Objectives:
1. 
Explain how the activities of existing civil rights organizations laid the
groundwork for the movement of the 1960s.
2. 
Describe the philosophy that Martin Luther King, Jr., brought to the
movement.
3. 
Explain why some students formed their own civil rights organization.
Main Idea:
The civil rights movement of the 1960s consisted of many separate groups,
whose leaders and methods differed while sharing the same goal of
securing equal rights for all Americans.
•  The Civil Rights movement was a grassroots movement led
by ordinary citizens trying to end racial injustice.
•  In 1910, W.E.B. DuBois and Jane Addams created the NAACP.
It was an interracial group whose goals were to fight
segregation through the court system and equality for
everyone.
•  The NAACP did not seem to help the economic problems of
African Americans, so other groups were created like the
National Urban League.
•  CORE was created during World War II and will hold
demonstrations in cities opposing segregation. CORE will
struggle to survive but it will rebound into a national
organization in the 1950s.
•  In 1957 the SCLC was founded by Martin Luther King, Jr.
and other African American clergymen. The group quickly
rose from 60 to 100 clergymen and elected King, Jr. as their
president. King, Jr. will use this position to become the
national civil rights leader.
•  The SCLC moved the focus of the civil rights movement
from the North to the South. The group also suggested
nonviolence as a symbol of strength, demonstrated by
Jesus. King, Jr. learned his nonviolent approach from
Mohandas Gandhi who used this approach to gain
independence for India from Great Britain. Gandhi
believed that you could not defeat a stronger foe with
violence.
•  The SNCC will split from the SCLC in 1960.
Ella Baker
will organize the meeting to discuss splitting from the
SCLC. Baker will encourage forget fear and doubt and
join the fight to the bitter end.
•  The group consisted of younger African Americans. The
group shifted tactics away from the church. The SNCC
was more militant and tried to achieve more immediate
change. The SNCC organized voter registration drives
encouraging young African Americans to vote.
•  Robert Moses quickly became an early leader with his
soft-spoken, low-key approach. People followed Moses
because he seemed humble, ordinary, and accessible.