Chapter 28: The Civil Rights Movement

James Meredith

A court order allowed this student to attend the University of Mississippi. Two people were killed in the riots that erupted over him attending the University.

Freedom Summer

A group consisted of college students from the North who were mostly white that went to Mississippi to teach black students and help people register to vote; three of the volunteers were killed.

Freedom Riders

A group of protesters that took a bus trip through the South. They would go into whites only waiting rooms, restrooms, and lunch counters to draw attention to segregation.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

A group of young African American leaders of sit-ins who wanted to coordinate other nonviolent protests. This group was popular with college students.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

A group that was dedicated to nonviolent protest and was created by James Farmer in the 1940's.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

A group that was formed to organize protests all across the South. Many Christian clergy were in this group, but it was open to all faiths and races. It was committed to nonviolence.

Voter Education Project

A group was formed in 1962 to help African Americans to register to vote. This group helped 500,000 African Americans register to vote by 1964.

March Against Fear

A march from Tennessee to Mississippi to encourage African Americans to register to vote. The leader was shot and wounded on day two. The SNCC and SCLC came to finish the march and differences between these groups became obvious.

Selma, Alabama

A march was held to protest police brutality after state troopers killed a marcher in a nearby city. This march started in this city and ended in Montgomery, Alabama. Police brutally attacked the marchers as they crossed the bridge going out of the city.

Poor People's Campaign

A protest where over 10,000 protesters marched in Washington DC with a wagon pulled by mules. 2,500 protesters settled on the National Mall in what they called "Resurrection City." They were a protesting poverty. This was not successful.

Andrew Young

Advisor for King who became the first African American member of Congress representing Georgia in 1972 and later served as US Ambassador for the United Nations and even later became mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

Charlayne Hunter & Hamilton Holmes

African American students who attended the University of Georgia despite threats and riots. Judges forced the University to accept them.

Little Rock Nine

African American students who faced abuse when they attended the previously all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Also known as the Fair Housing Act because it banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

24th Amendment

An addition to the Constitution that banned poll taxes.

Robert Kennedy

Brother of JFK and the Attorney General who sent federal marshals to help protect African Americans and restore order to many cities in the South.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Case that allowed for the legal justification for segregation by saying separate but equal was ok.

Booker T. Washington

Civil Rights leader who believed that African Americans needed to improve their working skills and wait to get more political rights. He also worked closely with some government officials.

Birmingham Campaign

During protests in this city, many children came to join the protests when adults did not want to continue to risk being involved. The TV footage of the police chief ordering the use of fire hoses on the children caused people to become upset. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to get most of his demands granted.

W. E. B. DuBois

Early Civil Rights leader who helped create the NAACP and did not want to wait for more rights.

Greensboro, NC

Four college students sat at the front counter and were denied food service. They continued the protest and others joined them until they could get served at the Woolworth's in this city.

Anniston & Birmingham Alabama

Freedom Riders faced mobs that beat them in both of these cities. In one city, the bus was firebombed.

Black Panther Party

Group created by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California that grew. This group believed in a violent revolution to liberate African Americans. They carried guns to protect against police and shootouts resulted in deaths.

Nation of Islam

Group that started in 1930. Members were called Black Muslims. Beliefs were based on the ideas of the Islamic Religion. There were strict rules to follow.

Black Power

Idea that started with Stokley Carmichael. He said that African Americans need to depend on themselves; they need to have political and economic power.

Chicago

King organized a march in this city to try to get more rights for African Americans. This was not very successful because the people of this city were mostly concerned about money issues and there was not police brutality to invite large amounts of media attention.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Law that banned discrimination in employment and public places. This was signed by Lyndon Johnson.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Law that stated racial discrimination will not be allowed when voting. This allowed many African Americans in Southern states to register tot vote and get elected into some of the government positions.

Thurgood Marshall

Lawyer who worked to win many Supreme Court cases to gain rights for African Americans. Very famous for working on the Brown v. Board of Education case and he later became a Supreme Court Justice.

Stokley Carmichael

Leader of the SNCC in 1966. He gave a speech after getting arrested during the March Against Fear which started the idea of Black Power. Many whites left African American civil rights organizations after this.

H. Rap Brown

Leader of the SNCC that was very radical in his views which led to the group group disbanding in the 1970's

Diane Nash

Leader of the SNCC who didn't want the Freedom Rides to end. She organized more volunteers who traveled to Montgomery.

Kerner Commission

Lyndon Johnson appointed this group to study the causes of the riots. They said that poverty and discrimination were to blame. They said America has two societies; one black and one white.

James Earl Ray

Man who was said to have killed Martin Luther King Jr. and served prison time. There are people, including King's family, that question whether he was the one who did it.

Albany Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. and the SNCC led protests in this city to end segregation at the bus station. The police chief was successful in arresting the protesters and defeating the group. This was King's major defeat.

Byron De La Beckwith

Member of the Ku Klux Klan. It took three trials for him to be found guilty of the murder of the Medgar Evans.

Rosa Parks

Member of the NAACP who refused to give up her seat for a row of white riders and was arrested. This case helped end segregation on buses.

Massive Resistance

Officials at the state and local levels pledged to block the integration of schools. They often passed laws to block integration.

NAACP & SCLC

Older African American groups that wanted to accept the compromise the Democratic Party offered to allow two black delegates to vote at the Democratic Party Convention.

De Jure Segregation

Segregation created by laws.

De Facto Segregation

Segregation that exists by custom and practice.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Sixty-Eight African American delegates that asked to be seated at the Democratic Party Convention instead of the all-white delegation that had been sent from Mississippi.

Sit-In

Tactic African Americans would use where they would go in a whites' only area and refuse to move or become violent to draw attention to segregation.

John Edgar Hoover

The director of the FBI during the Civil Rights Movement. He thought the major civil rights groups were led by communists.

James Meredith

The first African American graduate of the University of Mississippi who started the March Against Fear.

March on Washington

The largest civil rights demonstration ever held in the United States. Over 200, 000 people were in Washington D.C. to show support for freedom and the Civil Rights Act. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have dream" speech.

Medgar Evans

The leader of the NAACP in Mississippi who was shot in his front yard after Kennedy's announcement that he wanted legislation to end segregation in all public places.

Affirmative Action

These programs required colleges and businesses to give preference to minorities and women when hiring or admitting students.

Boston Schools

They started busing students to other parts of the city to speed up integration. This caused protests in the city.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

This case was about students who wanted to attend all-white schools. The Supreme Court ruled in this case that separate schools violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

This message was King's response to an advertisement that was put in the newspaper by white clergy members. This advertisement said that King's protests were unwise and untimely. The response was written from jail.

Martin Luther King Jr.

This person became the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association which led the boycott of buses in Montgomery for over one year.

Fannie Lou Hamer

This person testified to the Democratic Party credential committee about why the black delegates should be seated. This person had been arrested and beaten. This person's speech was on TV and was inspiring to many people.

Mohandas Gandhi

This person used nonviolent resistance to end British rule in India and provided a model for others to follow.

Jackie Robinson

This person was the first African American to play major league baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.

John Lewis

Was involved in sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, and was a leader of the SNCC. He became a member of Congress representing Atlanta, Georgia in 1986.

Malcolm X

Young minister that helped the Black Muslims grow in popularity in the 1960's. He did not agree with King's nonviolent methods and called for revolution until he visited Mecca. He was assassinated for becoming a traitor to the Nation of Islam after returning from Mecca and changing his ideas about violence.

SNCC & MFDP

Younger African American groups that did not want to compromise with the Democratic Party by allowing two black delegates to vote at the Democratic Convention.

Watts Neighborhood & Detriot

riots by African Americans occurred in these areas in 1965 and 1967 which resulted in deaths.

Jesse Jackson

young activist in the civil rights movement who started Operation PUSH to promote civil rights and gained international attention as he worked to help the oppressed around the world. He also Campaigned for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980's.