Background

Examples

The American civil rights movement

Segregated sections for blacks at the movies, seats at the back of the bus, soldiers protecting school children on their way into school (left) - It's hard to believe that all this was happening in America less than 40 years ago.

The fight against this injustice and for equality for blacks was at the centre of Martin Luther King's short life.

The Montgomery bus boycott (1955) is regarded by many as signaling the beginning of the movement. We have dedicated a whole page to this event. It provides a wonderful example of just how effective non-violent protest can be: Imagination, creativity, discipline and organization came together to defeat segregation on buses. But how?
Rosa Parks (left), tired at the end of a hard day's work, was arrested because she refused to vacate her seat for a white man... more.

The pinnacle of the civil rights movement was the March on Washington (1963), in which 250,000 people took part.
At the Lincoln Memorial Martin Luther King delivered his famous speech "I Have a Dream". You will find an impressive aerial photo of this historical event on a special page... to the photo [75 kb].

	You will find more information on the civil rights movement on the websites presented on our link list in this section.
	Martin Luther King's "Letter From Birmingham City Jail" is one of the most important documents from the civil rights movement. You will find the text here.

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Milestones in the civil rights movement

1942	The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is held in Chicago.
1946	President Truman creates a committee for civil rights that declares discrimination a national problem.
	The U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation on interstate buses.
1947	The first "Freedom Rides" take place (blacks and whites take bus journey through the southern states to ensure that laws are being adhered to).
1949	CORE organized the first sit-ins in facilities practicing racial segregation in St. Louis, Missouri.
1954	Brown vs. Board of Education: U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation in public schools.
1955	Bus boycott launched in Montgomery, Ala., after an African-American woman, Rosa Parks, is arrested December 1 for refusing to give up her seat to a white person
1956	December 21. After more than a year of boycotting the buses and a legal fight, the Montgomery buses desegregate.
1957	At previously all-white Central High in Little Rock, Ark., 1,000 paratroopers are called by President Eisenhower to restore order and escort nine black students.
	The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded. Martin Luther King Jr. becomes its first president.
	Congress passes a law leading to the establishment of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a department for civil rights in the Justice Department.
1960	The sit-in protest movement begins in February at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. and spreads across the nation.
1961	Freedom rides begin from Washington, D.C: Groups of black and white people ride buses through the South to challenge segregation.
1962	Two killed, many injured in riots as James Meredith is enrolled as the first black at the University of Mississippi.
1963	Police arrest King and other ministers demonstrating in Birmingham, Ala., then turn fire hoses and police dogs on the marchers. In prison Martin Luther King writes his famous "Letter from Birmingham City Jail", which is regarded as one of the most important documents of the civil rights movement.
	Medgar Evers, NAACP leader, is murdered June 12 as he enters his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
	250,000 people attend the March on Washington, D.C. urging support for pending civil-rights legislation (photo). The event was highlighted by King's "I Have a Dream" speech
	Four girls killed Sept. 15 in bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
1964	Three civil-rights workers are murdered in Mississippi.
	Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize ( King's speech at the ceremony).
	July 2 - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1965	Malcolm X is murdered.
	August 6. President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act, which King sought, authorized federal examiners to register qualified voters and suspended devices such as literacy tests that aimed to prevent African Americans from voting.
	August 11-16: Watts riots leave 34 dead in Los Angeles.
1967	Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black judge at the Supreme Court.
	Troubles in many large cities incl. Detroit and Newark.
	In Cleveland, Ohio, and Gary, Indiana black Lord Mayors are elected.
1968	Martin Luther King Jr. announces his "Poor People's Campaign".
	The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., unleashing violence in more than 100 cities.
1989	Douglas Wilder from Virginia is elected the first black Governor.

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Subjects: Human Rights I Democracy  I Parties I Examples I Europe I Globalisation I United Nations I Sustainability

Methods:    Teaching Politics    II    Peace Education    II    Methods

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