The Early Struggles Introduction Montgomery Bus Boycott Sit-Ins The “Acts” of the Movement Freedom Rides March on Washington Historical Figures TABLE OF CONTENTS

Plessy v. Ferguson Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car Not until 1954, in the equally important Brown v. Board of Education decision, would the "separate but equal" doctrine be struck down. Sweatt v. Painter: Herman Sweatt was a black who wanted to attend the University of Texas Law School. The law school denied him admission solely because of his race The murder of 14 year old Emmett Till in 1955 after speaking to a white woman in an “inappropriate” manner After decades of silently enduring second-class citizenship, blacks in the late 1940s and early 1950s began to challenge the injustices they faced on a daily basis THE EARLY STRUGGLES

After decades of silently enduring second- class citizenship, blacks in the late 1940s and early 1950s began to challenge the injustices they faced on a daily basis The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from The Civil Rights movement resulted in Congress passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

December 1, 1955 was the day when the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, instead of being relegated to the back when a white boarded Technically the movement started in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on the bus after all the seats were taken Dr Martin Luther King was made president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and intended for the boycott to last a day but voted to continue Blacks in Montgomery refused to ride the city buses, walking to work and developing a taxi system amongst the black community MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

Businesses were losing money because of the boycott so whites tried everything they could to end it King's home was bombed on January 30, and Nixon's home was bombed on February 1 On February 21, 89 blacks were indicted under an old law prohibiting boycotts. King was the first defendant to be tried. As press from around the nation looked on, King was ordered to pay $500 plus $500 in court costs or spend 386 days in the state penitentiary. November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal court's ruling, declaring segregation on buses unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was officially over. MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT (CONT)

The overall purpose of sit ins were for students to be served at lunch counters despite their skin color, and to do so without violence and with respect On February 27 in Nashville, students were attacked by a group of white teenagers. Police arrived, but they let the white teens go while arresting the protesters for "disorderly conduct The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed and they led a sit in of over 70,000 participants in 1961 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 declared segregation at lunch counters unlawful The technique of the sit-ins was used to integrate other public facilities, such as movie theaters SIT INS

SIT INS (CON’T)

The Civil Rights Act of was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks 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 The Voting Rights Act of outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. THE “ACTS” OF THE MOVEMENT

A new journey reconciliation called the Freedom Rides and the strategy was to have an interracial group would board buses destined for the South. The whites would sit in the back and the blacks in the front. At rest stops, the whites would go into blacks-only areas and vice versa They left Washington DC on May 4, 1961 with intentions to arrive in New Orleans on May 17, the seventh anniversary of the Brown decision. They met little resistance in the upper South but on May 14, after the group split, one group was met by an angry mob. They were stoned, tires were slashed, and the bus was firebombed The second group was attacked beaten. The Public Safety Commissioner claimed bus depots were closed for the holiday yet they knew and stayed away The boycott ended after the bus company didn’t want to risk its bus drivers safety any longer FREEDOM RIDES

Civil Rights groups united to organize a March on Washington after Kennedy proposed the civil rights bill. Organizers drew over 250,000 people from around the nation, arrived in DC on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial. There, they heard speeches and songs from numerous activists, artists, and civil rights leaders. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered the closing address, his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Even though the civil rights bill wasn’t passed for another year, the day was an overwhelming success. There was no violence and the event received extensive media coverage. MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Martin Luther King – preacher, activist, and prominent leader in the African American Civil Rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Gandhi. Rosa Parks - was an African American civil rights activist, whom Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement. Secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, she was known for sparking the Montgomery Boycott Thurgood Marshall - the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown vs. Board of Education. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in HISTORICAL FIGURES