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Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, written by our founding fathers, was influential to the civil rights movement because it was when human rights were first established. Many civil rights activists have pointed to the fact that it says "all men are created equal" as a basis for their movements. Without the Declaration of Independence, there would be no civil rights movement. -
What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?
By Frederick Douglass -
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
By Abraham Lincoln -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights lawyer who fought Jim Crow laws and worked to dismantle segregation in the U.S. He is well-known for winning the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. He also went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, or the "mother of the civil rights movement", first became known from her refusal to give up a bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. This, leading to her arrest, not only sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but also paved the way for Martin Luther King Jr. to get started on his journey as a civil rights leader as well. After the boycott, she was an active member of the NAACP and worked for Congressman John Conyers helping the homeless. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This event was caused by Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man one day. The boycott lasted for about a year, and severely crippled the public transportation economy, forcing lawmakers to declare segregation on buses illegal. In the greater scheme of the civil rights movement, this event was influential because it was one of the first major protests that led to major changes in society. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were a group of both white and African-American civil rights activists who rode buses into Southern states to attempt to force the government into enforcing the law of non-segregation on buses. The Southern states were largely ignoring it, and the government did not seem to wish to enforce it, so the Freedom Riders took matters into their own hands. This event was important in the larger civil rights movement because it showed the resilience of the activists who supported it. -
A Letter To My Nephew
By James Baldwin -
March on Washington
In August of 1963, approximately 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and protested African-American inequality. This event also hosted Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, one of the most famous speeches in civil rights history. This event was influential to the civil rights movement by showing the quantity and scale of those who were discontent with the current state of the United States, and what they were willing to do about it further on. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most famed and esteemed civil rights activists of the entire movement. He participated in countless marches, protests, and held numerous speeches, including his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. He was imperative to the greater civil rights movement because he basically led the charge on most protests and marches, and inspired so many people that if he hadn't been around, it's doubtful that the civil rights movement would have ended the way it did. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and civil rights activist who founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity and believed strongly in the idea of Black Power. He held the controversial opinion, often contrasted to Martin Luther King Jr.'s ideas, that if threatened, protesters and activists have the right to defend themselves through any means necessary. He was influential in the civil rights movement because his words reached many activists and promoted Black Power as an idea. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot 21 times by three people and killed at a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He died at the age of 39 and left his wife, Betty Shabazz, and six daughters. This event was influential to the civil rights movement because it involved the loss of an important civil rights figure, and may have damaged the morale or momentum of the movement. -
March Against Fear
The March Against Fear was a walk from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. It was started by James Meredith and picked up other civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. along the way, and lasted for 220 miles, in which James Meredith was taken out of it early due to being wounded by a sniper round. This event was influential to the civil rights movement because it had numerous figures representing civil rights from across the U.S, and was a symbol itself of unity. -
James Meredith
James Meredith, called a "hero of the civil rights movement" by Martin Luther King Jr. in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was a civil rights activist and writer. He is most famous for becoming the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi and starting the March Against Fear on June 6 of 1966. He is influential in the civil rights movement because he represented a sign of integration and progress, as well as a path forward for some. -
Between The World And Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates -
A "Forgotten History" Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America
By Terry Gross -
The Zoot Suit Riots and Wartime Los Angeles
By Stephanie Hinnershitz