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Slavery
Slavery was started in the 1600's when African americans were brought to North America. Slavery was mostly in the southern states. The size of the plantation that the slaves worked on varied. Eventually, the northern states passed laws to end slavery, but the remain states in the south continued slavery.Once more machines were invented there was more slave labor. The south grew most of the world's cotton, by 1840, which was made because enslaved people did most of the work. -
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Slavery Continued
Men usually worked outdoors as stable hands and blacksmiths. Women usually worked indoors by making clothes, doing laundry and making meals. Many slaves found ways to cope with the harsh conditions, by working slowly or escaping to free states. The Africans still faced challenges after they were free. Their rights were limited by laws but that didn't stop them from fighting to improve their lives. -
Missouri Compromise
In 1819 Missouri requested to become one of the slave states. At the time, tensions were rising between free states and slave states throughout the US Congress and the whole nation. When Missouri requested to become a slave state it threatened the balance between the slave and free states. To keep the country at peace, Congress decided to let Missouri become a slave state and declare Maine as a free state. Also, the Missouri Compromise passed an amendment. -
Missouuri Compromise Continued
There was an imaginary line drawn between the slave states and the free states. The compromise helped hold the Union together for a little over thirty years but was affected by the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854 and the Dred Scott case. The Kansas-Nebraska act regarded slavery in those two states even though they were north of the compromise line. Lastly the Dred Scott case caused the Supreme Court to declare that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, unless it is punish for a crime. It also states that Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This amendment was the first of the three "Civil War Amendments". It was made to ban slavery throughout the United States. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment states that all citizens of the United States have the right to vote no matter the person's race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This was made to guarantee that former slaves gained the right to vote. Although, some southern states found ways to stop the blacks from voting. It wasn't until the mid-1960's that this amendment was taken seriously. -
Pessy vs Ferguson
Homer Plessy was thrown in jail sitting in a railroad car meant for whites. Plessy was only one-eighth black but still got arrested. The Plessy v. Ferguson court case made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. The court decided that Louisiana can have the law but it cannot violate the thirteenth or fourteenth amendments. They had to understand separation but equality. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In the 1950's schools in Topeka, Kansas were segregated by race. The court case, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, took action because of Linda Brown. She and her sister walked dangerously to her bus stop every day even though there was a school for white students located closer to her. The Brown family believed that segregated schools was against the Fourteenth Amendment. Both the black and white schools had similar transportation, teachers, buildings and curricula. -
Brown v. Board of Education Continued
Even though there was separate schools, they intended on making both black and white kids feel just as important as the other. Separate but equal was their goal. The African Americans did not like this idea because they thought of the two races as equal but still segregated the schools. This court case opened up the opportunity for all races to go to the same school and have a public and free education. -
Emmett Till Murder
Emmett Till Emmett Till was a fourteen year old african american boy from Chicago who was staying with his uncle in Mississippi. Four days after he reportedly flirted with a white woman, he was killed. Two white men, one of them being the lady's husband, broke into Till's home where he was staying. The two men then drove him to a barn where they beat him up and shot him. Emmett was then found in the Tallahatchie River three days after he was murdered. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were found not guilty. -
Rosa Parks Bus Boycott Continued
After a while, people who picked up the hitchhickers and people waiting on street corners for rides, got arrested. The boycott lasted for over a year and it went all the way to the US Supreme Court. After 381 days the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended sucessfully. It was now illegal to have segregation of the black and white people on busses. -
Rosa Parks Bus Boycott
One day, when Rosa Parks was riding the bus, a white man demanded that she move so he could sit there. When she didn't budge, the police came to arrest her. Segregation on the buses was an established rule in 1955. Rosa wasn't the first to commit this crime but she was very well-known and her community felt like some type of protest was needed. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of this bus boycott. The group of african-americans rebelled and did not ride the buses. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-In
Four African American college students sat at a white-only table at Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s store on February 1, 1960. The four boys had wanted a way to protest against segregation so, they planned a sit-in. After the word got around that they got kicked out of the store, more people joined the protest. By Saturday of that week, fourteen hundred students arrived at the Woolworth store. No protesters were arrested until forty-one African American students were caught trespassing. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-In Continued
By the end of February 1960, in many stores, most blacks were eating at the same lunch counters as the whites. Even some stores in Greensboro no longer had segregation. Sit-ins began to happen all over the southern states and became one of the simple ways for African Americans to protest for the Civil Rights Movement. -
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. This caused the killing of four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson. A few moments before the bombing, the girls had been in the restroom discussing about their first days at school. The church was an important part of the African American community in Birmingham and the bomb came without warning. This event helped make sure that the Civil Rights Act was passed. -
Martin Luther King Jr Assassination
April 3rd, King gave a speech that seemed to foreshadow his death. The next day not too long after 6PM Martin was shot in the neck by a sniper. An hour after he was rushed to the hospital, he was pronounced dead at just 39 years old. His death only fueled the growth of the Black Power movement and Black Panther Party.
