Student Example Of the Civil
Rights Project
Work on this project should be creative
and vary from student to student. A
Power point presentation is only one way
to display this assignment.
“More than a hamburger…”
• A History of the Civil Rights
Movement
Ella Baker
The civil rights movement began
in 1863 with the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation by
President Lincoln. This
proclamation freed all slaves
held in states still fighting in the
Civil War.
Amendments to the Constitution
In 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution made
slavery illegal in all areas of the United States.
In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution made all
former slaves and all other persons who had been born in the
United States or had been naturalized, a citizen of the United
States. This amendment also granted all citizens equal protection
under the law..
In 1879 the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution made it
illegal to deny any citizen the right to vote because of race, color
or the fact that he/she was a former slave.
In 1857 the Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sanford
ruled that Scott, who had been a slave in Missouri, moved
to the free territory of Wisconsin for 2 years and returned
to Missouri, was not free. The court held that the Framers
of the Constitution did not intend for people of African
descent to be U.S.citizens. The court also held that
Congress did not have the right to deprive anyone of
personal property and could not exclude slavery from any
federal territory.
In 1896 the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson
ruled that State governments could separate people of
different races as long as the facilities that were provided
were of equal quality. The “separate, but equal” ruling
was upheld until 1954.
School Desegregation
• May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court case of
Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka ruled end to segregation
• Chief Justice Warren…”Today education is
perhaps the most important function of state
and local governments…is a right which
must be made available to all on equal
terms.”
School desegregation cont…
• May 31, 1955-Supreme Court ruling on
Brown v. Board of Education rejected
NAACP plea to order instant and total
school desegregation.
• Made desegregation a gradual process
• 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas desegretion of
Central High
Central High September , 1957
• Nine black students
entered Central High
September 23, 1957
under police
protection
• Photo-Elizabeth
Eckford, one of “Little
Rock Nine”
Non-Violence in the Civil Rights
Movement
Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
• Rosa Parks was arrested
and removed from a bus in
Montgomery Alabama for
refusing to give up her
seat to a white man
• Sparked a city wide bus
boycott
• First involvement of a
young minister named
Martin Luther King
Boycott cont…..
• The Montgomery Bus
Boycott caused a loss
of 65% of the normal
income for the bus
company
• 8 months later the
Supreme Court ruled
bus segregation
unconstitutional
Civil Rights Act of 1957
• Created authority for the establishment of a civil
rights office in the Department of Justice.
• First civil rights laws enacted since the immediate
post Civil War period.
• Dec. 9, 1957 the Civil Rights Division was
established to enforce all federal statutes involved
with civil rights and investigate complaints of
violation of the civil rights laws.
• Made it a federal crime to prevent persons from
voting in federal elections.
1957 Organizations Founded
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) with purpose of raising funds,
coordinating local protests, and training black
leaders
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) to develop and link sit-ins, organize
freedom rides, voter registration drives and other
protest activities.
Organizations cont…
• Feb. 1957, SCLC met in New Orleans and
elected Martin Luther King Jr. president and
Ralph Abernathy treasurer.
• SCLC preached that nonviolence
“transforms weakness into strength and
breeds courage in the face of danger”.
• SCLC became the driving force in the civil
rights movement.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Born 1948, Atlanta, GA.
• PhD Boston Univ. 1955
• Pastor of Baptist church in
Montgomery, AL
• Led Montgomery bus
boycott
• 1957 formed SCLC
• 1958 stabbed in Harlem
on speaking tour
• 1962 arrested and jailed in
Albany, GA.
King cont…
• Birmingham, April 12, 1963 arrested with Ralph
Abernathy for demonstrating without a permit.
• 1963, June lead 125,000 person Freedom Walk in
Detroit
• 1964 Time magazine’s “Man of the Year”
• 1964 Awarded Nobel Peace Prize-youngest ever to
receive (35)
• 1965 arrested in Selma
• 1967 Announced inception of “Poor Peoples’
Campaign” for jobs and housing
• 1968 Assassinated April 4 in Memphis
Sit-ins
• On Jan. 31, 1960, Joseph
McNeil was refused
service at a lunch counter
at the bus terminal in
Greensboro, NC.
• NcNeil and three other
freshmen from NC
Agricultural and Technical
College staged the first sitin at a Woolworths lunch
counter in Greensboro
Sit-ins cont……
• McNeil was joined by more black students and
three whites on succeeding days to fill all the seats
at the counter.
• Inspired sit-ins all over the South-Durham,
Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Raleigh and into
Virginia.
• Civil rights activist, Ella Baker, termed the sit-ins
“More than a hamburger”.
• Feb. 12, 1961-Tallahassee sit-in turned into a “jailin” when all those arrested refused to pay the fines
and took their 60 day sentence.
Freedom Rides-1961
• March 13, 1961-Supreme Court extended
its prohibition against segregation in
vehicles engaged in interstate travel to
include all terminal accommodations.
• Freedom rides were set up to test Jim Crow
laws in terminal restaurants, waiting rooms
and rest rooms.
Freedom Rides cont…….
• May 4, 1961-7 blacks and 6 whites split into 2
interracial groups and boarded buses in
Washington D.C.
• Rock Hill, SC. One black was beaten attempting
to enter a waiting room.
• May 14-Mothers’ Day-Anniston, Alabama,
freedom rider bus attacked and burned. Medical
treatment for burned and wounded blacks was
withheld.
University of Mississippi Riot1962
• James Meredith applied for admission to the
University of Mississippi.
• With help from Medgar Evers, NAACP
leader, a federal court order gave Meredith
entrance.
• Throng of over 2000 came on campus to
protest Meredith’s admission.
University of Mississippi Riot
cont….
• Confederate flag waving
students surrounded the
administration building.
• Meredith was taken to a
dormitory under cover of
darkness by 15 marshals.
• Riot erupted resulting in 2
deaths and 75 injuries.
Winona Mississippi-June 9, 1963
• Four young women were arrested as they
returned from a movement workshop
• Fannie Lou Hamer, Annell Ponder of the
SCLC, Euvester Simpson, and June Johnson
were jailed with three of them beaten.
• When Lawrence Guyot attempted to bail
them out, he also was beaten.
Dr. Martin Luther King and
Birmingham 1963
• Martin Luther King
provoked a
confrontation in
Birmingham, Alabama
in 1963
• Started a wave of nonviolent action-”The
Negro Revolution”
• King and Rev.
Abernathy in photo
Birmingham cont…
• Injunction filed to prohibit racial protests.
• King and Rev. Shuttlesworth led sit-ins and
marches on City Hall.
• Protestors were attacked by police dogs.
• King was jailed, and while incarcerated, wrote his
famous 19 page letter-”Letter from the
Birmingham Jail”.
• Birmingham blacks staged an economic boycott.
Birmingham cont…
• May 2-King staged a
children’s march of
over 1000 black
children.
• May 3-firemen aimed
firehoses at children
assembled with King.
• Over 1300 arrested in
2 days-adults and
children
1963 The March on Washington
D.C.
March on Washington
• Philip Randolpf and Bayard Rustin organized a
march on Washington.
• The march proceeded from the Washington
Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in a peaceful
parade.
• Over 200,000 including 75,000 whites participated
in the march.
• Joan Baez sang “We Shall Overcome”; Peter, Paul
and Mary sang “How Many Roads?” and Bob
Dylan performed the “Ballad of Medgar Evers” to
commemorate his death.
Mississippi, June, 1964
• Three civil rights workers who were working on
registering blacks for voting were killed by the Ku
Klux Klan and buried in an earthen dam of a cattle
pond.
• Bodies of Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and
Andrew Goodman were found on Aug. 4, 1964
• The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was
formed –80,000 people joined
Civil Rights Act 1964
• Authorized massive use of federal authority to
combat privately imposed racial discrimination.
• Title II- federal offense to discriminate against any
person in place of public accommodation because
of race, color, religion or place of origin.
• Title VII -Illegal for any employer or union to
discriminate in employment practices against
anyone because of race, color, religion or place of
origin.
Selma to Montgomery March
1965
• Martin Luther King attempted to lead a
march on March7 from Selma, Alabama to
Montgomery.
• Purpose was to appeal to Gov. Wallace to
stop violence such as the the killing of a
protestor by a state trooper in Marion,
Alabama.
• Wallace refused to allow the march.
Selma to Montgomery cont…
• King met with Pres. Johnson and set march
for the 8th of March.
• Protestors decided to march on the 7th
without King.
• Marchers were met by state troopers and
charged upon at the Pettus Bridge just
outside Selma. They attacked praying
protestors with night sticks and tear gas.
Selma to Montgomery cont…
• Troopers advance on marchers outside
Selma.
Selma to Montgomery cont…
• The beatings of many of the marchers led to the
naming of the Selma march, “Bloody Sunday”
• The following Tuesday King led a march to the
Selma bridge where one marcher was killed.
• March 25, King led a successful march from
Selma to Montgomery with Pres. Johnson’s
permission.
• The Voting Rights Act was passed that year.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
• The 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution
were not followed in the South.
• Social pressure, violence, and terrorist activities of
the Ku Klux Klan including lynchings kept black
people from voting.
• In 1944 the Supreme Court case of Smith v.
Allwright declared the “white primary”
unconstitutional. White primaries were operated
by the Democratic party, which was the only party
in the South, and public officials were “chosen”.
Voting Rights Act 1965 cont…
• Poll taxes, which the
blacks could not
afford, were in place
in the South.
• Literacy tests were
given to blacks and
scored by the So.
Democrats to
eliminate the black
vote
Voting Rights Act 1965 cont…
• Result of plea by Pres. Johnson to “ensure that no
person could be deprived of the right to vote in
any election for any office because of race or
color”.
• Section 2 of the act prohibits voting qualifications
that address race or color.
• Authorized appointment of federal examiners to
register voters in areas that had been
discriminating.
Voting Right Act 1965 cont…
• 1993 Supreme Court case of Shaw v. Reno
ruled it unconstitutional to create a
congressional district using race as the sole
reason for drawing the district lines.
• Congressional district may include a
majority of minority voters as long as race
was not the only factor used in drawing the
lines.
Those who opposed the nonviolent protests and advocated
“Black Power” and aggressive
resistance.
Stokely Carmichael-SNCC
• Carmichael became the leader of the SNCC after John
Lewis
• Began a “battle for self-determination” along with Floyd
McKissick from CORE.
• King attempted to temper the violence tendencies in the
Meredith March Against Fear from Memphis to Jacksondid not prevail
• Carmichael was arrested along the march for pitching a
tent on the grounds of a black high school.
• Began the chant, “We want Black Power!”
• Under Carmichael, the SNCC abandoned all pretense of
working within the movement.
• Helped to organize the Black Panther party.
Malcolm X
• Promoted a “global rebellion of the oppressed
against the oppressor”.
• Responsible for the growing militancy of the black
population
• Leader of the Black Muslims
• Did not want an end to separatism
• Created the Organization of Afro-American Unity
• Assassinated Feb. 20, 1965 in Harlem by Black
Muslims.
Affirmative Action
• One major result of the civil rights movement was
establishment of affirmative action.
• Affirmative action provides equal opportunities
for minorities.
• Often termed “reverse discrimination’ by
opponents.
• Challenged in the famous case Bakke v.
University of California Regents where Allen
Bakke charged the university with reverse
discrimination .
• Set quotas of minorities resulted from affirmative
Affirmative Action cont…
• Has been challenged numerous times in the Supreme Court
with some cases upheld and some overruled.
• Case of Adarand v. Pena, in which Adarand Constructors,
Inc. sued respondent officials over race-based
presumptions used in subcontractor compensation clause,
held that it violated the equal protection component of the
Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The
subcontractor clause granted a prime contractor a financial
incentive to hire sub-contractors who were socially and
economically disadvantaged individuals.
• Richmond v. Croson in 1989 was a similar case involving
minority sub-contractors and a 30% quota for hiring-court
struck down that regulation.
Strength of Conviction
The Civil Rights Movement was a success because it was a true
“movement” of the people who believed in what they were
doing . Hundreds of thousands of citizens, both black and
white, banded together in support for the granting of civil rights
to all Americans. The activists were working not only for
themselves, but for their fellow citizens of all races and colors.
The players in the drama that unfolded were not just special
interest groups who sought to gain some type of power or
monetary advancement, but people who cared about each other
and the rights of all of their fellow humans. Although the civil
rights of all are still not 100% enforced, the United States is a
much better place because of those who gave some, or all, for