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Civil Disobedience
The refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. This idea was first brought up in Henry David Thoreau's essay titled Civil Disobedience. This idea brought up and created the most powerful weapon used by the civil rights movement- peaceful protest. -
Black Codes
The Union victory in the Civil War may have given 4 million slaves their freedom, but African Americans faced obstacles and injustices during the Reconstruction era. Under the lenient Reconstruction policies of President Johnson, white southerners reestablished civil authority in the former Confederate states. They enacted a series of restrictive laws known as “black codes,” which were designed to restrict freed blacks’ activity and ensure their labor now that slavery had been abolished. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amendment abolished slavery in America. While it abolished slavery, it did not guarantee the freed slaves their rights. Due to this, many former slaves fought and protested for their rights, hence the beginning of the civil rights movement. -
Lynching
Tensions were high after the civil rights, particularly between southern white plantation owners and their former now free slaves. Lynching became the resolution to these tensions. The violent act of lynching brought the civil rights movement together and unified them with a common goal. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment to the US constitution was adopted as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. It gave and protected the rights of the black people. -
Sharecropping/ Tenant Farming
The southern economy was in shambles after the abolition of slavery and the devastation of the Civil War. Conflict between many white landowners attempting to reestablish a labor force and freed blacks seeking economic independence. Black families would rent small plots of land in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each year. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote. -
Jim Crow Laws
The segregation laws known as "Jim Crow" represented a system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South until the 1890s. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. "Whites Only" and "Colored" signs were constant reminders of the enforced racial order. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Homer Plessy refused to sit on a jim crow train car. The case brought up the belief that as long as the segregated areas were "equal" they were constitutional. Following the case, restrictive laws based on race continued and expanded. -
The Tea Pot Dome Scandal
The Tea Pot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within a presidential administration. The scandal involved ornery oil tycoons, poker-playing politicians, illegal liquor sales, a murder-suicide, a womanizing president and a bagful of bribery cash delivered on the sly. In the end, the scandal would, by legal precedent, empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption. -
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Founded in 1942, CORE became one of the leading activist organizations in the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the 60s, along with other activist groups, launched a series of initiatives such as the freedom rides and the march on Washington. They were a pacifist non-violent organization opposing racial segregation. -
Hector P. Garcia
Hector Garcia was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. He offered low-cost medical care to poor people. He questioned the discrimination and the sanitation in Texas schools. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Oliver Brown sued the school board of Topeka, Kansas because his child was denied access to the white school system. He claimed that the quality of the black schools and the white schools will never be equal. The Supreme court unanimously decided that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protections clause of the 14th amendment. This case put the supreme court in favor of racial equality. -
Desegregation
Desegregation was first implemented in the military by President Truman after the war. Schools were the most controversial to segregate, not segregating until the Brown v Board case. While laws were passed to desegregate, they took a long time to actually take into effect. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old boy who was not used to the segregation in Money, Mississippi. He flirted with a White women, and was then lynched by the women's husband and brother. His story was key in unifying the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks
By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama school bus in 1955, she initiated the civil rights movement. When she got arrested for violating segregation laws, a boycott began and lasted until bus segregation was considered unconstitutional. She was considered the "mother of the civil rights movement." -
Non-violent Protest
Any legal action without violence that is caused by a want of change in political, social or economic conditions. Examples include boycotts, marches, speeches, ect. These were often used during the civil rights movement. (i.e: Montgomery Bus Boycott and March on Washington) -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
It was a political and social protest against the racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It began when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man and was leaded by Martin Luther King Jr. It lasted until bus segregation was declared unconstitutional by the US supreme court. -
The Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC)
The SCLC was founded at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and advocated confrontation of segregation through civil dissent. This included boycotts, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest. The SCLC believed that churches should be involved in political activism and held many of their meetings at black churches, which became important symbols in the battle for civil rights. -
Orval Faubus
The democratic governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967. He is famously know for his vigorous stand against the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. When the Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the high school, Governor Faubus deployed national guardsmen, but was eventually was overpowered by President Eisenhower. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. It empowered federal officials to prosecute individuals that conspired to deny or abridge another citizen's right to vote. This law was one of the early victories of the civil rights movement, and was the first step towards equality and rights for those who weren't guaranteed rights. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957.The court had mandated that all public schools in the country be integrated “with all deliberate speed” in its decision related to the groundbreaking case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” into the school, and they started their first full day of classes on September 25. -
Sit-ins
A non-violent method of protest where a african american would go to a area designated for whites only and sit patiently. This started in 1960 when four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee, and when they were denied service, they sat and wait patiently. This method of protest allowed the civil rights movement to gain support around the country. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action began as a plan to equalize the educational, employment, and contracting opportunities for minorities and women with opportunities given to white males. In its 40-year history, it has attempted to rid the US of discrimination against minorities and women, sometimes at the cost of what has been labeled “reverse discrimination" towards white men. Such race-conscious Affirmative Action programs have been the source of much controversy and sometimes violent protests. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders is a inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. -
Cesar Chavez
Mexican-american farmworker who brought about better working conditions for agricultural workers. He was a labor leader and a civil rights activist who fought for better working conditions through boycotts, marches and strikes. He helped co-found the National Farm Workers Association. -
Ole Miss Integration
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. After spending the night of September 30 under federal protection, Meredith was allowed to register for classes the following morning, and became the first black graduate from the university in August 1963. Meredith signified a change in segregation. -
George Wallace
Wallace is remembered for his southern neo-dixiecrat and pro-segregation "Jim Crow" positions during the civil rights moment. He declared in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever." He stood in front of the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop segregation. -
University of Alabama Integration
Facing federalized Alabama National Guard troops, Alabama Governor George Wallace ends his blockade of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and allows two African American students to enroll.On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation.The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students–Vivian Malone and James A. Hood–successfully enrolled. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
A baptist minister and a civil rights activist. He believed in a strong sense of non-violence. He gave his famous "I have a dream speech" at the march on Washington. -
March on Washington
A political rally for jobs and freedom in which 200,000 people attended. The event was intended to show the political and social challenges African Americans faced around the country. Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous "I have a dream" speech at this event. -
Lester Maddox
A populist Democrat, he came to be popular through his firm belief in segregation. He became elected as the governor of Georgia in 1966 with the support of the Ku Klux Klan. He did not allow black people into his restaurant, in direct violation of the civil rights act. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It is considered one of the best achievements of the civil rights movement. This act effectively, in law, gave all of the minorities their rights that they deserved. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The voting rights act aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. Blacks were often refused the right to vote, and this law effectively gave them their right to vote. -
Watts Riots
In the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial tension reaches a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a black motorist suspected of drunken driving. A crowd of spectators gathered to watch the arrest and soon grew angry by what they believed to be yet another incident of racially motivated abuse by the police. A riot soon began, spurred on by residents of Watts who were embittered after years of economic and political isolation. -
Stokely Carmichael
He became a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the global Pan-African movement. When he became active in the black power movement, he was first the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating committee. Later he was a "Honorary Prime Minister" in the Black panther party, and lastly as a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party. -
Betty Friedan
She advocated for an increased role for women in the political process and is remembered as one of the leading figures in the women's rights movement. Her book The Feminine Mystique (1963) brought out the ideas that women can find personal achievement outside of the societal norms. She is the founder of the National Organization for Women. (NOW) -
Black Panthers
The party’s original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all African Americans, the exemption of African Americans from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America. At its peak in the late 1960s, Panther membership exceeded 2,000, and the organization operated chapters in several major American cities. -
Thurgood Marshall
In 1954, he won many cases representing National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (NAACP) The most significant was the Brown v. Board of education case. He became the first african american supreme court justice. -
Title IX (9)
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a federal law that states that on a basis of gender, no one can be excluded from any education program or any financial assistance program. This law basically states that both men and women be given equal opportunity in all educational functions. This law opened up doors that were previously unavailable to women.
