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Civil Disobedience
Someone is purposely breaking a law because the believe the law is not right. Henry David Thoreau was from the north, he stopped paying his taxes to protest against slavery. He was then arrested and jailed for his tax delinquency. -
Black Codes
Black Codes were laws in the south that restricted blacks freedom and had them working in a labor economy making low wage. After the Reconstruction Act of 1867 southern states had to ratify the 14th Amendment bringing an end to the Black Codes. -
13th Amendment
Slavery and involuntary servitude is not allowed in the U.S. unless someone is convicted of a crime. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment states that all people born in the U.S. are citizens granting ex-slaves citizen ship. It also guarantees equal protection and due process. The 14th Amendment was used in a lot of land mark cases like Brown v Board. -
Sharecropping
After the American Civil War the southern plantation owners were battling a challenge to find help working the lands that the slaves had farmed. Plantain owners used arrangements called sharecropping where black families would rent small plots of land in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of the year. -
15th Amendment
This is one of the three amendments to the U.S. Constitution passed during the Era of Reconstruction. This gave the right to citizens of the United States to vote no matter their color or previous condition of servitude. -
Lynching
Lynching is when someone is murdered (especially by hanging) for an alleged offense with or without a trial. It started happening once blacks were given their freedom. Most people lynched were blacks, very few whites were lynched and if they were it was for helping blacks or being anti lynching. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy did not sit in a Jim Crow car breaking a law in Louisiana. In court they ruled that "separate but equal" did not violate the 14th Amendment. This case ended up giving more equal rights for blacks. -
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws enforced separate facilities for whites and blacks such as separate water fountains one for white people and another for black people. The facilities or things for black people were usually in poorer condition. They had a "separate but equal" status for African Americans but it was not very equal. -
CORE
CORE stands for Congress of Racial Equality. It was one of the leading activist organizations for the American Civil Rights Unit, they achieved change nonviolently. They began with a sit in in a coffee shop to protest segregation in public places. They then in 1946 launched the first freedom ride. -
Hector P. Garcia
Hector Garcia was a surgeon, World War ll veteran, and an early leader of the Chicano Movement. He noticed that Mexican Americans didn't have as many rights as white people did in Texas. In 1949 a Mexican-American soldier died and a chapel refused to let his family use it for his funeral. Garcia arranged for a publicized burial for the soldier and became the first Mexican American to serve in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. -
Desegregation
Desegregation was the end of racial segregation. It took years for a lot of states to finally become desegregated. A major part is schools becoming desegregated so African Americans and whites could go to school together, this was all possible bc of the U.S Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education. African Americans were allowed to do more stuff now after everywhere had beed desegregated. This did not mean that they were treated fairly now though, they were still treated poorly by most. -
Brown v. Board of Education
A United States Supreme Court case where separate public school for blacks and whites became unconstitutional. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
He sought equality for African Americans through peacefully protesting. He was the power behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington. -
Non-Violent Protest
NAACP, SCLC, and CORE were all non-violent groups/movements. Non-violent protesting helped African Americans show that they were doing nothing wrong and intended for all good things to happen. When white people would beat and harm them for no reason, African Americans would gain people on their side because they were being hurt for no reason and people would realize that. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was murdered at only 14 years old in Money, Mississippi because he was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was brutally beaten and shot in the head. His mother publicized his funeral so everyone nation wide could see the damage done to her soon for no good reason. His death was a huge attention getter in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, leading to her being arrested. The African American community boycotted after this incident and it lasted for a whole year, segregation finally ended on busses in Montgomery. -
Montgomery Bus Boybott
African Americans refuse to ride the buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregation on buses. A year later after the boycott had continued on the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to integrate the buses because of the boycott. -
Orval Faubus
Orval Faubus was a Arkansas Democratic Governor he used Arkansas National Guardsmen to block 9 black students from going to a school after they were ordered to go by a federal judge to end segregation in schools. -
SCLC
SCLC stand for Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their idea was to abolish legalized segregation and end the disenfranchisement of African Americans. -
Little Rock Nine
In 1957 the school board was going to integrate high schools. There were nine black students who for the very first time attended an all white school. Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to the school for the whole year so those 9 students could go to school safely. 8 of the students graduated from Little Rock Central. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This ended up protecting voting rights and prevented interference in voting. It was the 1st federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress. -
Sit-ins
Sit-ins are a type of non-violent protesting. Four African American college students were denied service at a lunch counter, so the boys sat at the counter until closing time event though they were being threatened and harassed. This started sit-ins, hundreds joined i on the protest it expanded to other local businesses, and across the country. -
Freedom Rides
The Supreme Court ordered bus terminals to be desegregated. SNCC wanted to see if southern states had been obeying the law so they went and rode buses in the south. Riders were beaten very badly showing the south had not been complying the rules. Federal injunctions then integrated bus terminals forcing the south to abide by the rules. -
Affirmative Action
Policy made to redress discrimination against woman and minority groups to help improve economic and educational opportunities. This ensured that applicants were employed and the employees were regarding their race or national origin. -
Cesar Chavez
He founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 by going on hunger strikes, marches, and boycotts they were able to get raises and improve conditions for farm workers in California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida. -
Ole Miss Integration
A black student tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi which was segregated. He sued for admission and won JFK used the military and U.S. marshals to ensure him safety while at school. -
George Wallace
George Wallace would not allow two black students into the doors of the University of Alabama. He was the governor of Alabama and wanted to keep everything segregated. With all his power he thought he would be able to do so, but his plan failed. -
University of Alabama Integration
In 1963 two African American students tried to desegregate the University of Alabama, George Wallace the governor sent state troopers to block the enrollment office so the 2 students could not go in. The Brown v Board of Education made segregation of schools unconstitutional in 1954, JFK sent troops to the University of Alabama to enforce desegregation and the two students were able to enroll the next day. -
March on Washington
The "big six" organized the march, it was huge protest on civil rights, employment rights, and to get a higher minimum wage for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at this march. He was one of many people to give a speech that day. -
Lester Maddox
Lester Maddox owned a restaurant and would not let African Americans in. The court ordered Maddox let African Americans into his restaurant and instead of doing that he just sold it. He then ran for Governor of Georgia and was elected. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act was introduced by JFK and pushed through congress by LBJ. It prohibited discrimination in public places, ended unfair voting, and made enforcement of legislation easier. -
Watts Riots
An African American was arrested for suspicion of drunk driving. People that saw were angered by what they were seeing and started rioting. This riot lasted for 6 days and resulted in more than 40 million dollars in property damage. It was the largest and costliest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights era. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 strengthened the enforcement of the 15th Amendment. It banned literacy tests as qualifications to vote and allowed for federal oversight to make sure no state laws were being made discriminating who could vote. -
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan was an icon in the women's rights movement. She cofounded the National Organization for Women in 1966 that helped women get more rights. -
Black Panthers
The Black Panthers were founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California. They were a group of black civil rights activist that thought non-violence was the correct was to go about things. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was a legal counsel for NAACP, he guided the litigation that put an end to Jim Crow segregation. He was also the first African-American Associates Justice of the Supreme Court. -
Title IX (9)
The President signed the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 into law. This is a wide ranging federal law that prohibits discrimination on either being either male or female in any federally funded education program even an activity, but did not motivate the women's rights movement.
