Civil Rights Movements- Summary of Protests & Action (1954-1965)

1954 (segregated pubic school education based on race is declared unconstitutional)

1955 (court orders segregation to be phased out over time with deliberate speed)

1955-1956

Taking inspiration from Emmett Till, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger.

She is arrested and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating local ordinance.

Sparks boycott of bus system from roughly 40,000 AA passengers.

Court eventually declared segregation of public transport unconstitutional and boycott ended after 381 days

1956

1957

9 academically strong AA students are chosen to integrate into a white high school (Central High)

Governor of Arkansas calls National Guard to prevent LR9 from entering Central High

Elizabeth Eckford is harassed by a white mob

P. Eisenhower calls 101st Airborne to protect LR9

Success but LR9 are harassed daily

Ernest Green graduates in 1958

1960

4 AA college students (Greensboro 4) sat at a segregated lunch counter and were refused service

Sparked a movement of AA youth sitting peacefully in diners and occupying all the seats

Participants faced torment and abuse from whites and non-violent training seminars began to prepare protestors

Activist in this movement formed SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

1961

A journey by civil rights activists on interstate buses in the south to test the courts decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960) which ended segregation on interstate buses

In Anniston, Alabama a bus was firebombed and riders were beaten in Birmingham, Alabama

Public support and sympathy led to JFK administration to order the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue a new desegregation order

ICC rule took effect Nov. 1st, 1961 and allowed passengers to sit anywhere, desegregation of bus stations, petty segregation ended, and lunch counters were desegregated

1961

1962

led by local Albany Leaders and SNCC (with SNCC and MLK swooping in later on and taking control)

Failed since police chief Laurie Pritchett had read MLK’s memoir about Montgomery and ensured that the police force responded to protests non-violently

Federal Court made MLK call off the movement and he agreed (to remain allies)

1962 (made to sit around a corner or facing away from the class, federal troops got involved, success)

1963 (¼ of a million participants to demonstrate support for JFK’s Civil Rights bill, MLK’s “I Have a Dream Speech”)

1963 (inspired the Freedom Summer)

1963-1964

After failure in Albany, Birmingham was chosen for the next campaign due to incredibly violent police chief “Bull” Connor

Firehoses and police dogs were used on non-violent protestors along with other violent tactics

Young children participated and still were met with violence

MLK was arrested and wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he stated that civil rights can not wait

In response JFK asks congress to pass CR bill

1964

Organized by Bob Moses

Aimed to empower and educated southern AA about voting rights and increase voter registration for upcoming election

Murder of Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner (volunteers) brings national attention and FBI investigation

They were lynched and murdered which revealed the depth of violence segregationists were willing to go to in order to maintain white supremacy

Nov. 1963

July 1964 (under LBJ, outlawed segregation in schools, public places, and employment)

1964

Aimed to replace all-white Mississippi delegates at the Democratic National Convention (Aug. 1964)

Achieved a compromise but refused it and promised that the party will never seat delegations elected through unfair voting laws

1964

1965

Sparked by murder and beating of Jamie Lee Jackson during a peaceful SNCC led march for voter registration drive

Plan was for protestors to march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights

Bloody Sunday: On the Edmund Pettus Bridge state troopers and county members attacked protestors and forced their retreat

MLK joined the campaign

Turnaround Tuesday: MLK leads protestors back to bridge and then turns around obeying a federal court order to not go through with the march

Eventually the order is lifted and march is successfully completed

LBJ requests the passing of the Voting Rights Act by Congress in “We Shall Overcome” speech

1965