Civil Rights Movement

1. Civil Rights Movement Review By: Michael Crews

2. The Beginnings • Jim Crow laws still enforced segregation in the South • Reasons for an increased push for equality • African Americans fought for freedom abroad but faced limits to liberty at home • A black middle class began to form • University enrollment of blacks increased • Brown v Board of Education • A court case brought by NAACP claiming separate but equal is not accurate • This case overturned Plessey v. Ferguson • Not much really changed in public education • Schools desegregate • Little Rock Nine • Federal Troops sent to enforce desegregation

3. Montgomery Bus Riots • Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man • Blacks boycotted public transpiration • NAACP filed a lawsuit against the city • Led to the rise of Martin Luther King Jr.

4. The Movement at Its Height • Student Activism • Non-violent protests = sit-ins, boycotts, marches • Birmingham Violence • MLK staged marches and sit-ins to protest segregation • City officials jailed protesters • Police brutality televised nationally • Forced the government to do something • March on Washington • MLK delivers ‘I Have a Dream’ • Selma march to Montgomery • Marches were attacked by Alabama State Police • Marched again a few days later • Lyndon Johnson sent Alabama National Guard to protect them

5. Government Action • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Effectively ended racial segregation and discrimination in all public places • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • Created to prevent racial and gender discrimination at work • Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Allowed blacks to quickly and easily register to vote without fear of violence • Johnson’s Great Society • War on poverty • Economic Opportunity Act = $2 billion in social welfare • Job corps • Project Head Start • Medicaid • Medicare

6. The Movement Splits • Civil Rights activists in the north tended to be more violent and relied on riots to get attention • Malcolm X – called for active self-defense against white violence • ‘Black Power’ • Movement that formed all black schools, organizations and political groups • MLK assassinated 1968 in Memphis • Riots broke out all over the U.S.