This document provides an overview of the key events and figures of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. It discusses the legalization of segregation with Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 and the rise of Jim Crow laws. Important court cases like Brown v Board of Education which ruled segregation unconstitutional, organizations like the NAACP and SCLC, and key figures like MLK Jr., Rosa Parks, and Medgar Evers who fought against racial discrimination through nonviolent protests and civil disobedience. Major events covered include the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Sit-Ins, March on Washington, and passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 which outlawed discrimination.

1. The Civil Rights Movement from
1954-1968
US History B

2. Background: Reconstruction and the Win of
Racism in the South
• Slavery had been abolished with
the 13th amendment enacted
after the Civil War in 1865
• During Reconstruction (the
period right after the Civil War),
Southern whites had won many
struggles against the rights of
Blacks in the South
• The sharecropping system, voter
suppression, laws criminalizing
and arresting Black people, and
segregation laws

3. Plessy v.
Ferguson
(1896)
• A case that went all the way up to the supreme
court in 1896
• An “Octoroon” man (7/8ths White, 1/8th Black) had
been arrested for violating segregated city car
ordinances in Louisiana
• The supreme court deemed segregation
constitutional, as long as facilities were “separate
but equal”
• This would defend segregation and spread it all
over the South, enacting what have come to be
known as the Jim Crow Laws

4. Segregation: The Jim Crow South
• Segregation = the separation of different people
groups(especially races) that prevents intermixing
of any kind
• The Jim Crow Laws
• “Separate but Equal” used as an excuse to
provide horrible living conditions for Blacks in
the South
• Given the worst places to live, the worst
hospitals, the worst facilities, the worst seats
in the courthouse, restaurant, on the bus
• Caused legal, physical, financial, and
psychological harm on Black Americans
• de jure Segregation = segregation by law
• This is what was had in the South, legally-
backed segregation policies
• de facto Segregation = segregation of fact
• Not legally backed, but segregation occurs
due to other factors, like poverty or housing
discrimination, outside of legal means. This is
the segregation that exists among many
schools in places like New York City today

5. The NAACP
• The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
• Founded in 1909 by Black and White
leaders against racial discrimination
• Played a large role in fighting against
segregation during the Civil Rights
Movement
• Many prominent members, including
WEB Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr, Medgar Evers, Thurgood Martial,
and Rosa Parks

6. Brown v. The Board of
Education of Topeka
(1954)
• Reversed “separate but equal” in public schools
• Took place in Topeka, Kansas, when Oliver Brown had
to bring his daughter to a school all the way across
town rather than to the all white school closer to their
home
• Due to a friendly Supreme Court and new data on the
damage of segregation on Black children, this
reversed Plessy v. Fergusson and named segregation
of public schools unconstitutional since it was
inherently damaging
• Was difficult to enforce, caused major white backlash

7. The Murder of Emmett
Till (1955)
• Emmett Till, a 14 year old from the North visiting
a relative in Mississippi, was accused of whistling
at a white woman
• He was captured in the night by two white men,
tortured, mutilated, and murdered
• His mother back in Chicago demanded an open
casket funeral, so that all could see what they had
done to her son
• Despite being identified in court, the two men
were found by an all white jury to be not guilty,
and even though they openly discussed the
murder in interviews only weeks later, they were
never charged with a crime
• Americans were horrified by this violence against
a child, which showcased the violence that Blacks
were experiencing on a daily basis in the
segregated South

8. Thurgood Marshall
• Famous civil rights lawyer
• First worked on his own firm and helped
with Civil Rights cases like Brown v.
Board, but came to found the NAACP
Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Active throughout the entire Civil Rights
movement providing legal services and
participating in the movement
• Eventually became the first African
American Supreme Court Justice in 1967

9. Medgar Evers
• WWII Veteran
• Educated and received BA degree after the war in
1952
• Joined the NAACP in Mississippi in 1954, soon after
becoming the Field Secretary of the Mississippi
branch of the NAACP
• After Brown v. Board, fought against segregation
• Lead investigation into Emmett Till’s Death
• Was assassinated by a member of the White
Citizens Council in 1963
• While he had been tailed by the FBI and the
police almost daily, he was not being followed
on the day of his murder
• This is possibly due to many Southern police
officers being members of organizations like the
White Citizens Council and the Ku Klux Klan

10. The
Montgomery
Bus Boycott
(1955-1956)
• In December 1955, a Black woman and activist named
Rosa Parks after a long day of work, refused to give up her
seat to a white man
• She was arrested immediately
• This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which the
Black Population of Montgomery Alabama refused to get
on any buses in order to deprive the city of their bus fairs
• This was lead by the young Christian Minister and NAACP
member Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Lasted over a year, 381 days
• Was successful due to the organization within the church,
the organizing of ride sharing and carpooling, and the
commitment of activists in Montgomery
• Resulted in a city ordinance banning segregation on the
bus system
• This infuriated whites, and in response many African-
Americans were attacked, killed, and shot. A white man
even blasted Martin Luther King Jrs’ door with a shotgun
with his entire family present

11. Rosa Parks
• Rosa Parks had been a member of the NAACP
since all the way back in 1943
• Trained in nonviolent civil disobedience
• Not giving up the bus seat was not a new tactic,
but was used effectively to get support for the
boycott
• Continued anti-racist activism throughout her
life
• Participated in major Civil Rights struggles
• Involved with the Lowndes County
Freedom Organization
• Befriended Malcolm X
• Supported the Black Panthers

12. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Highly educated Christian Minister, who came
from a family with a preacher as a father who
was an ardent anti-segregationist, and even had
led a march of his own
• Quickly rose to prominence in the Civil Rights
Movement for effective leadership of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott
• One of the greatest public speakers in history
• Advocated nonviolent civil disobedience, a
combination of his Christian beliefs and the
tactics of Mahatma Ghandi
• Became president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957
• The face of the Civil Rights Movement

13. The Little Rock Nine (1957)
• In 1957, 9 Black students were admitted to
the previously all white Little Rock Central
High School
• Their admittance to the school was met by
major protests from White students of Little
Rock, Arkansas
• The governor sent the National Guard to
keep the students out of school
• Eventually, president Eisenhower had to
send in the US Army to escort the students
on their way to school and enforce the law
from Brown v. Board
• The students still faced major harassment
from the children at school, and most did
not make it through the year

14. The Civil Rights Act of
1957
• Signed into law by President Eisenhower
• Enacted to protect the Voting Rights of
African Americans in response to major
protest
• Was largely ineffective and did not have a
lot of establishment backing, but it did
demonstrate that the government could
be mobilized against segregation and
paved the way for further struggle

15. The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC)
• Major Civil Rights Organization of the late 1950’s
and the 1960’s
• Founded in 1957 in response to the growing Civil
Rights struggle, the hope was to get more
organization to start more successful struggles like
the Montgomery Bus Boycotts across the South
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made the president of
the organization
• Would be active in the successful Birmingham
Campaign in 1963, the March on Washington on
August 28th, 1963, and many more demonstrations

16. The Sit-In Movement
(1960)
• A movement started by four Black college
students in Greensboro, North Carolina
who refused to give up their seats on an
all-white lunch counter until they were
served and were arrested
• In less than 3 months, the movement had
spread to over 55 cities in 13 states all
over the South, with Black Students
occupying lunch counters and refusing to
give up their seats
• The students demanded an end to the
system of segregation
• The tactic of Direct Action

17. The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC)
• SNCC was founded in 1960 following the student
sit-ins, using the base of college students who had
participated to build a large organization
• They advocated for Non-Violent Direct Action as a
method for fighting Segregation in the South
• The organization became more radical and
changed tactics as the Civil Rights Movement
progressed
• They were active in struggles like the March on
Washington, Freedom Summer, and later the Black
Power Movement
• Gave rise to Black leaders like Stokely Carmichael,
who would later become the face of the Civil
Rights Struggle

18. The March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom
(August 1963)
• Although discouraged by the US government even though JFK often promoted Civil
Rights, the SCLC and NAACP, led by Martin Luther King Jr, organized a large march on
Washington D.C.
• This followed the successful Birmingham Campaign in the capital city of Alabama
that same year
• An estimated 200,000-300,000 people participated in the March, activists came
from all over the country
• Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I have a Dream” Speech

19. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Result of the March on Washington and the
overall pressure of the Civil Rights Movement
as a whole
• Legally prevents discrimination in employment
based on race
• Much stronger than the Civil Rights Act of
1957
• Established the US Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• There was still much work to be done for Civil
Rights, lacking effective voting rights
measures, unable to be effectively enforced
throughout the South, but a major step
forward

20. From Selma to Birmingham (1965)
• Goal was to register as many Black
voters as possible
• 600 Civil Rights Activists, led by Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., marched 54
miles from Selma, Alabama to the
capital of Birmingham, Alabama
• They were brutally attacked by white
vigilantes and police during their
journey, and had to be protected by
federal National Guard Troops
• The televised violence against the
peaceful Black marchers was another
boost in public opinion in favor of
SCLC and the NAACP

21. The Voting Rights Act of
1965
• In response to a continuation of Civil
Rights Demonstrations, President
Johnson again signed in another piece of
Civil Rights legislation
• This law outlawed anti-Black voter
suppression measures that were
commonplace throughout the South and
appointed federal overseers to monitor
voting places
• Much more effective than 1957 Civil
Rights Act which had declared equal
voting for Black Americans

22. King Continuing the Fight
(1966-1968)
• Dr. King continued to fight for the rights of African-
Americans in the next two years, leading many more
campaigns that went beyond just Southern Racism
• The Chicago Open Housing Movement – with the
goal of desegregating the de facto segregation of
housing in the Northern City of Chicago
• First Civil Rights struggle lead by King in the
North
• Opposition to the Vietnam War and participation
in the Anti-War Movement
• The Poor Peoples Campaign (1968)
• A movement King was helping to organize to
fight for the rights of the poor of America from
all colors, the first attempt at a multi-racial
movement with multi-racial goals for King

23. The Assassination of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
• While staying in a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee,
a lone gunman (ex-con James Earl Ray) shot Dr.
King while he was on the balcony, killing him
• The country erupted into riots and mourning,
the face of the Civil Rights Movement had been
changing, and now the major advocate for non-
violence and peace had been killed
• The King family would later receive $100 in a
lawsuit they won in-which they blamed King’s
death on a conspiracy involving the police, the
US government, and the Mafia. The US
government denies that the evidence or the
jury was correct.
• King had long known he would die because of
his fight for justice, and had been ready to pay
that price since he began his Civil Rights
struggle in 1954

24. The Fair Housing Act (1968)
• Also called “The Civil Rights Act of 1968)
• Signed into law after King’s Assassination
• Prohibited the discrimination of housing
rentals or sales based on race
• While discrimination did continue, this
provided a legal basis for fighting the
common practice of red lining
• This was the last major Civil Rights
Legislation, and marks the end of
government support for the Civil Rights
Movement, as the movement completed a
transition to a new phase following 1968
that had already been starting