1. Civil Rights

2. What are civil rights? Civil rights are personal rights guaranteed and protected by the U.S. Constitution and federal laws enacted by Congress: freedom of speech, the right to vote, due process of law, equal protection of the laws, and protection from unlawful discrimination. Office of Civil Rights (OCR) enforces civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, and religion by health care and human service

3. Civil Rights Act of 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation also declared a strong legislative policy against discrimination in public schools and colleges which aided in desegregation. Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation. Generally, places of public accommodation are businesses or buildings that are open or offer services to the general public. These facilities can be publicly or privately owned and operated. Public establishments include places of public accommodation (e.g., hotels, motels, and trailer parks), restaurants, gas stations, bars, taverns, and places of entertainment in general. Food, lodging, gasoline, and entertainment all come under the definition of places of public accommodation. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination where the employer is engaged in interstate commerce.

4. Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka In 1954, large portions of the United States had racially segregated schools, made legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that segregated public facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were equal to each other. However, by the mid-twentieth century, civil rights groups set up legal and political, challenges to racial segregation. In the early 1950s, NAACP lawyers brought class action lawsuits on behalf of black schoolchildren and their families in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, seeking court orders to compel school districts to let black students attend white public schools. One of these class actions, Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by representative-plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children denied access to Topeka's white schools. Brown claimed that Topeka's racial segregation violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause because the city's black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be. The federal district court dismissed his claim, ruling that the segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine. Brown appealed to the Supreme Court, which consolidated and then reviewed all the school segregation actions together. Thurgood Marshall, who would in 1967 be appointed the first black justice of the Court, was chief counsel for the plaintiffs. Thanks to the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court spoke in a unanimous decision written by Warren himself. The decision held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Court noted that Congress, when drafting the Fourteenth Amendment in the 1860s, did not expressly intend to require integration of public schools. On the other hand, that Amendment did not prohibit integration. In any case, the Court asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education today. Public education in the 20th century, said the Court, had become an essential component of a citizen's public life, forming the basis of democratic citizenship, normal socialization, and professional training. In this context, any child denied a good education would be unlikely to succeed in life. Where a state, therefore, has undertaken to provide universal education, such education becomes a right that must be afforded equally to both blacks and whites.

5. Emmett Till Early on the morning of August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a 14 year-old African American teenager, was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Mississippi Till was from Chicago, visiting his relatives in Mississippi when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam arrived at Till's great-uncle's house where they took Till, transported him to a barn, beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River. weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later. Till was returned to Chicago and his mother, who had raised him mostly by herself, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his casket and images of his mutilated body were published in black magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the condition of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the country critical of the state. Although initially local newspapers and law enforcement officials decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they soon began responding to national criticism by defending Mississippians, which eventually transformed into support for the killers. Bryant and Milam were acquitted of Till's kidnapping and murder, but only months later, in a magazine interview, protected against double jeopardy, they admitted to killing him. Till's murder is noted as a pivotal event motivating the African-American Civil Rights Movement following the Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court the previous year. The trial and acquittal of the accused murderers galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and forever changed American society.

6. Ruby Bridges Ruby Bridges was born in Mississippi; when she was 4 years old, the family relocated to New Orleans. When she was 6 years old, her parents responded to a request from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and volunteered her to participate in the integration of the New Orleans School system, even though her father was hesitant. In spring of 1960, Ruby Bridges was one of 6 black children in New Orleans to pass the test that determined whether or not the black children would go to the all white school. She went to a school by herself while the other 5 children went somewhere else. Six students were chosen; however, two students decided to stay at their old school, and three were transferred to McDonough Elementary. Ruby was the only one assigned to William Frantz Elementary. As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. U.S. Marshals were dispatched by President Eisenhower, to oversee her safety.

7. Rosa Parks In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city ordinance (essentially only whites could vote) to segregate bus passengers by race. Conductors were empowered to assign seats to achieve that goal. According to the law, no passenger would be required to move or give up his seat and stand if the bus was crowded and no other seats were available. Over time and by custom, however, Montgomery bus drivers adopted the practice of requiring black riders to move when there were no white-only seats left. The first four rows of seats on each Montgomery bus were reserved for whites. Buses had "colored" sections for black people generally in the rear of the bus, although blacks comprised more than 75% of the ridership. After working all day, housekeeper Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. Near the middle of the bus, her row was directly behind the ten seats reserved for white passengers. Initially, she did not notice that the bus driver was the same man, James F. Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. As the bus traveled along its regular route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The bus reached the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white passengers boarded. Blake noted that the front of the bus was filled with white passengers, with two or three standing. He moved the "colored" section sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Parks moved, but toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the re-designated colored section. When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. The next day, Parks was tried on charges of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. The trial lasted 30 minutes. After being found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs, Parks appealed her conviction and formally challenged the legality of racial segregation. On Sunday, December 4, 1955, plans for the Montgomery Bus Boycott were announced at black churches in the area, and a front-page article in The Montgomery Advertiser helped spread the word. At a church rally that night, those attending agreed unanimously to continue the boycott until they were treated with the level of courtesy they expected, until black drivers were hired, and until seating in the middle of the bus was handled on a first-come basis. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Others had taken similar steps in the twentieth century, including Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit rrested months before Parks. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws though eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement. At the time, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.

8. Little Rock Nine After the Brown v BOE decision, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to register black students in previously all-white schools in cities throughout the South. In Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin in September 1957. By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. The nicknamed "Little Rock Nine" consisted of Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals. Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school. Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists on September 4, 1957 On September 9, the Little Rock School District issued a statement condemning the governor's deployment of soldiers to the school, and called for a citywide prayer service on September 12. Even President Dwight Eisenhower attempted to de-escalate the situation by summoning Faubus for a meeting, warning him not to defy the Supreme Court's ruling Woodrow Wilson Mann, the Mayor of Little Rock, asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. On September 24, the President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army to Little Rock and federalized the entire 10,000-member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of Faubus. Claiming that Little Rock had to assert their rights and freedom against the federal decision, in September 1958, Faubus signed acts that enabled him and the Little Rock School District to close all public schools. [ Thus, with this bill signed, on Monday September 15, Faubus ordered the closure of all four public high schools, preventing both black and white students from attending school.

9. Activist Organizations National/regional civil rights organizations Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC) Common Ground Relief

10. Nonviolent protest & civil disobedience The nonviolence philosophy was introduced into the civil rights movement by activist Dr. Martin Luther King; however, he adopted his philosophy from Indian Independence Activist Mahatma Ghandi. King studied Ghandi's approach and applied his beliefs in America's struggle for equal rights. The application of this philosophy took more strength than violence, and King hoped would catch the attention of society to the blatant discrimination of African-Americans. ProtestWhat achieved? Montgomery Bus BoycottDesegregated buses in Montgomery; encouraged others… Little Rock 9Tested the 1954 Supreme Court decision; desegregated Little Rock High… The Sit InsDesegregated Lunch Counters and spread over the south… Freedom RidesDesegregated washrooms on inter-state bus routes… Civil Rights marchesGot good publicity, exposed racism and police brutality… Overall summaryAchieved desegregation, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act

11. Freedom Rides Freedom Rides were journeys by Civil Rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, (1960) that ended segregation for passengers engaged in interstate travel. Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. During the first and subsequent Freedom Rides, activists traveled through the Deep South to integrate seating patterns and desegregate bus terminals, including restrooms and water fountains. That proved to be a dangerous mission. In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed, forcing its passengers to flee for their lives. In Birmingham, Alabama, an FBI informant reported that Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor gave Ku Klux Klan members fifteen minutes to attack an incoming group of freedom riders before having police "protect" them. The riders were severely beaten "until it looked like a bulldog had got a hold of them." James Peck,, a white activist, was beaten so hard he required fifty stitches to his head. On 24 May 1961, the freedom riders continued their rides into Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested for "breaching the peace" by using "white only" facilities. New freedom rides were organized by many different organizations. As riders arrived in Jackson, they were arrested. Public sympathy and support for the freedom riders led the Kennedy administration to order the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue a new desegregation order. When the new ICC rule took effect on November 1, passengers were permitted to sit wherever they chose on the bus; "white" and "colored" signs came down in the terminals; separate drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms were consolidated; and lunch counters began serving people regardless of skin color.

12. Sit ins In the early 1940s, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) successfully used sit-ins to desegregate public facilities, in Chicago primarily. Howard University students also had success in 1944 when they used the sit-in tactic to desegregate a cafeteria in Washington, D.C. These incidents were more isolated, however; Four students in North Carolina sparked a wave of additional sit-ins throughout the South and set the stage for the creation of a new organization that quickly gained momentum within the civil rights movement: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); In February 1960, they sat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter reserved for “whites only” in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. This simple act added fuel to the burgeoning civil rights movement of the 1960s. The day after the first sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth’s, more students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, the historically black college that the original four attended, descended on the store. Even though there were no confrontations, the local media covered the second sit-in. When the national media picked up the story, it struck a chord with other students who began to duplicate the sit-ins in other locations. F.W. Woolworth’s was a discount store that represented Americana. One of the nation’s few chains, it helped create a national identity. The lunch counters at the front of the stores were popular meeting spots. Civil rights leadership recognized the symbolic power of Woolworth’s and acted quickly to organize more sit-ins. Within two weeks, students in 11 cities had staged sit-ins at Woolworth’s and S.H. Kress stores. To show their support, Northern students, both black and white, picketed local branches of chain stores that practiced racial segregation in the South. Nashville, Tennessee was a pivotal city in the sit-in movement. With the national spotlight created by the Greensboro sit-in, students from four predominantly black schools took action in Nashville in February 1960. The first wave of sit-ins was peaceful, but that changed on February 27, 1960, when a group of white teenagers attacked sit-in participants. Nashville police didn’t stop the attack. Instead, they arrested the sit-in participants for disorderly conduct. A new group quickly replaced the arrested students. Nashville police arrested approximately 81 students during this period. When the black community rallied behind the students with money to bail them out, the students refused the bail money and opted to serve jail terms. Fisk student Diane Nash, a former beauty pageant contestant who became one of the civil rights movement’s young leaders, explained, “We feel that if we pay these fines we would be contributing to and supporting the injustice and immoral practices that have been performed in the arrest and conviction of the defendants.” By April, Nashville, long considered a moderate city in regards to race relations, had lost considerable tourist dollars. When segregationists bombed the home of Z. Alexander Looby, the attorney who represented the participating students, 2,500 people, whites among them, marched to city hall and addressed Nashville Mayor Ben West. A turning point in the Nashville movement came when Nash asked West if he believed it was wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of race and West answered “yes.” Weeks later, lunch counters in Nashville were desegregated.

13. March on Washington This was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. IT also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln It is at this march that Martin Luther King, Jr, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march March was planned and initiated by A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO. Randolph had planned a similar march in 1941. The threat of the earlier march had convinced President Roosevelt to establish the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and ban discriminatory hiring in the defense industry. The mobilization and logistics of the actual march itself was administered by deputy director Bayard Rustin, a civil rights veteran and organizer of the first Freedom Rides to test the Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin was a long-time associate of both Randolph and Dr. King. With Randolph concentrating on building the march's political coalition, Rustin built and led the team of two hundred activists and organizers who publicized the march and recruited the marchers, coordinated the buses and trains, provided the marshals, and set up and administered all of the logistic details of a mass march in the nation's capital. The march was not universally supported among civil rights activists. Some, including Rustin (who assembled 4,000 volunteer marshals from New York), were concerned that it might turn violent, which could undermine pending legislation and damage the international image of the movement. The march was condemned by Malcolm X, spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, who termed it the "farce on Washington". March organizers themselves disagreed over the purpose of the march. The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for a civil rights bill that had been introduced by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) saw it as a way of raising both civil rights and economic issues to national attention beyond the Kennedy bill. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) saw it as a way of challenging and condemning the Kennedy administration's inaction and lack of support for civil rights for African Americans.

14. Martin Luther King Jr Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights & as a member of NAACP, he became the leader of the first civil rights nonviolent demonstration, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. King was booked in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis. Then, at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, a shot rang out as King stood on the motel's second-floor balcony. The bullet entered through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder. Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the floor.

15. Voting Act 1965 Following the 1964 election, a variety of civil rights organizations banded together to push for the passage of legislation that would ensure black voting rights once and for all. The campaign to bring about federal intervention to prevent discrimination in voting culminated in the voting rights protests in Selma, Alabama, and the famous Selma to Montgomery marches. Demonstrations also brought out white violence, and Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo were murdered. President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a dramatic joint- session address, called upon Congress to enact a strong voting rights bill. Johnson's administration drafted a bill intended to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments, aiming to eliminate various previously legal strategies to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting. Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African Americans from exercising the franchise. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Act established extensive federal oversight of elections administration, providing that states with a history of discriminatory voting practices (so-called "covered jurisdictions") could not implement any change affecting voting without first obtaining the approval of the Department of Justice, a process known as preclearance

16. Pres Lyndon Johnson During his early career, Lyndon Johnson demonstrated no sympathy for the plight of African Americans. There was no reason for him to do so. He hailed from Texas and his constituency generally opposed civil rights. Once he assumed the presidency, Johnson took an interest in the Civil Rights Movement. The Texan worshipped Franklin Roosevelt and sought a comparable historical legacy. Civil Rights helped serve that end. As a result, the reconstructed southerner evolved into one of the movement’s greatest supporters. The Civil Rights Act would not have been as effective without the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Johnson used the same skills and guile to ensure passage of this counterpart legislation. The Voting Rights Act removed barriers to the franchise. In particular, it eliminated literacy tests which southerners used to stifle the black vote for years. As a result of the act, the number of black voters increased dramatically. This led to an increase in African American office holders. For example, Floyd McCree of Flint was elected the first African American mayor of a major city in 1966. Prior to 1965, only seven African Americans had served in the House of Representatives during the twentieth century. By January 2011, 94 African Americans will have served in the House since the act’s passage. Despite the electoral success in the House of Representatives, only four African Americans have served in the Senate. In 1989, Doug Wilder was elected the first black governor. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president. However, in 1965, few blacks felt the winds of change and the nation experienced some of the first so-called urban uprisings. The bill also ended legal discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex, and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law. The signing ceremony represented a personal triumph for Johnson, who lobbied tirelessly on behalf of the bill. Recordings of the president's phone conversations reveal his relentless campaign to wrangle lawmakers in favor of the controversial bill. While John Kennedy struggled to pass a civil rights bill, Johnson succeeded. During his administration, President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Johnson’s efforts freed African Americans to serve in government, vote, and paved the way for Barack Obama’s election. At the same time, the civil rights legislation forced a political realignment as the south abandoned the Democratic Party and African Americans abandoned the Republican Party.

17. Riots By the end of World War II, more than half of the country's black population lived in Northern and Western industrial cities rather than Southern rural areas. Migrating to those cities for better job opportunities, education and to escape legal segregation, African Americans often found segregation that existed in fact rather than in law. Police forces in Northern cities were largely composed of white ethnics, descendants of 19th-century immigrants: mainly Irish, Italian, and Eastern European officers. One of the first major race riots took place in Harlem, NY, in the summer of 1964. A white Irish-American police officer, Thomas Gilligan, shot 15-year-old James Powell, who was black, for allegedly charging him armed with a knife. It was found that Powell was unarmed. A group of black citizens demanded Gilligan's suspension. Hundreds of young demonstrators marched peacefully to the 67th Street police station on July 17, 1964, the day after Powell's death. The police department did not suspend Gilligan. Although the precinct had promoted the NYPD’s first black station commander, neighborhood residents were frustrated with racial inequalities. They looted and burned anything that was not black-owned in the neighborhood. Bedford-Stuyvesant, a major black neighborhood in Brooklyn erupted next. That summer, rioting also broke out in Philadelphia, for similar reasons. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, but the new law had no immediate effect on living conditions for blacks. A few days after the act became law, a riot broke out in the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood of Wattsl. Like Harlem, Watts was an impoverished neighborhood with very high unemployment. Its residents were supervised by a largely white police department that had a history of abuse against blacks. While arresting a young man for drunk driving, police officers argued with the suspect's mother before onlookers. The conflict triggered a massive destruction of property through six days of rioting. Thirty-four people were killed and property valued at about $30 million was destroyed, making the Watts Riots among the most expensive in American history. With black militancy on the rise, ghetto residents directed acts of anger at the police. Black residents growing tired of police brutality continued to riot. Some young people joined groups such as the Black Panthers, whose popularity was based in part on their reputation for confronting police officers. In Detroit, a comfortable black middle class had begun to develop among families of blacks who worked at good-paying jobs in the automotive industry. Blacks who had not moved upward were living in much worse conditions, subject to the same problems as blacks in Watts and Harlem. When white police officers shut down an illegal bar on a liquor raid and arrested a large group of patrons during the hot summer, furious residents rioted. President Johnson created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in 1967. The commission's final report called for major reforms in employment and public assistance for black communities. It warned that the United States was moving toward separate white and black societies. In April 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee rioting broke out in cities across the country from frustration and despair.

18. Protest Music Martin Luther King knew that the Civil Rights movement needed a soundtrack and that every hero needed theme music. The Civil Rights movement incorporated jazz, folk, R&B and gospel to use music that everybody could relate to and be inspired by to help change America in the 1950s and 1960s. 10. Oh Freedom “Oh Freedom” harkened back to the slave days with phrase “Before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free,” inspiring the call for freedom in the Civil Rights movement. 9. We Shall Not Be Moved This song represented the determination of those in the Civil Rights movement in the face of government and social oppression, “like a tree that stands by the water, we shall not be moved.” 8. Go Tell It On The Mountain This song uses Biblical analogies and the story of Moses freeing the Jews from Egypt as an analogy for Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. While several version of this song are used as Christmas song about Jesus Christ’s birth, several others use the phrase “Set my people free” instead of the common, “Jesus Christ Is Born.” 7. Times They Are A Changin’ This song by Bob Dylan captured the spirit and essence of the change and turmoil that surrounded the Civil Rights movement. 6. Lift Every Voice And Sing The Negro National Anthem, written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, took on a new meaning during the Civil Rights movement when its prophecy became truth. 5. Strange Fruit Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” captured the ugly essence of lynchings racism and the opposition to the Civil Rights movement. 4. People Get Ready This song captured the optimism and excitement of the Civil Rights movement as well as the faith that Martin Luther King brought to it. 3. Alabama Coltrane did not need any lyrics to show the injustice, violence and oppression that African Americans were facing in Alabama. Coltrane wrote the song after hearing about the four girls who were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham. He reportedly used Martin Luther King’s cadence from the eulogy. 2. Change Gonna Come Sam Cooke’s song captured both the struggle, adversity and hope for change that Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement brought. 1. We Shall Overcome This song, popularized by folk singer Pete Seeger, was the unofficial anthem for the Civil Rights movement. There was no question that this song inspired both the short and long term goals of the era and still inspires people today.

19. Famous African Americans James Baldwin-author Mahalia Jackson-gospel singer Katherine Dunham-dancer Charles White-artist Harry Belafonte-singer Dick Gregory-comedian Ralph J Bunche-1 st Afr Amer to win Nobel Peace Prize- Robert C Weaver-1 st Afr Amer Cabinet member Thurgood Marshall-1 st Afr Amer US Supreme Court justice Shirley Chisholm-1 st Afr Amer female US Reprentative Jackie Robinson-1 st Afr Amer in major league baseball- Bill Russell-1 st Afr Amer head coach in professional sports Gwendolyn Brooks-1 st Afr Amer to win Pulitzer Prize L Douglas Wilder-1 st Afr Amer governor Carol Mosely Braun-1 st Afr Amer US Senator Colin Powell-1 st Afr Amer chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Andrew Young-1 st Afr Amer US ambassador to United Nations Patricia Roberts Harris-1 st Afr Amer woman in US Cabinet

20. Nation of Islam/Black Muslims Wallace Fard founded the Nation of Islam in the 1930s because he said Christianity was the white man's religion & forced on African Americans during the slave experience. Islam was closer to African roots and identity. Members of the Nation of Islam read the Koran, worship Allah as their God, and accept Mohammed as their chief prophet. Mixed with the religious tenets of Islam were black pride and black nationalism. The followers of Fard became known as Black Muslims. When Fard mysteriously disappeared, Elijah Muhammad became the leader of the movement. The Nation of Islam attracted many followers, especially in prisons, where lost African Americans most looked for guidance. They preached adherence to a strict moral code and reliance on other African Americans. Integration was not a goal. Rather, the Nation of Islam wanted blacks to set up their own schools, churches, and support networks. When Malcolm X made his personal conversion, Elijah Muhammad soon recognized his talents and made him a leading spokesperson for the Black Muslims.

21. Black Panther Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the 'traditional' civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced. The language of the Black Panthers was violent as was their public stance. The two founders of the Black Panther Party were Huey Percy Newton and Bobby Seale. They preached for a "revolutionary war" but though they considered themselves an African-American party, they were willing to speak out for all those who were oppressed from whatever minority group. They were willing to use violence to get what they wanted. The Black Panther Party (BPP) had four desires : equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights. The call for a revolutionary war against authority at the time of the Vietnam War, alerted the FBI to the Black Panther's activities. Whatever happened, the FBI was successful in destroying the Black Panther's movement. In California, the party leader of Oakland, David Hilliard, claimed that the BPP was at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. Hilliard also claimed that the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan, constantly vilified the BPP. The head of the FBI, Edgar J Hoover, called the BPP "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." Hoover ordered field operatives of the FBI to introduce measures that would cripple the BPP. Using infiltrators (one of these, William O'Neal, became Chief of Security for the BPP), the FBI knew of all the movements of BPP leaders. FBI raids in BPP heartlands - Chicago and Los Angeles - that led to the arrest of regional leaders, resulted in the collapse of the movement.

22. 1968 Olympics African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gave the Black Power salute during their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico. As they turned to face their flags and hear the American national anthem (The Star- Spangled Banner), they each raised a black-gloved fist and kept them raised until the anthem had finished. Smith, Carlos and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman wore human rights badges on their jackets. The event was one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games.

23. Malcolm X Malcolm X's father died—killed by white supremacists it was rumored—when he was young, and at least one of his uncles was lynched. When he was 13, his mother was placed in a mental hospital, and he was placed in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for breaking and entering. In prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, after his parole in 1952, he quickly rose to become one of its leaders. For a dozen years, Malcolm X was the public face of the controversial group, but disillusionment with Nation of Islam head Elijah Muhammad ed him to leave the Nation in March 1964. After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, he returned to the United States, where he founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Malcolm X's expressed beliefs changed substantially over time. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and advocated separation of black and white Americans—in contrast to the civil rights movement’s emphasis on integration; After breaking with the Nation of Islam in 1964, he continued to emphasize Pan-Africanism, black self-determination, and self-defense. Malcolm X first came to general public attention after the police beating of Nation of Islam member Johnson Hinton. On April 26, 1957, two police officers were beating an African-American man with nightsticks when Hinton and two other passersby—all Nation of Islam members—attempted to intervene; One of the officers then turned on Hinton with a beating later determined to have caused brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. All four men were arrested. Alerted by a witness, Malcolm X and a small group of Muslims went to the police station demanding to see Hinton. Police initially denied that any Muslims were being held, but as the crowd grew to about five hundred, Malcolm X was allowed to speak with Hinton after which, at Malcolm X's insistence, an ambulance took Hinton to Harlem Hospital. Hinton was treated and returned to the police station, outside of which some four thousand people were now gathered. Inside, Malcolm X and an attorney made bail arrangements for two of the Muslims. Hinton was not bailed, and police said Hinton could not go back to the hospital until his arraignment the following day. Believing the situation at an impasse, Malcolm X stepped outside the stationhouse; at a hand signal from him, Nation members in the crowd silently left, after which the rest of the crowd also dispersed. Within a month Malcolm X was under surveillance by the New York City Police Department, which also made inquiries with authorities in cities in which he had lived and prisons in which he had served. In October, after a grand jury declined to indict the officers who beat Hinton, Malcolm X wrote an angry telegram to the police commissioner; soon undercover officers were assigned to infiltrate the Nation of Islam. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" [ As Malcolm X and his bodyguards attempted to quiet the disturbance, a man seated in the front row rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun; Two other men charged the stage and fired semi-automatic handguns, hitting Malcolm X several times. According to the autopsy report, Malcolm X's body had 21 gunshot wounds to his chest, left shoulder, and arms and legs; ten of the wounds were buckshot to his left chest and shoulder from the initial shotgun blast

24. 1970-1990 A major development in the black community between 1970 and 1990 was the decline of the civil rights movement and the weakening of the push for the greater integration of blacks into the mainstream of American society. Several factors contributed to this development. Perhaps the most important was the movement's very success in eliminating de jure discrimination in crucial areas (public accommodations, housing, voting, and employment) and getting many white Americans to see the extent to which racial discrimination violated the nation's basic creed of equality of opportunity. With this success the interest of many African Americans in civil rights groups began to wane as they started to give greater attention to taking advantage of the opportunities wrought by the success itself. Another factor was the passing from the scene, mainly through death, of most of the civil rights leadership of the 1950s and 1960s. Among the deaths were those of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and the Urban League's Whitney Young in 1971. A. Philip Randolph and the NAACP's Roy Wilkins retired in 1968 and 1977, respectively. Those who replaced these individuals generally lacked their leadership skills, talents, and/or charisma. The growth of white conservatism also contributed to a slowing of civil rights progress. The presidential campaigns of Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Democrat George Wallace in 1968, in exploiting white concerns about urban riots, helped encourage this conservatism (often termed the white backlash). By linking the urban unrest and turmoil of the 1960s to the civil rights movement, many whites came to believe that the latter had gone too far, that American society was coming apart, and that law-abiding people like themselves had been forgotten. Richard Nixon, in winning the presidency in 1972, pandered to these sentiments, referring to those who held them as the Silent Majority. As president, he kept the support of many such whites by focusing on returning power to the state and local levels of government, cutting back on funds for some of the Great Society programs, and preventing government officials from taking action against school districts that had not desegregated. Such policies, along with the ethnic competiveness stimulated by the economic recessions of 1973 and 1979, indeed helped create a racial climate in the nation that displeased most African Americans. They found signs of this climate in the opposition of some whites to affirmative action, quotas, and busing, as well as several reverse discrimination suits (the most notable was Bakke v. University of California in 1978, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a medical school quota admissions policy). Continued white residential flight to the suburbs, aided by red-lining, strengthened de facto housing segregation and reinforced black perceptions that the national mood was less supportive of the general well-being and interests of African Americans. In fact, blacks generally perceived this mood as compatible with policies emanating from the White House (excluding the administration of Democrat Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), whorn black Americans seemingly viewed as being somewhat sympathetic to their struggle for equality). For example, the laissez-faire policies of Nixon (1969-1974) were basically unkind to the economic interests of low-income Americans, among whom blacks were disproportionately represented; and these policies were in essence continued under the Republican Presidents Ford (1981-1977), Reagan (1981-1989), and Bush (1989-1993). About the presidency of Reagan, who was enormously popular in the white community, the historian John Hope Franklin has noted that his first budget, as well a subsequent ones, reduced the number of people eligible to participate in federal social programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, student loans, unemployment compensation, child nutrition assistance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Such slashes in spending on social programs affected adversely countless African Americans, especially children. Franklin has also noted that Reagan's tax program offered more tax relief to higher-income groups than the low-income group where most blacks could be found. And citing another reason why African Americans found it difficult to reconcile themselves to Reagan, Franklin has offered Reagan's reluctance to support the establishment of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a national holiday. Not all Republicans by any means were perceived by blacks as hostile to their interests. The Republican governor of New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean, who held office between 1982 and 1988, serves as a case in point. His stand on economic and social issues, combined with his constant calls for greater racial understanding in the state (under his administration NewJersey in 1985 became the first state to establish a Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemorative Commission), made him very popular in the black community. In running for a second term he received the endorsement of Coretta Scott King, Dr. King's widow, and obtained more black votes than his Democratic Party opponent. In fact, he received a higher percentage of black votes than any statewide Republican candidate in NewJersey history. Between 1970 and 1990 the unprecedented bi-furcation of the black community into "haves" and "have-nots," which had begun to emerge in the late 1960s, continued. For example, as the availability of jobs that required little education and training declined, and as the economy shifted from manufacturing to service-related industries, unemployment among blacks, particularly youths and men, increased, and the number of blacks living below the poverty level also increased. The convergence of this development with other mounting social problems such as the high incidence of female-headed households (56.2 percent of all black households in 1990 as opposed to 17.2 percent in 1950), the increase in babies born out of wedlock (66 percent of all black babies in 1989 as opposed to 16.8 percent in 1950), the high proportion of black young males involved with the criminal justice system (25 percent of all of those between the ages twenty and twenty-nine in 1989), and the advent of "crack" cocaine in 1986, expanded the underclass in particular. On the other hand, more blacks moved into the American mainstream. For example, the proportion of families with median incomes of fifty thousand or more expanded from 5 percent of all black families in 1969 to 14 percent by 1990. There was perhaps no place where African Americans enjoyed greater success in entering the nation's mainstream than in the holding of public office. Barbara Jordan and Andrew Young, for example, in 1972 became the first blacks to be elected to Congress from the South since the turn of the century. By 1990 twenty-seven blacks were members of Congress, and blacks served as mayors of thirty Arnerican cities, including the largest (David Dinkins in New York City) and the second largest (Tom Bradley in Los Angeles). In.1990 an African American was elected governor of a state for the first time (L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia). And, although unsuccessful, the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson, under his Rainbow Coalition, were very significant as they represented the first major attempt by a black to gain the presidency. During the last two decades African Americans also made great strides in occupying appointed positions of considerable power and prestige. Aside from the presence of an African American in every presidential cabinet since 1970 and the late 1991 appointment of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court (Thurgood Marshall had retired earlier in 1991), perhaps the most notable example was the appointment in 1989 of General Colin Powell as the chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff, the military's highest position. Another key development in African American life between 1970 and 1990 was the continued geographical mobility of black Americans. Many were suburbia-bound, giving rise by 1990 to a few suburban communities in which blacks constituted a majority. In New Jersey, such a community is Willingboro; in 1990 it had 20,350 blacks out of a total population of 38,000. The continued flight of whites from the nation's urban communities between 1970 and 1990 increased the number of cities with black majorities. New Jersey was a part of this trend. Thus, according to the 1990 U.S. Census, the following NewJersey cities (with the number of black residents indicated) had black majority populations: Newark (160,885); East Orange (66,157); Camden (49,362); Irvington (42,760); Plainfield (30,573); Orange (21,045);Atlantic City (19,491); and Asbury Park (9,977). Trenton, with 43,689 African Americans in 1990, fell 489 shy of having a black majority. The 1990 U.S. Census also documented that for the first time in this century the percentage of blacks living in the South increased (56 percent versus 52 percent in 1980). Aiding this increase was the return of considerable numbers of northern black retirees including some from NewJersey, to the South, many to their place of origin. The warmer climate in the South, its lower costs of living (appealing especially to those on fixed incomes), the elimination of Jim Crowism, and concerns about physical safety in urban areas are among the factors that have influenced their movement.

25. Million Man March Gathering of social activists, en masse, held on and around the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995. The National African American Leadership Summit, a leading group of civil rights activists and the Nation of Islam working in conjunction with scores of civil rights organizations including many local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (but not the national NAACP) formed the Million Man March Organizing Committee. The founder of the National African American Leadership Summit, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. served as National Director of the Million Man March. Many prominent speakers address the audience, and Louis Farrakhan delivered the keynote address. African American men from across the United States converged on Washington in an effort to “convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male” and to unite in self-help and self-defense against economic and social ills plaguing the African American community. Although the march won support and participation from a number of prominent African American leaders, its legacy is plagued by controversy over several issues. The leader of the march, Louis Farrakhan, is a highly contested figure whose biting commentary on race in America has led some to wonder whether the message of the march can successfully be disentangled from the controversial messenger

26. Jesse Jackson In 1965 he enlisted in the voting rights campaign of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Selma, Alabama, where he first met Martin Luther King, Jr. Afterwards, Jackson returned to Chicago to play an important role in its civil rights campaign. From 1966 to 1971, he directed SCLC's Operation Breadbasket, which encouraged private industries to end employment discrimination and sought contracts for black businesses with the threat of an economic boycott. When the SCLC launched the Chicago Freedom movement of 1966, Jackson was there to put his knowledge of the city and contacts within the black community to work for King. He was inspired by that of Dr. Martin Luther King jr., often found to be by his side very frequently and taking in all the knowledge that Martin would give him. He was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated, but his claim to have cradled the fallen leader when he was shot and his wearing a shirt with King's blood on it for days after the assassination irritated many SCLC insiders as crass exploitation of the tragedy. He would later be removed from the SCLC in 1971. After the fall-out with the SCLC, Jesse went on to find his own organization, PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), which would continue to work for improving African-Americans' lives in a variety of fronts and combat against racism. Through PUSH Jackson continued to pursue the economic objectives of Operation Breadbasket and expand into areas of social and political development for blacks in Chicago and across the nation. The ‘70s saw direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts, and awards through which Jackson protected black homeowners, workers, and businesses, and honored prominent blacks in the U.S. and abroad. He also promoted education through PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program that focused on keeping inner-city youths in school and providing them with job placement.