Civil Rights Movement: Desegregation Resources
February 21, 1965: Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.What is Civil Rights Movement: Desegregation About and Why Should I Care?
This historical drama chronicles both the sacrifices made by
working Black Southerners during the year-long Montgomery Bus
Boycott as well as the risks some Southern whites took to
cooperate with this protest. August 28, 1955:
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago is brutally murdered in
Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His
murderers are acquitted, and the case bring international
attention to the civil rights movement after Jet
magazine publishes a photo of Tills beaten body at his
open-casket funeral. Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings,
1954-1956 (1986)
Part one of the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Civil
Rights Movement describes the early momentum of the struggle
against segregation. The film recounts the Emmett Till murder
trial, Rosa Parks' demonstration against Alabama segregation
laws, and the vital role of the press in this stage of the
movement. July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B.
1961: Throughout 1961, Black and white
activists, known as freedom riders, took bus trips through the
American South to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted
to use whites-only restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom
Rides were marked by horrific violence from white protestors,
they drew international attention to their cause. Eyes on
the Prize: Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961
(1986)
In part three of the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Civil
Rights Movement, college students play a crucial role, staging
sit-ins, boycotts, and protests throughout the South. The film
also focuses on the efforts of the "Freedom Riders," an
integrated group of activists who risked their lives to
desegregate interstate buses and terminals. Taylor Branch,
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63
(1988)
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicle of the Civil Rights
Movement, historian Taylor Branch offers an extraordinarily
detailed account of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. , and the
political, social, and cultural environment within which he
worked.
Governor George C. Wallaces School House Door Speech. Alabama
Department of Archives and History.
Greensboro, NC, Students Sit-In for US Civil Rights, 1960.
Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database.
Historical Highlights. The 24th Amendment. History, Art &
Archives United States House of Representatives.
HistoryBrown v. Board of Education Re-enactment. United States
Courts.
History of Federal Voting Rights Laws. The United States
Department of Justice.
I Have a Dream, Address Delivered at the March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and
Education Institute Stanford.
Oldest and Boldest. NAACP.
SCLC History. Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Selma to Montgomery March: National Historic Trail and
All-American Road. National Park Service U. S. Department of the
Interior.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. National Archives. Etta James, At Last!
(1961)
This is the first full-length album from singer Etta James.
You'll hear a sampling of her earlier R&B crooning, lots of
cool Soul, and a bit of Blues. Includes the famous title track
"At Last," as well as "All I Could Do Was Cry," "Tough Mary,"
"Sunday Kind of Love," and "Trust In Me.
Listen to interviews with those who remember being haunted,
angered, and inspired upon seeing the pictures.
Hairspray (1988)
Set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962, Hairspray is one of
those musicals for people who hate musicals. The town's teens
defy pro-segregation parents and local leaders by integrating a
local TV dance show, all while keeping every hair in place. The
original versionthere was also a remake in 2007stars Debbie Harry
(Blondie) and Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher), and features the
acting debut of Ricki Lake. January 10-11, 1957:
Sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several
southern statesincluding Martin Luther King, Jr. meet in Atlanta,
Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial
discrimination and segregation. The Long Walk Home
(1990)
The Long Walk Home stars Whoopi Goldberg as Odessa
Cotter, an Alabama housekeeper who, like many of her friends and
neighbors, chooses to walk miles to and from work each day rather
than endure abuse and embarrassment on segregated buses.
This act has not had as great an impact as other legislation
because the ability to buy or rent housing is so directly
connected to income level. The civil rights laws of the 1960s
have been repeatedly expanded by Congress. The civil rights
movement was an organized effort by Black Americans to end racial
discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in
the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous
at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws
to protect every Americans constitutional rights, regardless of
color, race, sex or national origin. May 17,
1954:Brown v. Board of Education, a
consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme
Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools.
Many schools, however, remained segregated. Did World War
II Launch the Civil Rights Movement?
Six Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement
The Silent Protest That Kick-Started the Civil Rights
Movement
How the Black Power Movement
Influenced the Civil Rights
Movement
Executive Order 9981.
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Within just a couple of years, African Americans had destroyed
the barriers that existed between whites and Blacks by banding
together to boycott busses, sit in at lunch counters, and
peacefully resist racist white citizens who sought to harm them.
King and the movement won the support of the nation, and in
August 1963, the world watched as hundreds of thousands of
peoplewhite and Blackcame together in peace to help grant King
his dream of racial equality. Eyes on the Prize: No Easy
Walk, 1961-1963 (1986)
Part four of the Oscar-nominated documentary on the Civil Rights
Movement focuses on the goals, triumphs, and failures of Reverend
Martin Luther King, Jr. who emerges as the movement's visible
leader. The episode concludes with magnificent footage of the
March on Washington. Studs Terkel, Race: How Blacks and
Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
(1992)
In Race, Studs Terkel interviews several dozen people
from every walk of life. A police officer, a preacher, a nurse, a
welfare recipient, a college student, a high school teacher, a
housepainter, a civil rights worker, and a Ku Klux Klansman, to
list a few.
As legendary as these events are, however, they didn't cause the
modern Civil Rights Movement, but were instead important moments
in a campaign of direct action that began two decades before the
first sit-in demonstration. The Tuskegee Airmen
(1995)
This HBO original movie stars Laurence Fishburne (The
Matrix, Mystic River, and Boyz n the Hood),
Malcolm-Jamal Warner (TV's Dexter" and The Cosby Show"), Andre
Braugher (TV's Homicide" and The Practice"), and Cuba Gooding Jr.
(American Gangster, Jerry Maguire, and Boyz n
the Hood) as members of the first African-American combat
pilot unit in the U. S. Army Air Force. Although it's not a
documentary, the film carefully recounts the real-life struggles
of these pioneering men, who served their country during World
War II. September 9, 1957: Eisenhower signs the
Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights.
The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress anothers
right to vote. March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday.
Historical Documents
The story of the American Civil Rights Movement is one of those tales that is told again and again and again, often with a few protagonists, a couple of key events, and one dramatic conclusion.
Birmingham Protests Confront Police
Birmingham police use attack dogs to remove a young protestor
from the downtown business district. Other demonstrators, many
soaked from the blast of firehoses, witness the attack. FACT
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Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers
Project
Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. , Research and
Education Institute enables us to explore King resources through
the MLK Papers Project. This awesome resource includes
biographical information, an encyclopedia of key players in the
civil rights movement, and the text and audio for over a dozen
sermons and speeches. April 11, 1968: President
Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the
Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless
of race, religion or national origin.
In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomerythe states capitalin protest of Black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25. The Civil Rights Movement was another phase of black political protest, rather than something entirely new in the history of the United States, which is why the Civil Rights Movement is sometimes called The Second Reconstruction. Today many consider the Civil Rights Movement to have been led by Martin Luther King Jr, but key events make clear that it was the actions of everyday people - men, women, and children - that helped make the movement successful: However, despite these laws, black Americans did not achieve economic equality. Although there has been significant progress since the Civil Rights Movement, black Americans still remain a socially disadvantaged group.
His subjects speak candidly about their perceptions of
Black-white relations in America and the ways in which they feel
these issues have affected their lives. Race is just one
of the many oral narrative collections that Terkel has produced
in an effort to reveal the complexity of the American experience.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2004)
Director Keith Beauchamp utilizes archival film footage,
photographs, and news clippings from the 1950s in addition to
interviews with family and friends, to illustrate the context
within which such a crime could occur. This documentary helps
explain the impact of the murder and the trial upon the Till
family, the African-American community, and the nation.
February 1, 1960: Four African American college
students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a
Woolworths whites only lunch counter without being served. The
Greensboro FourEzell Blair Jr. , David Richmond, Franklin McCain
and Joseph McNeilwere inspired by the nonviolent protest of
Gandhi. The Greensboro Sit-In, as it came to be called, sparks
similar sit-ins throughout the city and in other states.
" Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine
Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP and the Little Rock
Nine who in September of 1957 desegregated Central High School in
Little Rock, Arkansas. Seated left to right: Gloria Ray,
Elizabeth Eckford, Minniejean Brown, Thelma Mothershed. Standing
left to right: Jefferson Thomas, Daisy Bates, Carlotta Walls,
Terrance Roberts, Melba Pattilo, Ernest Green. Various
Artists, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Songs of the
Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (1994)
This is a collection of folk songs from and about the Civil
Rights Movement compiled by the Cultural Center for Social
Change. Many of the tracks are original recordings by movement
activists like Fannie Lou Hamer, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and the
SNCC Freedom Singers. Brown v. Board of Education, the
1954 Supreme Court case that attacked the notion of "separate but
equal," has also been identified as the catalyst for this
extraordinary period of organized boycotts, student protests, and
mass marches.
- Segregation in the United States
- Breaking Down Segregation
- The Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights for Minorities and Women
- Affirmative Action
- Slavery and Civil Rights
Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title VII of the Act establishes the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to help prevent workplace discrimination. August 6, 1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which survived several challenges in the courts, prohibited employment discrimination by private businesses connected with interstate commerce, authorized the attorney general to begin school desegregation lawsuits if complaints were filed, and cut off federal funding for any program that practiced discrimination. The 1965 Voting Rights Act eliminated literacy tests and, thus, significantly increased the number of African Americans and other minorities who could vote. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex was banned in all forms of housing through the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
The Civil Rights Movement is sometimes defined as a
struggle against racial segregation that began in 1955 when Rosa
Parks, the "seamstress with tired feet," refused to give up her
seat to a white man on a bus in Alabama. Shmoop's Historical
Texts Section
For an in-depth look at the biggest historical speeches,
documents, and court cases from history, head over to our
Historical Texts sections. We've covered "I Have a Dream," "I've
Been to the Mountaintop," "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and the
Little Rock Nine executive order, just to name a few. Daisy
Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir
(2007)
In her memoir, Daisy Bates reveals the story behind the events
that took place in Little Rock, Arkansas in September 1957. She
recounts her own personal struggles as a young Black woman
growing up in the South, and her path to becoming one of the
leading figures in the moral, physical, and legal battle for
school desegregation. "NPR: Emmett Till and the Impact of
Images," NPR (2004)
NPR's Noah Adams reports on the publication in 1955 of
photographs of the mutilated body of 14-year-old Emmett Till and
the wide-ranging effect these photos had upon the Black
community.