The Civil Rights Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement Events

2. 1950s:Brown vs. Board of Education • In 1954, Brown vs. the Board of Education declared that separate was not equal in public education. • Thurgood Marshall, a member of the NAACP, was the lawyer for Brown. • A year later the court ruled that school boards should desegregate “with all deliberate speed”

3. Montgomery Bus Boycott • In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. • Martin Luther King called for African Americans to refuse to use the bus system until they changed their segregation policy • People walked, carpooled, and took taxis instead of riding the buses • Finally the Supreme Court did away with the segregation policy • This event produced a new generation of African American leaders particularly Martin Luther King

4. Central High School IntegrationLittle Rock, Arkansas • In 1957, Governor Faubus said he would not follow the Supreme Court order to integrate public schools. • He placed Arkansas National Guard at Central High School to turn away the 9 black students trying to enroll. • President Eisenhower reacted by placing the guard under federal control to protect the African American students. • With this the long process of school integration could begin.

6. 1960sSit-Ins • CORE created the sit ins to protest the Jim Crow laws of separate but equal facilities such as restaurants. • In the 1960s it became a popular form of protest. They would sit down at segregated lunch counters or other public places. • If they were refused service, they would stay. It often worked but sometimes the protesters were harassed, beaten, or arrested.

8. Freedom Rides • In 1961, CORE and SNCC organized the Freedom Rides • Its purpose was to test if southern states were following the Supreme Court ruling that interstate travel areas could not be segregated. • Violence erupted in Alabama when the bus was set on fire and the escaping riders were beaten by the mob

10. Clash in Birmingham • Birmingham was known as “the most segregated city in the country”. • Fred Shuttlesworth, a Civil Rights leader in Birmingham invited MLK to help in Birmingham. MLK planned to boycott the stores downtown. • MLK faced off against Bull Connor who was the Birmingham police commissioner who threatened to arrest any demonstrators. • MLK and the others continued anyway and was put in jail where he wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” defending his tactics.

11. Clash in Birmingham • After MLK was released, he got children to march with them and over 900 children were arrested. • Police also used high power hoses, tear gas, and attack dogs on the protestors while the nation watched in horror.

12. March on Washington • To focus national attention on JFK’s Civil Rights bill, civil rights leaders and 200,000 people of all races marched on Washington, D.C. • MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. • As a result of the March of Washington, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

14. Freedom Summer • In the summer of 1964 a voter registration drive was organized for Mississippi • A thousand volunteers, mostly college students, joined the Freedom Summer going to Mississippi to help blacks register to vote

15. Freedom Summer • Whites and the KKK were angry from the Civil Rights Act and violence erupted in some places. • 3 civil rights workers were found murdered in Mississippi, churches were burned or bombed, and there more than 80 mob attacks.

16. Selma March • African Americans still had problems attaining 1 basic right: Voting • The police in Selma were arresting people who stood in line to register to vote. • King and others decided to organize a protest march.

17. Selma March • As marchers set out they were met with armed state troopers who whipped, clubbed, and gassed the marchers. • TV pictures shocked the nation and LBJ sent federal marshals to protect the marchers. • As a result of the Freedom Summer and the Selma March, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.