Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

​The push for black civil rights in the United States gained new momentum after World War II. As black veterans came home, many of them were no longer willing to put up with discrimination. They and other African Americans began to call for an end to racial inequality and campaigned for change.

​As a result, African Americans made a number of key gains. In 1948 President Harry S. Truman desegregated the armed forces. That same year, Truman also banned discrimination in the hiring of federal employees. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in 1952, took further steps to reduce racial discrimination in hiring practices. Meanwhile, at the state level, several northern and western states passed laws banning racial discrimination in public housing.

Multiple Choice

Keeping things or people separate 

• integration
• discrimination
• DISTRACTION!
• segregation

​Despite these gains, many opportunities remained closed to African Americans in the 1950s. Although this period was a time of economic prosperity for many white Americans, few black Americans shared in this new wealth. Furthermore, white resistance to black equality remained strong. Such opposition was particularly evident in the South. White citizens continued to use unfair laws, fear, and violence to keep black citizens from voting or standing up for their rights.

​The 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson established the “separate-but-equal” doctrine. This doctrine stated that federal, state, and local governments could allow segregation as long as separate facilities were equal. One result of this ruling was that states in both the North and South maintained separate schools for white and black students. Government officials often insisted that though these schools were separate, they were equal in quality.

​The Reality of "Separate But Equal"

Multiple Choice

The Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of 1896 established that laws segregating African Americans were permitted in the so-called...

• "de facto segregation" doctrine.
• "Southern segregation" doctrine.
• "separate but equal" doctrine.
• "constitutional segregation" doctrine.

​In fact, however, schools for black children typically received far less funding. Early civil rights leaders focused on ending segregation in America’s public schools. Leaders of the movement were members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Multiple Choice

Which group worked to fight segregation and other inequalities primarily through the courts?

• NAACP
• SNCC
• SCLC
• AIM

​The NAACP’s strategy was to show that separate schools were unequal. In the early 1950s, five school segregation cases from Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, DC, came together under the title of Brown v. Board of Education. The “Brown” in the case title was a seven-year-old African American girl from Topeka, Kansas, named Linda Brown. Though she lived near a school for white children, Linda Brown had to travel across town to a school for black children. Linda’s father and the NAACP sued to allow Linda to attend the school closer to her home.

​On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on Brown v. Board of Education. Segregation in schools and other public facilities was illegal.

Multiple Choice

Brown v. Education was a significant case because...

• it declared it illegal to prevent African Americans from voting.
• it declared it illegal to segregate to segregate restaurants.
• it declared it illegal to segregate public schools.
• it declared it illegal to discriminate in the selling of a house.

​In the entire South, only three school districts began desegregating in 1954. Most others implemented gradual integration plans. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the school board started by integrating one high school. It allowed nine outstanding black students to attend Central High School. These students became known as the Little Rock Nine.

​On the morning of September 4, 1957, eight of the nine students arrived at the school together and were turned away by the National Guard. Then the ninth student, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, arrived at the school by herself. She found the entrance blocked by the National Guard. Turning around, she faced a screaming mob. Someone began yelling, “Lynch her! Lynch her!’” Finally, a white man and woman guided Eckford to safety.

Multiple Choice

In Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor tried to prevent African American students from entering a white high school by...

• closing the school.
• redrawing the school district.
• hiring the Ku Klux Klan.
• deploying the National Guard.

​Elizabeth Eckford and the rest of the Little Rock Nine went home. For weeks, Governor Faubus refused to allow them to attend the school. The tense situation lasted until President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the students into the school.

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The Little Rock Nine began attending classes, but resistance to integration continued. Some white students insulted, harassed, and attacked the black students. In spite of these obstacles, eight of the nine remained at the school. In May 1958 Ernest Green became the first African American student to graduate from Central High. When Green’s name was called at the graduation ceremony, no one clapped. “But I figured they didn’t have to,” he later said. “After I got that diploma, that was it. I had accomplished what I had come there for.”

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Multiple Choice

These black teenagers were the first to integrate into Little Rock Central High

• Elite Eight
• Little Rock Nine
• Arkansas Seven
• Final Four

​The Murder of Emmett Till

​Despite early victories against segregation, blacks remained second-class citizens to many white Americans, particularly in the South. This situation gained nationwide attention in 1955 with the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, Illinois. Till had gone to the town of Money, Mississippi, to visit relatives. Having grown up in the North, the black teenager did not understand the South’s strict racial etiquette. Shortly after arriving in Money, Till visited a local grocery store where he said something to the owner, a young white woman named Carolyn Bryant.

​She later claimed he asked her for a date and whistled at her, but there is some doubt that this was the case. Whatever Till said, she took offense. Her husband, Roy, soon found out about the incident.

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Four days later, Roy Bryant and his half brother J. W. Milam kidnapped Till in the middle of the night. They brutally beat him, shot him, and tossed his body in the Tallahatchie River. National reports of Till’s murder deeply moved many Americans.

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​Bryant and Milam stood trial for the crime, but a jury of 12 white men found them not guilty. Months later, the two men confessed to the killing to a reporter for Look magazine. Till’s senseless murder—and his killers’ acquittal—awakened more Americans to the racism that southern blacks faced and to the need for action.

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Multiple Choice

Where was Emmett Till born?

• Richmond

• Chicago

• New York

Multiple Choice

Where did Emmett Till die?

• Richmond

• Alabama

• Money, Mississippi

• New York City

Multiple Choice

Why was Emmett Till in Mississippi?

• To visit his family

• To go on vaction

• For school

Multiple Choice

What decision did Emmett's mother make that impacted the Civil Rights movement?

• Spoke out on the news

• Testified in court

• Had an open casket funeral

• Marched in Mississippi

Multiple Choice

Why did Mamie Till have an open casket?

• She wanted to show the people what the men had done to her boy. They beat him to the point where he was unrecognizable. 
• She wanted publicity for her boy 
• She wanted attention while mourning for her boy 
• She did not want an open casket she was forced to have an open casket

Multiple Choice

Why did the jury acquit Milam and Bryant of the murder of Emmett Till? 

• The jury ruled that Emmett deserved to die. 
• Mose Wright identified Milam and Bryant. 
• The sheriff testified that there was no way to positively identify the body. 
• The racist jury sided with Bryant and Milam. 

​Segregation continued to be enforced in many other public places and facilities in the South. One major area that remained segregated was public transportation.

The NAACP decided to continue the battle against segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Black passengers there were required to sit in the back of city buses. If the whites-only front section filled up, black passengers had to give up their seats.

​Montgomery Bus Boycott

​On December 1, 1955, a seamstress and NAACP worker named Rosa Parks boarded a bus and sat in the front row of the section reserved for black passengers. When the bus became full, the driver told Parks and three others to give their seats to white passengers. Parks refused. The bus driver called the police, and Parks was taken to jail.

​To protest Parks’s arrest, African American professor Jo Ann Robinson organized a boycott of Montgomery buses. Local leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to help strengthen the boycott. In the Montgomery bus boycott, thousands of African Americans stopped riding the buses. Some white residents supported the boycott as well. Bus ridership fell by 70 percent.

​To lead the MIA, African American leaders turned to Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister. The 26-year-old King already had a reputation as a powerful speaker whose words could motivate and inspire listeners.

​As the boycott continued, bus drivers guided nearly empty buses down the city streets. Leaders planned a carpool system that helped people find rides at more than 40 locations throughout Montgomery. For 381 days, boycotters carpooled, took taxis, rode bicycles, and walked. Still, Montgomery’s leaders refused to integrate the bus system.

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As in Little Rock during the school segregation fight, many white residents were angry about the attempt to end segregation. Some people resorted to violence. King’s home was bombed, and he received hate mail and phone calls threatening him and his family. The police also harassed and arrested carpool drivers. In spite of this intimidation, the boycott gained national attention, sparking similar protests in other cities.

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Multiple Choice

In what state did the Montgomery Bus Boycott take place?

• Mississippi

• Georgia

• Alabama

• Texas

Multiple Choice

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was what kind of protest?

• Segregated

• Violent

• Revolutionary

• Peaceful

Multiple Choice

In what year did the Montgomery Bus Boycott take place?

• 1955

• 1960

• 1945

• 1963

Multiple Choice

What was the date that Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat?

• December 25

• December 1

• June 8

• March 9

Multiple Choice

What day did the Montgomery Bus Boycott begin?

• December 26

• December 31

• December 5

• January 1

Multiple Choice

How long did the Montgomery Bus Boycott last?

• 1 month

• 1 year

• 500 days

• 381 days

​Finally, in November 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was illegal. The next month, King joined other black and white ministers to ride the first integrated bus in Montgomery. “It . . . makes you feel that America is a great country and we’re going to do more to make it greater,” remembered Jo Ann Robinson.

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The Montgomery bus boycott helped make Martin Luther King Jr. a nationally known civil rights leader. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which led campaigns for civil rights throughout the South.

​Sit-Ins

​Like public schools and buses, many private businesses in the South were segregated. In Greensboro, North Carolina, four students decided to challenge this form of segregation. They targeted a lunch counter at Woolworth, a popular department store. Black customers were supposed to eat standing up at one end of the counter. White customers sat down to eat at the other end.

​On February 1, 1960, the students went into Woolworth and staged a sit-in—a demonstration in which protesters sit down and refuse to leave. They sat in the whites-only section of the lunch counter and ordered coffee. They were not served, but they stayed until the store closed. The next day, they returned with dozens more students to continue the sit-in. Soon, another sit-in began at the lunch counter of a nearby store.

Multiple Choice

What was the major goal of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s?

• to end racial segregation

• to reduce prejudice against Mexican-American immigrants

• to reform prison conditions

• to improve living conditions for Native American Indians

Multiple Choice

Which conclusion about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s is most valid?

• The movement failed to inspire other groups

• Civil disobedience successfully brought about legislative changes

• All races had a common goal but different ways for achieving them

• The movement began violently but ended with peaceful demonstrations