CheckPoint: Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

Week Four

Virginia Thomas

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Appendix C

Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

Part I:

Leader and Associated Date(s) Organization and/or Cause Contribution

Legislation, if any
A. Philip Randolph 1941 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car His threat to march on Washington

Porters, which fought to protest discriminatory treatment

Discrimination caused former President Franklin

D. Roosevelt to react with new

policies on job discrimination.

Harriet Tubman Around Underground railroad With the help of some whites and

1856 other freed blacks, she helped to

free slaves from the south and sent

them north.
1863 President of the United States Signed the Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln and freed the slaves.

Core 1942 Fight discrimination with Used sit-ins to open restaurants for
 non-violent direct action. many black patrons across the

country.
Rosa Parks 1955 Refused to give up her seat Led to organizations of

for a white male on a bus. Montgomery improvement

associations.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1955, Wanted the same rights and Boycotted buses for a year that

1956, privileges as whites; ended segregated seating; began a

1963 Southern Christian series of marches demand fair

Leadership Conference. employment opportunities;

desegregation of public facilities,

and the release of 3,000 people

arrested for participating in the

marches.
President Lyndon Baines 1964 President of the United States Ratified the 24th amendment

Johnson outlawing the poll tax that stopped

blacks from voting.

James Meredith 1966 Encourage African Started a one man march to

Americans to vote. encourage African Americans to

forget their fears and vote, was

later shot but others kept the march

going on for him.

Part II:

Once you complete the matrix, use the space below to write a 75- to 100-word response

describing the role civil disobedience played in the Civil Rights Movement.
 Civil Disobedience is the act of disobeying a law on grounds of moral or political

principle. It is an attempt to influence society to accept a dissenting point of view. Although

it usually uses tactics of nonviolence, it is more than mere passive resistance since it often

takes active forms such as illegal street demonstrations or peaceful occupations of premises.

Throughout the history of the U.S., civil disobedience has played a significant role in many

of the social reforms that we all take for granted today. Some of the most well known of

these are: The Boston Tea Party, Anti-war movements, The Women's Suffrage Movement,

Abolition of slavery, the introduction of labor laws and unions, and The Civil Rights

Movement.

Reference:

Kayla Starr, adapted by Bonnie Blackberry. (1998). by Kayla Starr, adapted by Bonnie

Blackberry, The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy, retrieved from:

http://www.civilliberties.org/sum98role.html