Civil Rights Era

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Montgomery, Alabama – Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a city-wide boycott of the Montgomery bus system.

• He led the boycott through non-violence resistance which affected the city economically.

• The boycott was successful.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Born and raised in Atlanta

• Used nonviolence and peaceful protests to end

racial discrimination.

• He was influenced by Ghandi and Dr. Benjamin

Mays of Morehouse College.

Brown v Board of Education

• Supreme Court case that stated:• Segregation laws were unconstitutional and

violated the 14th Amendment• Separate education facilities are unequal• Did not set a date for integrating the schools• 2nd ruling said desegregation had to happen

with “all deliberate speed”

1956 State Flag•Members of the Democratic Party substituted the square Confederate battle flag for the red, white, and blue bars on Georgia's state flag.

•It was response to Brown v. Board decision which caused a massive southern resistance against desegregation.

•The Georgia State Flag was implemented in 1956.

Reaction to Desegregation

• In GA, white politicians were outraged about the Brown v Board of Education ruling.

• Marvin Griffin - GA governor pushed “massive resistance”

• Even prepared to close Georgia’s public school if necessary to avoid desegregation.

• Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. refused to close Atlanta Schools

• Sibley Commission - recommended leaving desegregation to local school systems

• 1961 - desegregation of Atlanta public schools began

UGA Desegregated

• In 1961 the University of Georgia was desegregated.

• Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter were the first black students accepted at the University of Georgia.

Civil Rights Organizations

• SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference created by Martin Luther King.

• SNCC – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

• SNCC protested Jim Crow laws by having sit-ins at restaurant lunch counters that were white only.

Freedom Riders

• In 1960 the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of bus terminals

• Black and white students rode through the country on buses to make sure this happened.

• They often met violence.

The Albany Movement• 1961, SNCC members met in Albany,

Georgia in an attempt to desegregate the city.

• They started by entering the white section of the bus station, but were arrested.

• This went on for a year, MLK came and was arrested.

• The Albany Movement was a failure, but Civil Rights leaders learned from it.

The March on Washington

• In 1963, MLK led 250,000 people into Washington DC.

• At the Lincoln Memorial King delivered his “I have a dream…” speech.

• The federal government passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 prohibiting racial discrimination.

• Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Georgians in Civil Rights Movement

• Martin Luther King Jr. • John Lewis – worked with MLK and became a

Congressman• Andrew Young – aid to MLK who became

Ambassador to the U.N., mayor of Atlanta, helped Atlanta win bid for 1996 Olympics

• Maynard Jackson – first African American mayor of a Southern city (Atlanta)

• Grace Hamilton – first African American woman elected to the Georgia legislature.