1. Martin Luther King & Non Violent Civil Disobedience

2. Rosa Parks 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
Montgomery Alabama city bus
Seat was in the white-only section of the bus
Rosa Parks was arrested
Rosa Parks was a member of the NAACP
2 December 1955 Black community leaders meet
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Organize a bus boycott
A campaign of non-violent civil disobedience
Aim: end legal segregation of the city’s transit system

3. Martin Luther King, Jr. Emerges as a leader of the bus boycott
26-year-old pastor – Dexter Ave. Baptist Church
Member of the NAACP
Well educated (PhD) and great speaker
He advocated non-violent civil disobedience
Influenced by
A. Philip Randolph and CORE
Jesus Christ
Henry David Thoreau
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

4. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Black people in Montgomery showed great solidarity
For 381 days they refused to ride the city busses
White town leaders refused to end segregation
Despite pleas from a bus company
Supreme Court ruled in favor of protestors
Segregation of busses unconstitutional
The Boycott ended on 20 December 1956

5. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Clergy-led organization Martin Luther King, Jr. named president Appels to conservative, religious African Americans Goal: Consolidate resources Goal: Coordinate protests Tactic: Non-violent civil disobedience King became a spokesmen for Civil Rights Movement Leads protests Inspires protests

6. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
King persuaded President Dwight Eisenhower to Civil Rights
Eisenhower hoped to win over Black voters
to exploit divisions within the Democratic Party
Eisenhower supported the Civil Rights Act of 1957
Meant to prevent interference with the right to vote
Establishes Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department

7. Little Rock’s Central High School, 1957
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus
Used National Guard forces to prevent integration
9 black students – Little Rock's Central High School
A court order forced Faubus withdrew the Guard
Nine Black students try to enter the school
Confronted by a hysterical white mob
Black children were removed for their safety
Eisenhower deployed US troops to Little Rock
After this, massive resistance confined to the Deep South

8. Dr. King inspires the first “sit in”
Four black college students
1 February 1960
Refuse to leave a segregated lunch counter
Greensboro, North Carolina
Inspired protests across the South
“kneel-ins” at churches
“wade-ins” at public pools
Peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience
Protesters refuse to retaliate to mistreatment

9. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
April 1960 Formed by black and white student participants,, SNCC (“Snick”) Worked with King's SCLC to broaden the movement

10. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Organize “freedom rides”
Blacks & whites ride buses
From Washington D.C. to the deep south
Testing Court-ordered desegregation
Mobs attacked the travelers in Alabama
Burn one of the busses
Assault Justice Department observers.
Drew national attention to the movement
Generates support for the Civil Rights

11. The University of Mississippi, 1962
Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi
Refused to allow a black student to enroll
James H. Meredith
Barnett was defying a court order
US Attorney-General sent federal marshals to enforce law
The marshals were assaulted by a white mob
Federal troops intervened

12. Birmingham, Alabama, April 1963
“The most segregated city in America”
According to Martin Luther King, Jr.
King’s SCLC staged non-violent protest
Protesters
2000 well dressed, nonviolent Black people
Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor
harsh measures to deal with the protestors
dogs, tear gas, electric cattle prods, fire hoses

13. Letter from Birmingham City Jail
In Birmingham, King and 59 others were arrested
King wrote “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
a stirring of the nonviolent strategy
a classic of the civil-rights movement.
The letter signaled a shift in King’s strategy
Before: He was trying to educate southern whites
After: He was trying to provoke Southern Whites

14. The Civil Rights Movement gains support
Protestors win wide-spread public support
Images broadcast on television
Northern newspapers offer daily coverage
A “southern” problem now a “national” issue
King becomes an international figure
Wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
“I Have a Dream Speech”
28 August 1963, Washington DC
200,000 people in attendance