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CICERO
History Beyond The Textbook
Modern African-American
Civil Rights Movement
1947–
CICERO © 2008
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CICERO
History Beyond The Textbook
Table of Contents
Emancipation Proclamation
Thirteenth Amendment
14th and 15 Amendments
Jim Crow Laws
The Start of the Civil Rights Movement
Leaders of the Movement
Symbols of the Movement
Jackie Robinson
Brown v. Board
Emmitt Till
Rosa Parks
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Little Rock Nine
Greensboro Sit-Ins
Freedom Riders
James Meredith
Birmingham Campaign
Desegregation of U. of Ala
The Murder of Medgar Evers
March on Washington
16th St. Church Bombing
24th Amendment
Freedom Summer
Selma to Montgomery
Voting Rights Act
Poor People’s Campaign
Mississippi Burning Civil Rights Act
King Assassination Civil Rights Now
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Background
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln meets with his Cabinet for the first
reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Before the Emancipation
Proclamation, thousands of
enslaved African Americans
found freedom in the North.
Camps were set-up to help blacks
learn to read and write. Free
blacks fought on the side of the
Union Army during the Civil
War. After the Battle of Antietam,
the Emancipation Proclamation
was announced. It went into effect
in January 1863.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Background
Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States was
proposed to the legislatures of several
states by the 38th United States Congress,
on January 31, 1865. With Georgia’s
ratification, the amendment went into
effect. It only needed twenty-seven of the
then thirty-six states to ratify it. The last
state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment
was Mississippi in 1995.
It read:
“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for where of
the party shall have been convicted, shall exist
within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Background
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
• The main purpose of the
Fourteenth Amendment was to
secure rights for former slaves. It
included Due Process and Equal
Protection Clauses.
Fourteenth Amendment
• The Fifteenth Amendment stated
that no government in the United
States may prevent a citizen from
voting based on that citizen’s
race, color, or, previous condition
of servitude, such as slavery.
Fifteenth Amendment
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Background
Jim Crow Laws
1876–1965
The Jim Crow laws were state and local
laws enacted in the Southern and border
states of the United States and were
enforced between the 1876 and 1965.
These laws basically negated the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.
“Separate but equal” became a standard in
the South. Every aspect of the South was
segregated, and black Americans were
treated as inferiors to white Americans.
Due to the voting restrictions passed by
Jim Crow laws, like poll tax or voting
literacy tests, most blacks could not
exercise their right to vote, and others did
not vote due to fear of retribution. After
1877, the federal government did little or
nothing to override these state and local
laws that prevented blacks from exercising
their constitutional rights.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
The Start of the Modern
Civil Rights Movement
The American Civil Rights Movement was a reform movement in the
United States starting in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its purpose was to
abolish racial discrimination against African Americans and restore blacks’
right to vote. Some of the groups active in promoting African-American
rights during this time were the NAACP, founded in 1910, and new
organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC).
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Leaders of the
Civil Rights Movement
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W.E.B. Du Bois
Rosa Parks
Medgar Evers
Thurgood Marshall
James L. Farmer Jr.
Stokely Carmichael
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X
Jackie Robinson
Maya Angelou
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Al Sharpton
End
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Symbols of the
Civil Rights Movement
History Beyond The Textbook
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Emmitt Till
Jackson Robinson
James Meredith
Little Rock Nine
Medgar Evers
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Rosa Parks
Civil Rights Workers
Four Little Girls
Martin Luther King Jr.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Jackie Robinson
Breaking the Color Barrier in Baseball
April 15, 1947
Jackie Robinson became the first
African American in the Major
Leagues. He was signed by the
Brooklyn Dodgers and made his
big-league debut on April 15,
1947. He faced constant racism
from fans, opponents, and even
his own teammates. He went on to
be elected into the Baseball Hall
of Fame and his number 42 was
retired throughout baseball.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Brown v. Topeka
Board of Education
May 17, 1954
Originally, the District Court ruled in
favor of the Board of Education, based
on the precedent set by the Plessy v.
Ferguson case. That meant that the
Board of Education won on the
grounds of “separate but equal.” Three
years later, the United States Supreme
Court handed down its decision
regarding that the plaintiffs charge that
the education of black children in
separate schools from white children
was unconstitutional.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Emmitt Till
Murder
August 28, 1955
In August 1955,14-year-old Chicago native
Emmitt Till traveled to Money, Mississippi, to
visit relatives. One day, on a dare, he flirted with
a married, white female shop owner. Days later,
the shop-owner’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his
half-brother, J.W. Milam, went to the home where
Till was staying, dragged him out of bed, threw
him into the flatbed of their truck and drove him
to a secluded area. There they beat him to within
an inch of his life. Till remained strong and
fearless, this angered the brothers who wanted to
teach Till a lesson. They shot and killed Till, then
dumped his body into the Tallahatchie River
weighted down by the fan of a cotton gin. His
body washed up three days later. The brothers
were arrested and put on trial, but were acquitted
by an all-white jury. Years later, in a magazine
interview, the brothers admitted to murdering Till.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Rosa Parks
Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement
1913–2005
Rosa Parks was an AfricanAmerican civil rights activist. On
December 1, 1955, Parks stepped
on the bus driven by James Blake.
She encountered Blake years before
when he asked her to reenter the bus
from the rear, and as she did he
drove off, leaving her to walk home
in the rain. On this particular day,
Parks was already on the bus, and
when a white passenger got onto the
bus, Blake demanded she give up
her seat and move to make room.
She refused, and was arrested. This
event initiated the Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
Rosa Parks booking photo after being arrested.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Montgomery Bus
Boycott
December 1, 1955–December 20, 1956
This is the bus Rosa Parks was removed from, starting the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
After the arrest of Rosa Parks, Martin
Luther King Jr. organized the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. The
boycott was a political and social
protest campaign started in 1955 in
Montgomery, Alabama, intended to
oppose the city’s policy of racial
segregation on its public transit
system. The ensuing struggle lasted
from December 1, 1955, to December
20, 1956, and led to a United States
Supreme Court decision that declared
the Alabama and Montgomery laws
regarding bus seating by race
unconstitutional. The boycott nearly
put the bus company out of business.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Little Rock Nine
1957
The Little Rock Nine was a group
of African-American students
who were enrolled in Little Rock
Central High School in 1957.
After the students were initially
prevented from entering the
racially segregated school by
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus,
and then allowed to attend after
intervention by President Dwight
Eisenhower, is considered to be
one of the most important events
in the American Civil Rights
Movement.
Little Rock Nine
along with
NAACP President,
Daisy Bates.
Troops from the 327th Regiment, 101st Airborne escorting the
Little Rock Nine up the steps of Central High School.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Greensboro Sit-ins
February 1, 1960
Four African-American students, Ezell A.
Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil,
and Franklin McCain from North Carolina
A&T State University, sat at a segregated
lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store in
Greensboro, North Carolina. The counter
only seated whites, while the blacks had to
stand and eat. The students were refused
service, but were allowed to remain at the
counter. Over the next few days, the number
of students and protesters grew close to a
thousand. The protest sparked sit-ins and
economic boycotts that became a trademark
of the American Civil Rights movement.
Section of the lunch counter, now on display at the
Smithsonian Institution.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Freedom Riders
Oppose Segregation
May 4, 1961
Civil Rights activists called Freedom
Riders rode in interstate buses into the
segregated southern United States to
test the United States Supreme Court
decision Boynton v. Virginia. The first
Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C.,
on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to
arrive in New Orleans on May 17.
Most riders were arrested for
trespassing, unlawful assembly, and
violations of state and local Jim Crow
laws. The rides were sponsored by
CORE and SNCC.
A map showing the routes taken by Freedom Riders.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
James Meredith
Enrolls at Ole Miss
September 1962
James Meredith walking to class accompanied
by U.S. Marshals.
End
More than 5,000 federal troops were
sent by President John F. Kennedy
to allow James Meredith to register
for classes. He attempted to enter
campus on September 20 and 25,
but was blocked by Mississippi
Governor Ross R. Barnett. He
proclaimed, “no school will be
integrated in Mississippi while I am
your Governor.” Riots ensued
resulting in the deaths of two
people. The University of
Mississippi was a publicly funded
college and should have been
available to every citizen of
Mississippi.
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History Beyond The Textbook
Birmingham Campaign
Desegregation Drive in Birmingham
Spring 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. and the
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference opposed local laws that
supported segregation. Riots, fire
bombings, and police were used
against protestors. The protests were
aimed at ending the city’s segregated
civil and discriminatory economic
policies. The campaign lasted for
more than two months in the spring of
1963. Dr. King and black citizens
practiced nonviolent tactics to break
laws that would have them arrested
and overflow the jails. This is where
Dr. King wrote his famous “Letter
from Birmingham Jail.”
High school students are hit by highpressure water jet hoses during the
Birmingham protests.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Desegregation of
the University of Alabama
Governor George Wallace (second from left)
stands in the doorway of the University of
Alabama, preventing Vivian Malone and
James Hood from entering.
In June 1963, Governor George
Wallace tried to prevent two black
students, Vivian Malone and
James Hood, from registering for
classes at the University of
Alabama. This famously became
known as the “Stand in the
Schoolhouse Door.” Wallace was
forced to step aside by federal
marshals, Deputy Attorney
General Nicholas Katzenbach,
and the federalized Alabama
National Guard.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
The Murder
of Medgar Evers
June 11, 1963
Head of the Mississippi chapter of the
NAACP, Medgar Evers, was shot
outside of his Jackson home on the
same night that President John F.
Kennedy addressed the nation on
race, asking “Are we to say to the
world …that this is a land of the free
except for Negroes.” Ku Klux Klan
member Byron De La Beckwith was
arrested and charged with the murder,
and was tried twice for murder in
1964. Both trials ended in mistrials by
all-white juries. A third trial was held
in 1994, this time in front of a jury
consisting of eight blacks and four
whites. De La Beckwith was
convicted and sentenced to life in
prison.
End
Medgar Evers was
gunned down in his
driveway.
Medgar Evers’ home in
Jackson, Mississippi.
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History Beyond The Textbook
March on Washington
August 28, 1963
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
performs his “I Have a
Dream …” speech on the
steps of the Lincoln
Memorial.
Close to 200,000 blacks and
whites meet at the Washington
Monument during the March on
Washington.
Almost 200,000 blacks and whites
met at the Washington Monument
during the March on Washington.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
delivered his historic “I Have a
Dream …” speech advocating
racial harmony at the Lincoln
Memorial during the march. The
march was organized by a group
of civil rights, labor, and religious
organizations. Following the
march, the Civil Rights Act of
1964, and the National Voting
Rights Act of 1965 were passed.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
16th Street Baptist Church
Bombing
September 15, 1963
The 16th Street Baptist Church
bombing was a racially motivated
terrorist attack on September 15, 1963
by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The bombing in Birmingham,
Alabama, resulted in the deaths of
four girls, Denise McNair, Carole
Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and
Addie Mae Collins. Robert Chambliss
was convicted of the murders in 1977
and sentenced to several terms of life
imprisonment. The case was reopened
in 2000 and two more men were tried
and convicted. Bobby Frank Cherry
and Thomas Blanton were sentenced
to life in prison.
The 16th Street Baptist Church
in Birmingham, Alabama.
Four girls who were killed
The aftermath of the bombing
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
The Passing of the
24th Amendment
January 1964
24th Amendment
Poll taxes had been enacted in eleven Southern
states after Reconstruction as a measure to
prevent poor people from voting. These taxes
stayed in force until an amendment to the
Constitution made them illegal in 1964. At the
time of this amendment’s passage, only five
states still preserved the poll tax: Virginia,
Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
However it wasn’t until the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled 6-3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of
Elections that all state poll taxes were declared
unconstitutional because they violated the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Mississippi Summer
Freedom Project
Summer 1964
Freedom Summer was a campaign in
the United States launched in June
1964 in an attempt to register as many
African-American voters as possible
in Mississippi, which at that time had
almost totally excluded black voters.
The project was organized by Council
of Federated Organizations (COFO),
an umbrella of four established civil
rights organizations, NAACP, CORE,
SCLC, and SNCC. There were more
than 1,000 volunteers, mostly whites
from the North, many of them were
Jewish.
CORE was active during
Freedom Summer
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Mississippi
Civil Rights Workers Murders
June 1964
Andrew Goodman, James Chaney,
and Michael Schwerner
During Freedom Summer 1964, two CORE workers from
New York, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, along
with Mississippi Civil Rights worker, James Chaney, were
looking to set up a CORE branch in Meridian, Mississippi.
While there, they heard of the bombing of a black church in
Philadelphia, Mississippi, and decided to investigate. On
their way back, they were stopped and arrested by
Philadelphia deputy Cecil Price. Price was also a member of
the KKK. While the men were in lock-up, Price notified his
fellow Klan members of who he had in custody. Later that
night, Price released the three young men, but followed them
before the could reach the county border. He pulled them
over again, but this time with a group of Klan members.
They shot and killed the three young men. Their bodies were
not found until August. Price and seven others were found
guilty of violating the young men’s civil rights and were
given light sentences. The sheriff and six others were
acquitted. A verdict was not reached for Edgar Ray Killen,
and two others. Killen was later convicted of manslaughter in
2005, and is currently serving three twenty-year terms.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
The Passing
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
July 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
landmark legislation in the United States
that outlawed segregation in U.S. schools
and other public places. First conceived to
help African Americans, the bill was
amended prior to passage to protect
women in courts, and explicitly included
white people for the first time. It also
started the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. It prohibited
discrimination in public facilities, in
government, and in employment,
eliminating the Jim Crow laws in the
Southern United States.
President Lyndon Johnson signs
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Selma to Montgomery Marches
March 1965
The first march led by
Hosea Williams and
John Lewis
Police attacking
the marchers
The Selma to Montgomery Marches were
peaceful marches held in March 1965. The
purpose of the marches was to help blacks in
the South register to vote. The first march was
held on March 7, but was cut short when
Alabama state and local police would not allow
the marchers to cross the Edmund Pettus
Bridge. Some marchers were severely beaten
by the police. Photos of the beatings made
national headlines. The second march was led
by Dr. Martin Luther King on March 9. The
marchers made it to the Edmund Pettus Bridge,
and had a prayer session and dispersed. At the
third march, the marchers were granted a court
order and were permitted to march peacefully
without police intervention from Selma to
Montgomery. The march covered fifty-four
miles in five days and four nights.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Voting Rights Act
August 6, 1965
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965
outlawed the requirement that would-be
voters in the United States take literacy tests
to qualify to vote, and it provided for federal
registration of voters in areas that had less
than 50 percent of eligible minority voters
registered. The act also provided for
Department of Justice oversight to
registration, and the department’s approval
for any change in voting law in districts that
had used a “device” to limit voting and in
which less than 50 percent of the population
was registered to vote in 1964.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Poor People’s Campaign
1968
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
organized the Poor People’s Campaign to
address issues of economic justice. The
campaign culminated in a march on Washington,
D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest
communities of the United States. The march
originated in Mark, Mississippi. From there, Dr.
King crisscrossed the country to assemble “a
multiracial army of the poor” that would descend
on Washington — engaging in nonviolent civil
disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until
Congress enacted a poor people’s bill of rights.
Before the campaign was completed, Dr. King
was assassinated.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Martin Luther King Jr.
Assassination
April 4, 1968
In April 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee, to speak at the
Mason Temple. There he would perform his final speech, “I’ve
Been to the Mountaintop.” While in Memphis, Dr. King always
stayed in the same room at the same motel, room 306 at the
Lorraine Motel. He and his colleague, Ralph David Abernathy,
stayed there so often it came to be known as the King-Abernathy
Suite. At around 6 p.m. on April 4, Dr. King stepped out onto the
balcony, and was gunned down. He died an hour later. That day
presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy was set to give a speech
in Indianapolis. Upon hearing of King’s death, he immediately
changed the concept of his speech. He first notified the crowd of the
death, many of whom were hearing it for the first time. But he was
able to relate to them, explaining how he felt when his brother was
assassinated. That brought calm and comfort to the crowd, and
might have saved the city from rioting. However, it was not the
same in other cities in the United States. Their were deadly riots in
Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington D.C., and
Louisville, Kentucky, as a result of the King assassination. James
Earl Ray was later convicted for King’s murder.
Dr. King was shot on the
second floor balcony of
the Lorraine Motel.
End
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History Beyond The Textbook
Condoleezza Rice
Civil Rights Now
Today, the civil rights movement has made strides
in its attempt to grant equality for all Americans.
During the years, policies such as affirmative
action were created to level the playing field for
all minorities. However, many may feel that
affirmative action would be a step backward from
the civil rights movement. Many feel that due to
affirmative action, a person worthy enough and
with the right credentials may be passed over, just
because of skin color. Nonetheless, minorities in
the United States have come a long way. Colin
Powell was the first black Secretary of State.
After Powell’s resignation, Condoleezza Rice
became the first black female Secretary of State.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama became the frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for
President of the United States.
Colin Powell
Barack Obama
End
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