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Congress of Racial Equality Founded
Civil Rights- the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality
- Founded in Chicago in 1942 by a group of students, CORE was committed to nonviolent direct action as a means of change
- It went on to assist in the desegregation of many public facilities in the North and then turned its attention to the South in the late 1950s -
Dodgers hire Jackie Robinson
Color Line- a barrier created by custom, law, and economic differences that separated whites from nonwhite
-In 1944, Jackie Robinson was a lieutenant in the army, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Leaving the base one day, he got on a military bus and took a seat up front. The driver ordered him to move to the back, but Robinson refused. When he got off at his stop, he was arrested.
-In 1945, Robinson crossed the color line when Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey hired him. -
Executive Order 9981
Segregation- the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment
-On July 26, 1948, Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which stated, “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
- With this order, desegregation became official policy in the armed forces- -
Advocates for Black Nationalism
Malcolm X- an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist
Nation of Islam- a religious group, also known as the Black Muslims, that promoted complete separation from white society by establishing black businesses, schools, and communities
- As a Black Muslim, Malcolm X rejected the goals of the early civil rights movement. Rather than seeking integration, the Nation of Islam promoted black nationalism
- Black Muslims worked to become independent from whites -
Brown v. The Board of Education Ruling
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice.
- On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional
-The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Boycott- a punitive ban that forbids relations with certain groups, cooperation with a policy, or the handling of goods
Rosa Parks- Rosa Parks was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement
- On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 43-year-old African American woman, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger
-On December 5th, 90 percent of African Americans who usually rode the bus honored the boycott. -
Birmingham Campaign
SCLC- is an African-American civil rights organization
- Black residents of Birmingham experienced segregation in nearly every aspect of public life. Virtually no public facility in Birmingham allowed blacks and whites to mix
- The protests began on April 3 with lunch-counter sit-ins followed by street demonstrations -
Integration of Central High School
Little Rock Nine- First nine black students to integrate to a white school
-Little Rock Nine students were not excepted into the white school even though the school was supposed to be desegregated
-Students were escorted to school with troops. -
First Lunch Counter Sit-in
Jim Crow Laws- were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965.
Sit-in- a group of people occupy a place as a form of protest.
-College students of color organized the first lunch counter sit-in in the winter of 1960
- During the 1960s, sit-ins like this one captured nationwide attention for the civil rights movement. -
Freedom Riders
Civil disobedience- the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest
- On May 4, 1961, seven blacks and six whites boarded two buses in Washington, D.C., and headed south
- The mob followed the bus as it left town, threw a firebomb through the window, and then beat the passengers as they fled the bus. Passengers on the second bus were also beaten when they arrived in Alabama. -
March on Washington
NAACP- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
-The March on Washington is a 1963 protest in which more than 250,000 people demonstrated in the nation's capital for "jobs and freedom" and the passage of civil rights legislation which was a long time coming
- His goal was to protest unequal treatment of African Americans in the war industries. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Plessy v. Ferguson- was a landmark constitutional law case of the US Supreme Court. It upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal"
- The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin the most important civil rights law passed since Reconstruction.
- At the time of the march, a civil rights bill cautiously supported by President Kennedy was making its way through Congress. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Disenfranchise- deprive someone of the right to vote
-The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is an act of Congress outlawing literacy tests and other tactics that had long been used to deny African Americans the right to vote
-The act also called for the federal government to supervise voter registration in areas where less than half of voting-age citizens were registered to vote -
Watts Riot + Kerner Commission
Kerner Commission- the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders that concluded that white racism was the fundamental cause of the Watts riot
Ghettos- a part of a city where people belonging to a single ethnic group live
- The Watts riot lasted for six long days
- During that time, 34 people died, almost 900 were injured, and nearly 4,000 were arrested. Rioters burned and looted whole neighborhoods, causing $45 million of property damage -
Black Panther Party
Black Power- is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for people of African descent
SNCC- The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- Among the many African Americans influenced by Malcolm X were Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. In 1966, they founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California
- It was a political symbol that we were here to stay and we were going to do whatever needed to be done to survive -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Discrimination- the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex
- This law included a fair-housing component that banned discrimination in housing sales and rentals. It also gave the federal government the authority to file lawsuits against those who violated the law
- In 1968, only days after King's assassination, Congress finally took action -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education
Desegregation- the ending of a policy of racial segregation
- This case raised the question of whether the fact that segregation caused by housing patterns was constitutional
- The 1971 Supreme Court ruling that busing was an acceptable way to achieve school integration -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Affirmative Action- a policy that calls on employers to actively seek to increase the number of minorities in their workforce
- The Court's ruling narrowly upheld affirmative action by declaring that race could be used as one of the criteria in admissions decisions. However, it also said that racial quotas were unconstitutional
- Therefore, the Court ordered the university to admit Bakke to medical school
