Civil Rights Vocabulary• Prejudice: irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular

group, race, or religion (holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convicts)THOUGHT

• Discrimination: treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; to act on prejudice ACTION

• Segregation: separate by race• de facto: segregation that exists by practice and

custom ex) white flight after WWII• de jure: segregation by law ex) Jim Crow laws

• Integration: to open to people of all races or ethnic groups without restriction; desegregate

Civil Rights Vocabulary (con’t)

• Jim Crow: discrimination against blacks especially by legal enforcement or traditional sanctions

• Black Codes: laws passed by the Southern states after the Civil War to regain control over freed slaves, maintain white supremacy, and ensure the continued supply of free labor.

• Oppression: unjust or cruel exercise of power or authority; to weigh down

• Emancipation: the act of setting a person free from any type of restraint or servitude, particularly slavery

Civil Rights Vocabulary (con’t)• Civil disobedience: the act of intentionally breaking a law that

one thinks is wrong or refusing to obey a governmental order, particularly if one publicizes the act of civil disobedience with the purpose of changing that law or order. Nonviolent protest

• Pacifism: opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes

• Bigotry/Bigot: one who regards or treats members of a group with hatred and intolerance

• Racism: a belief that some races are by the nature superior to others; discrimination based on such a belief

• Stereotype: an idea that many people have about a thing or group and that may often be untrue or only partly true; applying that idea to individuals as well as the group

13th Amendment

• Jan. 31, 1865 (proposed)

• Dec. 18, 1865 (ratified)

• 13th amendment• Made slavery illegal

throughout the US

Freedman’s Bureau• 1865• Freedman’s Bureau• provide relief for all poor people—black

& white in the South

14th Amendment• 1866 (proposed) July 28, 1868 (ratified)

• All people born or naturalized in the US are citizens.

• Citizens guaranteed equal protection under the law

• States could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

• Banned former Confederate officials from holding state or federal offices.

• State laws are subject to review by federal courts.

• Congress has power to pass any laws needed to enforce any part of amendment.

15th Amendment

• Proposed Feb. 1869/ Ratified March 1870

• gave African American men in US the right to vote

Civil Rights Act of 1875

• Civil Rights Act of 1875• (later declared unconstitutional)• guaranteed African Americans equal rights in public

places like theaters & public transportation

Tuskegee Institute

• 1881• Tuskegee Institute• founded by Booker

T. Washington • to develop African

American businesses

• economic power =social change

Ida B. Wells

• late 1890s• Ida B. Wells (-Barnett)• A Red Record—3 yr.

listing of the lynchings of blacks—named the lynchers

Plessy v. Ferguson

• 1896

• Declared that segregation was allowed if “separate but equal” facilities were provided for African Americans.

NAACP• 1909• National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People

• Civil Rights organization formed by W.E.B. DuBois

and others to fight discrimination and segregation

• Usually used the courts/justice system to work for change

UNIA• 1914

• UNIA—Universal Negro Improvement Association

• Founded by Marcus Garvey to promote

racial pride and unity & urged blacks to

become economically independent

Great Migration

• During the 1920’s, hundreds of thousands of black southerners began moving to the North to escape racial prejudice

• Faced opposition from whites concerned about job losses

• 25 urban race riots during the 1920’s in the North

Harlem Renaissance

• 1920s (after The Great Migration)

• Harlem Renaissance

• An important period of African American artistic growth

•Countee Cullen--poet

• Zora Neal Hurston-- author

• Paul Robeson—singer/actor

African Americans in the Military• 54th Massachusetts Regiment: 1st all black

fighting regiment (Civil War, Fort Wagner, movie=Glory)

• Buffalo Soldiers: built forts and maintained order in the Southwest US and Great Plains; also fought in Spanish-American War (San Juan Hill); with Gen. Pershing against Pancho Villa

• Tuskegee Airmen: 1st all black military aviation program (movie=Red Tails)

Committee on Civil Rights• created by President Truman

Findings & recommendations:

• racial discrimination throughout nation; should have new laws to protect all voters, desegregation of armed forces, permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission

Truman’s 1948 actions:

• ended segregation in military; banned racial discrimination in hiring of federal employees

Sweatt v. Painter

• (state) law schools must admit black applicants who qualify even if a black law school exists

Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, KN

• May 17, 1954

• major landmark Supreme Court case in which racial segregation was unconstitutional

Murder of Emmett Till• 14 year old boy from

Chicago, visiting relatives in Mississippi

• Said “Bye Baby” or wolf whistled at a white woman

• Kidnapped by woman’s husband & brother-in-law

• Till’s mother had an open casket funeral so people could see the brutality

• Jet magazine published picture of corpse (role of media)

• 5 day trial; l hour jury deliberations; not guilty verdict

Rosa Parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott

• December 1, 1955

• Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger and was arrested.

• Black leaders organized a boycott of the Montgomery Bus System

The Little Rock Nine” at Central High School Little Rock, Arkansas

• 1957

• 9 black students selected to integrate Central HS; Gov. Orval Faubus used

• National Guard to prevent students from starting school; Pres. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to force desegregation;

• Ernest Green=1st African American to graduate from Central HS;

• Little Rock schools closed the next year rather than integrate

SCLC—Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• 1957

• Founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. and 60 other ministers to coordinate non-violent protests

Feb. 1, 1960 Sit-Ins (Greensboro, NC)

• 4 black NC A&T students sit down at an all whites lunch counter and were refused service; returned the next day with even more African American students; this triggers many other similar non-violent protests in the South

• Led to the formation of SNCC—Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, NC

CORE—Congress of Racial Equality

• May 4, 1961

• began a series of Freedom Rides to protest segregation on buses and in southern bus stations

1962 James Meredith

• won federal court case that allowed him to (enroll) attend the all white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss—named after what they use to call the mistress of the plantation)

• caused riots and he was shot

• he did graduate

April 1963 Martin Luther King Jr.’s

Letter from Birmingham Jail• King is jailed in

Birmingham, Alabama for participation in a series of protest marches

• *May 1963 protests continued and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor used attack dogs and fire hoses on protestors including children seen on national TV, this outraged many and raised awareness of the struggle for Civil Rights

 

Medgar Evers• June 12, 1963

• NAACP field secretary murdered outside of his home in Jackson, Mississippi; Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice for murder, both trials ending in hung juries—he is finally convicted in 1994

March on Washington

• August 28, 1963

• 250,000 people on the Mall in front of Lincoln Memorial for Civil Rights; MLK gave his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech

Sept. 15, 1963

4 little girls killed at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Birmingham, AlabamaA bomb explodes at African American church, known as a popular Civil Rights meeting place, killing the girls while they were attending Sunday school. 

Civil Rights Act of 1964• July 2, 1964

• banned segregation in public places such as restaurants and transportation facilities; also prohibited discrimination by employers, unions, or universities with federal contracts/money

Summer 1964 Freedom Summer • white college students traveled to Mississippi to

help African Americans register to vote

Aug. 5, 1964 • missing Civil Rights

workers found murdered• names: James Chaney

(Af. Am.); 2 whites--Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner

• Situation: the 3 went to Mississippi to register

• African Americans to vote

Assassination of Malcolm X Feb. 21, 1965

• He had been a leader of the Nation of Islam, which favored black separatism—social and economic independence; in the beginning did not discourage violence—“by any means necessary”

• left Nation of Islam and was reconsidering his ideas of integration when he was shot by three

members of the Nation of Islam in New York City

March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama March 7, 1965

• voter registration march organized by MLK

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Aug. 10, 1965

• gave federal government the power to inspect voter registration procedures and protect all citizens’ voting rights (final ban on literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, etc.)

Watts Riots August 18, 1965 • riots in a neighborhood

of Los Angeles

caused by anger over racism; lead to riots in other parts of the country

Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee

• April 4, 1968

• James Earl Ray was convicted for shooting Dr. King on the balcony of a Memphis hotel

• His death caused riots in more than 100 US cities

Civil Rights Act of 1968

• Prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and

financing of housing