Civil Rights Reading Guide

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Letter written by MLK after being arrested for peacefully demonstrating against segregation and racial terror in Birmingham, Alabama.

Describe the goals of the American Indian Movement and its takeover of federal land at Wounded Knee:

Their goals were the sovereignty of Native American lands and peoples; preservation of their culture and traditions; and enforcement of all treaties with the United States.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

List and describe the constitutional amendments pertaining to Civil Rights:

13th Amendment: it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. 14th Amendment: it addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws. 15th Amendment: it prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

Cesar Chavez

American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association .

Rosa Parks

Activist in the Civil Rights Movement, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Martin Luther King Jr.

American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence.

Dolores Huerta

American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.

Affirmative Action

An action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.

Wounded Knee

Battle that resulted in the deaths of perhaps 300 Sioux men, women, and children. The massacre at Wounded Knee was the last major battle of the Indian Wars of the late 19th century.

Black Panthers

Black Panther Party, original name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, African American revolutionary party founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Its purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality.

The Feminine Mystique

Book written by Betty Friedan which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States.

El Plan de Aztlan

pro-indigenist manifesto advocating Chicano nationalism and self-determination for Mexican Americans.

Describe the role of litigation in furthering the civil liberties of various groups of Americans:

Brown v Board of Education: Linda Brown, a middle school student at the time, was denied access to her school due to segregation. After bringing this case to the Supreme Court, Chief of Justice, Earl Warren, stated that segregation affected the black student's quality of education and ruled that all segregation must be eliminated. Mendez v Wesminster: case in California that involved the segregation of Mexican American school children seven years before Brown v Board case. It declared it unconstitutional. Hernandez v Texas: Hernandez' defense lawyers argued that persons of Mexican descent had not been allowed to serve on juries even though numerous Mexican Americans were citizens and had qualified for jury duty in Jackson County. Even though 14 percent of the county was Hispanic, none had served on juries for at least the last 25 years. This meant Hernandez had been deprived of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Delgado v Bastrop ISD: Minerva Delgado's son suffered segregation during this time period when Del Rio ISD decided to separate them from the other white kids since they did not speak English fluently. Ever since, Texas schools have tried to avoid the segregation of hispanic kids. Sweatt v Painter: The case involved a black man, Heman Marion Sweatt, who was refused admission to the School of Law of the University of Texas, whose president was Theophilus Painter, on the grounds that the Texas State Constitution prohibited integrated education. It successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation and influenced the Brown v Board case. White v Regester: U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Wesberry v. Sanders that members of the U.S. House of Representatives must be chosen from districts approximately equal in population. That same year, in Reynolds v. Sims, the Court ruled that members of both houses of a state legislature must be chosen from districts approximately equal in population. Wisconsin v Yoder: in this case the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade. The parents' fundamental right to freedom of religion was determined to outweigh the state's interest in educating its children. The case is often cited as a basis for parents' right to educate their children outside of traditional private or public schools.

GI Forum

Congressionally chartered Hispanic veterans and civil rights organization founded in 1948. Its motto is "Education is Our Freedom and Freedom should be Everybody's Business".

Describe the impact of the following female trailblazers:

Eleanor Roosevelt: Most outspoken women in the White House. She married Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1905. During her husband's presidency, Eleanor gave press conferences and wrote a newspaper column. Betty Friedan: Wrote The Feminine Mystique, which broke new ground by exploring the idea of women finding personal fulfillment outside of their traditional roles. She also helped advance the women's rights movement as one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Phyllis Schlafly: She wrote a book about corruption in the Republican Party and how people with lot of money unfairly influenced elections. Sandra Day O'Connor: She was the first woman to serve as justice on the Supreme Court. Hilary Clinton: First woman to run for president.

Thurgood Marshall

First African-American Supreme Court Justice.

United Farm Workers

Founded by Cesar Chavez, a migrant farm labourer, the UFW seeks to empower migrant farmworkers and improve their wages and working conditions.

Little Rock Nine

Group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School.

Malcolm X

He was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence.

What role did MLK have on the Civil Rights Movement? How did the "I Have A Dream" speech and "Letter From Birmingham Jail" affect his legacy?

His strong belief in non-violent protest helped set the tone of the movement and gave it the right direction. His speeches and words have remained as a treasured part of history that backs up the rights of African American People.

How has Title IX impacted secondary and higher education?

It gives each gender equal rights to educational programs, activities, and federal financial assistance.

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

It granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. Yet even after the Indian Citizenship Act, some Native Americans weren't allowed to vote because the right to vote was governed by state law.

Lobbying

It means sending someone paid to win favor from politicians. For example, oil companies send lobbyists to Washington to try to make life easier for oil companies.

What was the goal of the Equal Rights Amendment? What was the result of the efforts of its passage?

It stated that civil rights may not be denied on the basis of one's sex, racial background or religion.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

It was founded by Russell Means and others to help Native Americans in urban ghettos who had been displaced by government programs that had the effect of forcing them from their reservations.

March on Washington

March where MLK gave his "I Have A Dream" speech.

Hector P. Garcia

Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum.

Evaluate the impact of the following groups on the African American Civil Rights Movement:

NAACP: since it was one of the earliest and most influential civil rights organization in the United States, the NAACP focused on legal strategies designed to confront the critical civil rights issues of the day. CORE: it launched a series of initiatives: the Freedom Rides, aimed at desegregating public facilities, the Freedom Summer voter registration project and the historic 1963 March on Washington, which all fought for the right of African American citizens. SNCC: movement led by MLK which had as their main goal increasing student participation in the civil rights movement. SCLC: Its goal was redeeming ''the soul of America'' through nonviolent resistance to coordinate the action of local protest groups throughout the South.

What problems continue to exist for Native American populations, especially those living on the reservations?

Native communities are often impoverished and jobless, face issues of mass incarceration and policing, the federal government is still stripping Native people of their land, exploitation of natural resources threatens Native communities, violence against women and children is especially prevalent in Native communities, the education system is failing Native students, live in overcrowded, poor-quality housing, receive inadequate health care, etc.

Russell Means

Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of American Indian people, libertarian political activist, actor, writer, and musician. Russell Means is known for leading an armed takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973, and for appearing in films like The Last of the Mohicans. In 2007, he helped draft a proposal to create a new nation for the Lakota tribe.

What role did the following people play in the Civil Rights Movement?

Orval Faubus: Governor of Arkansas that supported segregation on Little Rock school district. George Wallace: American politician and the 45th Governor of Alabama that stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" Lester Maddox: segregationist that refused to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant, in defiance of the Civil Rights Act. Bull Connor: He gained a reputation for being an outspoken segregationist and this gained him a lot of support in a city where segregation was rigidly enforced and where attempts were made to keep the state so despite federal legislation such as Brown v Topeka in 1954 and the end to bus segregation after the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama started by Rosa Parks.

24th Amendment

Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.

Jim Crow Laws

Segregation laws against African Americans that were more enforced on the South more than up north, where it was just considered more of a social rule than an actual law. They were about segregating black and white people in all public buildings.

Chicano Blowouts

Series of 1968 protests by Chicano students against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools.

Betty Friedan

She is an American feminist best known for her book The Feminine Mystique (1963), which explored the causes of the frustrations of modern women in traditional roles.

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial organization to advance justice for African Americans by W. E. B.

What resistance did students of ethnic and racial minority backgrounds face while trying to get their education?

States and school districts did little to reduce segregation, and schools remained almost completely segregated until 1968.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

The Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights.

Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam, abbreviated as NOI, is an African American political and religious movement. Malcolm X used to be part of it.

SCLC

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Compare and contrast the tactic of nonviolent resistance with military within the Civil Rights Movement:

The larger Civil Rights Movement can attribute its success to the tactic of nonviolence contrasting with the exposure of violence-prone policemen, sheriffs, vigilante groups, and other defenders of the status quo. Yet, the tactic of armed self-defense was indispensable in order to protect lives and property since the courts and law enforcement officials often stood silent or protected the perpetrators of racist violence.

National Organization for Women

The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men.

Militancy

The use of confrontational or violent methods in support of a political or social cause.

How did La Raza Unida aim to improve participation in the democratic process?

They brought more people to change the laws and end segregation.

Explain how farm workers rights fit in with the Civil Rights Movement:

They fought for the rights of farm workers.

How did art and literature reflect the different aspects of the various Civil Rights movements?

They used literature and art to express their discontent in a non-violent way. Everyone used it in a different way for every movement that there was back then.

Title IX

Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

Protest

a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something.

Nonviolent Resistance

achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, or other methods, while being nonviolent.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

La Raza Unida

former Hispanic political party centered on Chicano nationalism. It was born in the early 1970s and became prominent throughout Texas and Southern California.

Litigation

the process of taking legal action.