A movement for

equality between

the 1950’s and

1960’s

• Jim Crow laws made

segregation LEGAL

• Segregation was

based on race

• Separate facilities like water fountains,

restrooms, restaurants, and schools

• Supreme Court case

in 1896

• Decided that

“separate but equal”

was constitutional.

View a video on the next slide.

During the Civil Rights Movement

people fought to get rid of segregation

and inequalities

• Great Migration - During the 1920s,

African Americans moved to the North

in search of better jobs (in the South jobs

were scarce and low paying)

• National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP)

• This group fought against

segregation

• 1948 President Truman desegregated

the military

Major Events from the 1950s

1. Brown vs. the Board of Education – (1954) Supreme Court case that decided

“separate but equal” was NOT

constitutional.

• This required schools to

desegregate • However it took years for

some schools to

desegregate

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but

equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Major Events from the 1950s

2. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) -

Montgomery, Alabama

• Boycott – to stop buying a product or using a service

• African Americans were not allowed to sit in the front of the bus

• Rosa Parks started this movement – she refused to give up her seat to a white man

• African Americans boycotted the city’s bus

company, which caused the bus company to lose money

• Civil Rights leader

• Encouraged passive

resistance against

segregation (peaceful

actions against

segregation)

• Organized boycotts and

marches

• Leader of the

Montgomery Bus

Boycott

Major Events from the 1960s

1. Sit – Ins: a type of passive resistance

• 1960 – Woolworth’s Drug tore (North Carolina) 4 African American college

students sat in the “white only” section

of the diner and refused to move

• This started the “sit in” movement in the South to desegregate

restaurants

Major Events from the 1960s

2. Freedom Rides (1961) – blacks and

whites rode buses protesting bus

segregation

• Freedom Rides were

peaceful until South

Carolina, Alabama,

and Mississippi -

here the riders were

attacked and

arrested

Major Events from the 1960s 3. March on Washington – (1963)

Thousands protested in Washington

D.C. for equal rights in jobs and

freedom for all

• Gave his famous “I have a dream”

speech in D.C. during this protest (1963)

Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in TN in 1968

• Civil Rights Act 1964 – ended discrimination in all areas of housing,

hiring, education, and public places

• Voting Rights Act 1965 – ended discriminatory voting practices

• Many argue that the movement is not

over and still continues today