Civil Rights Act of 1875
act that outlawed segregation in public facilities by decreeing that "all persons. . . shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations. . . of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusemen
Plessy v. Ferguson
An 1896 Supreme Court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana law requiring "equal but separate accommodations for the White and colored races" was constitutional
Fourteenth Amendment
constitutional amendment, which guarantees all Americans equal treatment under the law
Jim Crow Laws
laws which promoted segregation, or the separation of people based on race. These laws worked primarily to restricted the rights of African Americans to use certain schools and public facilities, to vote, find decent employment and associate with anyone o
apartheid
A system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained
Nelson Mandela
leader of the African National Congress who was jailed for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. He was later elected president in 1994 when free elections were established, and was instrumental in a new democratic constitution being written in 199
Charles Hamilton Houston
a prominent African American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP Litigation Director who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws, which earned him the title The Man Who Killed Jim Crow. He is also well known for havi
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination, to oppose racism and to gain civil rights for African Americans, got Supreme Court to declare grandfather clause unconstitutional
Thurgood Marshall
The first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his activity in the Little Rock 9 and his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for t
Morgan v. Virginia
1946 Supreme Court case, which declared state laws mandating segregated seating on interstate buses unconstitutional
Sweatt v. Painter
1950 high court case, which ruled that state law schools must admit black applicants, even if separate black schools exist
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1954 supreme court ruling reversing the policy of segregation, declaring that seperate can never be equal and a year later ordered the integration of all public schools with all deliberate speed society became less racist
Equal Protection Clause
14th amendment clause that prohibits states from denying equal protection under the law, and has been used to combat discrimination
Brown II
another case issued by the Supreme Court, implementing the order from 1954, ruling that communities must work to desegregate their schools with all deliberate speed, but set no timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
with all deliberate speed
after the Brown II ruling, schools were required to integrate quickly. The Supreme Court realized that the change would be slow particularly in the South and did not want to set a concrete timeline
Orval Faubus
He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied the United States Supreme Court by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to stop African American students from at
Little Rock Nine
The group of African American students sent to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in order to desegregate the school.
Central High School
The site of forced school desegregation during the American Civil Rights Movement. Nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were denied entrance to the school in defiance of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering integration of public scho
Elizabeth Eckford
One of the Little Rock Nine who did not get the message not to come to school. She went to school by herself and an angry Mob followed her there
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted in the United States since Reconstruction. It was proposed by Congress to President Dwight Eisenhower
jurisdiction
an area of authority or control; the right to administer justice. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave the federal government this power over violations of African- American voting rights
Jo Ann Robinson
President of the Women's Political Council. She was verbally attacked for sitting at the front of a bus some years prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She then redirected the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus on the issue with bus transport seg
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery and so triggered the national civil rights movement
E.D. Nixon
President of Alabama NAACP and head of local Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union. Brought together black ministers to coordinate the bus boycott in Montgomery
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal
Montgomery Improvement Association
Organization formed by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 to strengthen the bus boycott and to coordinate protest efforts of African Americans; led by Martin Luther King Jr.
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
Henry David Thoreau
American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in Walden. He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support him Mexican War
civil disobedience
a group's refusal to obey a law because they believe the law is immoral (as in protest against discrimination)
A. Philip Randolph
America's leading black labor leader who called for a march on Washington D.C. to protest factories' refusals to hire African Americans, which eventually led to President Roosevelt issuing an order to end all discrimination in the defense industries
Emmett Till
Murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. His death contributed to the American Civil Rights movement
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
An organization founded by MLK Jr., to direct the crusade against segregation. Its weapon was passive resistance that stressed nonviolence and love, and its tactic direct, though peaceful, confrontation
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Organized in the fall of 1960 by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as a student civil rights movement inspired by sit-ins, it challenged the status quo and walked the back roads of Mississippi and Georgia to encourage Blacks to resist segregation and to re
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. Membership in the group was stated to be open to "anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultima
sit- ins
protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent
Woolworth's Sit-In
4 black college students sat at the white-only lunch counter of Woolworths, and refused to leave. The protest grew to 3000 people by the end of the week, and drew a lot of attention. It started the sit-in movement, and brought up the desegregation of lunc
Civil Rights Act of 1875
act that outlawed segregation in public facilities by decreeing that "all persons. . . shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations. . . of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusemen
Plessy v. Ferguson
An 1896 Supreme Court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana law requiring "equal but separate accommodations for the White and colored races" was constitutional
Fourteenth Amendment
constitutional amendment, which guarantees all Americans equal treatment under the law
Jim Crow Laws
laws which promoted segregation, or the separation of people based on race. These laws worked primarily to restricted the rights of African Americans to use certain schools and public facilities, to vote, find decent employment and associate with anyone o
apartheid
A system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained
Nelson Mandela
leader of the African National Congress who was jailed for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. He was later elected president in 1994 when free elections were established, and was instrumental in a new democratic constitution being written in 199
Charles Hamilton Houston
a prominent African American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP Litigation Director who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws, which earned him the title The Man Who Killed Jim Crow. He is also well known for havi
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination, to oppose racism and to gain civil rights for African Americans, got Supreme Court to declare grandfather clause unconstitutional
Thurgood Marshall
The first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his activity in the Little Rock 9 and his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for t
Morgan v. Virginia
1946 Supreme Court case, which declared state laws mandating segregated seating on interstate buses unconstitutional
Sweatt v. Painter
1950 high court case, which ruled that state law schools must admit black applicants, even if separate black schools exist
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1954 supreme court ruling reversing the policy of segregation, declaring that seperate can never be equal and a year later ordered the integration of all public schools with all deliberate speed society became less racist
Equal Protection Clause
14th amendment clause that prohibits states from denying equal protection under the law, and has been used to combat discrimination
Brown II
another case issued by the Supreme Court, implementing the order from 1954, ruling that communities must work to desegregate their schools with all deliberate speed, but set no timetable and left specific decisions up to lower courts
with all deliberate speed
after the Brown II ruling, schools were required to integrate quickly. The Supreme Court realized that the change would be slow particularly in the South and did not want to set a concrete timeline
Orval Faubus
He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied the United States Supreme Court by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to stop African American students from at
Little Rock Nine
The group of African American students sent to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in order to desegregate the school.
Central High School
The site of forced school desegregation during the American Civil Rights Movement. Nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were denied entrance to the school in defiance of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering integration of public scho
Elizabeth Eckford
One of the Little Rock Nine who did not get the message not to come to school. She went to school by herself and an angry Mob followed her there
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted in the United States since Reconstruction. It was proposed by Congress to President Dwight Eisenhower
jurisdiction
an area of authority or control; the right to administer justice. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave the federal government this power over violations of African- American voting rights
Jo Ann Robinson
President of the Women's Political Council. She was verbally attacked for sitting at the front of a bus some years prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She then redirected the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus on the issue with bus transport seg
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery and so triggered the national civil rights movement
E.D. Nixon
President of Alabama NAACP and head of local Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union. Brought together black ministers to coordinate the bus boycott in Montgomery
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal
Montgomery Improvement Association
Organization formed by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 to strengthen the bus boycott and to coordinate protest efforts of African Americans; led by Martin Luther King Jr.
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
Henry David Thoreau
American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in Walden. He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support him Mexican War
civil disobedience
a group's refusal to obey a law because they believe the law is immoral (as in protest against discrimination)
A. Philip Randolph
America's leading black labor leader who called for a march on Washington D.C. to protest factories' refusals to hire African Americans, which eventually led to President Roosevelt issuing an order to end all discrimination in the defense industries
Emmett Till
Murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. His death contributed to the American Civil Rights movement
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
An organization founded by MLK Jr., to direct the crusade against segregation. Its weapon was passive resistance that stressed nonviolence and love, and its tactic direct, though peaceful, confrontation
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Organized in the fall of 1960 by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as a student civil rights movement inspired by sit-ins, it challenged the status quo and walked the back roads of Mississippi and Georgia to encourage Blacks to resist segregation and to re
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. Membership in the group was stated to be open to "anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultima
sit- ins
protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent
Woolworth's Sit-In
4 black college students sat at the white-only lunch counter of Woolworths, and refused to leave. The protest grew to 3000 people by the end of the week, and drew a lot of attention. It started the sit-in movement, and brought up the desegregation of lunc