1. Black History Test Prep It takes time to change minds and hearts…

2. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818 or 1819. He “stole” himself from his owner by escaping in 1838. Douglass believed that African Americans should take the lead in fighting for their people's freedom. And, unlike many white abolitionists, Douglass understood that emancipation meant not just the end of slavery but also equality for black Americans. The first page of his autobiography, published in 1845, reveals that he was not certain of his own age, for he never saw any record of his birthday. In fact, Douglass wrote that he never met a slave that knew his or her own birthday.

3. Amendments  14 th Amendment: Gave equal rights to the African Americans after the Civil War. 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.  15 th Amendment: Gave the right to vote to adult, male African Americans.

4. Jim Crow Laws  After the American Civil War most states in the South passed anti-African American legislation. These became known as Jim Crow laws. This included laws that discriminated against African Americans with concern to attendance in public schools and the use of facilities such as restaurants, theaters, hotels, cinemas and public baths. Trains and buses were also segregated and in many states marriage between whites and African American people. American Civil WarAmerican Civil War

5. Ku Klux Klan  After the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, led by former Confederate General Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, used terrorist tactics to intimidate former slaves.  They believed it was their job to enforce the Jim Crow Laws.

6. NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  Founded by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1909 to promote full racial equality  The purpose of NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred.  In its early years, the NAACP concentrated on using the courts to overturn the Jim Crow statutes that legalized racial segregation.  In the early 1950s the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People concentrated on bringing an end to segregation on buses and trains. In 1952 segregation on inter-state railways was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. This was followed in 1954 by a similar judgment concerning inter- state buses. However, states in the Deep South continued their own policy of transport segregation. This usually involved whites sitting in the front and blacks sitting nearest to the front had to give up their seats to any whites that were standing. National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Supreme CourtNational Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Supreme Court

7. Rosa Parks  Rosa rode the bus each day to and from work. In the South, public buses were still segregated. This meant that the first four rows of the buses were reserved only for whites. The "colored" sections were at the very back of the bus. The sections were marked by moveable signs that the driver was free to move at any time to accommodate more or less white people. If whites boarded the bus and there was no room, blacks were forced to move, stand or leave the bus. They were not allowed to sit directly across the aisle from a white person. Blacks were forced to board the bus from the back to avoid walking past a white person on the front of the bus. At times, a black person would pay the driver and walk to the back of the bus, but the bus would depart before they could get to the door, leaving them standing on the roadside.

8.  "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move. Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it."

9. Martin Luther King and the Bus Boycott  Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. Rosa ParksMontgomery Improvement AssociationRosa ParksMontgomery Improvement Association

10. Freedom Riders  Transport segregation continued in some parts of the Deep South, so in 1961, a civil rights group, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) began to organize Freedom Rides. After three days of training in non- violent techniques, black and white volunteers sat next to each other as they travelled through the Deep South. On their journeys they also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together, in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when it concerned large companies who, fearing boycotts in the North, began to desegregate their businesses. Congress of Racial Equality Freedom Rides Congress of Racial Equality Freedom Rides

11. Brown vs. Board of Education  On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously announced an end to public segregation in schools in the famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. Graphics courtesy of ArtToday Linda Brown, an eight-year- old African-American girl, had been denied permission to attend an elementary school only five blocks from her home in Topeka, Kansas because it was an all white school. They wanted her to attend the all-black school, 21 blocks away. Her parents sued the school system.

12. Equal Rights (again) for African Americans  Civil Rights Act of 1964  Outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation.  It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. racial segregationracial segregation  Right to Vote Act 1965  Outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. disenfranchisementAfrican Americans disenfranchisementAfrican Americans