Civil Rights Movement

1. Civil Rights Movement SS8H11: The student will evaluate the role of Georgia in the modern civil rights movement.

2. Brown V. Board of Education 1954 • The United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was no longer constitutional. • This decision reversed the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in which the court ruled “separate but equal”

3. Benjamin Mays • Son of slaves, he was a dean at Howard University and later president of Morehouse college in Atlanta. • Mays was an influential man that was a leader of the civil rights movement. • Mays traveled to India to meet with Gandhi to seek ways to battle racism. • He was mentor to his student, Martin Luther King Jr.

4. Martin Luther King • Many blacks had served in WWII and when they returned they began to question the poor treatment of African Americans. • For the first time many began to question the treatment of blacks and to demand their civil rights they had fought to preserve.

5. Martin Luther King • King got his beginning with protest in the case of Rosa Parks. • From here he made his move leading protests all over the South. • Non-Violent Protest- King was know for ability to promote blacks to use ways of protest without violence. • He organized marches, sit-ins, and other peaceful means of protest.

6. Violent Retaliation • King and his followers saw much violence as they organized peaceful protest. • He knew that America could not stand the embarrassment of racism during the Cold War as other countries looked for reasons to doubt democracy.

7. “I Have a Dream” • 1963- King marches to Washington D.C. where 200,000 civil rights activists demanded equal rights to blacks. • Over the next two years King saw his work pay off. • Civil Rights Act of 1964- made it illegal for public accommodations such as restaurants, hotel, and movie theaters to segregate. • 24th Amendment- ended the poll tax. • Voting Rights Act of 1965- ended the literacy tests and allowed the predident to use federal officials to make sure all people could register to vote.

8. Albany Movement • 1960 marked the first sit-in by black students. It took place in S. Carolina at a lunch counter. • Students would sit at the counter until served or arrested. • This tactic became popular throughout the South. • Albany, Ga.- here in Georgia began one of King’s plans. Organizers planned peaceful marches in Albany to push for equal rights for all. The plan here failed. Police chief Laurie Pritchett very non-violent on purpose. Protesters are ignored and give up.

9. Plan C After Albany, King reorganized and came up with new plan. Plan C- confrontation- 1963 in Birmingham, a city where the KKK was very active, King put into place the plan to provoke white responses. Bull Conner- the police chief here was very violent. The violence in Birmingham makes Congress realize they must deal with civil rights.

10. Lester Maddox • Lester Maddox grew up poor but worked hard to become the owner of an Atlanta restaurant called the Pickrick. • He was a strong believer in segregation and his right to run his business as he sees fit. • If black customers tried to eat in the Pickrick, he would meet them with a gun and beet them with a bat as they tried to leave. • He was taken to court by the government and lost his case.

11. Lester Maddox • Maddox ran for mayor several times against W. Hartsfield and Ivan Allen Jr. but failed. • In 1966 he defeated Ellis Arnall for the democratic candidate for governor of Georgia. • Maddox defeated Bo Calloway in the election. • Despite his views Maddox appointed more blacks to state offices than any other candidate before him.