Term | Definition |
14th Amendment | Guaranteed African Americans their natural rights |
15th Amendment | African Americans could vote |
Plessy v. Ferguson | Case that made "Separate but equal" known |
De facto segregation | Segregation by custom in the North |
Jim Crow Laws | Laws in the South setting up segregation |
CORE | (Congress of Racial Equality) organization that played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement |
Segregation | Separation of the races |
Integration | Mixing the races in schools, (public facilities) |
Grandfather Clause | a statute that provides that the law is not applicable in certain circumstances due to preexisting facts |
NAACP | (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Goal was to end racial hatred and discrimination. |
Brown v. Board of Education | U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment |
Southern Manifesto 1956 | Document written in opposition to the racial integration of public places |
Little Rock Nine | a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 |
Rosa Parks | United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery |
Montgomery Bus Boycott | a political and social protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery |
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee | a U.S. civil-rights organization formed by students during the 1960s, whose aim was to achieve political and economic equality for blacks |
Sit-ins | an organized passive protest in which the demonstrators occupy seats prohibited to them |
Freedom Rides | a bus trip made to parts of the southern U.S. by people engaging in efforts to integrate racially segregated public facilities |
James Meredith | was the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, known for nonviolent, Christian civil disobedience |
Medgar Evers | an African-American civil rights activist whose goal was to stop segregation at the University of Mississippi |
March on Washington | was a large political rally that called for civil and political rights of African Americans |
Bombing of Birmingham Church | Resulted in the deaths of 4 girls, was the turning point in the Civil Rights movement and contributed support to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
24th Amendment | forbids the use of poll tax on voting, which was the reason why African Americans didn't vote |
Civil Rights Act 1964 | A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public places and employment |
Freedom Summer | a campaign launched to help as many African Americans register to vote in Mississippi |
Selma to Montgomery march | AKA Bloody Sunday where marchers were attacked by the police during their protests |
Voting Rights Act | Authorized the enrollment of voters by federal registrars and eliminated restrictive devices to blacks |
Watts Riot | A group of violent disturbances in Watts, a largely black section of Los Angeles, in 1965 |
"Black power" | a movement formed by black people to engender social equality and emphasize pride in their culture |
Stokely Carmichael | leader of the SNCC and later "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party |
Malcolm X | was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist |
Assassination of MLK | 1968, was killed in Nashville, TN, after giving his last speech |