BackgroundPrevious to the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were slaves up until 1863 with the 14th amendment. Slaves were not treated equal by any means. After they were freed during the Civil War, there was still much segregation even though they were technically suppose to be treated equally. When the 14th and 15th amendment was passed, it gave African Americans the right to be treated equally as well as letting African Americans vote. However, they were not equal by any means.
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Government Involvements |
Cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson tried to make everything equal but it took much longer than that. Jim Crow did not help the matter with raciest laws named after him. According to his laws, no blacks and whites could marry, blacks had to step off of the sidewalk if whites were walking towards then, and black men could not look at a white female. The Brown vs. Board case forced the schools to integrate blacks into their schools. The government also helped the Little Rock Nine where nine African American kids were going to an all white school. They sent in army personnel to escort the kids to school every day for a year.
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Rosa Parks and Protests |
Rosa Parks was a big instigator with the Montgomery Bus Boycott that gets Martin Luther King involved. During this time, there were very many Sit-Ins which involved non-violent protests. Finally, there were things called Freedom Rides where African Americans went from state to state to create awareness of the Civil Rights Movement.
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John F. Kennedy |
John F. Kennedy knew that it was wrong to segregate against black in America when we called ourselves "the land of the free" when in fact it wasn't true. Most of his time was already preoccupied by the Cold War but he knew that we could not be a good nation if we were doing what out enemies were doing: oppressing out people. President Kennedy took an attempting to get legislative and executive support for the Civil Rights Movement from 1960 until 1963 but it was cut short with his assassination.
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Martin Luther King |
Martin Luther King initially got into the Civil Rights Movement when he made speeches at his church about the inequality and oppression. When the incident with Rosa Parks occurred, he became an active member of the movement. He lead the movement until his assassination on 4 April 1968. He made many famous speeches such as the "I had a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the march in Selma and Washington.
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Other Important People/Organizations
Jackie Robinson |
NAACP |
Jackie Robinson was a very famous/infamous baseball player on 15 April 1947 as the first black baseball player. He was one of the best baseball players of all time but that didn't stop people from booing him, throwing things at him, and stepping on him as they walked by. Regardless, he went on to be in the baseball Hall of Fame.
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The NAACP was founded in 1909 and is the oldest known Civil Rights organization in the United States. In their beginning years, they mainly focused on getting bills passed such as the anti-lynching bill to protect African Americans. During the 1950's, they stayed very prominent and tried to convince the government to bring equality to everyone.
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Thurgood Mashall
Thurgood Marshall was the first black person as the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. This was significant because the president had to chose him to be in this position.