Civil Rights Movement Flashcards
1
Q
What were the Jim Crow Laws?
A
- segretation of black people (separate schools, restaurants, stores…)
- X mixed marriages, cohabitation -> passed by all southern states
- enforced by the Louisiana Seperation Law Act
- 1877-1954
- legalized on a federal level by the Plessy vs Ferguson case (1896)
2
Q
Who was Emmett Till and what happened to him?
A
- 14 year old black boy from Chicago
- said “bye baby” to white cashier in Mississippi -> got brutally beaten to death by her husband and his friend
- in august 1955
- his murderers not convicted - never punished
3
Q
How significant was the thing which happened to Emmett Till for the Civil Rights Movement and why?
A
- racially motivated brutal crime on a child
- his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral for people to see what was done to him -> funeral full of journalists -> all of America saw Emmett’s destroyed body on the media -> everyone saw the reality of racism in USA + no punishment for the murders and ppl were motivated to act against it
- Rosa Parks also claimed that when challenged on the bus in Montogomery, she thought about Emmett and wanted to rebel against segregation in his legacy
4
Q
What was the Brown vs. Board of Education case? What happened in it and was it a de jure or de facto victory?
A
- 1954
- church minister Brown disapproved education segregation (his daughter had to travel 20 blocks to her black school, while the nearest white school was 7 blocks away)
- NAACP supported Brown’s case and took it to the Supreme Court -> won (illegalized school segregation)
- de jure victory
5
Q
What happened during the Montgomery Bus Boycott? When was it? What were its effects on the Civil Rights Movement?
A
- 1955
- Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person -> arrested and fined
- Montgomery black community organized a bus boycott (they were 2/3 of the bus passengers -> bus companies lost $$$) which lasted a year
- organized in churches -> Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1956, the S.C. ruled that the Alabama Bus Segregation was unconstitutional -> de jure win
- NAACP plus MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association)
significance:
- emerging of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.
- Supreme Court on the side of black people (at least can be) - MOTIVATION
- media attention
6
Q
What was the Little Rock Campaign? Did it actually change anything?
A
- 1957
- desegregation of school attempted to be sped up by enrolling 9 black students to white school
- local governor (Faubus) used the National Guard to not let them in alongside a white mob
- Eisenhower made Faubus withdraw the NG
- black students still blocked by white racists
- Eisenhower had NG protect the black students
- Faubus passed a law preventing school desegregation
- Cooper v Aaron -> NAACP took it to court and S.C. ruled that preventing school desegregation was illegal
- in 1959 Little Rock Central High School re-opened as an integrated school
- turned the Brown v Board… de jure win to a de facto win
- S.C. effectively does justice to black people (worth to be tested)
- Eisenhower had to support desegregation
7
Q
What were the Greensboro sittings? What was their impact?
A
- 1960, North Carolina
- black students in Greensboro sat in an all-white restaurant and refused to move until served ->. rest. had to close to stop the protest (300 students came in 4 days)
- sit-ins gradually in 6 more states in different public all-white spaces (e.g. read-ins in libraries)
- by beginning of 1961, 70 000 protesters
- new Civil Rights organisations (e.g. the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee)
- media coverage leading to increased support of the movement
- by end of 1961, 810 towns had desegregated public spaces
8
Q
What were the Freedom Rides? What was their impact?
A
- 1961
- Boynton v Virginia de jure desegregated buses, but Freedom Riders wanted to test it
- went by bus from D.C. to New Orleans
- violent opposition -> bus bombed, police violence
- F.R. had an attorney general to enforce desegregation in inter-state buses
- new cooperation within the CRM (SCLC, SNCC, CORE - congress of racial equality)
9
Q
What was the ‘case’ of James Meredith? What impact did it have on the Civil Rights Movement?
A
- 1962
- tried to be the 1st black student at the University of Mississippi -> forbidden to do that
- S.C. backed Meredith and Kennedy pushed the governor to let JM enroll
- JM went there but was given no protection, so got beaten up on campus
- JM then enrolled with federal protection and graduated ‘63
- showing the remaining de facto discrimination of black students in schools
- ensured S.C. and president protection of such students
10
Q
What happened during the Birmingham Campaign? What were its impacts?
A
- April 1963
- organized by SCLC
- wanted to desegregate shopping areas. administrative buildings, schools, public parks + tackle racial discrimination in jobs
- march, King Jr. got arrested
- in May the police violently attacked the marchers and arrested many (1300 blacks)
- Kennedy announced support of a segregation-ending bill
- media coverage -> sympathy of northern whites
- end of segregation
11
Q
What was the March on Washington? What was its impact?
A
- august 1963
- peaceful march celebrating the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation (the freeing of all black slaves)
- wanted to push the president and the Congress to pass the Civil Rights bill (abolishing discrimination of all kinds)
- 28.8., 250 000 ppl marched to the Lincoln Memorial to listen to speeches of leading CRM figures (King Jr gave the “I have a dream” speech)
- unity of the CRM (SCLC, SNCC, CORE, NAACP
- Civil Rights Act passed in 1964 (Voting Rights Act in 1965 -> blck ppl have a right to vote)
12
Q
What was the Mississippi Freedom Summer? What was its impact?
A
- 1964
- Mis. had the lowest blck registered voters
- volunteers escorted blck ppl to polls
- CORE established “Freedom Schools” -> educated blacks on CR issues and encouraged them to vote
- KKK attacks and police intimidation
- Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party -> had its own primary (their primary + the lily-white primary)
- president Johnson offered the MFDP delegates to be guests without voting rights -> they refused
- demonstration of the systematic fundamental racism in the American political system -> they needed to be more radical and uncompromising
13
Q
What was the Selma Campaign? What was its impact?
A
- 1965
- similar to the MFS
- focused on Selma as there only 1% of black adults were registered to vote
- demonstration to raise publicity -> police brutality
- climax –> 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery (10th anniversary of MBB)
- wasnt suppressed by the police only at the third attempt
- march started with 8000 ppl and ended with. 25 000
- Voting Rights Act passed in 1965
- media coverage -> support of the movement
- SCLC, SNCC, CORE
14
Q
What was the NAACP?
A
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
15
Q
Who was Rosa Parks?
A
NAACP secretary, initiated the MBB
