Unit 5: Civil Rights Movement

Kerner Commission

11-member commission established by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and to provide recommendations for the future.

Emmett Till

14-year old Chicago boy was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. His mother opted to have an open casket to show the severity of his murder, this event could be argued to be the start of the Civil Rights movement.

March on Washington

A political rally that was held on August 28, 1963. Organized by multiple civil rights groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.

Malcom X

African-American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam. He encouraged eliminating racism by any means necessary including violence. Before he was assassinated, he broke ties with the Nation of Islam.

"separate but equal"

Allowed for separate facilities for whites and blacks and covered many areas including restaurants, theaters, restrooms and public schools

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)

American political party created in 1964 as a branch of the populist Freedom Democratic organization in the state of Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. It was organized by African Americans and whites from Mississippi to challenge the legitimacy of the regular Mississippi Democratic Party, which allowed participation only by whites, when African Americans made up 40% of the state population.

Freedom Summer

An aggressive campaign to register black voters in the Deep South

Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK)

Baptist minister and social activist, who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. Famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington.

Muhammad Ali

Born Cassius Clay, he was an American boxer. He joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name. He refused to join the armed forces and fight in Vietnam and was denied a boxing license across the country.

Medgar Evers

Civil rights activist who fought to gain admission to the University of Mississippi and desegregate colleges. He was assassinated.

Thurgood Marshall

Civil-Rights lawyer who won the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education. He became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality. Notable events: Sit-in movement, Freedom Rides, March on Washington, and Freedom Summer. Notable leaders: James L. Farmer and Bayard Rustin.

MLK Assassination

He was fatally shot by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Freedom Summer

In 1964, civil rights organizations including the CORE andSNCC organized a voter registration drive aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi. The Ku Klux Klan, police and even state and local authorities carried out a systematic series of violent attacks; including arson, beatings, false arrest and the murder of at least three civil rights activists.

Selma March/Campaign

In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters (under the protection of federalized National Guard troops) finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. The historic march, and King's participation in it, greatly helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South, and the need for a Voting Rights Act, passed later that year.

Stokely Carmichael

Leader of SNCC in the 1960s.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr's open letter defending the strategy of non-violent resistance to racism.

"I Have a Dream" speech

Martin Luther King's famous speech that was given at the March on Washington.

Jim Crow Laws

Named after a black character for laws existing from 1880's-1960s in a majority of the states forbiding race mixing, which were punishable by law.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Non-violent group that focused on using the court system to change segregation laws. Notable leaders: Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Rosa Parks. Notable events: Brown vs. Board of Ed, Little Rock 9, and Medgar Evers

Sit-ins

Non-violent tactic used by some of the civil rights groups to protest segregation in the South.

March on Washington

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech

1968 Olympics

Political demonstration conducted by the African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. As they turned to face their flags and hear the American national anthem ("The Star-Spangled Banner"), they each raised a black-gloved fist and kept them raised until the anthem had finished. Smith, Carlos and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human rights badges on their jackets.

de jure segregation

Racial segregation enforced by law

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their goal was to desegregate the south through the organization and coordination of non-violent protests. Notable events: bus boycotts, Birmingham campaign and the Selma March. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader of this group.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Unlike the other groups, it is compromised of younger adults. They believed in non-violent protests. Notable leaders: Stokely Carmichael. Notable events: sit-ins, Freedom Riders, March on Washington, and Freedom Summer.

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

Supreme Court abolished the segregation of public schools. It struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy vs. Ferguson for the area of education, but did not address other public areas.

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal"

Second ruling of Brown vs. Board "All deliberate speed"

This court decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. But the Court ordered only that the states end segregation with "all deliberate speed." This vagueness about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance.

Black Panthers

Unlike other groups, they practiced militant self-defense. Notable leaders: Huey Newton, Bobby Seal, and Stokely Carmichael. Notable events: 1968 Summer Olympics, Black nationalism/Black Power, Vietnam

James Meredith

a civil rights activist who had been the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi and was assassinated

Bayard Rustin

a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s. Also a supporter and activist for the LGBT movement.

Phillip Randolph

a founding leader, organizer and social activist who championed equitable labor rights for African-American communities during the 20th century. During World War I, Randolph tried to unionize African-American shipyard workers and elevator operators, and co-launched a magazine designed to encourage demand for higher wages. He later founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which by 1937 would become the first official African-American labor union. He was a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.

Little Rock Nine

a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students.

Homer Plessy

arrested for sitting in the "White" car of the East Lousiana Railway. Although he could pass for being white, he was 1/8 Black, so he was required to sit in the car for "Colored" people

freedom riders

civil rights activists who road interstate buses into the south to challenge the non-enforcement of US Supreme Court decided to desegregate buses.

Birmingham

considered to be the most racially divided cities in the United States

Civil Rights Act of 1968

landmark part of legislation in the United States that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin and made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone ... by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin."[1] The Act was signed into law during the King assassination riots by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had previously signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

de facto segregation

racial segregation that happens based on customs and traditions

"Black Power"

rallying cry of a younger, more radical generation of civil rights activists. It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

Malcom X's assassination

shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City on February 21, 1965.

segregation

the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment.

Nation of Islam

this group called on African Americans to be proud of their heritage and to set up strong communities without the help of white Americans. He promoted the establishment of a separate state for African Americans in which they could rely on themselves to provide solutions to their own problems. Violence was not the only answer, but violence was justified in self-defense. Blacks should achieve what was rightfully theirs "by any means necessary." This group mixed aspects of their religion with Black Pride/Nationalism. Notable leaders: Elijah Muhammad and Malcom X.