Civil Rights Movement

1950s
Background
Jim Crow Laws:
Statutes or laws created to enforce segregation.
Jackie Robinson:
Breaks the color barrier in 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 Plessy vs. Furguson (1896).
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec. 1, 1955 Montgomery Ala. Rosa Parks would not give up her seat to a white
passenger.
Right: Car Pool Pick-up Station.
Martin Luther King Jr. Preached to blacks in Mont. 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 - Video Clip
Civil Rights Act, 1957
First Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction.
The Justice Department file suits on behalf of blacks who were denied the right to vote.
Significance It passed and was bipartisan.
Textbook Work:
Pg. 450 Analyze Maps
Pg. 451 Analyze Data
PG. 454 2, 4, 5
1960s
Riots
Race riots broke out throughout the US in the 1960s.
Watts, Los Angeles - 1965
1967 saw the worst rioting - Detroit - 43 died, 5000 homeless.
Many African-Americans were frustrated with the lack of progress towards
equality.
Black Leaders
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Fought for African-Am. rights.
Used non-violent protest.
 1967 - Thurgood Marshall First African-American appointed to the Supreme Court.
Malcolm X Malcolm 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 delivered his I have a dream speech.
Civil Rights Strategies
Sit ins Used in an 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
Representatives Signed a resolution condemning the 1954 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 lead to the Voting Rights Act (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, Tenn.
Rioting broke out across the nation.
James Earl Ray - Arrested & convicted for the crime.