During the American Civil Rights Movement from 1954-1965, African Americans fought for equal rights through various protests and court cases. Key events included the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that mandated desegregation of schools, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by MLK Jr., and the March on Washington where MLK delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech calling for racial equality. This nonviolent protest movement helped spur passage of landmark civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1. American Civil Rights Movement
WWII-1970
“I have a dream that one day this nation will
rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal.” ~ I Have a
Dream Speech – MLK Jr.

2. I hope the rest of the
presentation doesn‟t
look like this.
PowerPoint by
Kristina Bowers
That‟s Me!!

3. Thesis
• During the Civil Rights Era of 1954-1965, African Americans fought
for equal rights in the United States.

4. WWII
• During World War II, African Americans
were drafted into the war but generally
assigned to service branches rather than
combat units.
• The largest exception was the 99th
Pursuit Squadron called the “Tuskegee
Airmen.” These pilots were some of the
few African Americans to see combat
during WWII, they flew over 1,600
fighter-support missions in North Africa
and never lost a bomber to enemy
aircraft. They were trained in a
segregated unit in Tuskegee, Alabama.

5. A. Philip Randolph
• 1941 - A. Phillip Randolph, founder of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, planned
a massive march on Washington to demand
more jobs for blacks in the defense industry.
• Before the planned march, FDR met with
Randolph and shortly after issued Executive
Order 8802 A.K.A The Fair Employment Act
declaring “there shall be no discrimination in
the employment of workers in defense
industries or government because of
race, creed, color or national origin.”
▫ FDR also created the Fair Employment
Practices Committee which monitored
unions.
• In return, Randolph called off the march.

6. A. Philip Randolph (cont.)
• 1947 – He and Grant Reynolds formed the Committee Against Jim
Crow in Military Service A.K.A League for Non-Violent Civil
Disobedience.
▫ July 26, 1948 – President Truman issued Executive Order 9981
which abolished racial segregation in the armed forces.
• 1950 – Cofounded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights with
Roy Wilkins and Arnold Aronson.
• August 28, 1963 – Organized
March on Washington to demand
fair and equal treatment of blacks in
the workplace.

7. Civil Rights Era: 1954 - 1965

8. Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas (1954)
• In the early 1950‟s, racial segregation in schools was the norm.
• 3rd grader Linda Brown had to walk through a railroad switchyard to
get to her all black school, when an all white school was just 7 miles
away.
• Her father tried to enroll her in the white school, was denied, then went to
the NAACP for help.
• 1951 - NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid segregation of
Topeka‟s public schools.
• The District Court saw the case and decided in favor of the Board of
Education because of the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Brown and NAACP appealed to SCOTUS and on May 17th, 1954 SCOTUS
struck down the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson and required
desegregation of schools across America.

9. Emmett Till
• August 20, 1955 – 14 year old Emmett Till traveled from Chicago to
Money, Mississippi to visit relatives.
• This was soon after the SCOTUS ordered school to be desegregated, and
racial tensions and violence ran high in the south.
• Emmett Till allegedly talked to a white woman in an „inappropriate‟
manner on a dare, and the woman‟s husband Roy Bryant and his half-
brother J. W. Milam decided they had to teach Emmett a lesson.
• Bryant and Milam kidnapped Emmett from his great-uncle‟s house and
drove him away, later claiming they turned him loose that night.
• 3 days later a fisherman found Emmett‟s body in the Tallahatchie River.
• The two men were acquitted on September 23, 1955.
• “Before Emmett Till‟s murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell and
the Devil. But now there was a new fear known to me – the fear of being
killed just because I was black.” ~ Anne Moody.

10. Emmett Till
Roy Bryant and J. W.
Milam
Mamie Carthan, Emmett‟s mother

11. White Citizen‟s Council
• Brown v. Board of Education spurred formation of the Citizen‟s
Council, a white supremacist group consisting of urban, middle-
class whites that fought desegregation.
• First meeting: July 11, 1954 in Mississippi.
• Civil rights activists called them the “white-collar Klan”, after the Ku
Klux Klan.
• Wanted to control blacks more through economic reprisals than
violence.
• A Council leader said their goal was “to make it difficult, if not
impossible, for any Negro who advocates desegregation to find and
hold a job, get credit, or renew a mortgage.”
• Organization mainly in southern states.

12. Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec 5, 1955 – Dec 21, 1956
• More than 75% of ridership on buses in Montgomery, Alabama
consisted of black people. Without their patronage, the bus system
couldn‟t run.
• Boycotts were staged all over Montgomery, and black people were
arrested for not giving their seats to white people.
• Dec 1st, 1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man
and is arrested.
• Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women‟s Political
Council, helped organize the boycott.
• The boycott was successful, the Montgomery public transportation
system was crippled economically and on June 4th, 1956 the federal
district court ruled that Alabama‟s bus segregation laws were
unconstitutional.

13. "Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because
she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person
to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case
that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This
has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not
ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders
are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty
seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will
continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or
mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are,
therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in
protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to
town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay
out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except
by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If
you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-
ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses
Monday."

14. Montgomery Bus Boycott (cont.)
• MLK Jr. was chosen as the
president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association, an
organization of black
community leaders and
ministers who were
instrumental in organizing the
boycott.
• MIA‟ goal was “to carry on
nonviolent crusades against
the evils of second-class
citizenship.”
• MLK Jr. was arrested under an
old Alabama statute that said
people couldn‟t boycott. This
helped bring national attention
to the Montgomery boycott.

16. Little Rock – Sep 4, 1957
Racist.
• “Little Rock Nine” – group of
African American students
barred from entering Little
Rock Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Governor Orval Faubus sent
the Arkansas National Guard to
prevent the students from
entering the school.
• On September 4th, President
Eisenhower ordered the 101st
Airborne Division to escort the
students inside amidst
screaming of lynching from the
crazy mob surrounding them.
Elizabeth Eckford

18. Sit-Ins
• Feb 1, 1960 – 4 college students staged a sit-in at the
lunch counter of an F.W. Woolworth in
Greensboro, NC.
• This first sit-in was not very effective, but a larger
group returned the next day and college campuses
and news outlets started spreading the word.
• In some instances black students were attacked by
white gangs, and the police arrested them for
„disorderly conduct‟.
• As a result of these sit-ins, the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee was formed.
• Non-violent protest is awesome guys.

19. SCLC
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Established in 1957.
• President: MLK Jr.
• Formed to coordinate and support nonviolent
direct action as a method of desegregating bus
systems across the South during and after the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• Called on the power and independence of black
churches throughout the South.

20. SNCC
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
• Grew from a series of student meetings led by
Ella Baker held at Shaw University in
Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960.
• Played a major role in sit-ins and freedom rides.
• Organized voter registration drives all over the
South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi.

21. Freedom Riders
• Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the
segregated southern United States in 1961 to try and
desegregate bus terminals.
• These activists were usually members of SNCC and CORE.
• They were often arrested and faced violent mobs.
• On May 14th, 1961 the KKK attacked a Greyhound bus, one of
two in a group, and firebombed it in Anniston, AL. When the
passengers escaped the mob started beating them and only
stopped when policeman fired in the air.
• When the second bus, a Trailways, arrived in Anniston, the
KKK boarded the bus and beat the passengers and left them
on the bus. Later, when the bus arrived in
Birmingan, AL, more KKK members attacked the riders.
This mob was aided by notorious Commissioner Bull Connor
who was notorious for using his law enforcement to terrorize
African Americans.

23. CORE
• Congress of Racial Equality
• Founded in Chicago in 1942 by James L. Farmer,
Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, and Bernice
Fisher.
• Sought to apply the principles of nonviolence as a
tactic against segregation.
• Funded most of the Freedom Rides.
• Stated to be open to "anyone who believes that 'all
people are created equal' and is willing to work
towards the ultimate goal of true equality
throughout the world.”

24. James Meredith
• First black student to attend the University of
Mississippi.
• Applied twice, but was rejected so he filed a complaint
with the courts that he had been rejected by the
university simply because he was black.
• His complaint was rejected by a district court, but on
appeal, the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court supported him
and ruled against the district court stating that the
University of Mississippi was indeed maintaining a
policy of segregation in its admissions policy.
• He received threats, and all this hullabaloo caused riots.
• He attended the university anyway because he‟s just that
awesome.

25. March on Washington ~ August 28th, 1963
• Called for civil and economic rights for African
Americans.
• MLK Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream Speech” here.
• Between 200,000 and 300,000 people were in
attendance.
• It is largely credited with helping pass the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of
1965.
• Organized by A. Philip Randolph.

26. Birmingham Church Bombing
• 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15,
1963 as an act of racially motivated terrorism.
• 4 young girls were killed, 22 other people were
injured.
• Birmingham was one of the most violent anti-
integration cities in the south, church bombings
were common.
• This violent act was committed by the KKK.
• This incident inspired the poem „The Ballad of
Birmingham‟ by Dudley Randall.

28. Important Legislation
• 24th Amendment: Eliminated poll tax, ratified in 1964.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964: Outlawed major forms of
discrimination against African Americans and
women, including racial segregation, also ended unequal
application of voter registration requirements and racial
segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that
served the general public. Signed into law by LBJ.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965: Outlawed discriminatory policies
such as literary tests for blacks at the voting booths. LBJ did
this as well.
• Executive Order 11246: Employers can‟t discriminate when
hiring, LBJ again.

29. More Court Cases
• Loving v. VA (1967): Legalized interracial marriage.
Plaintiffs Mildred Loving and Richard Perry Loving
went up against the state of VA, the SCOTUS
overturned VA‟s Racial Integrity Act of 1964.
• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education (1971): Were federal courts
constitutionally authorized to oversee and produce
remedies for state-imposed segregation?
Yes, basically told schools to find ways to integrate.

30. Works Cited ~ Pictures
• http://www.enotes.com/topic/Tuskegee_Airmen
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Philip_Randolph
• http://www.statesman.com/opinion/kings-march-continues-181494.html
• http://www.nps.gov/brvb/historyculture/index.htm
• http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/8-civilrights/1954-
1960/index.html
• http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2531/4194826329_342ab640d6.jpg
• http://www.amistadresource.org/civil_rights_era/montgomery_bus_boycott.h
tml
• http://southernsizzleromance.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mlkmug-shot.jpg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:101st_Airborne_at_Little_Rock_Central_Hi
gh.jpg
• http://www.changethewind.org/2011/02/remembering-little-rock-nine.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_riders
• http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/media_content/m-4190.jpg

31. Works Cited
• The American Pageant Textbook
• Eyes on the Prize: America‟s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan
Williams
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart8.html
• http://www.slideshare.net/menmaatre.kiya/african-american-civil-
rights-notes-18651992
• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/timeline/civil_01.html
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/17/i-have-a-dream-
speech-text_n_809993.html
• http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-
civilrights/brown.html
• http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_emm
ett_till.htm