CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

3 Phases of the CRM



Legal Phase



Direct Action Phase



Black Power Phase

Civil Rights Movement: Legal Phase

    Philosophy: if you change the law people’s attitudes will change with it  Goal: make “separate, but equal” so expensive that gov’t would get rid of it Key People: Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall Key Court Cases: Gaines v. Missouri (1938), Sweat v. Painter (1950), McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950)  Helped Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Problem with Brown v. Board : Supreme Court forced desegregation of Southern Schools at “all deliberate speed”  No exact timeline allowed Southern Schools to drag their feet

Major Events of the CRM

     1. Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 2. Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955  MIA – Montgomery Improvement Association  Civil rights leaders who kept boycott alive while NAACP took Parks case to court 3. Little Rock Nine, 1957-58  Gov. Orval Faubus used Arkansas Nat’l Guard to prevent black students admission  Eisenhower sends 1,000 troops for protection  Closed school for the 1958-59 school year 4. Freedom Riders, 1961  CORE members (racially mixed group) rode a bus from D.C. through the south to New Orleans 5. Freedom Summer, 1964  White college students from the North taught literacy and constitutional rights – help register voters

Major Events of the CRM

    6. Children’s Crusade: Birmingham, 1963  Project C 7. March on Washington  250,000 protested at Washington Mall to show support for Kennedy’s civil rights bill  “I have a dream” 8.16

th Street Bombing  Birmingham – 4 girls killed in church bombing 9. Civil Rights Act of 1964  Passed by Johnson and ending the legal discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, nat’l origin and sex in voting, employment and public accommodations