Us Civil Rights - Martin Luther King & Peaceful Protest 1955-68 Key Dates

Front 1

What and when was the first major civil rights campaign?

Back 1

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-56

Front 2

What was the legal case that followed the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Back 2

Browder vs Gayle, 1956. The case of Aurelia Browder who was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man. The Supreme Court ruled to end the segregation of buses.

Front 3

When did the Montgomery Bus Company desegregate its buses?

Back 3

21st December 1956, around a year after the boycott began.

Front 4

How was the slow progress of school desegregation challenged?

Back 4

The Little Rock Campaign, 1957. Nine black students enrolled at Little Rock Arkansas's Central High School but were prevented by the National Guard and a white mob.

Front 5

What measures did President Eisenhower propose relating to voter registration?

Back 5

The Civil Rights Act of 1957. Created the Commission on Civil Rights and made it a crime to prevent a black person from registering to vote. However, the penalty was only $1000 and six months in jail, which was not a serious punishment. Also, black voters had to report the crime and then it had to be tried by white juries, two things that made it unlikely for guilty verdicts to be passed.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960. Required local authorities to keep records of registration so the Commission could better keep track of their progress.

The passage of both acts was marred by filibusters from Southern Democrats.

Front 6

What legal case followed the Little Rock Campaign?

Back 6

Cooper v Aaron, 1958. The NAACP went to court after Governor Faubus closed Little Rock's schools. The Supreme Court ruled that desegregation couldn't be prevented and reopened the schools.

Front 7

How did the NAACP rectify the shortfalls of the Morgan v Virginia ruling?

Back 7

Boynton v Virginia, 1960. Ruling against the segregation of interstate transport facilities, as well as the buses.

Front 8

What was an example of direct action by activists after Little Rock?

Back 8

The Greensboro sit-ins, 1960. Four black students sat at the whites only lunch counter in the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Front 9

How did the Movement test the Morgan v Virginia and Boynton v Virginia rulings?

Back 9

The Freedom Rides, 1961. CORE organised a group of seven black activists and six white activists (coming from CORE and SNCC) to travel on interstate buses from Washington DC to New Orleans.

Front 10

What is an example of individual grassroots activism?

Back 10

James Meredith's efforts to enrol at the University of Mississippi, 1962.

Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett refused to allow Meredith to enrol however the Supreme Court and President Kennedy pressured Barnett to back down. He did but provided no protection so Meredith was prevented from getting to the University by a mob. In response, Kennedy sent troops to protect Meredith, which led to violence in which two people died. Regardless, Meredith enrolled and graduated with a Political Science degree in 1963.

Though this is an example of activism, only Meredith gained from it as he refused to work with the Movement.

Front 11

What campaign did SNCC organise after the Freedom Rides?

Back 11

The Albany Movement, 1961-62. A series of protests in Albany, Georgia. They worked with the NAACP and, later, the SCLC.

Front 12

How did the Civil Rights Movement move on from Albany?

Back 12

The Birmingham Campaign, 1963. Birmingham, Alabama was chosen because police chief 'Bull' Connor had proven himself to be violent during the Freedom Rides. King hoped it would be easy to provoke him and force the Federal Government to step in.

Front 13

How did the Movement mark the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation?

Back 13

The March on Washington, 28th August 1963. 250000 people marched to the Lincoln Memorial under the slogan 'For Jobs and Freedom'. There King gave his 'I have a dream' speech.

Kennedy worried about the March becoming violent, but it remained peaceful under King's direction.

Front 14

What was the major de jure change that followed the civil rights campaigns of the early 1960s?

Back 14

The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Ended segregation of all public places and created the Commission on Civil Rights which had the power to enforce desegregation. Also, the FEPC was made permanent, which was a measure against segregation in employment.

Front 15

What became the focus of civil rights campaigns after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed? What was the next major campaign?

Back 15

They began to focus on voting rights and registration. The first big voter registration campaign was the Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964, which was organised by SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP. The campaign centred on Greenwood, Mississippi.

Front 16

What was the larger voter registration campaign that followed the Freedom Summer?

Back 16

The Selma Campaign, 1965. A series of demonstrations by SCLC and SNCC activists to raise publicity for the voter registration campaign.

Front 17

What de jure change did President Johnson propose after the voting rights campaigns?

Back 17

The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Outlawed all measures to prevent American citizens from voting, in accordance with their Fifteenth Amendment rights. It also gave the Federal Government the power to send overseers across the country to monitor the election and registration processes, which it did almost immediately.

Front 18

What report brought the economic situation of black people to public attention?

Back 18

The Moynihan Report (officially called "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action") which was published in 1965 and written by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

It drew attention to the high crime levels in black communities and the poor living conditions in those communities. It also said that ghettoisation in the North was leading to de facto segregation of education and housing.

Front 19

What was King's first northern campaign?

Back 19

The Chicago Campaign, 1966. Intended as a nonviolent protest against de facto segregation in education, housing and employment in Chicago, Illinois.

Front 20

What did King plan in response to the failures of Chicago?

Back 20

He began plans for the Poor People's Campaign in 1968.

Front 21

What directed King's attention away from the plans for the Poor People's Campaign?

Back 21

The Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike, 1968.

Front 22

How were the Poor People's Campaign and King's work in Memphis both brought to a halt?

Back 22

King's assassination in April 1968.

Front 23

What de jure change came after King's death?

Back 23

The Civil Rights Act of 1968, which ended segregation in the sale and rental of housing.