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Brown v. Board of Education
This case addressed how an African American girl was denied admission to her neighborhood school in Topeka because of her race. She had to travel across town just to attend an all-black school. There were many more cases related to this case. An attorney named Thurgood Marshall focus his efforts on ending segregation in public schools. In May of 1954, the Supreme Court rules this case as unconstitutional and violated the 14th Amendment. This gave new impetus to the civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
An African American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. This began many protests and nonviolent passive resistance. The leader of this boycott was Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King believe that public opinion would eventually force the government to end segregation. African Americans in Montgomery continued their boycott for over a year. This event during the civil rights movement was a dramatic success. -
Little Rock 9 and the Desegregation of Schools
In September of 1957, the school board of Little Rock won a court order requiring nine African Americans students be sent admitted to Central High, a school with a majority of white students. The governor of Arkansas was known for supporting white supremacy. He ordered troops to prevent the nine students from entering school. Eisenhower stepped in and immediately send troops to Little Rock. This event became an integral part of the fight for equal opportunity in American education. -
The Sit-in Movement
In the fall of 1959, four young African Americans were enrolled at an African American college in Greensbroro. In January 1960, one of them suggested a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter. They were all afraid, but were willing to get the same service as the whites. So, they would sit at the counter everyday until the store closed until they got what they had purchased. Starting with just four students, a new mass movement for civil rights had begun. Within two months sit-ins became popular. -
Freedom Riders
Many African Americans and white volunteers were asked to travel into the South to draw attention to its refusal to integrate bus terminals. When the riders got there they boarded several southbound interstate buses and angry white mobs attacked them. The mobs slit through bus tires and threw rocks at the windows. In Birmingham the riders emerged from a bus to face a gang of armed with baseball bats, chains, and lead pipes. The gang beat the riders viciously that the violence made national news. -
James Meredith and the Desegregation of Southern Universities
An African American air force veteran applied for a transfer to the University of Mississippi. The university had avoided complying with the Supreme Court ruling ending segregated education. Meredith tried to register at the university’s admissions office, only to find the governor blocking his path. President Kennedy dispatched 500 federal federal marshals to escort Meredith to the
campus. Shortly after, a white mob attacked the campus and a riot erupted. He finished school under federal guard. -
The March on Washington
Dr. King realized that Kennedy would have a difficult time pushing his civil rights bill through Congress. When A. Philip Randolph suggested a march on Washington, King agreed. More than 200,000 demonstrators of all races flocked to the nation's capital. They sang hymns and songs as they gathered peacefully near the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King delivered a powerful speech outlining his dream of freedom and equality for all Americans. -
Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement
Malcolm's view on civil rights were that he had lost patience with the slow progress of civil rights and felt that African Americans needed to act more militantly and demand equality, not wait for it to be given. He was apart of the Black Muslim community and they viewed themselves as their own community. They encouraged their members to respect each other and to strengthen their families. By 1964, Malcolm X had broken with the Black Muslims. After Malcolm X left, he continued to criticize them. -
Voter Registration Among Minorities
Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed voting rights were far from secure. The act had focused on segregation and job discrimination and it did little to address voting issues. African Americans still faced hurdles. Many African Americans who attempted to vote were also threatened physically or feared losing their jobs. One of the major goals of the Civil Rights Movement was to register voters across the South in order for African Americans to gain political power. -
Urban Problems and the Black Panthers
The civil rights laws didn't change people's attitudes. In fact, they made it worse for them. Most African Americans were trapped in poverty. Even if African Americans had been allowed to move into white neighborhoods, poverty trapped many of them in inner cities. The Black Panthers were an political organization founded by college students. They believed that a revolution was necessary in the U.S. They urged African Americans to prepare to force whites to grant them equal rights.