18 part 1

Chapter 18 Civil Rights Movement

Chapter 18 Civil Rights MovementThe Beginnings

• The Civil Rights Movement really began on December 1st 1955 in Montgomery Alabama.

• Rosa Parks would not give up her bus seat to a white man and thus started the Montgomery bus boycott.

• A local pastor in Montgomery named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was selected to lead this bus boycott.

MLK meeting with advisors to determine a plan for the boycott

MLK at church during the bus boycott

Civil Rights Issues• In Topeka Kansas, Linda Brown sued to attend the white

school. Her case went to the Supreme Court.• In May of 1954 Brown v. Board of Education was heard.• Decision: “separate but equal is not equal” and officially

overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)• The Supreme Court ruled in favor of her. This allowed

blacks and whites to attend school together.• The first integrated school was Central High School in Little

Rock Arkansas in 1957.

Little Rock 9 • When Brown v. Board of

Education ruled that segregation was unconstitutional, this would very slowly start the de-segregation of schools in America.

• When Central High School was integrated, this started many race riots across the country.

• Army and National Guard troops had to be called to maintain peace and order.

• Nine black students enrolled and attended classes that fall.

Sit-ins• If a black person was refused service somewhere,

they would organize a “sit-in”.• They would sit there until they were served. Sit-

ins were held at restaurants, gas stations, barber shops, and hotels.

• One of the most famous organizers of “sit ins” was Jesse Jackson.

• The first “sit-in” was at the Woolworth’s Department Store in Greensboro N.C.

Greensboro Four (1960)

Greensboro Four

Non-violence Resistance

• MLK had read the non-violent words of Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau

• Protesters were not allowed to use violence….if you are hit you simply take it

• Nice dress to set them apart from those committing the abuses

Freedom Riders• These were college students (both black and

white) who went into the south to protest segregated bus terminals.

• When the Freedom Riders stopped in Alabama, they were harassed and beat.

• Birmingham police chief Bull Conner ordered police dogs and KKK members to attack the riders.

James MeredithSlide 6 of 7

• He was a veteran of the U.S. military.• He wanted to enroll to take classes at the University

of Mississippi.• He was not allowed admission due to his race.• President Kennedy sent 500 federal marshals to

escort him to class each day.• Protestors threw rocks at the marshals.• JFK then sent in the army to protect him.• James Meredith eventually graduated.

Violence in BirminghamSlide 7 of 7

• Dr. King had organized a peaceful protest in Birmingham in the spring of 1963.

• Bull Conner ordered police dogs to once again attack the protestors.

• Conner also ordered that high powered water hoses be used to the protestors.

• This brutality will eventually lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.