STANDARD 7/UNIT 7a:
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE GREAT SOCIETY
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PROBLEM BASED LEARNING PROJECT
*Each Student will do their own work on a
PowerPoint and will put it on my flash drive.
Save as: Last Name-Block
*Explain all terms and concepts.
*Slides need to be neat and concise with a font
size between 16-24
*First slide to be your title page with name and
block.
*A minimum of 20 PowerPoint slides.
*A minimum of 10 pictures.
*Provide links to at least 2 video clips.
*Ample time will be provided in the computer lab
*The days are in lab are underlined on syllabus.
*Use the time provided in the lab!
*No group work or presentations.
*Project is worth 100 points.
The Progress of Civil Rights
JACKIE ROBINSON BREAKS THE COLOR BARRIER
In 1945, baseball policies separating black and white players changed forever when Brooklyn Dodgers
general manager Branch Rickey signed a contract with Jackie Robinson that would bring him into the major
leagues. After a year on a minor league team to sharpen his skills, he put on his first Dodgers uniform
(number 42) in April 1947.
Reaction to Robinson from baseball fans and players ranged from enthusiasm and joy to hostility and death
threats. However, his talent on the field could not be denied, and he won respect as well as the first Rookie of
the Year award in 1947. In 1949, he won the National League's Most Valuable Player award, leading the
league with a .342 batting average and 37 stolen bases. Off the field, he was the subject of everything from
songs to a feature-length film about his life. Robinson even starred as himself in the movie, "The Jackie
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Robinson Story." Released in 1950, it was one of the first films to portray a black man as an American hero.
Robinson retired from baseball after the 1956 season. A legend even in his day, he was elected to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility.
1. Why is Jackie Robinson an American hero? __
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. What number did Jackie wear? ____________
His number is retired in all of baseball. That
means no one else will ever wear #42.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981
After World War II, African-American leaders told President Truman that if he did not end segregation in
the armed forces, African Americans would start refusing to serve in the armed forces. Wanting African
American political support and wanting to bolster U.S. reputation abroad, Truman decided to desegregate the
military. He used an executive order to end military segregation. Executive Order 9981, signed on July 26,
1948, forbids discriminating against military personnel because of race, color, religion, or national origin.
The desegregation of the armed forces was a major civil rights victory for African Americans. Though a
number of whites in the military resisted and racism continued to exist within the armed forces, Executive
Order 9981 was the first major blow to segregation, giving hope to African-American activists that change
was possible.
3. What was the importance of Executive Order 9981? ___________________________________________
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BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION
Lower courts upheld segregation of the schools. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP took a case known as
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, to the Supreme Court. The Court heard many arguments. It
also used research that said that segregation made black children feel inferior. The Court ruled that
segregation violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. At the time, 21 states had
segregated schools. In some of these there was strong resistance to integration. In Virginia officials practiced
massive resistance. With this tactic, officials at all levels pledged to block integration. Schools that planned
to integrate were closed. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor ordered the National Guard to keep African
American students out of school. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to end the crisis. The students—
the Little Rock Nine—had to put up with much abuse at school.
4. What did the Supreme Court’s research say about segregation? ____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
5. What was the name of the attorney that argued the Plessy v. Ferguson case before the Supreme Court?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
THURGOOD MARSHALL
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
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A BOYCOTT BEGINS IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
In addition to schools, many other public places were segregated. In Montgomery, Alabama, African
Americans could only ride in the back of buses. They had to give up their seats to white people. One day
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. She was arrested. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott. Local
Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders. In the boycott, African Americans refused
to ride Montgomery’s buses for a year. The boycott only ended when the Supreme Court ruled that
segregated buses were unconstitutional. The success of the boycott led to the forming of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Martin Luther King Jr. was its leader. SCLC was committed to
mass, nonviolent action.
6. What did Rosa Parks refuse to do on the bus? ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a voting bill rights called the Civil
Rights Act of 1957. The Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government
undertook significant legislative action to protect voting rights. This act signaled a growing federal
commitment to the cause of civil rights.
7. What was the significance of this act that assured voting for African Americans? ____________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The quest for civil rights became a nationwide movement in the 1960s as African Americans
won political and legal rights, and segregation was largely abolished.
8. George Wallace - ______________________________________________________________________
9. Mohandas Gandhi - ___________________________________________________________________
10. SNCC - _____________________________________________________________________________
11. Freedom Riders - _____________________________________________________________________
12. Civil Rights Act of 1964 - ______________________________________________________________
GEORGE WALLACE
America was still fighting desegregation in the
years following Brown v. Board of Education. A
person like George Wallace was one of America's
most outspoken supporters of racial segregation in
the 1960s. As governor of Alabama he fought
integration his state.
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SIT-INS AND FREEDOM RIDES
African American civil rights leaders like James Farmer and Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed the tactic of
nonviolence from Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi had used it as he led India’s struggle for independence from
Great Britain. African American protesters began a sit-in movement aimed at segregated restaurants. They
would take a seat and order food. The restaurants would refuse to serve them. The protesters would then not
leave until the police arrived and arrested them. Protesters faced abuse and ended up in jail, but the tactic
worked. Sit-in leaders formed SNCC—the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Also, the civil rights organization CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) stated to be open to "anyone who
believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultimate goal of true equality
throughout the world.” Unlike the NAACP, CORE advocates for conservative causes. CORE aimed to
integrate bus stations. They sent Freedom Riders on buses in the South. African American Freedom Riders
would try to use whites only restrooms and lunch counters. Often they faced angry mobs. Attorney General
Robert Kennedy sent federal marshals to protect them. In 1961 the government forced bus and train stations
to integrate.
13. What was a sit-in? _____________________
________________________________________
14. Why did the attorney general send federal
marshals to protect the Freedom Riders?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
INTEGRATING HIGHER EDUCATION
The NAACP tried to integrate universities and colleges. By 1961 it had a court order for the University of
Georgia to admit two black students. Like them, James Meredith, who tried to enroll in the University of
Mississippi in 1962, was threatened. He arrived with 500 federal marshals but faced 2,500 protesters. Troops
had to be sent in to control the riot.
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ALBANY AND BIRMINGHAM
In Albany, Georgia, SNCC protested when local officials did not integrate bus stations. The campaign, called
the Albany Movement, filled local and surrounding jails with protesters, including King. The tactic failed,
though, as King’s SCLC took control of the campaign and local officials would only negotiate with local
leaders. In Birmingham, Alabama, King used children as protesters. The police used fire hoses to break up a
march. Hundreds of protesters were jailed. Federal negotiators pressured the city to give in to King’s
demands. King’s motel was bombed.
15. What did the police use against the protesters in the Birmingham campaign? ______________________
LETTERS FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL
A letter that Martin Luther King Jr., addressed to his fellow clergymen while he was in jail in Birmingham,
Alabama, in 1963, after a nonviolent protest against racial segregation. King defended the apparent
impatience of people in the civil rights movement, maintaining that without forceful actions like his, equal
rights for black people would never be gained. King upheld the general use of nonviolent civil disobedience
against unjust laws, saying that human rights must take precedence over such laws. He claimed that “one
who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly”; such a person, King said, is actually showing respect
for law, by insisting that laws be just.
16. What is the point of the letters? __________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
MEDGAR EVERS
Medgar Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn
segregation at the University of Mississippi. He became active in the civil rights movement after returning
from overseas service in World War II and completing secondary education; he became a field secretary for
the NAACP. Evers was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council.
As a veteran, Evers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. His murder and the
resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music, and film.
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17. Underline why Medgar Evans was assassinated?
THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
President Kennedy wanted a law ending segregation in public accommodations. These are facilities that
serve the public, such as hotels and restaurants. When Medgar Evers, head of the NAACP in Mississippi,
was assassinated, many whites saw how serious the situation was. In August 1963 more than 200,000
people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. There, King gave his “I Have a Dream”
speech. The next month a Birmingham church was bombed, and three months later Kennedy was dead.
But President Johnson pushed for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It banned discrimination in employment
and public accommodations.
I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH
"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory
note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well
as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...
America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"
- “I Have a Dream”, August 28, 1963
The historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a collaborative effort by the major civil rights
groups and icons of the day, including A. Phillip Randolph, the renowned labor leader who originally
conceived of such a march, and Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP. Feeding off of a rapidly
growing tide of grassroots support and outrage over the nation's racial inequities, the rally drew over 260,000
people from across the nation. King's celebrated speech, “I Have a Dream”, was carried live by television
stations across the country. “I Have a Dream” is remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
speech of the 20th century.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of
Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a
table of brotherhood.”
- “I Have a Dream”, August 28, 1963
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18. What was the point of MLK’s “I have a dream speech”? ______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
19. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ban? ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
MISSISSIPPI BURNING
During Freedom Summer 1964, two CORE workers from New York, Andrew Goodman and Michael
Schwerner, along with Mississippi Civil Rights worker, James Chaney, were looking to set up a CORE
branch in Meridian, Mississippi. While there, they heard of the bombing of a black church in Philadelphia,
Mississippi, and decided to investigate. On their way back, they were stopped and arrested by Philadelphia
deputy Cecil Price. Price was also a member of the KKK. While the men were in lock-up, Price notified his
fellow Klan members of who he had in custody. Later that night, Price released the three young men, but
followed them before they could reach the county border. He pulled them over again, but this time with a
group of Klan members. They shot and killed the three young men. Their bodies were not found until
August. Price and seven others were found guilty of violating the young men’s civil rights and were given
light sentences. The sheriff and six others were acquitted. A verdict was not reached for Edgar Ray Killen,
and two others. Killen was later convicted of manslaughter in 2005, and is currently serving three twentyyear terms.
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AFTER WATCHING THE FILM
Summarize your thoughts on the film from a Civil Rights standpoint. ___________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed
discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African
Americans in the U.S.
Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting
qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of
any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Specifically, Congress intended the Act
to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes in order
to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African-Americans from
exercising the franchise. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, who had
earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
20. Underline the president who signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
21. What amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the use of poll taxes in presidential elections?
SELMA TO MONTGOMERY MARCHES
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak
of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama.
1. The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights
marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas.
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2. The second march, the following Tuesday, resulted in 2,500 protesters turning around after
crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
3. The third march started March 16. The marchers averaged 10 miles a day along U.S. Route 80,
known in Alabama as the "Jefferson Davis Highway". Protected by 2,000 soldiers of the U.S.
Army, 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under Federal command, and many FBI
agents and Federal Marshals, they arrived in Montgomery on March 24, and at the Alabama State
Capital on March 25.
The route is memorialized as the Selma To
Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, a U.S. National
Historic Trail.
22. What was the significance of the Selma To
Montgomery Marches?
________________________________________
_______________________________________
________________________________________
HELP FROM THE SUPREME COURT
HEART OF ATLANTA MOTEL v. US
Heart of Atlanta Motel Inc. v. United States, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case holding that
the U.S. Congress could use the Constitution's Commerce Clause power to force private businesses to abide
by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Heart of Atlanta Motel would have to desegregate.
ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Continued social and economic inequalities caused many young African Americans to lose
faith in the civil rights movement and integration and seek alternative solutions.
23. Stokely Carmichael - __________________________________________________________________
24. Black Power - ________________________________________________________________________
25. Black Panther Party - __________________________________________________________________
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26. Malcolm X - _________________________________________________________________________
EXPANDING THE MOVEMENT
From 1964 to 1967 violence erupted in more than 100 U.S. cities. In the Watts neighborhood of Los
Angeles, a six-day riot destroyed entire blocks. More than 3,000 people were arrested and 34 people were
killed. In Detroit, 43 died in riots. President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to study the causes
of the riots. It reported that poverty and discrimination were the causes. Northern riots convinced Martin
Luther King Jr. to campaign in Chicago. The campaign failed as Chicago’s blacks’ concerns were economic,
not political, and its police reacted with nonviolence.
27. Circle the number of U.S. cities that experienced rioting in the mid 1960s.
FRACTURES IN THE MOVEMENT
Although the civil rights movement seemed unified, it was made up of many separate groups. After SNCC
and CORE workers were harassed during Freedom Summer, some members of these organizations began
to reject nonviolence. Under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael, SNCC itself rejected nonviolence.
Carmichael started the Black Power movement. It rejected nonviolence and integration. It wanted
separate, African Americans–only, political and economic organizations. The Black Power movement
inspired some blacks to create the Black Panther Party. It called for a revolution to change American society.
Its leaders were usually armed. Most people who believed in Black Power were Black Muslims. They were
members of the Nation of Islam, a group founded in 1930 and based on the religion of Islam. One of its
leaders and ministers was Malcolm X. He first called for revolution and criticized nonviolence. Later he
softened his views. He was killed by Black Muslims after he appealed for the races to get along.
28. What caused some members of the civil rights movement to reject nonviolence? __________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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29. Why do you think some Black Muslims would be unhappy with Malcolm X’s call for the races to get
along?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
THE ASSASSINATION OF KING
In 1968 Martin Luther King led a march in Memphis. He was supporting striking sanitation workers. They
were protesting discrimination in the city’s work and pay policies. King also spoke at a rally. The next day
he was killed by a white sniper. Angry riots erupted in 120 cities. Troops were called in to restore peace. One
leader noted that King would have been upset by the violent reaction to his death.
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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
“Affirmative action” means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in
areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. When those
steps involve preferential selection—selection on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity—affirmative action
generates intense controversy.
The first spike of controversy was about gender and racial preferences alike. This is because in the beginning
affirmative action was as much about the factory, the firehouse, and the corporate suite as about the
university campus. The second spike of controversy was about race and ethnicity. This is because the
burning issue at the turn of the twentieth-first century is about college admissions. In admissions to selective
colleges, women need no boost; African-Americans and Hispanics do.
Support
The principle of affirmative action is to promote societal equality through the preferential treatment of
socioeconomically disadvantaged people. Often, these people are disadvantaged for historical reasons, such
as oppression or slavery. Historically and internationally, support for affirmative action has sought to achieve
a range of goals: bridging inequalities in employment and pay; increasing access to education; enriching state,
institutional, and professional leadership with the full spectrum of society; redressing apparent past wrongs,
harms, or hindrances, in particular addressing the apparent social imbalance left in the wake of slavery and
slave laws.
Opposition
Opponents of affirmative action believe that affirmative action devalues the accomplishments of people who
are chosen based on the social group to which they belong rather than their qualifications. Opponents, who
sometimes say that affirmative action is "reverse discrimination", further claim that affirmative action has
undesirable side-effects in addition to failing to achieve its goals. They argue that it hinders reconciliation,
replaces old wrongs with new wrongs, undermines the achievements of minorities, and encourages
individuals to identify themselves as disadvantaged, even if they are not. It may increase racial tension and
benefit the more privileged people within minority groups at the expense of the least fortunate within
majority groups (such as lower-class whites).
30. What is your stance on affirmative action and why?__________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
31. Is this cartoon in favor of affirmative action or
against? Why?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
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PROBLEM BASED LEARNING PROJECT
1.) The progress of civil rights: How did people overcome social and governmental barriers to achieve more
civil rights?
a. African American rights (p.906-941)
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Montgomery Bus boycott
- “Letters from the Birmingham jail”
- “ I have a dream speech”/March on Washington, D.C.
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Nation of Islam
- Malcolm X
- Black Panthers
- Black Power
- S.C.L.C.
- S.N.C.C.
b. Woman’s rights (p. 986-990)
- The Feminine Mystique
- Roe vs. Wade
- Equal Rights Amendment
c. Latino rights (p. 994-1001)
- Cesar Chavez
- Delano Grape Strike
- Social Justice
- Chicanos
- The Brown Berets
- Boricua Movement
- Cuban Americans
d. Native American rights (p. 990-993)
- Indian Education Act
- Termination policy (1950’s- 1970)
- Russell Means
- A.I.M.
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