Civil Rights Movement/1960's

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination, to oppose racism and to gain civil rights for African Americans, got Supreme Court to declare grandfather clause unconstitutional

Great Society

President Johnson called his version of the Democratic reform program the Great Society. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education.

War on poverty

President Lyndon B. Johnson's program in the 1960's to provide greater social services for the poor and elderly

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, churches link together to inform blacks about changes in the Civil Rights Movement, led by MLK Jr., was a success

SNCC

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, college kids participate in Civil Rights, stage sit-ins and such

Betty Friedan

1921-2006. American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique".

Malcolm x

1952; renamed himself X to signify the loss of his African heritage; converted to Nation of Islam in jail in the 50s, became Black Muslims' most dynamic street orator and recruiter; his beliefs were the basis of a lot of the Black Power movement built on seperationist and nationalist impulsesto achieve true independence and equality

Brown vs Board

1954-ruled that racial segregation in public schools was not equal, so could not occur

Birmingham Riot

1963--conflict between peaceful protesting students and the Birmingham police; the conflict brought national attention to the civil rights movement as JFK realized that if nothing was done blacks would turn to militancy and the event reflected poorly internationally

Voting rights act of 1965

1965; invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks

Woodstock

3 day rock concert in upstate N.Y. August 1969, exemplified the counterculture of the late 1960s, nearly 1/2M gather in a 600 acre field

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places.

Ralph Nader

A leftist American politician who promotes the environment, fair consumerism, and social welfare programs. His book Unsafe at Any Speed brought attention to the lack of safety in American automobiles.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Rachel Carson

United States biologist remembered for her opposition to the use of pesticides that were hazardous to wildlife (1907-1964)

Greensboro Sit-ins

Black students politely order food from restaurant, not served, sat in place for days, gathering supporters. successful.

New Left

Coalition of younger members of the Democratic party and radical student groups. Believed in participatory democracy, free speech, civil rights and racial brotherhood, and opposed the war in Vietnam.

Orval Faubus

He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied the United States Supreme Court by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to stop African American students from attending Little Rock Central High School

Robert Kennedy

He was a Democrat who ran for president in 1968 promoting civil rights and other equality based ideals. He was ultimately assassinated in 1968, leaving Nixon to take the presidency but instilling hope in many Americans.P

James Meredith

He was a civil rights advocate who spurred a riot at the University of Mississippi. The riot was caused by angry whites who did not want Meredith to register at the university. The result was forced government action, showing that segregation was no longer government policy.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

March on washington

In August 1963, civil rights leaders organized a massive rally in Washington to urge passage of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. The high point came when MLK Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 marchers in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Little Rock Nine

In September 1957 the school board in Little rock, Arkansas, won a court order to admit nine African American students to Central High a school with 2,000 white students. The governor ordered troops from Arkansas National Guard to prevent the nine from entering the school. The next day as the National Guard troops surrounded the school, an angry white mob joined the troops to protest the integration plan and to intimidate the AA students trying to register. The mob violence pushed Eisenhower's patience to the breaking point. He immediately ordered the US Army to send troops to Little Rock to protect and escort them for the full school year.

Ole Miss

James meredith attempted to enroll, turned away, sued in federal court - won. Miss governor ross barnett physically blocked meredith's entrance. JFK sent marshals to protect Meredith. Federal troops were sent to restore order

Selma march

King organized this major demonstration in Alabama to press for the right of blacks to register to vote. Selma sheriff led local police in a televised brutal attack on demonstrators. Two northern white marchers were murdered, and the outrage that came after helped LBJ pass the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Freedom Summer

a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi, which up to that time had almost totally excluded black voters.

Nonviolent protest

a peaceful way of protesting against restrictive racial policies

Freedom Rides

a series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and Whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961

Counterculture

a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture

Watts riot

a white officer beat a black motorist in LA which caused 6 days of violence and thirty four people to die. Home were burned and the national guard had to be brought in.

CORE

an organization founded by James Leonard Farmer in 1942 to work for racial equality

Hippies

believed in anti-materalism, free use of drugs, they had a casual attitude toward sex and anti-conformity, (1960s) practiced free love and took drugs, flocked to San Francisco- low rent/interracial, they lived in communal "crash pads", smoked marijuana and took LSD, sexual revolution, new counter culture, Protestors who influenced US involvement in Vietnam

Equal rights amendment

constitutional amendment passed by Congress but never ratified that would have banned discrimination on the basis of gender

Stokely Carmichael

head of the SNCC making a separatist philosophy of black power as the official objective of the organization

Civil Rights Movement

movement in the United States beginning in the 1960s and led primarily by Blacks in an effort to establish the civil rights of individual Black citizens

Eugene Connor

police commissioner personally supervised a brutal effort to break up the peaceful marches Martin Luther King Jr. led, arresting hundreds of demonstrators and using attack dogs, tear gas, electric cattle prods, and fire hoses, all in view of TV cameras.

George Wallace

racist gov. of Alabama in 1962 ("segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"); runs for pres. In 1968 on American Independent Party ticket of racism and law and order, loses to Nixon; runs in 1972 but gets shot

Lyndon Johnson

signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law and the voting rights act of 1965. he had a war on poverty in his agenda. in an attempt to win, he set a few goals, including the great society, the economic opportunity act, and other programs that provided food stamps and welfare to needy famillies. he also created a department of housing and urban development. his most important legislation was probably medicare and medicaid.

Black Power

the belief that blacks should fight back if attacked. it urged blacks to achieve economic independence by starting and supporting their own business.

Feminism

the belief that women should possess the same political and economic rights as men

Thurgood Marshall

the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his activity in the Little Rock 9 and his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education