Thurgood Marshall
American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor.
Brown VS Board Of Education Of Topeka
1954- court decision that declared state laws segregating schools to be unconstitutional. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Rosa Parks
(LBJ) , United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)
Martin Luther King Jr.
U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
students whose purpose was coordinate a nonviolent attack on segregation and other forms of racism
Sit-In
to protest at lunch counters that served only whites, African Americans students began staging this
Freedom Riders
Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation
James Meredith
1st black graduate of University of Mississippi. He was shot during his March Against Fear Campaign. Martin luther king and Carmichael helped finish the program
Civil Rights Act Of 1964
(1964) law under Johnson that made segregation illegal in all public facilities, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Freedom Summer
Movement of northern college students to enter the south and register blacks to vote; three were killed
Fannie Lou Hamer
A delegate of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party who had lost her job on a cotton plantation when she tried to register to vote. She told the convention of her experiences in one voter drivel including a beating in jail.
Voting Rights Act Of 1965
A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were registered and the number of African American elected officials increased dramatically.
De Facto Segregation
Racial segregation that occurs in schools, not as a result of the law, but as a result of patterns of residential settlement
De Jure Segregation
Racial segregation that occurs because of laws or administrative decisions by public agencies.
Malcom X
African-American civil rights leader who encouraged violent responses to racial discrimination
Nation of Islam
A group of militant Black Americans who profess Islamic religious beliefs and advocate independence for Black Americans
Stokely Carmichael
A leader of the Black Nationalist movement in 1966, he coined the phrase "Black Power". Broke off from the nonviolent movements.
Black Power
..., A slogan used to reflect solidarity and racial consciousness, used by Malcolm X. It meant that equality could not be given, but had to be seized by a powerful, organized Black community.
Black Panther
A black political organization that was against peaceful protest and for violence if needed. The organization marked a shift in policy of the black movement, favoring militant ideals rather than peaceful protest.
Kerner Commission
11 member commission established by President Johnson to investigate causes of the race riots in the US
Civil Rights Act Of 1968
A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment. The law was passed during a period of great strength for the civil rights movement, and President Lyndon Johnson persuaded many reluctant members of Congress to support the law.
Affirmative Action
A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities