Name: ___________________

MLK and Rosa Parks Guided Notes

Anticipatory Activity Instructions: Circle the one historical figure your group
was assigned:

Rosa Parks OR Martin Luther King Jr.

1. For three minutes, each person in your group will

answer just one question on the back of the
paper.
a. What was this person’s official role; what
organizations were they involved in?
b. What ideas and strategies did they
promote?
c. What major events were they involved in?
Where did they happen?
d. What were their goals?

2. For seven minutes, in your groups discuss,

elaborate and record all four answers to all four
questions.

Timeline Timeline image in Glossary

1600’s Slaves purchased as “indentured servants,”first

runaways and unequal punishments recorded.

1700’s First laws defining unequal rights; 1776 American

Revolution, 100,000 slaves escape their masters; Mass.
first recorded black men earning the right to vote.

1800’s the US Supreme Court denies all blacks basic

rights and citizenship, 1861 - 1865 American Civil War,
1865 13th Amendment abolishes slavery, 1868 14th
Amendment declares equal protection rights to all
citizens, 1870 15th Amendment grants all citizens right to
vote, lynchings become common, introduction of
“separate but equal” segregation laws.

1900 - 1940: Niagara Movement - African-American

scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois and other activists declare they
will protest until they have equal rights; Great Migration of
African Americans to the North; 1917 WWI, 370,000
African American fight; white “race riots” become more
common.
 Name: ___________________

1940 - 1955: 1941 WWII begins FDR sets up Fair

Employment Practices Commission to address some
discrimination issues in federal hiring, 1942 activists
establish the “Congress of Racial Equality,” 1946 Truman
establishes first presidential committee on Civil Rights,
1947 Mendez v Westminster, 1948 armed forces
desegregated, 1954 Brown v Board of Education.

Key Terms Segregation - Separation of groups of people with

differing characteristics such as race or class.
Desegregation - the ending of a policy of racial
segregation; an racial integration of schools and military
forces.
Integrate - bring (people or groups with particular
characteristics or needs) into equal participation in or
membership of a social group or institution.

Remembering last unit Please fill in the blanks in the sections below.

● Recall how before and during the 1950’s,

American society was not really an “era of
consensus”.

● Remember too that African American participation

in WWII (1941 -1945) led to the
_______________ of the armed forces in
________.

Last unit Please fill in the blanks in the sections below.

● Recall that Mendez v Westminster (1947), Brown

v Board of Education (1954) and other cases
fought against _______________ Segregation in
________________.
● Remember how Civil Rights lawyers,
_________________________, fought for African
American legal rights and access to higher
education.

2

Key Terms
Jim Crow, Racial Segregation
and Voting Restrictions
To The Courts
Birmingham Racial Codes
3
Name: ___________________
Jim Crow Laws - Jim Crow laws were laws that enforced
racial segregation in the American South between the
end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the
civil rights movement in the 1950s
Separate but Equal - Separate but equal was a legal
doctrine in constitutional law, that stated racial
segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment,
which guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all
people.
● Recall that Jim Crow laws barred African
American from exercising their rights through
obstacles and punishment. For example
___________________ and _______________
were emplaced to prevent African Americans from
voting.
● Remember that many Jim Crow laws employed
“separate but _______________” rationalizing to
bar African American access to public places,
work and services.
● Similarly after Mendez v Westminster (1947),
Brown v Board of Education (1954) and the
Supreme Court “desegregation” of schools some
states closed their schools and appropriated funds
for “private academies.”
Use Handout:
“Birmingham Racial Codes” Structured Reading
 Name: ___________________

Key Terms National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People (NAACP) - an organisation founded in 1909, they
pledged “to promote equality of rights and eradicate caste
or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to
advance the interest of colored citizens and more.
Boycott - withdraw from commercial or social relations
with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment
or protest.
Montgomery Bus Boycott - The Montgomery Bus
Boycott was a political and a social protest campaign
against the policy of racial segregation on the public
transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.

Rosa Parks and the NAACP
● 1932 Rosa married Raymond Parks, member of
NAACP, and together they _________ the
Scottsboro Boys Case.
● 1943 Rosa Parks became ________ of
Montgomery NAACP.
● Rosa Parks was active in NAACP, was a member
of the Communist Party and ______________.
● 1955, December 1, Rosa Parks arrested for
refusing to move to the back of the bus.
● After her arrest, the Montgomery Bus Boycott
began and lasted ___________.

4

Key Terms
Martin Luther King Jr (MLK)
Martin Luther King's
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
5
Name: ___________________
Nonviolence - the use of peaceful means, not force, to
bring about political or social change.
Civil Disobedience - the refusal to comply with certain
laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of
political protest.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) -
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the first president of this
organization dedicated to abolishing legalized
segregation in a non-violent matter.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom -
Also known as simply the March on Washington or The
Great March on Washington was held in Washington,
D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963 to advocate for civil
and economic rights of African Americans. The march
ended standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with Dr.
King’s Speech “I Have a Dream”.
Bloody Sunday - March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to
600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma
on U.S. Highway 80 in protest. They were met by
violence and deputized citizens who had formed a posse.
● Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) advanced civil rights
through _______ and ___________.
● MLK was inspired by his ___________ and
__________ non-violent movement.
● MLK helped organize the Montgomery Bus
Boycott from his Church.
● Became the first ____________ of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
● King helped organize the 1963 the March on
Washington for ________ and _________, where
he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Use Handout:
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” Think-Write-Pair-Share

Key Terms
Debriefing and Broader
Implications.
African American citizens of
Montgomery during the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
6
Name: ___________________
Voting rights - the unconditional right of all people to
vote.
Activist - a person who campaigns to bring about political
or social change.
Labor Rights - Labor rights are both legal rights and
human rights relating to labor relations between workers
and employers.
● The Civil Rights movement did not come out of
nowhere, even in the 1940’s and 1950’s there
were people fighting for Civil Rights.
● African American and other activists were
dedicated to securing their rights and each
subsequent fight and victory fueled the next round
of protests.
● Rosa Park’s and Martin Luther King’s involvement
in the Montgomery Bus Boycott raised their
visibility and helped them continue the fights.
● Rosa Parks and MLK inspired other activists to
fight.
 Name: ___________________

Glossary : Please define the following terms in your own words, include details or
examples.
❏ Desegregation
❏ Labor rights
❏ Non-violence
❏ Civil Disobedience
❏ Boycott
❏ Zeitgeist
❏ National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
❏ Montgomery Bus Boycott
❏ Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
❏ Bloody Sunday
❏ The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

7
 Name: ___________________

8
 Name: ___________________