Chapter 1 - US Rights and Protest

● Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-6:

○ Triggered by action of Rosa Parks
○ Organized by local NAACP and church ministers
○ A year-long boycott
○ Proved the success of sustained, well-organized, non-violent, mass protest
○ Led to emergence of Martin Luther King Jr as a nationally known figure and the
formation of the
○ Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC

● Effects:
○ Montgomery, Alabama:
■ racism and segregation all too familiar
○ Murder of Emmett Till received widespread publicity, affecting many who were to
become civil rights activists
■ Montgomery
○ Rosa Parks was tired of giving in
○ NAACP involvement as Rosa Parks was branch secretary

● Sit-ins, 1960
○ Were non-violent protests by students in the South
○ Thousands were jailed but refused bail, thus filling the prisons
○ Reignited the Civil Rights
○ Movement and led to formation of SNCC

● Freedom Rides, 1961

○ Launched by CORE to test Supreme Court ban on segregation in interstate
transport
○ Blacks and whites, travelling together through the South, were met by violence
○ Kennedy government reluctant to intervene but was forced to because: the Rides
were extended and violence continued, bringing adverse publicity
○ Federal government enforced desegregation on interstate transport
○ Kennedy sent troops to restore order at the
○ University of Mississippi, 1962

● Albany Movement, 1961-2

○ Seen as a setback for the Civil Rights Movement, especially for King's SCLC

● Birmingham campaign, 1963:

○ King launched SCLC campaign to desegregate white-owned stores
○ Peaceful marches met by police violence and received nationwide publicity
 ○ King's defied a court order ('Letter from Birmingham City Jail') and marches
continued
○ Children's Crusade led to increased police violence and media attention
○ Increasing support for civil rights led to Kennedy's promise of a civil rights bill

● March on Washington, August 1963

○ To win public support and maintain pressure on Congress to pass civil rights
reform
○ Led by Randolph and organized by Rustin
○ All the main civil rights leaders spoke, culminating in King's 'I have a dream'
speech
○ Live TV coverage of march by 250,000, both black and white

● The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-6 showed how successful an organized,

sustained, non-violent, mass protest could be.
● It also led to the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr and of the SCLC.
● After a lull in the late 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement was re-energized by the student
sit-ins of 1960 and the Freedom Rides in 1961.
● After Albany, which some saw as a failure, the SCLC campaign in Birmingham in 1963
led to a huge increase in public support and to Kennedy's commitment to civil rights
reform.
● The March on Washington and King's 'I have a dream' speech further bolstered public, if
not Congressional, support.
● The Civil Rights Act was eventually passed in July 1964, eight months after Kennedy's
assassination.