Kelleghan 1

Civil Rights Movement 1950s

Background

Jim Crow Laws:

o Statutes or laws created to enforce segregation
Jackie Robinson: breaks color barrier in the MLB in 1947

Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (1954)

Earl Warren US Supreme Court

Chief Justice
Supreme Court decision- Public schools could not be separated by race
Reversed the separate but equal clause of the Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dec. 1, 1955- Montgomery Ala.- Rosa Parks would not give up her seat to a white passenger
Martin Luther King Jr.- Preached to Blacks in Montgomery to stop using the buses
Supreme Court Ruling: Segregation on buses was illegal

Little Rock Arkansas

The south resisted integration (in schools)

Little Rock- National guard prevented schools from opening/integrating
Federal Judge- forced Nat. Guard to be removed
Ike- sent 1000 paratroopers and opened the schools. First black students- The Little Rock
Nine

Civil Rights Act, 1957

First Civil Rights act since Reconstruction (post civil war)

The Justice Department file suits on behalf of Blacks who were denied the right to vote
Significance- it passed and was bipartisan (both parties on board)

1960s
Riots

Race riots broke out throughout the US in the 1960s

Watts, Los Angeles 1965
1967 saw the worst rioting Detroit 43 died, 5,000 homeless
Many African-Americans were frustrated with the lack of progress towards equality

Black Leaders

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for African American rights using nonviolent protest
1967- Thurgood Marshall- First African American appointed to the supreme court

Kelleghan 2

Malcom x- Malcom Little- Black power movement, influenced African-Americans to take

pride in their culture and believe in their ability

1963 March on Washington, D.C.

Organized to pressure congress into passing a civil rights bill

More than 200,000 freedom marchers gather before the Lincoln memorial
King delivers his I have a dream Speech

Civil Rights Strategies

Sit ins- used in effort to help integrate restaurants

Freedom riders- used to help draw attention to the souths refusal to integrate buses and bus
terminals
Southern Manifesto- 1956- 19 senators and 77 members of the house of representativessigned a resolution condemning the 1959 supreme court decision in Brown v Board of
education

Selma to Montgomery March

King was attempting to register black voters in the south

Will help to lead to the Voting Rights Act in (1965)
The freedom march began March 21. 1965
Marchers were protected by federal marshals, FBI, and Alabama National Guard Seen on
TV

Martin Luther Kings Assassination

April 4, 1968 King assassinated in Memphis, TN

Rioting broke out across the nation
James Earl Ray- Arrested & convicted for the crime