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Black Peoples of America

Civil Rights

Black Americans had to 'fight' for their right to equality. In the 1950s a Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He believed that peaceful protest was the way forward. Â

Some of the protests of the Civil Rights movement are detailed below:

1954
Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Â

In the 1950s, school segregation was widely accepted throughout the United States and was a requirement of law in most southern states.

In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954 the court decreed that segregation was unconstitutional.

1955
Montgomery Bus Boycott Â

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, a 43 year old black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Civil Rights leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King, organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Negroes and others who supported equality agreed not to use the buses, a move which would deprive the bus company of 65% of its income. Although Martin Luther King was fined $500, eight months later, the Supreme Court decided, based on the school segregation cases, that bus segregation violated the constitution.

1957
Desegregation at Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock Central High School was to begin the 1957 school year desegregated. On September 3 when nine black students tried to enter the school, they were prevented from doing so by National Guradsmen acting on the orders of the Arkansas state governor.Â

On September 20, judge Davies granted an injunction against Governor Faubus and three days later the group of nine students returned to Central High School but were prevented from attending school by a mob of 1,000 townspeople.

Finally, President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was desegregated.

1960
Sit-in Campaigns

Sit ins

After having been refused service at the lunch counter of a Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, Joseph McNeill, a Negro college student, returned the next day with three classmates to sit at the counter until they were served.

They were not served. The four students returned to the lunch counter each day.

When an article in the New York Times drew attention to the students' protest, they were joined by more students, both black and white, and students across the nation were inspired to launch similar protests.

1961
Freedom Rides

Freedom Rides

In 1961, bus loads of people waged a cross-country campaign to try to end the segregation of bus terminals.

Groups of black and white students travelled on buses through the southern states choosing to sit where they pleased.

At many stops along the way the group encountered violence but they refused to give up and continued riding the buses.

1962
University of Mississippi Riot

James Meredith

President Kennedy ordered Federal Marshals to escort James Meredith, the first black student to enrol at the University of Mississippi, to campus. A riot broke out and before the National Guard could arrive to reinforce the marshals, two students were killed.

1963
Birmingham

Birmingham Sit ins

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most segregated cities in the 1960s. Black men and women held sit-ins at lunch counters where they were refused service, and "kneel-ins" on church steps where they were denied entrance. Â

Hundreds of demonstrators were fined and imprisoned. In 1963, Dr. King, the Reverend Abernathy and the Reverend Shuttlesworth led a protest march in Birmingham where they were arrested by policemen with dogs. The three ministers were taken to Southside Jail.

Pictures courtesy Library of Congress