The document summarizes key events and developments in the American civil rights movement from the 1950s through the 1960s. It describes the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, which raised Martin Luther King Jr. to prominence. It also discusses efforts to desegregate schools, sit-ins by student groups, Freedom Rides to challenge segregated public transit, and the pivotal 1963 Birmingham campaign. Major civil rights laws, like the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, were achieved through these nonviolent protests and activism.

1. The Civil
Rights
Revolution:
“Like a Mighty
Stream”
“We preach freedom around
the world, but are we to say
to the world, and much
more importantly, to each
other, that this is a land of
the free except for
Negroes?"
- President John F. Kennedy,
11 June 1963

2. A Boycott in Montgomery Inspires a
Movement:
• In 1954, the Supreme
Court decision Brown v.
Board of Education
outlawed segregation in
public schools, yet
segregation continued
in much of the South
• In 1955, however, a
boycott in Montgomery,
Alabama began to shake
up the Jim Crow South

3. Protesting Unfair Bus Laws (1950s)
• Segregated public busses
throughout the South
required blacks to sit in the
back and give up their seat to
whites if the busses were full
• On December 1, 1955, Rosa
Parks refused to give up her
seat
• She was arrested, but shortly
after a group of African-
American ministers met to
plan a one day boycott of the
busses

4. Protesting Unfair Bus Laws (1950s)
• This event was so
successful, the
Montgomery
Improvement Association
(MIA) decided to extend it
• The MIA chose a 26 year-
old Baptist minister
named Martin Luther King
Jr. to lead the
Montgomery Bus Boycott

5. Protesting Unfair Bus Laws (1950s)
• The boycott lasted for 381
days when finally the
Supreme Court upheld an
Alabama court’s ruling that
segregation on busses was
unconstitutional (1956)
• As a result of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott,
Martin Luther King Jr.
earned a national
reputation as a civil rights
leader

6. African-American Churches Support
the Movement:
• The creation of the
Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC) in 1957 played a
major role in the civil
rights movement
• Martin Luther King Jr.
was elected president
of this organization and
preached a message of
nonviolent resistance

7. School Desegregation:
• Little Rock Nine- a federal judge
ordered public schools in Little Rock,
Arkansas to begin desegregation
(Nine African-American students
tried to go to Central High School)
-the governor (Orval Faubus) called
out the National Guard to prevent
the students from going to school
-President Eisenhower issues
Executive Order 10730 that sent in
federal troops to maintain order and
enforce the integration of the school

8. School Desegregation:
• James Meredith enrolls at the
University of Mississippi
-In 1961, James Meredith applied
for admissions into the university
-the governor (Ross Barnett)
refused to allow a black student to
enroll
-secretly, President Kennedy had
worked out a deal to quietly enroll
Meredith
-the news got out and riots ensued,
Kennedy called for federal marshals
to protect Meredith

9. Sit-ins and Freedom Rides:
• Sit ins (Greensboro) challenged
the notion of segregated
restaurants and stores
• Student organizations such as
the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) called for student civil
rights activists to confront
segregation and racism in
nonviolent intercourse
• SNCC practiced civil
disobedience by breaking laws
they considered unjust

10. Sit-ins and Freedom Rides:
• SNCC members also participated
and planned direct action-
referring to political acts designed
to have an immediate impact
• Freedom Rides were organized by
the civil rights group Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) to test
whether southern states were
complying with the Supreme
Court rulings
• Because of intense fire-bombings
of busses, CORE discontinued the
Freedom Rides, but SNCC still
used them

11. The Birmingham Campaign (1963)
• A strategic movement organized by
SCLC to bring attention to the unequal
treatment that black Americans
endured in Birmingham, Alabama.
• The campaign ran during the spring of
1963, culminating in widely publicized
confrontations between black youth
and white civic authorities
• Organizers, led by Martin Luther King,
Jr. used nonviolent direct action
tactics to defy laws they considered
unfair.
• In the early 1960s, Birmingham was
one of the most racially divided cities
in the United States

12. The Birmingham Campaign (1963)
• Black citizens faced legal and
economic disparities as well as violent
retribution when they attempted to
bring attention to their problems.
• Protests in Birmingham began with a
boycott to pressure business leaders
to provide employment opportunities
to people of all races, and end
segregation in public facilities,
restaurants, and stores.
• When business leaders resisted the
boycott, SCLC organizers began what
they termed Project C, a series of sit-
ins and marches intended to provoke
mass arrests.

13. The Birmingham Campaign (1963)
• After the campaign ran low on adult
volunteers, high school, college, and
elementary students were trained by
SCLC to participate, resulting in hundreds
of arrests and an instant intensification of
national media attention on the
campaign.
• To dissuade demonstrators and control
the protests the Birmingham Police
Department, led by Eugene "Bull"
Connor, used high-pressure water jets
and police dogs on children and
bystanders.
• Media coverage of these events brought
intense scrutiny on racial segregation in
the South.

14. The Birmingham Campaign (1963)
• Scenes of the ensuing mayhem caused an
international outcry, leading to federal intervention
by the Kennedy administration.
• By the end of the campaign, King's reputation surged,
Connor lost his job, the "Jim Crow" signs in
Birmingham came down, and public places became
more open to blacks.
• The Birmingham campaign was a model of direct
action protest, as it effectively shut down the city.
• By attracting media attention to the adverse
treatment of black Americans, it brought national
force to bear on the issue of segregation.
• Although desegregation occurred slowly in
Birmingham, the campaign was a major factor in the
national push towards the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
which prohibited racial discrimination in hiring
practices and public services in the United States.

15. Martin Luther King has a Dream
• In 1963, Martin Luther
King Jr. led a march on
Washington D.C.
• On August 8, 1963 over
250,000 people marched
on the nation’s capital
• Martin Luther King Jr.
inspires the nation with
his “I Have a Dream
Speech”

16. Achieving Landmark Civil Rights
Legislation:
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed major
forms of discrimination against African
Americans and women, including racial
segregation. It ended unequal application of
voter registration requirements and racial
segregation in schools, at the workplace and by
facilities that served the general public
• The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the
Constitution prohibited poll taxes
• Freedom Summer was a campaign by CORE and
SNCC to register black voters in Mississippi

17. Achieving Landmark Civil Rights
Legislation:
• Selma March in 1965 was another protest to
encourage activists to continue their voter
registration campaign
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed
discriminatory voting practices that had been
responsible for the widespread
disenfranchisement of African Americans
(literacy exams and poll taxes)