Topic:
The Civil Rights Movement
Essential Question:
How has the Civil Rights Movement
changed America?
 Background
 Amendments
 13th (1865)
 Officially ended slavery
 14th (1868)
 Citizenship for African Americans
 Guaranteed “equal protection of the laws”
 14th (1868)
 Citizenship for African Americans
 Guaranteed “equal protection of the laws”
 15th (1870)
 Suffrage for African Americans
 15th (1870)
 Suffrage for African Americans
 19th (1920)
 Suffrage for women
 19th (1920)
 Suffrage for women
 Segregation
 Separation of the races in the
South after the Civil War
 Justified by the idea of
“separate but equal”
 Segregation
 Separation of the races in the South after
the Civil War
 Justified by the idea of “separate but equal”
 Jim Crow Laws
 Established segregation
 Jim Crow Laws
 Established segregation
 Included:
 Literacy tests
 Poll taxes
 Literacy tests
 Poll taxes
 Grandfather clauses
 No literacy tests/poll taxes if ancestors were
registered to vote
 Grandfather clauses
 No literacy tests/poll taxes if ancestors were
registered to vote
 Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
 White supremacist organization
 Used violence and intimidation
Nathan Bedford
Forrest – 1st Grand
Wizard
 Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
 White supremacist organization
 Used violence and intimidation
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 Supreme Court decision
 Declared that segregation was constitutional
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 Supreme Court decision
 Declared that segregation was constitutional
 National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP)
 Played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement
Medgar Evers
 National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP)
 Played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement
 Emmett Till (Mississippi, 1955)
 Murdered for talking to a white woman
 Mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral
 Murdered for talking to a white woman
 Mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral
 Discuss
 Amendments
 Segregation
 Jim Crow Laws
 KKK
 Plessy v. Ferguson
 NAACP
 Emmett Till
 Write a sentence explaining
why the murder of Emmett Till
helped bring about change.
 Emmett Till (Mississippi, 1955)
 Murdered for talking to a white woman
 Mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral
 Civil Rights leaders
 Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)
 Civil Rights leaders
 Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)
 Baptist minister
 Methods based on non-violent protests of Gandhi in
India
Ebenezer Baptist Church,
Atlanta
 Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)
 Baptist minister
 Methods based on non-violent protests of Gandhi in
India
 Malcolm X
 Methods based on non-violent
protests of Gandhi in India
 Malcolm X
 Muslim minister
 Believed in using violence
 Muslim minister
 Believed in using violence
 Desegregation
 Military
 President Truman integrated
the military (1948)
 Military
 President Truman integrated the military (1948)
 Schools
 Mendez v. Westminster (1947)
Sylvia
Mendez, 2011
 Federal court decision
 Ended segregation of Mexican-American students in
California schools
Governor Earl
Warren
Felicitas and Gonzalo
Mendez
Thurgood
Marshall,
NAACP Attorney
 Federal court decision
 Ended segregation of Mexican-American students in
California schools
 Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 Supreme Court decision
Chief Justice Earl Warren
9-0 decision
 Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 Supreme Court decision
 Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
 “Separate is inherently unequal”
 Declared segregation of public schools
unconstitutional
Supreme Court (1967-1991)
Thurgood Marshall
 “Separate is inherently unequal”
 Declared segregation of public schools
unconstitutional
 Little Rock (Arkansas, 1957)
 Nine black students enrolled at Little
Rock Central High
 Nine black students enrolled at
Little Rock Central High
 Governor tried to stop them
Gov. Orval Faubus
Elizabeth Eckford
 Nine black students enrolled at Little
Rock Central High
 Governor tried to stop them
 President Eisenhower enforced
Brown v. Board decision
 Nine students enrolled at Little Rock Central High
 Governor tried to stop them
 President Eisenhower enforced Brown v. Board
decision
Ernest Green
 Governor tried to stop them
 President Eisenhower enforced Brown v.
Board decision
 Transportation
 Montgomery Bus Boycott (Alabama, 1955-56)
 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
Henry Ford
Museum (MI)
 Montgomery Bus Boycott (Alabama, 1955-56)
 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
 MLK helped organize a boycott
 381 days
 Supreme Court declared bus segregation
unconstitutional
 381 days
 Supreme Court declared bus segregation
unconstitutional
 Freedom Riders (1961)
 Protesters tested desegregation of Southern bus
stations
Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
 Freedom Riders (1961)
 Protesters tested desegregation of Southern bus
stations
 Freedom Riders (1961)
 Protesters tested desegregation of
Southern bus stations
 Many were harassed, arrested,
beaten, etc.
 Forced the federal government to
enforce the law
Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy
 Many were harassed, arrested,
beaten, etc.
 Forced the federal government
to enforce the law
 Sports
 Baseball
 Jackie Robinson
 1st African American in Major
League Baseball (1947)
 Jackie Robinson
 1st African American in Major
League Baseball (1947)
 Football
 Ernie Davis
 1st African American to win
the Heisman Trophy (1961)
 Ernie Davis
 1st African American to win the
Heisman Trophy (1961)
 Basketball
 Texas Western (UTEP)
 All-black starting line-up
 NCAA basketball champions (1966)
 All-black starting line-up
 NCAA basketball champions (1966)
 Discuss
 Civil Rights leaders
 Desegregation of the military
 Desegregation of schools
 Desegregation of transportation
 Desegregation of sports
 Write a sentence explaining the differences between
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
 All-black starting line-up
 NCAA basketball champions (1966)
 More non-violent protests
 Sit-ins
 Protesters sat at lunch counters
Greensboro, North Carolina (1960)
 Sit-ins
 Protesters sat at lunch counters
 Attacked by segregationists
 Forced restaurants to change policy
Section of the counter from the
Greesboro, NC Woolworth’s
(Smithsonian)
 Attacked by segregationists
 Forced restaurants to change policy
 Birmingham campaign (Alabama, 1963)
 MLK organized protests
Bull Connor
 Birmingham campaign (Alabama, 1963)
 MLK organized protests
 Police used violence to break up protests
 Media coverage outraged the nation
New
York
Times
 Police used violence to break up protests
 Media coverage outraged the nation
 March on Washington (1963)
 250,000 people gathered to support JFK’s
civil rights bill
Ossie Davis
 March on Washington (1963)
 250,000 people gathered to support JFK’s civil rights
bill
 MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
 250,000 people gathered to support JFK’s
civil rights bill
 MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
 Freedom Summer (Mississippi, 1964)
 Effort to register African American voters
James Chaney
Michael Schwerner
Andrew Goodman
 Freedom Summer (Mississippi, 1964)
 Effort to register African American voters
 3 volunteers (1 black, 2 white) were murdered by the
KKK
 LBJ sent the FBI to investigate
Lyndon Baines Johnson
 3 volunteers (1 black, 2 white) were murdered
by the KKK
 LBJ sent FBI to investigate
 Selma to Montgomery marches (Alabama, 1965)
 Motivated by:
 Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by police
 Voting rights violations
Arrested in 2007
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Brown Chapel
Pled guilty to manslaughter in 2010
Spent 6 months in prison
 Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by police
 Voting rights violations
 Governor blocked the Edmund Pettus Bridge with
state police
George Wallace
James Reeb
 Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by police
 Voting rights violations
 Governor blocked the Edmund Pettus Bridge
with state police
 March was successful on the third attempt
Viola Liuzzo