The Civil Rights Movement
Copyright: Jerry Judd
1-31-05
I. The Segregation System
During the 1890’s, many states throughout the nation, but
especially in the South, passed “Jim Crow” laws aimed at
segregating (or separating) the races. There were segregated
schools, railroad cars, elevators, and rest rooms.
Two Types of Segregation
de jure segregation is segregation imposed by law (de
jure is latin for lawful) Example: Plessy vs. Ferguson
(1896)
de facto segregation is segregation by fact or circumstance.
Very often this is not a conscious choice. A good example is
found in neighborhoods, frequently there is a white
neighborhood or a black neighborhood, this concentration
can lead to schools that are predominately one race. (de
facto is latin for by fact)
Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
Supreme Court case
in which the court
upheld segregation
by ruling that “separate
but equal” facilities did
not violate the Fourteenth
Amendment.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Brown v. Bd. Of Education 1954
Supreme Court case challenging segregation in public schools;
in it the court ruled that separate facilities were unequal and
therefore an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment.
Thurgood Marshall
Brown Family
Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
Fifty Thousand
African Americans
organized a boycott
against the bus system
of Montgomery, AL,
when Rosa Parks
was arrested for
refusing to give up
her seat to a white
passenger.
Crisis in Little Rock 1957
Elizabeth Eckford
bravely walked
alone through a
crowd of angry,
jeering whites
before she was
turned away from
entering Little
Rock’s Central
High School.
Elizabeth Eckford, left, one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School in
1957, talks with Hazel Massery in front of the school in Little Rock, Ark. Monday, Sept.
22, 1997. Massery (whose name was then Hazel Bryan) was a student protestor captured in
photos heckling Eckford after she was turned away from the school by the Arkansas
National Guard Sept. 4, 1957.
Martin Luther King Jr.
And Non-Violence
King believed in
the power of nonviolent resistance,
the peaceful refusal
to obey unjust laws.
King called his brand
of non-violent
resistance “soul force”.
He based his ideas on
the teachings of the
following people:
Henry David Thoreau
From writer Henry
David Thoreau he
took the concept of
Civil Disobediencethe refusal to obey
an unjust law.
A. Philip Randolph
From labor organizer A. Philip Randolph he learned to
organize massive demonstrations.
Mohandas Gandhi
From Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped India
throw off British rule, he learned to resist oppression
without violence.
Jesus Christ
From Jesus, King
learned to love
one’s enemies.
King said: “We will not hate
you, but we cannot obey
your unjust laws…We will
soon wear you down by our
capacity to suffer. And in
winning our freedom, we will
so appeal to your heart and
conscience that we will win
you in the process.”
Major Civil Rights Organizations
ACRONYM
NAME
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
CORE
CONGRESS OF RACIAL
EQUALITY
FREEDOM RIDES
NAACP
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF COLORED PEOPLE
BROWN V. BOARD OF
EDUCATION
SCLC
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN
LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA,
CIVIL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN;
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
SNCC
STUDENT NONVIOLENT
COORDINATING
COMMITTEE
FREEDOM SUMMER
Sit-ins
Sit-in demonstrators, such
as these at a
Jackson,
Mississippi, lunch
counter in 1963,
faced intimidation
and humiliation
from white
segregationists.
Freedom Rides
Bus rides through
the south in the
early 1960’s to
challenge segregation,
particularly in interstate transportation.
Often these civil rights
activists were met
with violence.
Freedom Ride 50th anniversary
Integrating Ole Miss
Riots broke out on
the campus of the
University of Mississippi when James
Meredith won a
federal court case
allowing him
to enroll in the allwhite university.
Freedom Summer
A 1964 project
to register
African-American
voters in Mississippi.
For some, the job
proved deadly. Three
civil rights workers
were murdered by
Klansmen and local
police in Neshoba
County, Mississippi.
Selma March
In 1965, SCLC
organized a march
from Selma, AL.,
to Montgomery, AL.,
to support voting
rights. That summer,
Congress finally
passed President
Johnson’s Voting
Rights Act of 1965.
Bridge to Freedom
Black Power
As the civil rights
movement grew, many
African Americans
questioned the
effectiveness of nonviolence. Others began
to question the
desirability of integration
altogether. Adopting
a slogan of Black Power,
many of these leaders
began to go in another
direction.
Malcolm X
In 1946, while in
prison, Malcolm
embraced the
teachings of Elijah
Muhammads’s Nation
of Islam, or Black
Muslims, an offshoot
of the orthodox
Islamic faith. He began
to preach black
separatism and armed
self-defense.
Black Panthers
A militant AfricanAmerican political
organization formed
in 1966 by Huey
Newton and Bobby
Seale to fight police
brutality and to
provide services in
the ghetto.
King is Assassinated
On April 4, 1968,
Martin Luther
King, Jr. was
assassinated in
Memphis, TN,
by James Earl
Ray.
“Because I’ve been to the mountaintop….and I’ve
looked over….and I’ve seen the Promise Land….I
may not get there with you but….we as a people
will get to the Promise Land.”
http://1968 - Martin Luther King's Prophetic Last speech - Remember
Legacy of the CRM
Gains
Unfinished Work
1. End of legalized
segregation
2. Constitutional
and legal protection of civil
rights and voting
rights.
3. Increased pride
in racial identity.
4. More AfricanAmerican voters,
elected officials,
and high school
and college
graduates.
1. The movement still faces
such challenges as:
*housing and job
discrimination
*educational inequality
*poverty
*racism
*lack of jobs
1. Affirmative Action programs involve making
special efforts to hire or
enroll groups that have
suffered discrimination.