Key Terms:
1. Jim Crow Laws: Laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.
2. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: A landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.
3. Civil Rights Movement: A social and political movement that aimed to end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States.
4. Rosa Parks: An African American woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
5. Montgomery Bus Boycott: A year-long protest in Montgomery, Alabama, in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks. The boycott was successful in desegregating the city's buses.
6. Martin Luther King Jr.: A civil rights leader and Baptist minister who played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement. He advocated for nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as a means of achieving racial equality.
7. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC): A civil rights organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders in 1957.
8. Sit-ins: Nonviolent protests where African Americans sat in segregated areas, such as lunch counters, buses, and waiting rooms, to demand equal treatment.
9. Freedom Rides: Bus trips organized by civil rights activists to challenge segregation in interstate transportation.
10. March on Washington: A massive civil rights demonstration held in Washington, D.C., in 1963. The march was a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
11. Civil Rights Act of 1964: A landmark legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations, employment, and government-funded programs.
12. Voting Rights Act of 1965: A legislation that prohibited racial discrimination in voting and established federal oversight of voter registration to enforce voting rights for African Americans.
People to Remember:
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Rosa Parks
- Thurgood Marshall
- Medgar Evers
- Malcolm X
- John Lewis
- James Meredith
- Ralph Abernathy
- Andrew Goodman
- Michael Schwerner
- James Chaney
Questions to Consider:
1. What were the main goals of the Civil Rights Movement?
2. What were the key events and protests during the Civil Rights Movement?
3. What role did nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience play in the movement?
4. What were the major legislative achievements of the Civil Rights Movement?
5. How did the movement impact the broader social and political landscape of the United States?
6. What challenges and obstacles did civil rights activists face, and how did they overcome them?
7. What are the lasting legacies and impacts of the Civil Rights Movement on American society?
8. How do the ideas of racial equality and social justice from the Civil Rights Movement continue to shape contemporary discussions on civil rights and social change?