.
Appeared in public carried firearms. (illegal in California at the time)
Often made national headlines

21. 1968 Poor People’s Campaign– Ralph Abernathy
Marched to Capitol Hill to protest misuse of government spending
April 4, MLK assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
King was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike.-gave a speech at a dinner the night before