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The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments had given the former slaves the basic rights that they had sought for. Also called the Civil War Amendments, they had given rights, like abolishing slavery, citizenship, and the right to vote were given. These initially had set black people equal to white men and women, but this wasn't heavily enforced until later during the civil rights movement. This was vital to the civil rights movement, though, because it gave them the right to protest and freedom. -
Plessy v Ferguson was a case where Homer Plessy had been arrested for sitting in a white's only train car. They had challenged it because it violated the 13th and 14th amendments, but the court upheld it, saying it was constitutional and that segregation wasn't unlawful discrimination. This led to the separate but equal clause and Jim Crow laws that led to segregation between white and black people. This Ied to the civil rights movement as they sought for full equality -
The 19th amendment had granted the right to vote, saying how the basis of sex cannot be a deciding factor on whether they should be able to vote. This established the fact that women, who had their rights kept from them, like people of color, had gained their right to vote. This allowed for civil rights to progress as new acts like the equal rights amendment, proposed but defeated by the national women's political party, would come to fruition. -
Truman had done many attempts, with ultimately achieved desegregation in the military. He had initially expanded on executive order 8802, which had prohibited ethnic or racial discrimination in the armed forces, with executive order 9981, which abolished discrimination and segregation based on race. By the end of the Korean war, he had been successful in eliminating segregation in the military. -
President Truman had declared this order to abolish all segregation in the army after some members had complained about this issue. Before this, President Roosevelt issued order 8802, which was a previous response to the discrimination, which had black men and women serving to be housed at defense plants for job-training. When Truman had instilled order 9981, though, it faced some resistance by the military but by the end of the Korean War, segregation in the military was gone. -
The brown family, along with 12 other black families, had filed a lawsuit against the Topeka school district because of their segregation. In 1951, the Topeka school district refused to enroll the daughter of Oliver Brown to a school closest to them, having her ride a segregated bus to a school further away. The decision was unanimous, ruling that segregated educational facilities were unequal. This was important to the civil rights movement as it addressed the issue of segregated schools. -
Emmett Till was a 14-year old black man who had been murdered by two white men. After he had whistled at a white shopkeeper, they had attacked him, coming to his house in the middle of the night. They had taken him to the Tallahatchie River, mutilated him, and shot him in the head before throwing him into the river, where his body was discovered upstream. This was important for the civil right's movement, sparking an upsurge to protest the mistreatment and discrimination upon people of color -
The Montgomery bus boycott was a boycott against the segregation in the buses, which had made a section for colored people, as they sought for the buses to be integrated. The boycott had lasted for 15 days, going from December 5-20th, and was based around Rosa Parks, who was arrested for not giving a white man her seat in one of the Montgomery buses. This boycott had an effect on the civil rights movement, as around half a year later a Montgomery court ruled that it was unconstitutional. -
The little rock nine, a group of colored teenagers, were the first black people to go into a white high school. This right was previously fought in the Brown v Board case, which allowed people of color to go to a white high school. When they got there, Governor Faubus had called Arkansas national guard to stop them, but later that month President Eisenhower had federal troops escort them in. This had called attention to the civil rights movement and showed that there was progress being done. -
This act was enacted by President Eisenhower and was the first civil rights act since 1875. The act had called for the creation of the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department, told prosecutors to prosecute against people interfering with the right to vote, and made the Federal Civil Rights Commission. This had given the ability to challenge the circumstances like the literacy tests, as those were unconstitutional and kept people of color from voting. -
The Greensboro sit-in was originally done by four men, who sat in a white-only section at Woolworth's. They were denied service and had the police called on them, but weren't arrested, staying there until the restaurant had closed, then coming the next day with more people. It soon spread throughout the nation, bringing to light on the national scale the civil rights movement and the importance. It also inspired people to work towards integration in the south. -
The freedom riders were people of color who would ride the interstate buses into the segregated areas, protesting the non-enforcement of the rulings in Morgan v Virginia and Boynton v Virginia, which ruled that segregated buses was unconstitutional. They had increased the credibility of the civil rights movement through these actions, and promoted the enforcement of rulings and civil rights acts. -
The letter from a Birmingham Jail is a letter written by Dr. King during his imprisonment. He was arrested because he was protesting against how the people of color are treated, doing so in Birmingham. He wrote the letter to explain how African Americans have an obligation to break the laws that are unjust and to take action, peacefully, rather than waiting for change to occur. This had a large significance as it showed King's stance on how to protest the injustice displayed throughout the US. -
The March on Washington was a large protest, hosting around 250,000 people, based on the freedoms and jobs that still weren't given to the black people in America. They discussed how the people of color still faced inequality and had called for a change in this, which included Dr. King making his famous "I have a dream" speech. This had a monumental effect on the movement as this rally displayed what rights and freedoms were missing from them, and they came together to gain those freedoms. -
President Johnson had signed this act, in order to establish civil rights towards people of color. The following act prohibited discrimination in public places, integration of schools and other places, and discrimination in employment. This act was one of the first acts that established a way to stop discrimination against people of color through legal action. -
The March from Selma Alabama was a march in order to raise awareness of the difficulty black people face when attempting to vote. With the march, they faced violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups but were protected by federal troops sent to protect them. With that, they had achieved their march after 14 days and had been a brilliant display towards issues black people face with voters' rights, which eventually led to congress passing the voters' rights act of 1965. -
The voting rights act was signed by President Johnson. President Johnson had signed this to pass an act that prohibited discriminatory voting practices that would be utilized in the south, like the literacy test that would measure your literacy, compared to an average fifth-grader, as one question that would be incorrect would cause you to fail. This allowed for minorities to be able to vote, as many people of color started to vote after this was passed. -
The black panther political party was created by Huey Newton, which called for protests through force if needed. They were created to counter the thought process of protesting peacefully, which Dr. King called for. They would watch the police officers in Oakland with weapons to counter possible police brutality, as they were prepared to fight and protest using force. The significance of the organization was evident as they illustrated the other side of protests during the civil rights movement. -
Martin Luther King was an activist for the civil rights movement, who also had spoken at the March on Washington, speaking the famous "I have a dream speech". With that, he was a prominent character amongst the black leaders during this age, and he was a target to James Earl Ray, who had murdered Dr. King. When King was standing on his balcony in the Lorraine hotel, he was shot by Ray, causing protests to racial violence and over 40 deaths, along with destruction to cities throughout the nation. -
The equal rights amendment, proposed by Alice Paul, was an amendment that was for discrimination against people of the opposite gender. Alice Paul, apart of the national women's political party, had proposed this amendment to provide legal equality between genders and make it illegal to discriminate based on their gender. This proposition was eventually rejected, but still had a lasting effect on the civil rights movement as it also highlighted inequality between men and women.