Chapter 21--Civil Rights

Thurgood Marshall

the first African-American Supreme Court justice

Brown v Board of Education of Topeka

a 1954 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" education for black and white students was unconstitutional

Rosa Parks

a civil rights activist known for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white patron

Martin Luther King, Jr.

the leader of the civil rights movement

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

an organization formed in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders to work for civil rights through nonviolent means

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

an organization formed in 1960 to coordinate sit-ins and other protests and to give young blacks a larger role in the civil rights movement

sit-in

a form of demonstration used by African Americans to protest discrimination, in which the protesters sit down in a segregated business and refuse to leave until they are served

freedom riders

one of the civil rights activists who rode buses through the South in the early 1960s to challenge segregation

James Meredith

an Air Force veteran who won a federal court case to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss); he had to be escorted to class by federal officials for several months

Civil Rights Act of 1964

a law that banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion in public places and most workplaces

Freedom Summer

a 1964 project to register African-American voters in Mississippi

Fannie Lou Hamer

a civil rights activist who spoke for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) at the 1964 Democratic National Convention to help gain an African American seat in Mississippi's all-white Democratic Party

Voting Rights Act of 1965

act that eliminated the so-called literacy tests that had disqualified many voters

de facto segregation

racial separation established by practice and custom, not by law

de jure segregation

racial separation established by law

Malcolm X

a leader in the black community who fought for African-American equality; in his twenties, he became an Islamic minister and gained a following�he often made news because of his controversial statements

Nation of Islam

a religious group, popularly known as the Black Muslims, founded by Elijah Muhammad to promote black separatism and the Islamic religion

Stokely Carmichael

the leader of the SNCC who wanted to focus on developing African-American pride

Black Power

a slogan used by Stokely Carmichael in the 1960s that encouraged African-American pride and political and social leadership

Black Panthers

a militant African-American political organization formed in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to fight police brutality and to provide services in the ghetto

Kerner Commission

a group that was appointed by President Johnson to study the causes of urban violence and that recommended the elimination of de facto segregation in American society

Civil rights Act of 1968

a law that banned discrimination in housing

affirmative action

a policy that seeks to correct the effects of past discrimination by favoring the groups who were previously disadvantaged