The civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s through important Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which banned racial segregation in schools, and civil rights protests and demonstrations across the South led by Martin Luther King Jr. and groups like the SCLC and SNCC. This period saw key events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, and March on Washington. However, violence and opposition from groups like the KKK persisted, as seen in the murders of Medgar Evers and the four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Major civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965, including the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, but divisions grew within the movement,

1. A Decade
of Dissent

2. The Civil Rights Movement

3. Pre-1900
•Opposition to slavery in colonial days
•Abolition movement and Civil War
•Legalized racism after Reconstruction
•1896 Plessy v. Ferguson allowed the segregation of African Americans
and whites.
1930s
•Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois
•Founding of the NAACP in 1909
•African Americans suffered worse than others during the Great Depression.
•Roosevelt unwilling to push for improved African American rights.
1940s
•A. Philip Randolph forced a federal ban against discrimination in
defense work.
•1940s founding of CORE
•President Truman desegregated the armed forces.
•Brooklyn Dodgers put an African American—Jackie Robinson—on its roster.

5. Jackie Robinson
1947
Robinson’s breaking of the
color barrier was extremely
controversial
Other more talented ball
players were passed on due
to their temperament
Robinson’s contract
contained clauses with a zero
tolerance for retaliation

7. With help from the NAACP, the case of Brown v. Board
of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court,
challenging the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson.
In the case, Oliver Brown challenged that his daughter,
Linda, should be allowed to attend an all-white school near
her home instead of the distant all-black school she had
been assigned to.
Oliver Brown was a
welder for the Santa Fe
Railroad and a part-
time assistant pastor at
St. John African
Methodist Episcopal
Church.
Linda Brown was in the third
grade when her father began his
class action lawsuit.

8. Thurgood Marshall,
argued that “separate”
could never be “equal”
and that segregated
schools violated the
Fourteenth Amendment’s
guarantee to provide
“equal protection” to all
citizens.

9. * In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled
in favor of the Brown family, and
schools nationwide were ordered to
be desegregated “ with all due
haste”
Ruling eliminates de jure
segregation
However de facto segregation still
existed

10. Civil Rights
1954-1957
•1954 Brown v. Board
•1956 Southern
Manifesto was a petition
signed by 101 Southern
congress members in the
South to overturn Brown
ruling.

11. •Emmett Till - August 28th, 1955 Mississippi - young boy
that was beaten and then shot to death for whistling to a
white woman (Carolyn Bryant) ‘bye baby’
•Roy Bryant and J.W. Miliam were acquitted

13. Integrated
schools:
· In Little Rock, Arkansas, Gov.
Orval Faubus opposed integration.
· In 1957, he called out the
National Guard in order to
prevent African Americans from
attending an all-white high
school.
· Gov. Faubus openly in favor of
violating federal law.

14. •The Little Rock Nine
•On September 4, 1957,
angry whites harassed nine
black students as they arrived
at Little Rock’s Central High
School.
•The Arkansas National
Guard turned the Little Rock
Nine away and prevented
them from entering the
school for three weeks.
•Finally, Eisenhower sent the
101st Airborne Div. to escort
the Little Rock Nine into the
school.

16. Bottom Row, Left to Right: Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth
Eckford, Gloria Ray; Top Row, Left to Right: Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo,
Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Daisy Bates(NAACP President), Ernest Green

17. Members of the 101st US-Airborne Division escorting the
Little Rock Nine to school

18. Montgomery, Alabama
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
•In 1955 a local NAACP member named Rosa Parks refused to give her
seat to white riders.
•The resulting Montgomery bus boycott led to a Supreme Court ruling that
segregation on buses was unconstitutional.
•African Americans formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
or SCLC, to protest activities taking place all across the South.
•Martin Luther King Jr. was the elected leader of this group—which was
committed to mass, nonviolent action.

19. Montgomery
Campaign
•1955 - Rosa Parks
•SCLC - Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference 1957
•SNCC - Student
Nonviolent
Coordinating
Committee 1960

20. Woolworth’s sit-in
1960 - four
African American
students in
Greensboro, NC
sat down at a
segregated lunch
counter and
refused to move
until they were
served

22. Freedom Rides, 1961
• Started May 4, 1961 in D.C.
• Over the Spring and Summer,
student volunteers begin taking bus
trips through the South.
• Known as the Freedom Riders,
they are met with violence in
Alabama
• Robert Kennedy calls in federal
troops to protect the Freedom
Riders

23.
Integration of Higher Education in
the South
• In Oct 1, 1962 James Meredith tried
to enroll at the University of
Mississippi.
–He arrived on campus with 500
federal marshals and was met by
2,500 violent protesters.
–President Kennedy went on national
television to announce that he was
sending in troops.
–The troops ended the protest but
hundreds had been injured and two
killed.
–A small force of US Marshals
remained to protect Meredith until he
graduated in 1963.

24. The Birmingham Campaign
The Campaign
•Martin Luther King raised money
to fight Birmingham’s segregation
laws.
•Volunteers began with sit-ins and
marches and were quickly arrested.
•King hoped this would motivate
more people to join the protests.
•White clergy attacked King’s
actions in a newspaper ad.
•King wrote his “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.”
•Fewer African Americans were
willing to join and risk their jobs.
The Results
•A SCLC leader convinced King to
use children for his protests.
•More than 900 children between
ages six and eighteen were
arrested.
•Police Chief Eugene “Bull”
Connor used police and fire
fighters to break up a group of
about 2,500 student protesters.
•The violence of Connor’s methods
was all over the television news.
•Federal negotiators got the city
officials to agree to many of
King’s demands.

26. Birmingham campaign
1963-64
• Project C - meaning “confrontation” was
a method used by MLK that sought to
overwhelm the judicial system with
massive arrests.
• Letter from a Birmingham Jail - MLK -
April 16, 1963 open ended letter
described the rationale for his non-violent
protesting of discrimination
• “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere”
• “one has a moral responsibility to
disobey unjust laws”

28. Medgar Evers
•Medgar Evers - killed
June 12, 1963 by
Byron De La Beckwith
•Evers was a NAACP
field secretary who
was behind the legal
push to have James
Meredith integrated.
De La Beckwith was
not convicted until
1994

29. March on Washington 1963
• Aug. 28 1963 - March on
Washington - over 200,000
people joined to pressure the
government into action
• MLK makes famous “I Have a
Dream” speech.
• Sept 15 - riots erupt in
Birmingham when four girls are
killed with a bomb at their
church
JFK assassinated late in 1963

31. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 1963
Birmingham, AL - MLK Jr utilized the bravery of children in the
Birmingham Campaign to bring sympathy and public opinion on the side
of his movement.
After viewing ‘Bull’ Connor’s harsh treatment of even children,
Birmingham was pressured into passing a series of civil rights
reforms.
In retaliation, the KKK targeted the 16th st. church
Sept. 15, 10:22 AM a bomb planted by several Klan members detonated
killing four children (Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole
Robertson and Cynthia Wesley)
Connie Lynch “....weren’t children. Children are little people, little human beings, and that means
white people. They’re just little niggers....and if there’s four less niggers tonight then I say “Good for
whoever planted the bomb!”

32. Civil Rights Act of 1964
24th Amendment ratified Jan. 23rd
of 1964 outlawed the poll tax for
federal elections
LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of
1964 on July 2
Prohibits discrimination based
on race, color, religion or
national origin.
Also makes legal the federal
government’s right to
desegregate*

33. Freedom Summer, 1964
Push by coalition of four civil
rights groups to register blacks
to vote in the South
(Mississippi)
SNCC, SCLC, CORE,
NAACP
Several thousand northern
whites volunteered for the
work
Issues with Literacy Tests -
17,000 registered blacks
1,600 passed test

34. Freedom Summer, 1964
June 21, 1964 murder of three
CORE members
James Chaney, Michael
Schwerner and Andrew
Goodman
Killed by mob of Klansmen
(Cecil Price, sheriff)
Edgar Ray Killen convicted of
the murders on June 21, 2005

35. Freedom Summer, 1964
In addition to voting, schools, hospitals
and businesses were set up by volunteers
from the North in an attempt to improve
the standing of blacks in the South
Casualties resulting:
4 killed
4 critically wounded
80 workers beaten
1000+ arrested
37 churches bombed

36. Selma and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965
“Bloody Sunday” - March 7th 1965,
blacks marching in support of voting
rights are stopped by a police
blockade.
Methods by police used were tear
gas, whips, and clubs. 50 marchers
hospitalized
Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned
all literacy tests and poll taxes which
made it easier for blacks to register to
vote.

38. The Movement Moves
North
The riots convinced King that the civil rights movement
needed to move north. He focused on Chicago in 1966.
The eight month Chicago campaign was one of King’s biggest
failures.
Chicago’s African Americans did not share his civil rights
focus—their concerns were economic.
King discovered that some northern whites who had supported
him and criticized racism in the South had no interest in
seeing it exposed in the North.

39. MLK Jr. April 3rd, 1968
“I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve
got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t
matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the
mountaintop....I’ve seen the promised land. I
may not get there with you. But I want you to
know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to
the promised land”

40. King’s Assassination
1968
MLK is killed in Memphis,
Tenn. on April 4th
Rioting occurs in every major
US city (over 120 total)
Rioting occurs over the deaths
of RFK, MLK, Vietnam and the
1968 DNC.
Belief in change over a decade
has dwindled and many have
lost faith in the Gov’t
(Credibility Gap)

42. Death of Bobby
Kennedy
June 5th, 1968 - shot and killed
at the Ambassador Hotel in
LA.
Bobby Kennedy was
considered the favorite to win
the White House
Kennedy had a long history of
supporting civil rights. His loss
was seen as a crushing blow to
civil rights political agenda.

43. Peaceful turns to
Violence 1965 - 1966
After not noticing any
changes, blacks began to
move towards more
violent methods of protest
Riots in Watts, CA
Black Panthers are formed
and “Black Power”
becomes a popular motto

46. Black Power
Movement
•SNCC changes
course -> Stokley
Carmichael -
declares blacks need
to be more militant
in their approaches.
•Institutional Racism
- disparity in laws:
drug laws or 1935
Social Security Act

47. Stokley Carmichael
(Kwame Ture)
"Racism is both overt and
covert. It takes two, closely
related forms; individual
Whites acting against
individual Blacks and acts
by the total of White
community against the
Black community. We call
this individual racism and
institutional racism."

48. Malcolm X (Malik El
Shabazz or Malcolm Little)
Was a leading figure in the black power
movement.
He often endorsed the use of force to
promote change.
“By any means necessary”
He originally joined the Nation of Islam
but he left the group after a philosophical
disagreement with leader Eliah
Muhammad
Feb. 21, 1965 - killed by three gunmen
sent by Muhammad

52. Fractures in the civil rights movement
•Conflict among the diverse groups of the civil
rights movement developed in the 1960s.
•Many SNCC and CORE members were
beginning to question nonviolence.
•In 1966 SNCC abandoned the philosophy of
nonviolence.
•Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the
Black Panther Party (1966) and called for
violent revolution as a means of African
American liberation.
•Malcolm X and the Black Muslims were
critical of King and nonviolence.

53. Black Power
•Stokely Carmichael
became the head of
SNCC.
•SNCC abandoned the
philosophy of
nonviolence.
•Black Power became the
new rallying cry.
•Wanted African
Americans to depend on
themselves to solve
problems.
Black Panthers
•The Black Panther Party
was formed in Oakland,
California, in 1966.
•Called for violent
revolution as a means of
African American
liberation.
•Members carried guns and
monitored African
American neighborhoods
to guard against police
brutality.
Fractures in the Movement
Black Muslims
•Nation of Islam was a
large and influential
group who believed in
Black Power.
•Message of black
nationalism, self-
discipline, and self-
reliance.
•Malcolm X offered
message of hope,
defiance, and black
pride.

54. Black Power Movement
The movement rejected
desegregation because it was
regarded as losing their African
heritage to fit in to a white
dominated society.
1968 Mexico City Olympics - John
Carlos and Tommie Smith both made
a public display of their political
feelings.
Expelled from the olympics for life
and rejected at home.

55. The Black Panthers
•Hoover was particularly concerned
about the Black Panthers.
•Police raided Black Panther
headquarters in many cities.
•Armed conflict resulted, even when
Black Panther members were
unarmed.
•By the early 1970s, armed violence
had led to the killing or arrest of
many Black Panther members.
The Decline of Black Power
SNCC
•SNCC collapsed with the help of
the FBI.
•H. Rap Brown, the leader who
replaced Stokley Carmichael as
the head of SNCC, was
encouraged to take radical and
shocking positions.
•Brown was encouraged to take
these positions by his staff—many
of whom worked for the FBI.
•Membership declined rapidly.

56. Civil Rights Changes in the 1970s
•Civil Rights Act of 1968—banned discrimination in the sale or rental of
housing (also called the Fair Housing Act)
•Busing and political change—to speed the integration of city schools,
courts began ordering that some students be bused from their
neighborhood schools to schools in other areas
–Busing met fierce opposition in the North.
–Busing was a major cause of the migration of whites from cities to
suburbs.
–This development increased the political power of African Americans in
the cities.
•Affirmative action (Bakke vs. UC Regents 1978) —programs that gave
preference to minorities and women in hiring and admissions to make up
for past discrimination against these groups

57. 1.Women’s Movement
2.Mexican-American
(La Raza) Movement
3.Native-American
Movement
4.Gay Liberation
5.Free Speech
Movement
6.Counterculture

58. The growth of the black power
movement spearheaded the
development of other movements in
the mid 60s to early 70s.
- LBJ became a symbol of division
- low popularity led to him not
seeking a second term.
- Republicans won by promising
an end to war
Kerner Report - 1968 report that
identified ‘two societies in America
- one black and one white’

59. Feminist Movement
First Wave: Focused on Suffrage
Amendment. Equal Rights
Amendment desired but not
ultimately gained.
Second Wave: 1960s-80s Great
emphasis on equality with men.
Tended to be geared mostly to
white, middle-upper class
women. Issues of equal pay,
abortion/health care, sexual
abuse, work place behaviors and
promotions, all important.

60. Feminist Movement
1963 Betty Friedan wrote the Feminine
Mystique.
•Later would form NOW (National
Org. of Women)
•Groups focus was on guaranteed
equality for women.
Gloria Steinem formed Ms. Magazine
•Anti-Vietnam activist
•Undercover story on Playboy and
exploitation of women. (Anti-
pornography and violence against
women)
•Title 7 of Civil Rights Act of 1964
•Title 9 of Educational Act of 1972

61. Feminist Movement
Miss America Pageant of 1968
•Large gathering of feminists that protested
the pageant’s exploitation of contestants
by throwing bras and high-heeled shoes
•“instruments of torture”
Roe v. Wade, 1973
•Women have a right to privacy under the
14th Amendment to have an abortion.
•Ruling legalized abortion by ruling state
laws could not restrict it during first
trimester
•2nd trimester and 3rd trimester state
regulation was allowed with some
exceptions.

62. Results of Feminist Movement
Raised consciousness about:
•women’s studies/development of
women’s studies class.
•workplace discrimination
•violence against women finally
defined as ‘rape’
•birth control pill developed in 1960s
Still no ERA and still no National
Rape Laws!
Still wage inequality $.77 to $1.00

63. Cesar Chavez and The
Chicano Movement
•Chavez worked as a migrant
farm worker for much of his
childhood in CA
•Formed the National Farm
Workers Association in 1965
•Advocated picketing markets,
boycotting grape picking
(very time sensitive)
•25 day hunger strike for
cause

64. Cesar Chavez and The Chicano
Movement
United Farm Workers
•NFWA became UFW in 1966
•Demanded strike from 1.20 to
1.40 per hour
•Better work conditions
•Right to unionize
•Nixon supported the workers and
won raises as a result.
•However, the shift towards using
illegal immigrant labor stunted
the financial progress made by
UFW

65. La Raza Unida and Brown Berets
La Raza Unida:
•Coalition of Native American,
Mexican, Latin-American and
other recent immigrants.
•1,500 college students led.
Brown Berets
•Chicano version of Black Panthers
•Anti-Vietnam
•Student walkouts in Los Angeles
•Demanded better school
conditions
•Police brutality/targeting latinos

66. Native American Movement
Alcatraz
•Nov. 1969 78 Indians seized
control of the island
•Offered gov’t beads to buy it
•wanted to use it for a cultural
center and school
•Ended in 1971 with gov. raid.
Wounded Knee, 1973
• South Dakota site of Sioux
Massacre
• American Indian Movement (AIM)
took over buildings
• Standoff lasted for 2 months
Indian Self-Determination Act of 1974
• Allowed the current framework of
N.A. tribal control over reservation
land. Helps some more than others.

67. Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement
Stonewall Riots, NYC 1969
•Catalyzing moment for the movement
•Police regularly raided gay bars and published the
names of those arrested.
•When they raided the Stonewall bar, patrons fought
back
•Riots for more than a week
•Gay Pride became a rally call - led to parades,
public displays, etc.
Harry Hay
• Devoted Marxist
• Founded the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) after
Stonewall
• Forced to testify in 1950s
Harvey Milk
• First openly gay elected official (San Francisco
Board of Supervisors)
• “I’m Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you”
• Assassinated by Dan White (Mayor Moscone also
killed)
• “Twinkie Defense”

68. Student Protests
Free Speech Movement
•Started with young men refusing to register for the draft
and instead burning draft cards
•March ’65 faculty and students at U of Mich. held first
teach-in to discuss the war
•Universities became the focal point of growing political
liberalism
UC Berkeley and the FSM
•Fall of 1964 conflict between students and admin
•32 hour stand-off
•Mario Savio atop police car led 2500 students in a sit-in
•Bodies on the Gears
•FSM included both Young Republicans and New Leftists
FSM became a model of protest
•New Left Emerged
•Students for a Democratic Society
•Formed at U of Mich with the 1962 Port Huron
Statement
•Rejected communism but supported activism
•Weatherman was a violent branch of SDS

69. Antiwar Demonstrators Burn Draft Cards on the Steps of the Pentagon, May 22, 1972

70. Impact of 1968
•Tet Offensive
•My Lai Massacre
•MLK assassinated
•RFK assassinated
•Miss America protests
•Czech invaded by USSR
•LBJ steps down amid war protests
within his party
Election ’68
•Humphrey (D) vs. Nixon (R)
•Riots at Democratic National
Convention “The Whole World is
Watching”

71. Anti war protesters, 1967

72. The Counterculture “Hippies” or
“Yippies”
•Protests against Vietnam as well
as distrust in LBJ and gov’t
(especially after shootings) led to
a retraction from mainstream
American culture
•Many questioned American
values
Hippies felt society was:
•repressive, unjust and racist
•felt the educational system
focused on discipline and social
control

73. L.S.D.
•2 Harvard Professors
(Timothy Leary and Richard
Alpert) began experiments
with students
•Created a new religion:
League of Spiritual Discovery
with LSD as the sacrament.
Free Love: Summer of Love
’67
Thousands of hippies gathered
in Haight-Ashbury in SF
Lived in communal houses
Heavy use of drugs; focus on
open sexuality and music

75. Woodstock 1969
•Nearly half a million gathered for
a 3 day outdoor concert focused
on free love and music
•Farm in upstate NY
•Rained, no food, no water, no
reliable sanitation

79. Military police guard an entrance to the Pentagon
during 1967 anti-war protest

80. Anti-war demonstration at Pentagon Oct 1967

81. Johnson Leaves Office
• 68- Johnson decides not to
increase troops in Vietnam
• Too little, too late
“Hey Hey LBJ, How many
kids did you kill today!”
• Approval ratings: 26%
• Chooses not to run for reelection