8.1b Analyze the African American Civil Rights Movement, including initial strategies, landmark court cases and legislation, the roles of key civil rights advocates and the media, and the influence of the Civil Rights Movement on other groups seeking equality.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Non-violent protests The Montgomery Bus Boycott ***Segregations laws in Montgomery, Alabama required African-American passengers to sit in the rear of public buses. Blacks also had to give up seats to whites if the bus was crowded. ***On December 1, 1955 a bus driver ordered Rosa Parks an African-American women to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused the bus driver called the police who arrested her and took her to jail. Her arrest quickly united the black community and NAACP leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and selected ***Martin Luther King Jr. to lead them in a bus boycott until the bus service was desegregated Almost overnight, over 50,000 blacks started to walk or carpool rather than ride buses. The bus service was hurt financially and the boycott lasted almost a year ending in November of 1956. ***The Supreme Court ruled that the buses must be integrated and the boycott was a major victory for African-Americans and made Dr. King a national figure.

Non-violent Protest ***Dr. King was influenced by his Christian upbringing and by Ghandi the Indian leader who used non-violent protest and civil disobedience to free India of British rule. The ***key to the system was to incite violence from the opposition and let the nation watch. It was effectively used by all the major civil rights organizations at all the major civil rights events.

Sit-ins-SNCC On February 1, 1960 four black college students at North Carolina A&T University protested racial segregation in restaurants by sitting at “whites only” lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. When management asked them to leave, they refused. “Sit-ins” at segregated restaurants quickly spread across N.C. and then to cities throughout the south. As the movement grew, students gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960 and formed the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. (SNCC) pronounced Snick. These students were highly successful with their protests including the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party in Mississippi. The Kennedy Administration was forced to respond and tried to protect the sit-in.

Sit-in in Nashville, TN

Congress of Racial Equality- Freedom Rides In 1960 the Supreme Court had ruled that segregation was illegal in bus stations open to interstate travel. In 1961, CORE organized the Freedom Rides to test the courts decision. A group of interracial “Freedom riders” boarded a bus in Washington and traveled south. In Anniston, Alabama a white mob stopped the bus and set it on fire. They beat passengers as they fled the bus. Later, when the reached Jackson, Mississippi state officials arrested and imprisoned them in the state penitentiary. Although U.S. Marshalls were there to protect the “Freedom Riders” they did not interfere with the state police fearing public disorder. The attention received by the Freedom Riders helped bring the issue of Civil Rights to National attention.

The March on Washington Throughout 1962 and 1963 Civil Rights protests continued. Wanting to pressure President Kennedy and the national government into passing Civil Rights Legislation civil rights leaders planned a march on the nation’s capitol. ***On August 28th, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous, “I Have A Dream Speech” at the Lincoln Memorial. In the speech he spoke of the broken promises of the government to desegregate society and urged people to envision the day when white and black could live together peacefully with equal rights and equal justice.

Speech at the Lincoln Memorial

Malcolm X ***By 1965 a growing number of blacks began to advocate a more militant approach to civil rights. These individuals did not see any value or dignity in passively allowing whites to physically abuse them. One group was the ***Nation of Islam who preached that white people were devils who enslaved the black people. While in prison Malcolm Little converted to Islam and changed his name to Malcolm X. ***Malcolm X preached that blacks should use, “any means necessary to secure their rights. Later he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and saw white and black people praying peacefully together. He returned with less militant views and was considered a traitor by the nation of Islam and was shot on February 21, 1965.