Key Successes of the

Civil Rights Movement

Daily Do Now
What do you know about the Civil Rights Movement?
HW: Finish WebQuest
Background Information
● 13th Amendment
○ Abolished slavery
● 14th Amendment
○ Granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States
■ a.k.a enslaved people
● 15th Amendment
○ Any citizens right to vote will not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
● Executive Order 9981
○ Desegregation of the military
■ Truman
Snapshot of Civil Rights
● Racial Violence
● Jim Crow Segregation (transportation, accomodations, etc)
● Inability to vote despite 15th Amendment (literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clause,
etc.)
● Inability to run for office
● Financial disparity
● Low literacy and education rates (inferior school systems)
● Housing discrimination (cannot live in particular locations)
● Unfair judicial systems (despite 14th Amendment)
Do Now
What is nonviolence?
Why did many civil rights activists choose nonviolence as a way to pursue equal rights?
What nonviolent strategies did they use?

HW: 21.2
BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION (1954)
• NAACP CHALLENGED THE “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” RULING FROM PLESSY V.
FERGUSON
• THE SUPREME COURT AGREED WITH NAACP ARGUMENT THAT SEGREGATED
PUBLIC EDUCATION VIOLATED THE U.S. CONSTITUTION - SEPARATION WAS
INHERENTLY UNEQUAL
• EFFECTS:
– GREAT IMPACT SINCE IT TOUCHED SO MANY AMERICANS
– OPPOSITION TO THE RULING DECLARED THAT THE SOUTH WOULD NOT BE INTEGRATED
(WHITE CITIZENS COUNCIL)
– RULING STATES SCHOOLS MUST DESEGREGATE WITH “ALL DELIBERATE SPEED” WHICH
ALLOWS MANY STATES TO DESEGREGATE AT THEIR OWN SPEED
LITTLE ROCK NINE (1957)
• IN RESPONSE TO BROWN, THE NAACP ENROLLED NINE STUDENTS INTO CENTRAL HIGH
SCHOOL IN LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
• THE GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS ORDERED THE NATIONAL GUARD TO PREVENT THE
STUDENTS FROM ENTERING THE SCHOOL
• PRESIDENT EISENHOWER SENT FEDERAL TROOPS TO LITTLE ROCK TO PROTECT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS AND
TO ENFORCE BROWN VS. BOARD
• FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR, FEDERAL TROOPS STAYED IN LITTLE ROCK ESCORTING THE STUDENTS TO AND FROM
SCHOOL

• THE LR9 RECEIVED VERBAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE FROM WHITE STUDENTS INCLUDING ACID THROWN IN EYES, FLAMING
PAPER DROPPED ON THEM, ETC.

• THE NEXT YEAR, THE GOVERNOR OF ARKANSAS ORDERED THE CLOSURE OF ALL THE
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN LITTLE ROCK TO PREVENT INTEGRATION - THIS WAS KNOWN AS
THE LOST YEAR.
TOP LEFT: FEDERAL TROOPS ESCORTING LR9 INTO
SCHOOL

BOTTOM LEFT: LR9

TOP RIGHT: ON THE MORNING OF THE

INTEGRATION, THE LR9 HAD A PLAN TO MEET AND
GO TOGETHER. ELIZABETH ECKFORD MISSED THIS
INFORMATION AND WALKED TO SCHOOL THROUGH
A MOB BY HERSELF.

BOTTOM RIGHT: A WHITE JOURNALIST BEATEN

BECAUSE OF HIS SUPPORT FOR THE LR9.
EFFECTS OF LITTLE ROCK NINE

•IT DEMONSTRATED THAT THE PRESIDENT WOULD NOT TOLERATE OPEN

DEFIANCE OF THE LAW (OPPOSITION TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT)
•HOWEVER, MOST SOUTHERN STATES FOUND WAYS TO RESIST
DESEGREGATION AND IT WOULD TAKE YEARS BEFORE BLACK AND
WHITE CHILDREN WENT TO SCHOOL TOGETHER (CONTINUES TO BE
CHALLENGED IN THE SUPREME COURT INTO THE 1990S)
MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT (1955)
• ROSA PARKS ACTIONS TRANSFORMED THE MOVEMENT (BECAME THE
FACE OF THE MOVEMENT)
• GROUP OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN ORGANIZE THE MOVEMENT
NEARLY OVERNIGHT BY PASSING OUT FLYERS
• FIRST DAY 40,000 AFRICAN AMERICANS BOYCOTT THE MONTGOMERY
BUSSES
• NAACP BEGAN PREPARING A LEGAL CHALLENGE (IN ORDER TO
CHALLENGE IN COURT, YOU NEED A PLAINTIFF…)
• RISE OF MLK: URGED NON-VIOLENCE...THIS IS WHERE HE GETS HIS
START
• BOYCOTT LASTED A YEAR (381 days)
• 75% OF BUS RIDERS WERE AFRICAN AMERICAN
• ORGANIZED SYSTEM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN TAXI DRIVERS,
WALKING, ETC. TO SUSTAIN MOVEMENT
• IN 1956 THE SUPREME COURT RULED THE MONTGOMERY BUS
SEGREGATION LAW WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
EFFECTS OF THE BOYCOTT AND THE SUPREME COURT
VICTORY

• REVEALED THE POWER AFRICAN AMERICANS COULD HAVE IF

THEY JOINED TOGETHER

• KING ESTABLISHED THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

CONFERENCE (SCLC)
• ADVOCATED NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE TO FIGHT INJUSTICE
Do Now
What changes did we see throughout the Civil Rights Movement?
Compare de jure and de facto segregation.

HW: Finish “The Movement Heads North” Reading and Questions

FREEDOM RIDES (1961)

• TEST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S WILLINGNESS TO

ENFORCE THAT SEGREGATION ON INTERSTATE BUSES WAS
ILLEGAL (BOYNTON V. VIRGINIA 1960)
• EN ROUTE, THEY DEFIED SEGREGATION CODES
• IN ALABAMA FIREBOMBED ONE BUS AND ATTACKED THE
RIDERS OF THE SECOND BUS
• THE ATTACKERS HELD THE DOORS OF THE BUS CLOSED TO
TRY AND BURN THE FREEDOM RIDERS ALIVE, EVENTUALLY
THEY ESCAPED
EFFECTS OF THE FREEDOM RIDE
• PRESIDENT KENNEDY TAKES ACTION
• FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ISSUED AN ORDER
MANDATING THE DESEGREGATION OF INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION
AND FACILITIES
• Waiting rooms, restrooms, lunch counters, etc.
• CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ACHIEVED THEIR GOAL AND THAT INTIMIDATION
WOULD NOT DEFEAT THEM

• DRAWS A LOT OF ATTENTION TO THE VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH

SIT-INS (1960)

• FOUR BLACK STUDENTS AT NORTH CAROLINA SAT

DOWN IN A WHITE DINER AND WERE TOLD THAT THEY
WOULD NOT BE SERVED
• PRIMARILY A COLLEGE STUDENT RAN MOVEMENT

• SIT INS BECAME A NEW WAY TO PROTEST

SEGREGATION OF PUBLIC FACILITIES

• LEADS TO LIBRARIES, POOLS (WADE-INS), ETC.

LEFT: PROTESTERS BLOCK THE ENTRANCE
TO A SEGREGATED DRUG STORE

RIGHT: PROTESTERS EXPERIENCING

ABUSE DURING A SIT-IN
THE POWER OF THE MEDIA
“When I first heard about the Negroes sitting in at lunch counters down South,” he later
recalled, “I thought they were just a bunch of publicity hounds. But one night when I saw
those young kids on TV, getting back up on the lunch counter stools after being knocked
off them, sugar in their eyes, ketchup in their hair—well, something happened to me.
Suddenly I was burning.”

- STOKELY CARMICHAEL, AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, BEFORE

HE JOINED THE MOVEMENT
FOCUS ON BIRMINGHAM (1963)
• DR. KING WRITES THE LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL
DEFENDING NONVIOLENCE AS A METHOD TO COMBAT
RACISM
• “INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE
EVERYWHERE.”

• FREEDOM MARCHES: SCHOOL CHILDREN JOINED THE

DEMONSTRATIONS

• MANY AMERICANS WERE SHOCKED BY THE NEWS

COVERAGE OF NONVIOLENT PROTESTORS ATTACKED BY
DOGS AND JETS OF WATER

• KENNEDY APPROVES CIVIL RIGHTS BILL

• NOW CONGRESS NEEDS TO PASS IT
MARCH ON WASHINGTON (1963)
• TO PUT PRESSURE ON CONGRESS TO PASS
THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS BILL
• DREW MORE THAN 250,000 BLACK AND WHITE
AMERICANS
• MLK-”I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH
• ONE OF THE LARGEST POLITICAL
DEMONSTRATIONS
• A MODEL FOR PEACEFUL PROTEST
Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church 1963
● Found to be racially motivated - KKK
● Five young girls were getting ready when the bomb went off, only one survived -
injured more than a dozen people
○ Carol Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson
■ Sarah Collins survived
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION (1964)
• DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE OF 1964, THE MISSISSIPPI
FREEDOM PARTY TOOK THE SEATS OF THE MISSISSIPPI
DELEGATION TO THE CONVENTION TO PROTEST THE
UNEQUAL AND UNJUST VOTING PRACTICES USED TO
DETERMINE THE STATE DELEGATION
• FANNIE LOU HAMER GIVES A TELEVISED SPEECH THAT GETS
SIGNIFICANT MEDIA EXPOSURE:
• “All of this is on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if the
Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of
the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the
hooks because our lives are threatened daily because we want to live as decent human
beings in America?”
• JOHNSON DID NOT WANT TO LOSE THE SOUTHERN WHITE
VOTES, SO HIS ADMINISTRATION ENCOURAGED CIVIL RIGHTS
LEADERS TO ACCEPT THE COMPROMISE
• 2 SEATS FOR DELEGATES OUT OF 68 TOTAL SEATS
• “We had played by the rules, done everything we were supposed to do, had played the game exactly as
required, had arrived at the doorstep and found the door slammed in our face” John Lewis - leader
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

• THE ACT BANNED SEGREGATION IN PUBLIC

ACCOMMODATIONS
• PROSECUTE INDIVIDUALS WHO VIOLATED PEOPLE’S CIVIL
RIGHTS
• OUTLAWED DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT
• ESTABLISHED THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
COMMISSION (EEOC)