Civil Rights Movement 1950s

Background
Jim Crow Laws:
Statutes or laws created to enforce segregation
Jackie Robinson
Brakes color barrier in MLB 1947
Brown vs Topeka Board of Education (1954)
Earl Warren - US Supreme Court Chief Justice
Supreme Court Decision - Public schools could not be separated by race
Reversed the separate but equal clause of Plessy vs Ferguson (1896)
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec. 1, 1955 - Montgomery Ala.
Rosa Parks would not give up her seat to a white passenger
MLK - Preached to blacks in Mont. to stop using the buses
Supreme Court ruling: Segregation on buses was illegal
Little Rock Arkansas
The South resisted integration (in schools)
Little Rock - National Guard prevented schools from opening/integrating
Federal Judge - Forced Nat. Guard to be removed
Ike - Sent in paratroopers and opened the schools
First black students - The Little Rock Nine
Cilvil Rights Act, 1957
First Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction
The Justice Department file suits on behalf of blacks who were denied the right to vote
Significance - It passed and was bipartisan

Civil Rights Movement 1960s

Riots
Race riots broke out throughout the US in the 1960s
Watts, LA - 1965
1967 saw the worst rioting - Detroit - 43 died, 5000 homeless
Many African-Americans were frustrated with the lack of progress towards equality

Black Leaders
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Fought for African-American rights
Used non-violent protest
1967 - Thurgood Marshall - First African-American appointed to the Supreme Court
Malcolm X - Malcolm Little - Black power movement
Influenced African-Americans to take pride in their culture and believe in their ability
1963 March on Washington D.C.
Organized to pressure Congress into passing a civil rights bill
More than 200,000 Freedom Marchers gather before the Lincoln Memorial
King delivered his I have a dream speech
Civil Rights Strategies
Sit ins - Used in an effort to help integrate restaurants
Freedom Riders - Used to help draw attention to the South refusal to integrate buses and bus
terminals
Southern Manifesto - 1956 - 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives
Signed a resolution condemning the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs Board of
Education
Selma to Montgomery March
King was attempting to register black voters in the South
Will help lead to the Voting Rights Act (1965)
The freedom march began March 21, 1965

 Marchers were protected by federal marshals, FBI and Alabama National Guard - Seen on TV
MLK Assassination
April 4 1968 - King assassinated in Memphis, Ten.
Rioting broke out across the nation
James Earl Ray - Arrested and convicted for the crime