The Civil Rights Movement
People and Events
 Extra
Credit Options
 Recap on Emmett Till
 HW: Read Background Essay of DBQ
Packet and draw a T-chart comparing
MLK and Malcolm X’s background.
 Objective Question: How did the
Emmett Till murder and trial kick start
the civil rights movement?
The Emergence of the Civil
Rights Movement

Jim Crow Laws created
“separate but equal”
institutions for blacks and
whites.
 Segregation enforced by
law and vigilante justice “lynching.”
 Brown v. Board began the
fight for desegregation.
School Desegregation
The KKK and White Citizen’s Councils promised “massive
resistance” to desegregation.
 In 1957 nine black students attempted to integrate Central
H.S. in Little Rock, AK
 The Gov. of AK, Orval Fabus, led resistance to the “Little
Rock Nine.”

School Desegregation

Angry mobs surrounded
Central H.S. when the nine
students attempted to
enter.
 President Eisenhower
called out over 10,000
troops to restore order and
protect the “Little Rock
Nine.”
 In 1962, James Meredith
was the first AfricanAmerican admitted to the
University of Mississippi.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Schools were not the only
battleground in the Civil
Rights movement.
 On December 1, 1955,
Rosa Parks refused to give
up her seat on a
Montgomery Bus.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Parks was arrested for violating Jim Crow laws.
 Her arrest caused the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
 The boycott was organized by MLK and lasted for nearly a
year.
 After a year, the city agreed to desegregate its busses.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was a minister in
Montgomery, AL.
 He became the most
prominent leader of the Civil
Rights Movement
 King believed in using nonviolent resistance and civil
disobedience in order to
achieve the goals of the
Civil Rights movement.
The Sit-in Movement

On February 1, 1960 4 black students walked into a
Woolworth’s lunch counter and sat at the counter. They
refused to leave until they were served.
 Others picked up on their example, and the sit-in
demonstrations spread. Often these peaceful demonstrators
were attacked and beaten.
 The SNCC was later created by these student activists in
order to organize similar protests around the country.
The Freedom Riders, 1961

To help speed
desegregation, CORE sent
Freedom Riders on a bus
trip from D.C. to New
Orleans.
 The Freedom Riders were
arrested, beaten, and their
busses were attacked.
 President Kennedy had to
send federal marshals
South to protect the
Freedom Riders.
Demonstrations in
Birmingham, 1963

MLK and other leaders organized demonstrations for
Birmingham, AL to protest segregation in that city.
 Police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor attempted to
break up the demonstrations using violence.
 He used fire hoses and police dogs to attack demonstrators.
 The American public was outraged by the violence they
witnessed.
Demonstrations in
Birmingham, 1963



During the protests MLK was
arrested. While in jail he wrote
a, “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail,” that stated the goals and
methods of the movement.
Eventually the demonstrations
were successful in integrating
Birmingham
In September, 1963, the 16th
St. Baptist Church, which was
one of the headquarters for the
demonstrations was bombed.
Four young girls were killed.
The March on Washington,
1963

Civil Rights leaders
organized a protest march
on D.C.
 They hoped to pressure the
Kennedy administration to
pass federal Civil Rights
legislation.
 Over 250,000 protesters
took part.
The March on Washington,
1963

At the Washington protest,
MLK gave his most famous
speech, “I Have A Dream.”
 In his speech, King
described a future America
free of racism and
discrimination.
 Partly as a result of this
pressure, Congress passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Voter Registration Drives

After passage of the Civil
Rights Act, Civil Rights
leaders turned their focus to
voting rights.
 Literacy tests and poll taxes
had been used to keep
blacks from voting in the
South.
 For example, in Selma, AL
only 300/15,000 blacks had
registered to vote.
Voter Registration Drives





King and other leaders
organized a march from
Selma to Montgomery to
protest the denial of voting
rights.
King was arrested before the
march, but it took place
nonetheless.
The marchers were attacked
on the outskirts of Selma at
the Edmund Pettis Bridge.
Again white violence
generated support for the
Civil Rights movement.
Congress passed the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 after the
Selma protests.
Freedom Summer and Three
Deaths


Freedom Summer was an
effort to register AfricanAmericans to vote in
Mississippi.
Three volunteers, James
Chaney, Michael
Goodman, and Andrew
Schwerner were
kidnapped and murdered.
Three Deaths Cont.



Because Goodman and
Schwerner were white,
their disappearances
generated a lot of
publicity in the North.
The FBI got involved in
the investigation.
Eventually 10 men were
indicted in their deaths,
including members of
local law enforcement
and government. Seven
were convicted and the
other three were
acquitted.
Malcolm X





African-American support for
non-violent protest began to
weaken in the face of
continued white violence.
Malcolm X, a black Muslim
leader, advocated “Black
Nationalism.”
Malcolm X also advocated
using violence in selfdefense.
After a trip to Mecca,
Malcolm became more
moderate and broke with the
Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X was assassinated
in February, 1965.
Urban Race Riots

Many African-Americans in northern cities felt little has
changed in their conditions.
 Between 1954 and 1967 58 different cities experienced riots
as blacks protested police brutality and the lack of
opportunity.
King Assassinated

King was in Memphis, TN
organizing sanitation
workers to protest their
treatment.
 On the morning of April 4,
1968, King was shot and
killed.
 King’s death sparked riots
in 125 cities and among
American armed forces
overseas.
A Shift to Radicalism

In the late 1960s, blacks
became frustrated by the
slow rate of change.
 Many began to advocate
more militant action.
 Stokely Carmichael and
other leaders began to
call for black economic,
political and social power.
 The Black Panthers were
organized in an effort to
confront the police and
other government groups
in an effort to gain
equality.
The Legacy of the Civil Rights
Movement



By 1974 over 75% of blacks attended integrated schools in the
South.
In 1950 only 13% of black students finished high school and 2.4%
attended college. In 1982 those numbers were 58% and 12.4%.
The African-American Civil Rights movement served as a model for
other minority groups such as Native Americans, women, and
Mexican-Americans.