The Civil Rights

Movement

Major Breakthroughs for Equality

Today

● Complete the Civil Rights Chart

● Free at Last Worksheet (Due Thursday)

● Complete the Venn Diagram (Due Friday)

● Begin transferring chart to timeline (Due Friday).

Once you finish these feel free to see me and get permission to get on your phone.

Today’s Learning Targets

● Students will analyze the events leading up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964○ March on Washington○ Birmingham Church Bombing○ Assassination of John F. Kennedy

● Students will analyze the impact of the 24th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Birmingham Church Bombing

On September 15th, 1963, less than a month after the March on Washington, a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Four young African American girls were killed in the bombing and dozens were injured.

Civil Rights Loses a Key Ally

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office.

Johnson was a former senator from Texas with little record of supporting civil rights. Many wondered what would happen to Kennedy’s cause of achieving equal treatment for African Americans.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

The bill was widely debated in Congress, but the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law on July 2nd, 1964.

The act banned segregation in public places, desegregated schools, and allowed the Justice Department to prosecute those that violated others civil rights.

The Struggle for Voting

Rights

Need for More Change

While great strides had been made, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had no impact on the right to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests were still in place and discouraged, if not eliminated the black vote.

The End of the Poll Tax

The 24th Amendment brought an end to poll taxes on January 23rd, 1964.

Freedom Summer

In the summer of 1964, the SNCC flooded Mississippi with volunteers in an effort to help more African Americans register to vote.

That summer three civil rights workers disappeared and many feared that they had been killed. Johnson sent the FBI to investigate and eventually recover the bodies of the three workers.

From Selma to Montgomery

Early in 1965, the SCLC and Martin Luther King, Jr. staged the “Freedom March” from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in an effort to pressure the federal government to help the African Americans gain their right to vote.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

On August 6th, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The act outlawed the use of literacy tests and allowed the government to oversee elections and voter registration in states that had shown a record of discrimination.

Big Results

The passage of the 24th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had a major impact on the number of African Americans that registered to vote.

Video Links

● Birmingham Church Bombing○ http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement/videos/bombing-of-the-16th-street-baptist-ch

urch● Freedom Summer

○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz0GpAB0Uf0● Selma to Montgomery

○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtIVcOT_o0M