Name
CHAPTER
20
S
1
ECTION
Class
Date
Note Taking Study Guide
EARLY DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY
Focus Question: How did African Americans challenge segregation after
World War II?
1945
1947
Jackie Robinson
becomes the first
African American
to play major
league baseball.
1950
1955
Montgomery
bus boycott
1960
Fill in the timeline below with events of the early civil rights movement. When you
finish, write two sentences that summarize the information in your timeline.
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
220
Name
Class
CHAPTER
20
S
1
ECTION
Date
Section Summary
EARLY DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY
In the South, African Americans were separated from white
Americans. Jim Crow laws made this separation legal. Segregation that is enforced by law is called de jure segregation.
African Americans in the North also faced segregation, even
where there were no explicit laws. Segregation by tradition is
known as de facto segregation.
In the 1950s, the NAACP turned to the federal courts to end
segregation. In Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP
challenged segregation in public schools. Thurgood Marshall,
an African American lawyer, was part of the legal team. The
Supreme Court agreed that segregation in public schools was
illegal. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the Brown decision. He
declared that the idea of “separate but equal” was wrong.
However, southern states found ways to resist compliance
with the law. In Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African American
students volunteered to desegregate the high school. The governor ordered the National Guard to stop the students from
entering the school. President Eisenhower then sent federal
troops to protect the students.
In 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American woman who
lived in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her bus seat
to a white passenger. She was arrested. Civil rights activists
organized a bus boycott to protest her arrest. On the evening
following the boycott, a Baptist minister named Martin Luther
King, Jr., spoke to a group of African Americans. He asked
them to protest segregation in a nonviolent way. The
Montgomery bus boycott continued for over a year.
In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery law
that segregated buses was illegal. The boycott showed that
African Americans could be powerful if they worked together.
The protest also made King very important within the civil
rights movement.
Review Questions
1. Why was Brown v. Board of Education important?
2. How did the Montgomery bus boycott help the civil rights
movement?
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
221
READING CHECK
What action did the governor of
Arkansas take to prevent the
desegregation of schools in
Little Rock?
VOCABULARY BUILDER
Find the word compliance in
the underlined sentence. What
do you think it means? Here
is a clue. An antonym for
compliance is disobedience.
Use this clue to figure out what
compliance means.
READING SKILL
Summarize List three key events
of the 1950s that helped to end
segregation.
Name
Class
CHAPTER
20
S
2
ECTION
Date
Note Taking Study Guide
THE MOVEMENT GAINS GROUND
Focus Question: How did the civil rights movement gain ground in
the 1960s?
Use the concept web below to record information about the civil rights protests of
the 1960s.
Protested restaurant
segregation
Sit-ins
Civil Rights
Protests
March on
Washington
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
222
Name
Class
CHAPTER
20
S
2
ECTION
Date
Section Summary
THE MOVEMENT GAINS GROUND
Despite some victories, activists continued to struggle for civil
rights for African Americans. In North Carolina, four college
students started a sit-in at a restaurant to protest discrimination. This sit-in led to sit-ins across the nation. A new civil
rights organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, or SNCC, began a grass-roots movement.
The next battleground was interstate transportation. The
Supreme Court had ruled that segregation on interstate buses
was illegal. In 1961, riders set off on two buses on a “freedom
ride.” After the freedom riders met with violence, President
John F. Kennedy intervened. The riders were successful.
In 1962, James Meredith enrolled at the all-white
University of Mississippi. Civil rights activist Medgar Evers
helped win the federal court case that ordered the university
to desegregate. A riot broke out the night before Meredith’s
arrival. Still, Meredith went on to graduate.
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., began a civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. It began with nonviolent
marches and sit-ins. However, Birmingham’s Public Safety
Commissioner would not tolerate the demonstrations. He used
police dogs and fire hoses on the peaceful protesters. Many
Americans were shocked by images of violence on the news.
To put pressure on Congress to pass a new civil rights bill,
supporters planned a March on Washington. On August 28,
1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington,
D.C. The highlight was King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became President.
Johnson used his political skills to gain the passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. This act banned segregation in public
places. The civil rights movement had changed the relationships between races. It also set the stage for future reforms.
Review Questions
1. What was the purpose of the March on Washington?
2. Describe the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
223
READING CHECK
Which civil rights organization
began a grass-roots movement?
VOCABULARY BUILDER
Find the word tolerate in the
underlined sentence. The word
forbid is an antonym of the word
tolerate. The word forbid means
“to not permit.” Use context
clues and the meaning of forbid
to figure out the meaning of
tolerate.
READING SKILL
Summarize Summarize what
James Meredith accomplished
in 1962.
Name
CHAPTER
20
S
3
ECTION
Class
Date
Note Taking Study Guide
NEW SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES
Focus Question: What successes and challenges faced the civil rights
movement after 1964?
Complete the outline below to summarize the contents of this section.
I. Push for Voting Rights
A. Freedom Summer
B.
II. Frustration Explodes into Violence
A.
B.
III. New Voices for African Americans
A.
B.
IV.
A. King continues to seek nonviolent methods.
B.
V.
A.
B.
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
224
Name
Class
CHAPTER
20
S
3
ECTION
Date
Section Summary
NEW SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES
The civil rights movement had made some progress. However,
many African Americans were still unable to vote. In 1964, the
SNCC organized a project known as Freedom Summer.
Volunteers registered African Americans to vote in Mississippi.
In 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a march in
Selma, Alabama. He wanted the government to pass laws to
protect voting rights. The march met with a series of violent
confrontations. Television coverage of the violence outraged
the nation. In response, Congress passed the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. This law banned literacy tests. In 1964, the
Twenty-fourth Amendment banned the poll tax. It had been
used to keep poor African Americans from voting.
Some African Americans were angry that discrimination
and poverty continued. In many cities, this anger led to violent
riots. The Kerner Commission was established to figure out
the cause of the riots. The commission blamed discrimination
against African Americans over a long period of time.
At the same time, many young African Americans were
becoming more radical. Malcolm X was the most well-known
African American radical. He was a minister of the Nation of
Islam. This religious group demanded that the races be separated. However, Malcolm X was shot and killed in 1965.
Many young African Americans wanted to continue the
policies of Malcolm X. They no longer supported the idea of
nonviolence. SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael thought African
Americans needed “black power.” He wanted African
Americans to use their economic and political power to gain
equality. Not long after, the Black Panther Party was formed.
The Black Panthers became the symbol of young militant
African Americans.
In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. The civil
rights movement had made segregation illegal. However, the
radical methods that had been used left some people bitter.
Review Questions
1. Why was the march in Selma important?
2. Why did violence occur in many American cities during the
1960s?
© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.
225
READING CHECK
Which group became the symbol
for young militant African
Americans?
VOCABULARY BUILDER
Find the word confrontations in
the underlined sentence. What
does confrontations mean? Look
for clues in nearby words or
phrases. Circle any that help you
figure out what confrontations
means.
READING SKILL
Summarize Summarize the
effect Malcolm X had on the civil
rights movement.