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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a movement that began when Rosa Parks, a black American, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. After Parks was arrested, it began this movement from local civil rights leaders seeking out this opportunity as a way to try and desegregate local laws.
Court Case Browder v. Gayle: desegregation on public buses -
The young African American girl, Linda Brown, was denied admission to a white school that was closer to her home which led to the NAACP helping Brown and her family sue the Topeka school board. This court case debated the ethics of segregation in public schools as it violated the Fourteenth Amendment and its equal protection clause.
Primary Source: (https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-v-board) -
The Little Rock 9 were the first African American students to attend a white school in Little Rock. The first day they went to the school they were swarmed by a mob of white students which led to Eisenhower taking action and sending the army to protect the students. This was the first step in desegregating the schools in the South. -
Malcolm X was an African American minister and Civil Rights activist who challenged the overall ideas pushed forth by the civil rights movement. He inspired the Black Panthers group through his ideals since he criticized the mainstream civil rights movement and believed that African Americans should separate themselves and form their own self-governing communities. He was ultimately assassinated after he separated himself Nation of Islam and continued to criticize them.
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The Sit-In Movement was an attempt at nonviolent action that began from the Greensboro sit-ins. It was to change the rule of segregation in public areas through nonviolent protests. Led Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Marion Barry, and John Lewis, they created the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) where they worked for racial equality. -
The Freedom Riders were a group that tried to draw attention to the Southern refusal to desegregate interstate buses and bus terminals. They wanted to try to challenge laws put into place and deem them unconstitutional. Court Cases: Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
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James Meredith was an African American who wanted to attend University of Mississippi even as it was still a white-only school. Ross Barnett, the governor of Mississippi, stopped him, making him need a court order to attend the school. This was also another step towards complete desegregation of Southern Universities. -
Dr. King understood that to gain more support for the civil rights movement, more action needed to be taken. -
A major issue that the Black community faced was poverty which trapped them in inner cities, which had much less attention from the government. There were increased crime rates and were significantly dirtier than those of white communities. As many of them were unemployed, it led to them being stuck in these low-income communities. The Black Panthers were a group inspired by Malcolm X's beliefs and they thought a revolution was needed for African Americans to gain equal rights -
An issue that was still present was the voting registration with minorities because in many places they were stopped by fees and attacks against them. One of the most notable was the Selma March, where a group of minorities tried to gain awareness towards voting rights and they were beaten and arrested by the Sheriff and police in Selma. This was a key point in passing the legislation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Video: https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote/selma-marches
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