Unit 10: The Civil Rights Movement - Vocabulary

A partnership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and activists from Albany, Georgia, that worked to end segregation.

• Albany Movement

• Civil Rights Movement

• March on Washington

• Sibley Commission

 A landmark 1954 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” and race-based segregation of public school students to be unconstitutional.

• Albany Movement

• Brown v. Board of Education

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Civil Rights Movement

Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Albany Movement

• Brown v. Board of Education

• Civil Rights Movement

A national movement undertaken by African Americans or Blacks and their supporters in the 1950s and 1960s to end segregation and ensure equal rights for minorities.

• Civil Rights Movement

• Brown v. Board of Education

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Martin Luther King Jr.

Black civil rights leader of the 1950s and 1960s, from Atlanta, who opposed segregation. He believed in nonviolence and organized the March on Washington. He received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

• Martin Luther King Jr.

• Civil Rights Movement

• John Lewis

• Lester Maddox

A civil rights leader who was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organized the 1963 March on Washington. He has served as a U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district since 1987.

• John Lewis

• Lester Maddox

• Martin Luther King Jr.

• Civil Rights Movement

A segregationist who rose to fame after refusing to serve African Americans or Blacks in his restaurant. After a long legal battle, Maddox closed his restaurant rather than desegregate it. He later became governor of Georgia and softened his views on civil rights. His administration saw improved conditions for minorities in the state, and he later served as lieutenant governor under Jimmy Carter.

• Lester Maddox

• Martin Luther King Jr.

• John Lewis

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

On August 28, 1963, approximately 250,000 people, mostly African American or Black, gathered before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, to demand equal protection under the law for African Americans or Blacks. It was at this event that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

• March on Washington

• Albany Movement

• Sibley Commission

• Civil Rights Movement

A commission charged by Governor Ernest Vandiver Jr. with studying segregation in the state of Georgia. The commission laid the groundwork for the end of state resistance to forced integration.

• Sibley Commission

• Albany Movement

• March on Washington

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference

A partnership of civil rights organizations and churches that worked for desegregation and other civil rights. The SCLC, led by Martin Luther King Jr. promoted nonviolent direct action to meet its goals.

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• Albany Movement

• Sibley Commission

• March on Washington