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Plessy v. Ferguson
t stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. -
Civil Disobedience
active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power -
Black Codes
hese laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans' freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt. -
Sharecropping/ tenant farming
Both methods required the planters to divide their plantations into smaller parcels of land, which they continued to own. Using smaller parcels of property, the owners forged mutually beneficial arrangements with independent farmers to work the land. -
13th Amendment
Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States -
14th Amendment
Granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. -
15th Amendment
granting African-American men the right to vote, was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, -
JIm Crow Laws
state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. -
thurgood marshall
Marshall earned an important place in American history on the basis of two accomplishments. -
19th Amendment
guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century -
20th Amendment
simple amendment that sets the dates at which federal (United States) government elected offices end -
Brown V. Board of Education
For some, it signaled the start of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, while for others, it represented the fall of segregation -
Rosa Park
Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. She didn't set out to make history when she left her job as a seamstress to board a bus on the afternoon -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
a seminal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Sit-ins
Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local WOOLWORTH'S store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. -
Lynching
is an extrajudicial punishment by an informal group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob, often by hanging, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a minority group. -
Martin Luther King Jr
So powerful was the movement he inspired, that Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the same year King himself was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, King is an icon of the civil rights movement. His life and work symbolize the quest for equality and nondiscrimination that lies at the hear -
24th Amendment
0utlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections -
Nonviolent Protest
the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods, without using violence. -
Desegregation
process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. -
Cesar Chavez
American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers union, UFW). -
Orville Faubus
was the Democratic Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, famously known for his vigorous stand against the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. -
George Wallace
under pressure from civil rights leaders, President Lyndon Johnson commanded Governor Wallace to mobilize Alabama's National Guard units to protect Selma marchers. Wallace refused, claiming the state was "financially unable" to do so. Wallace became perhaps the most prominent national icon of segregationist resistance to the civil rights movement. -
Lester Maddox
after he violated the newly signed federal Civil Rights Act by refusing to serve three black Georgia Tech students at his Pickrick Restaurant. The Pickrick was noted for the quality of its fried chicken and for its reasonable prices, but Mr. Maddox was determined that no black should experience the ambience that he had reserved exclusively for whites -
Hector P. Garcia
García founded the American GI Forum, organizing veterans to fight for educational and medical benefits, and later, against poll taxes and school segregation. A proud member of the Greatest Generation, García sought the inclusion of Mexican Americans into mainstream America
