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NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) created in 1909 by a group of liberals (including Du Bois, Jane Addams and John Dewey) to eradicate racial discrimination -
Martin Luther King Jr.
African-American clergyman who advocated social change through non-violent means. A powerful speaker and a man of great spiritual strength, he shaped the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. -
CORE
Congress of Racial Equality, and organization founded in 1942 that worked for black civil rights -
James Meredith and Ole Miss
Air Force veteran who sought to enroll in the all white University of Mississippi known as "Ole Miss"; in 1952, with the support of the NAACP, he won a court case that ordered that university to desegregate. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision energized the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. -
SCLC
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by MLK, which taught that civil rights could be achieved through nonviolent protests -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine was the first group of black students to integrate in Little a Rock High School. Although this angered many Americans, it brought international attention to the civil rights cause. -
Greensboro Woolworth Sit-ins
Four local black students entered Woolworth's store and sat on white's only seats, they refused to move until served. -
SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April of 1960 -
Jim Crow Laws
Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas/meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government -
JFK's Role in the Civil Rights Movement
He believed that major civil rights legislation would be submitted to the Congress to guarantee equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education, and to provide federal protection of the right to vote -
24th Amendment
Poll taxes prohibited. The right to vote cannot be denied based on the paying or non-paying of a poll tax. -
Lyndon B. Johnson's Role in the Civil Rights Movement
On this day in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Protects individuals and prohibits discrimination in hiring, compensation, and terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. -
Malcolm X
renamed himself X to signify the loss of his African heritage and converted to Nation of Islam in jail in the 50s. He became Black Muslims' most dynamic street orator and recruiter. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks; as more blacks became politically active and elected black representatives, it Guthrie jobs, contracts, and facilities and services for the black community, encouraging greater social equality and decreasing the wealth and education gap -
Black Power and Stokley Carmichael
Head of SNCC who preached "overtaking white Americans" and preached "Black Power"-pride in history and heritage; create society apart from white society. -
Black Panthers and Huey Newton
Founded in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale was the self defense and violence against white people, began the black power movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s. -
Kerner Commission
Created in 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 60s race riots. It blames the riots on an "explosive mixture" of poverty, slum housing, poor education, and police brutality caused by "white racism" and advised federal spending to create new jobs for urban blacks, construct additional public housing, and end school segregation -
Assassination of MLK, Jr.
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at a Memphis hotel. James Earl Ray, white man who resented the increasing black influence in society. King's murder set off a new round of riots across the country, while both blacks and whites mourned the tragic death of a charismatic leader.
