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Declaration of Independence of United States
In their Declaration of Independence of 1776, the American colonists declared their commitment to equality and liberty for the United States of America. -
The American system of Government
The solution was to create a federal system of government, a system in which power is shared between central and state governments. -
The American Constitution
Civil rights are the rights of an individual to legal, political and social equality. The Civil Rights Movement aimed to secure these rights through changes in the law or through changes in the way the laws were interpreted. -
Civil War
During the war, in 1863, in what became known as the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln promised to end slavery in the Confederate states. He hoped this would encourage even more slaves to disrupt the Confederates war effort and, better still, to fight alongside Union forces, which many did -
13th Amendment
In 1865, the forces of the North, the Union, emerged victorious and the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed by Congress (of northerners). This abolished slavery. -
Ku Klux Klan
A secret terrorist society formed by ex-Confederate soldiers in 1865 in order to maintain white supremacy -
14th Amendment
In 1868, Congress passed the 14th Amendment which guaranteed 'equal protection of the law' for all citizens. The Amendment also declared that the federal government could intervene if any states tried to deny their rights, including the right to vote, to any citizen. -
15th Amendment
This Amendment, granted the suffrage to black men. -
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws Named after a comic, stereotypical character, these laws were passed by southern states in order to 'legalize' segregation. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine -
NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) This organization had both black and white members and set out to publicize injustice, for instance by sending out white members to investigate lynchings. (It was too dangerous for blacks to do that.) -
First War World
Between 1914 and 1918, the'Great Migration'began: over 350,000 black people migrated to the North, attracted by the offer of better, well-paid jobs in the fast-expanding industries. The latter grew particularly rapidly during the First World War as the USA was supplying armaments to the European powers, especially the British. Black people were also driven to escape all the daily humiliations of Jim Crow laws as well as the ever-present threat of lynching. -
Presidential support for Civil Rights
The Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who became president in 1933, had given a huge boost to the campaign for civil rights. -
Second War World
Nearly a million were called up to fight and a larger number left farms in the South to seek work in cities, both in the South and, more especially, in the North. Black Americans were eager to play their part in the war to defeat racist Nazi Germany. They were also determined to take advantage of the war in order to achieve their rights. Many supported the Double V'campaign, to win a double victory, conquering racism both abroad and at home. -
Desegregation
President Truman became president when Roosevelt died in 1944. Truman proposed a civil rights bill that would ban segregation in public transport, end poll taxes and make lynching a federal crime. In July 1948, he ordered the desegregation of the armed forces. He was showing far more commitment to civil rights than any of his predecessors of him.