The Civil Rights Movement

What is the Civil Rights Movement?

The Big Picture

• African Americans gained many rights after the Civil War. By the 1950’s, some rights were still denied to them, including voting. Because of segregation, blacks were not permitted to live in the same neighborhoods or to eat in the same restaurants as whites.

Separate but not equal

• Homer Plessy refused to sit in a segregated railroad car in 1892. The Supreme Court ruled that this separation was legal.

• After this decision segregation became more widespread.

The Brown Decision

• Thurgood Marshall led thee NAACP in a legal case. He won several cases proving states had to provide more money to black schools.

• Linda Brown was a little girl whose parents demanded an equal education for her. This case was called Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas

The Montgomery Boycott

• Rosa Parks was a tired woman who boarded a bus and refused to give up her seat to a white person.

• The boycott was organized by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• King’s success in Montgomery made him a national civil rights leader. His sermons won both black and white followers.

• He was assassinated for his beliefs.

The March on Washington

• On August 28, 1963, 250,000 Americans gathered to persuade the federal government to pass a new civil rights law.

• King gave a now famous speech that day entitled, I Have A Dream.

A Civil Rights Law

• President Lyndon B. Johnson worked hard to convince the members of congress to vote for a new bill. He signed the new civil rights act in 1964. This law made segregation illegal in all public places including such places as hotels, theatres, playgrounds, and libraries.

Conclusion

• Much has changed since the civil rights movement. Segregation is illegal in all public schools and most private places. Discrimination still exists, but our country has come closer to the ideal of liberty and justice.