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Before: Brown V. Board of Education
- Plessy V. Furguson authorized the rule of “separate but equal” which allowed children’s schools to be segregated
- While this law was active, schools with African Americans didn't receive as many opportunities as schools with whites, and African Americans faced violence and other discrimination
- Brown V. Board of Education declared this to be unconstitutional in 1954
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Before: Murder of Emmett Till
- African-American Emmett Till was 14 years old and had grown up in the North
- He visited the South for a short time and wasn't aware of the customs and rules
- Emmett was beaten to death, supposedly because he whistled at a white woman
- This event sparked the nation to confront the realities of African Americans in the South
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Before: Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Rosa Parks was arrested in December 1955, for not giving up her seat on a bus for a white passenger
- After the arrest of Rosa Parks, a community of leaders met and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), they planned for a bus boycott
- This boycott was intended to last only 1 day but turned into a 381-day fight for desegregated buses
- In November 1956, the Supreme Court ended bus segregation. However, this led to a wave of violent attacks against African Americans from whites
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Before: Living with Segregation
- Living with segregation meant that people of color faced discrimination everywhere
- They couldn’t get certain jobs or buy housing due to de facto segregation
- Colored people couldn’t eat in shops or restaurants, especially when there were whites already eating there
- As well as people of color weren’t allowed to enlist in the Virginia National Guard
- "I am denied many rights and privileges by law that I should have." -Robert Leon Bacon from Virginia, December 5, 1955 (Savvas Realize)
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Before: Little Rock Desegregation
- 9 African American students volunteered to help desegregate the Little Rock School
- These students faced discrimination and violence from white students and their parents
- Governor Faubus closed all High Schools in the area to prevent the integration of the races
- When schools were closed, African Americans had to learn by television
- “Segregation is a dangerous precedent, and if we accept it…not one American is free.” - Jimmy Mcdonald, Freedomways, Spring 1961 (Savvas Realize)
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During: Greensboro Sit-ins
- On February 1st, 1960, 4 African-American college students requested service at a lunch counter for whites
- Even after their service was denied, the students stayed to protest until the store closed
- Throughout the week, more than 300 protesters joined
- Sit-ins had spread rapidly, leaving protesters to be arrested, insulted, and take on physical assaults from angry onlookers although that didn’t stop them
- College students managed to cripple hundreds of segregated businesses financially
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After: "Mississippi Burning" Murders
- Organizations like CORE encouraged white students to participate in traveling North to where they would help people of color register to vote
- It was thought white students' participation would bring increased visibility to their efforts
- 3 guys went missing on their way North. They were found in August, dead and buried near Philadelphia, in Neshoba County, Mississippi
- There was a legal battle with 19 suspects, and all went to jail but none served more than 6 years
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During: Freedom Summer
- In 1964, the Mississippi Summer Project (Freedom Summer) was worked on by 1,500 volunteers
- This project was the fight for African Americans to have voting rights in the Deep South
- Over 60,000 African Americans in Mississippi visited freedom schools, participated in mock elections, and attended meetings
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After: The Grape Boycott
- The event organizers were Filipino-American labor leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee
- To fight for equal pay, more than 1 thousand Filipino grape farm workers walked out from their jobs to make a strike
- This strike is known as the Delano Grape Strike of 1965 and it ended up lasting 5 years
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During: Selma to Montgomery March
- African Americans marched from Selma to Montgomery Alabama
- This march was a protest for African Americans’ right to vote
- Law Enforcement would attack marchers, which would then be known as Bloody Sunday
- 5 months later, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law
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During: March Against Fear
- James Meredith planned a solo march to publicize the fear African Americans felt when voting
- A gunman had shot Meredith on the second day of the march
- Other leaders then took up the cause while Meredith recovered -The march continued throughout June
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During: Riots
- The first nine months of 1967 saw 164 instances of civil disorder in 34 states
- Racial tensions erupted
- People ended up losing their homes, businesses, and lives
- “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” - Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Witness Milestones in the Civil Rights Movement, The Kerner report, (Savvas Realize)
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After: Fair Housing Act
- The original purpose of the act was to achieve federal protection for civil rights workers but later expanded into addressing racial issues with the selling, renting, or financing of housing units for people of color
- After MLK Jr. was assassinated, there was more pressure for the Act to be passed
- However after it was passed, there were still difficulties that people of color faced as they tried to move into “white” neighborhoods
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After: Black Arts and Culture
- This new form of art gave voice to African Americans who felt otherwise invisible and overlooked
- The Black Arts Movement (BAM) explored the richness and color of black culture with politically conscious art, music, and literature and it paved the way for the hip-hop culture
- Some musicians stood up and spoke out about racism, poverty, and sexism. These musicians bolstered black pride, some of which were Tupac Shakur, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, and Missy Elliott
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After: Shirley Chisholm runs for President
- As the Civil Rights Movement advanced, there was a rise in the feminist movement
- Although Shirley Chisholm wasn’t able to win, she received more than 150 votes at the Democratic National Convention
- After her loss, she told the press, “I’ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being Black. When I ran for Congress, and when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being Black. Men are men.”
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After: Ongoing Inequality
- From 1975-2015, African Americans had significantly more unemployment than white Americans
- The Civil Rights Movement helped end legal segregation and removed many obstacles to voting for African Americans
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After: The Election of Barack Obama
- African American Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008
- This first-time African-American president ushered new hope for citizens of color throughout the nation
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After: Black Lives Matter Movement
- Floridian George Zimmerman killed an unarmed African American teenager Trayvon Martin
- Claiming self-defense, Zimmerman was later found not guilty of any crime
- Afterward, a new movement called Black Lives Matter (BLM) sprang up, organized by young African Americans
- The BLM’s goal was to campaign against racial injustice and inequality
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After: Female Vice President
- Kamala Harris is sworn in as the first female vice president in January of 2021
- Not only the first female but also making her the first Black and South Asian American to hold the position of vice president
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After: 49ers Take a Stand
- Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in September of 2016, Colin Kaperick, took a knee during the national anthem for the first time
- Kaperick then pledges to donate $1 million to support the end of police brutality and oppression of people of color
- Several players on the field joined him in the protest amid mass criticism