Skeleton Notes: Chapter 18 – The Civil Rights Movement
The Origins of the Movement

Many southern states had strict ‘______________’ laws that enforced segregation.

In other states, segregation still existed through customs and traditions or, ____________
segregation.

After WWII, many African Americans began to fight for equality and an end to segregation.

In Chicago in 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) began using ______________ to
shame restaurants that refused to serve black customers.

They sat down at the tables and refused to leave until they were served.

This was successful in integrating businesses in the North.

In 1954, the NAACP represented parents who sued the Topeka Kansas school board because
they refused to let their black daughter attend a white school in her neighborhood.

In _____________________ of Education, the court ruled in favor of the parents stating that
segregation of public schools violated the 14th Amendment.

Political leaders in the South vowed to resist what they called ‘a clear abuse of judicial
power’.
The Civil Rights Movement Begins

In 1955, _______________________ boarded a bus in Montgomery Alabama to return home
after work.

When the bus became full of passengers, the driver ordered Parks to follow Montgomery law
and give up her seat to a white man.

She refused. The police came and arrested her.

The ______________ agreed to challenge her arrest in court arguing that the law was
unconstitutional.

After the arrest of Parks, African Americans in Montgomery vowed to _______________ the
buses.

The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to organize the boycott and negotiate
with city leaders to end segregation.


They elected a pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to be the leader of the group.
Dr. King drew upon the nonviolent philosophy and techniques of Indian leader Mohandas
___________________.
Skeleton Notes: Chapter 18 – The Civil Rights Movement

The bus boycott lasted for more than a ______________.

Instead of riding the bus, they walked to work or organized car pools.

In 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the decision that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

Southern leaders continued to resist segregation.

When the courts ordered Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas to admit ____ African
American students, the governor, Orval Faubus, sent in the National Guard to prevent the black
kids from entering the school.

President Eisenhower sent in the ____________ Airborne Division to protect the kids and
ensure the law was followed.

They were allowed inside the school and had a military escort in the hallways, but the
kids were constantly harasses by both classmates and teachers.
Challenging Segregation

Black and white students practiced sit-ins at lunch counters that refused to serve black
customers.

CORE also organized the ________________________, which consisted of teams of students
who traveled on buses to the south in order to protest segregated bus terminals.

Many of the buses were attacked by mobs of angry white people.

In 1962, ____________________________, an African American and air force veteran, tried to
register to attend the University of Mississippi.


President Kennedy sent _____________ federal marshals to escort Meredith to the university,
but a mob attacked them with rocks, bottles, and bricks.


The governor of Mississippi, actually went to the school to physically block Meredith
from entering the registration office.
160 marshals were wounded.
Kennedy responded by sending in several thousand troops to occupy the campus and keep
Meredith safe.

Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964

In order to show support for President Kennedy’s push for a civil rights bill, Dr. King helped to
organize a march on Washington.
Skeleton Notes: Chapter 18 – The Civil Rights Movement

August 23, 1963, ________________ demonstrators gathered peacefully at the National
Mall to pray, sing, and listen to speeches.

Dr. King delivered his famous “_______________________________” speech.

Three months after the march on Washington, President Kennedy was assassinated.

President Johnson used his congressional experience to push through resistance and on July 2nd,
the ____________________________________ became law.

The law made ________________ illegal in most public spaces, provided equal access to public
services, and outlawed discrimination in the workplace.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965

In 1965 Dr. King marched through _______________, Alabama to call attention on voting rights.


Many of the marchers were beaten by police and armed citizens.


African Americans made up a majority of Selma’s population, but only accounted for
only _____% of the city’s registered voters.
___________________ cameras captured the whole scene, and many people, especially
in the North, were shocked at how violently the peaceful marchers had been treated.
As a result of the attack on the marchers, President Johnson proposed a new voting rights law.

In 1965, congress passed the _____________________________________ which
outlawed many of the ‘rules’ that were used to keep African Americans from voting.

By the end of the year 250,000 African Americans had registered to vote.
New Civil Rights Issues
I. Problems Facing Urban African Americans

Even after the passage of civil rights laws in the 1950’s and 1960’s

The civil rights movement resulted in positive political gains, but economic and social
problems were much more difficult to address.

Race ____________ broke out in many American cities between 1965 and 1968.

A race riot in _____________, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, lasted six days.

The worst of the riots occurred in _______________
Skeleton Notes: Chapter 18 – The Civil Rights Movement

US Army was forced to send in tanks and soldiers with machine guns to
gain control.
II. Black Power

After 1965 many African Americans began to turn away from the nonviolent teachings of Dr.
King.

They sought new strategies which included __________________

and the idea that African Americans should live free from the influence of whites.
III. The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.




By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement had __________________

Many competing organizations.

_________________ preoccupied the nation

The result was no further legislation to help African Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated

The national mourned his death

Riots occurred in more than 100 cities.
In the aftermath of King’s death

Congress passed the ____________________________,

Which contained a _____________________ provision
In 1967, ___________________________ became the first African American justice of the
Supreme Court