“I’ll Get On When Jim Crow Gets Off”

An Introduction to the Civil Rights Movement

Vocabulary

discrimination [dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuhn] : (noun) unfair treatment of

someone based on their membership in a group defined by race,

ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation or other factors

de facto discrimination [dee fak-toh dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuhn : (noun)

unfair treatment of someone that is a matter of custom but not based

in law

de jure discrimination [dee joo r-ee dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuhn] : (noun)

unfair treatment of someone that is based on laws

integration [in-ti-gray-shuuh n] : (noun) a situation in which different

groups—such as those defined by race, ethnicity, sex, sexual

orientation or other factors—live together and use the same facilities

Vocabulary

nonviolence [non-vahy-uh-luhns] : (noun) a theory and

practice that emphasizes love of all beings and a refusal to

respond to violence with violence

retaliation [ri-tal-ee-ey-shuhn] : (noun) an action taken as

revenge or reprisal

segregation [seg-ri-gey-shuh] : (noun) the separation of a

specific racial, religious or other group from the general

body of society

unconstitutional [uhn-kon-sti-too-shuh-nl] : (adjective)

inconsistent with the provisions in a country’s constitution

Reconstruction Amendments

Thirteenth Amendment : "Neither slavery nor

involuntary servitude, except as a punishment

for crime whereof the party shall have been duly

convicted, shall exist within the United States”

Fourteenth Amendment : “All persons born or

naturalized in the United States, and subject to

the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United

States and of the state wherein they reside. No

state shall make or enforce any law which shall

abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens

of the United States; nor shall any state deprive

any person of life, liberty, or property, without

due process of law; nor deny to any person

within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the

laws.”

Fifteenth Amendment : “The right of citizens of

the United States to vote shall not be denied or

abridged by the United States or by any state on

account of race, color, or previous condition of

servitude."

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Plessy vs. Ferguson established the

constitutionality of the practice of

“separate but equal.”

“A statute which implies merely a legal

distinction between the white and colored

races - has no tendency to destroy the

legal equality of the two races…The

object of the 14th Amendment was

undoubtedly to enforce the absolute

equality of the two races before the law,

but in the nature of things it could not

have been intended to abolish

distinctions based upon color, or to

enforce social, as distinguished from

political equality, or a commingling of the

two races upon terms unsatisfactory to

the other.” - Justice Henry Brown

Jim Crow Laws:

“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930

“Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.”—Nebraska, 1911

“Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”—Missouri, 1929

“All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.”—Tennessee, 1891

How was the Jim Crow

way of life taught to

whites?

Brown vs. Board of Education

1954

Overturns Plessy vs.

Ferguson

Argued by NAACP lawyer

Thurgood Marshall who

would later become the first

African American Supreme

Court justice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow-bdFDrkAw

Why do you think so many chose to participate in nonviolent civil disobedience

during this movement? What are the pros and cons of such actions?

Video: A Time for Justice, part one

Rosa Parks

December 1, 1955 - Parks is arrested

for not giving up her seat on a public

bus to a white man while on her way

home from her job as a seamstress at

the Montgomery Fair department

store, thus violating Jim Crow

practices.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

December 5, 1955 : In response to

the arrest of Rosa Parks, a 381 day

boycott of the Montgomery bus

system begins.

It becomes known as the official

beginning of the Civil Rights

Movement

November 13, 1956 : The Supreme

Court declares Montgomery’s

segregated bus system to be

unconstitutional and illegal.

December 20, 1956 : The Court’s

order is officially served. The

boycott ends and the buses are

integrated.

Martin Luther King, Jr.Becomes the leader of the Civil Rights Movement after helping to organize the bus

boycott, becoming president of the SCLC, leading marches, and giving powerful

speeches to thousands.

Audio: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (0:00-3:20)

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be

demanded by the oppressed.”

https://soundcloud.com/splcenter/audio-martin-luther-king

Continuing the principle of

nonviolent civil

disobedience, people

organized sit-ins, marches,

and Freedom Rides

through the Deep South to

protest segregation and

unequal treatment. Many

were met with violence,

even death, for their

actions.

Why were people willing to

risk their safety to

participate in the Civil

Rights movement?