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Economics
In 1859, the percentage of the white population that was living in poverty was 18.1% and in that same year 55.1% of blacks were living in poverty. This is because blacks and whites were not treated equally. -
13th Amendment
This amendment banished slavery and discredited any claims to slavery in the Constitution. President Lincoln approved the bill in February 1865. Sadly, President Lincoln was killed before the states ratified it. This amendment was one of the first steps to rebuilding the U.S. after the Civil War. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868, and gave citizenship to everyone born in the United States, which included former slaves recently freed. -
15th Amendment
This amendment gave all men the right to vote regardless of race, color, and previous condition of servitude. The amendment was adopted in 1870. -
School Enrollment
The school enrollment among white children in 1870 was 54.4% while only 9.9% of nonwhite children were enrolled. -
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Jim Crow Laws
Most of the American states enforced segregation through the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow Laws were created to keep blacks segregated from whites. For example, one of the Jim Crow Laws forbade marriage between a black and a white person, and kept them segregated. Blacks and whites also had to use separate water fountains because of the Jim Crow Laws. -
A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, FL and died in 1979. He was a civil rights and labor leader. He helped put together the Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters in 1925 and founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience against Military Segregation. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1942 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson involved a black man who had been forced to leave a whites' only railway carriage in Louisiana. Court voted that it was legal to have separate, but facilities for blacks and whites. This decision remained law until it was overturned in the Brown v. Board of Education. -
NAACP
NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. NAACP was founded in 1910 and is still going on today. The headquarters is located in Georgia and it is the most effective advocate for African Americans in the 20th century. -
Diane Nash
Diane Nash was born on May 15, 1938 in Chicago. When she was at Fisk University she was surprised how people treated her in Tennessee, so she became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1960 she participated in a lot of sit-ins. She contributed to the approval of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and Voting Rights Act in 1965. She also became the leader of Student Central Committee a group who did a lot of sit-ins. She was a big part of Freedom Rides and SNCC. -
John Lewis
John Lewis was born on February 21,1940 and is still living today. He grew up on a farm near Troy, Alabama. His family were sharecroppers. He was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and was inspired by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. In 1965 he led the march in Selma Alabama, and was beaten and arrested. This day is called Bloody Sunday. In 1961 he participated in a lot of marches and sit-ins and in 1963 became the chairman of SNCC. -
The History of Interstate Travel Laws
In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to integrate interstate buses and waiting rooms. Previously blacks and whites could not sit together while using public transportation. The Southern states did not think that these changes were right, so they decided to follow the Jim Crow laws. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas was decided on May 17, 1954. This case established that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. In Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the Supreme Court had ruled that laws requiring separate public facilities for African Americans and whites were constitutional as long as the facilities were equal. This case overturned the Plessy decision. This case helped to inspire the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. -
SCLC
SCLC is still active today and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott (1955-1956) was what started the organization. It was made up of a lot of blacks coming back from World War 2 and soon a lot of black ministers kept the boycotts going. The boycotts got people from the Northern states to join the movement. Martin Luther King was chosen as their spokesman and SCLC was very important especially in the 1950s through 1960s. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The boycotts started on December 5, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. No blacks went on the bus for a very long time. Many people participated in the boycotts. The boycotts started because blacks did not think that it was fair that they could not sit in the same place as whites. It ended when the government passed interstate travel laws. -
Yearly Income
The average yearly earned income of full-time white male workers in 1959 was $5,550. In that same year the yearly income of black men was $3,450. That is more than a $2,000 gap between the two. -
We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome was the theme song of the Civil Rights Moment. Many people sang We Shall Overcome, but Pete Seeger and Mahalia Jackson are the best known. Its message was that blacks will get through this tough time and will have equal rights. -
The Sit-ins Started
The sit-ins started on February 1, 1960 when four black college freshman sat down at the segregated lunch counter of F.W. Woolworth's in Greensboro North Carolina. They were refused service and peacefully sat until the store closed. They came back the next day with about 25 more students. Then people all over the country started such protests. In July, 1960 Woolworth's integrated all of it's lunch counters. -
Freedom Rides
The Freedom Riders peacefully set out on May 4, 1961 to test the interstate travel laws in the Southern states. They did this by riding a bus together through the Southern states. They found out that the Southern states were not following the travel laws, so the U.S. passed interstate travel laws. In September, the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission finally issued new rules on bus travel. -
The March on Washington
The March on Washington took place on August 28, 1963. About 250,000 people attended the march. About a quarter of the people who came to the march were white. The March on Washington was shown on international television. At first President Kennedy didn't think that the march would be a good idea because the legislators would vote against the Civil Rights laws. When they made the march official he supported the march. -
The Civil Rights Act
In 1964 the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It was meant to end discrimination on race, color, religion, or where your family is from. It is important to the Civil Rights Movement because it allowed everyone to have equal rights despite their race. The first time President John F. Kennedy preposed the bill it was not fully passed. The second time it was stronger and the bill passed through Congress. The second bill was passed by President Lyndon B Johnson. -
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John Lewis's Awards and Books
John Lewis was awarded the Martin Luther King Nonviolent Peace Prize (1975), John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (2001), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal (2002), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011). He co-authored Walking With the Wind (1998) and he was awarded the Newbery Medal for his book March (2017).
