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The Civil Rights Movement
The movement by African-Americans to secure their civil rights.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
• means circle of brothers• Formed by a 6 Confederate Army veterans on
Dec. 24, 1865 in Pulaski, TN • Originally against black and white Republicans• Used terrorism and violence to enforce the
reign of white supremacy 1865-present• 1 of several terrorist organizations which also
included Knights of the White Camelia (LA) and Southern Cross (NO)
• Wore white robes and hoods and usually rode at night cover their identities
• Between 1885-1901, more than 2,000 blacks were lynched
• 1915: reorganized to include anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, prohibitionist and anti-Semitic agenda- started the burning of crosses as a form of intimidation
• 1950-60s: added bombing as a form of intimidation
Jim Crow Laws• State and local laws mainly applied by the
Southern states from 1876-1965• mandated de jure racial in all public facilities
(separation of whites and blacks) and military
Plessy vs Ferguson 1892-1896
Homer Plesssy: 7/8 caucasian & 1/8 black • Challenged LA law which provided
separate rail cars for whites and blacks• Found guilty of breaking the law• Appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that
LA law denied him “equal protection of the law” which violated 14th Amendment
• Supreme Court rejected Plessy’s argument• Supreme Court ruled that segregation laws did
not infringe on the 14th Amendment if the facilities for blacks were equal to those of the whites
• Established the “separate but equal” doctrine
• Separate schools, colleges, restrooms, water fountains, railroad cars
Examples: Grammar vs Rosenwald schools LSU and Southern Universities• Segregated theaters, buses, restaurants• Segregated military until 1948:ended by
President Truman
Organizations• Citizens’ Committee to Test the
Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law (1891)- a group of prominent New Orleans Creole men (Plessy case)
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP) (1909)-worked mainly through the courts to challenge laws and customs that denied blacks their Constitutional rights
• National Urban League (1910) aided blacks in finding jobs and improving opportunities to get ahead
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) (1942) started by a group of interracial students sought to change racist attitudes using nonviolent resistance through freedom rides and sit-ins
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (1957) coordinated nonviolent direct action to end segregation through civil disobedience in the form of boycotts and marches- Dr. King was leader until assassinated in 1968
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (1960) college students that started the lunch counter sit-ins and started the voter registration drives in the rural south
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)
• Brown combined several school segregation cases together- named after the lead plaintiff in the Kansas case
• Brown was represented by Thurgood Marshall (NAACP) (later became the 1st black Supreme Court justice)
• Linda Brown, age 7, sued over policy of racial segregation in Topeka, Kansas
• Contended that the separate facilities were not equal
-black schools often overcrowded and lacked much of the equipment that white schools had
• Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Brown
-ruled “that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” had no place and separate educational facilities were inherently unequal”
• Public schools were to be desegregated with “deliberate speed”
• Case suggested that all segregation laws were unconstitutional as they violated the 14th Amendments principle of equal protection of the law although it did not end segregation in American schools or in American life
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• One of the main leaders of the movement• Baptist Minister• Helped found and was first president of SCLC• Advocated nonviolent means following the teachings of Gandhi• Lead the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and 1963 March on Washington
• “I Have A Dream” speech where he expressed for American values to include the vision
of a color blind society• Youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1964)• Prior to his death, he was advocating on ending poverty
and stopping the Vietnam War• Assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis , TN by James Earl Ray
The time is always right to do what is right.
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
Landmark Legislation
• Civil Rights Act 1957• Equal Pay Act 1963• Twenty-fourth Amendment 1964• Civil Rights Act 1964• Voting Rights Act 1965• Open Housing Act 1968• Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972
Affirmative Action
• Began in the 1970s by the Federal Government
• Programs to make up for past discrimination -encourage the hiring and promoting of
minorities and women that were traditionally held by men
-college admissions• Gratz vs Bollinger (2003)
Challenges Today
• Reverse discrimination• Workplace discrimination- 75,000+ complaints
lodge with the federal gov’t each year• Racial profiling• Hate Crimes- acts of violence based on a
person’s race, color, national origin, gender, or disability
