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Chapter Themes■ Section 1, Civic Rights and

Responsibilities■ Section 2, Individual Action■ Section 3, Groups and Institutions■ Section 4, Continuity and Change

Why It’s ImportantIn the 1950s a tide of protest began to rise in America

against deeply rooted attitudes of racism and discrimination.The campaign for equality expanded and gained momentumin the 1960s. Although the civil rights movement could notovercome all the obstacles that stood in the way of full citi-zenship, it achieved some stunning successes. Inspired bythose victories, women, Hispanics, Native Americans, andothers intensified their efforts to secure their full rights as citizens.

The Civil Rights Era

Chapter 29Chapter 29

March on Detroit by Stephen Hall Demonstrations brought thousandstogether in the demand for social justice and equal opportunity.

1954–1973

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HISTORYAND ART

See pages 992–993 for primary source readings to accompany Chapter 29

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Chapter 29 The Civil Rights Era 821

African Americans had suffered fromracism and discrimination in the UnitedStates since colonial times. As the nation

entered the second half of the twentieth century,many African Americans believed that the timehad come for them to enjoy an equal place inAmerican life. They fought for equal opportuni-ties in jobs, housing, and education. They alsofought against segregation—the separation ofpeople of different races.

Equality in EducationDuring the 1950s and the early 1960s,African Americans boldly rejected the hu-

miliating practice of forced separation. TheNAACP (National Association for the Advance-ment of Colored People) had worked on behalf ofAfrican Americans since its founding in 1909, at-tacking discrimination and segregation. In the1950s, NAACP lawyers searched for cases theycould use to challenge the laws allowing the seg-regation of public education.

The Supreme Court had upheld segregationlaws in the past. In 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson, ithad ruled that “separate but equal” public facili-ties were legal. Thurgood Marshall, the chieflawyer for the NAACP, decided to challenge theidea of “separate but equal.” Then the NAACPbegan to decide which among the nation’s segre-gated school districts to bring before the Court.

Supreme Court strikes down segregation in education

Rosa Parks is arrested; Montgomery bus boycott begins

Martin Luther King, Jr., heads SCLC;Federal troops help integrate a Little Rock high school

19551954 1957

1954 19561955 1957

The Civil Rights Movement

READ TO DISCOVER . . .■ how a Supreme Court decision helped

African Americans in their struggle for equalrights.

■ why Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as aleader of the civil rights movement.

TERMS TO LEARNsegregation boycottintegrate civil disobedience

Jackie Robinson could do everything on abaseball field—hit singles, slam home runs, andspeed from base to base. Robinson was the firstAfrican American to play major league baseball.When his team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, reachedthe World Series in 1947, Robinson recalled: “Iexperienced a completely new emotion whenthe National Anthem was played. This time, Ithought, it is being played for me, as much asfor anyone else. . . . I am standing here with allthe others; andeverything that takesplace includes me.”

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Section 1Section 1

Jackie Robinsonbaseball card

The Brown Decision

Seven-year-old African American LindaBrown was not permitted to attend an all-whiteelementary school just blocks from her house. Toget to the segregated elementary school she wasassigned to, Brown had to cross railroad tracksand take a bus for several miles. The Brown fam-ily sued the school system but lost. Marshall andthe NAACP appealed the case all the way to theSupreme Court.

The case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, combined with several simi-lar cases, reached the Supreme Court in Decem-ber 1952. Thurgood Marshall argued thatsegregated schools were not and could not beequal to white schools. For that reason segregat-ed schools violated the Fourteenth Amendmentto the Constitution.

On May 17, 1954, the Court delivered its opin-ion. Quiet filled the Supreme Court chamberwhen the ruling was announced. All nine justicessat at the long bench. Nobody knew what theCourt would say. Contrary to its usual practice,the Court had not released the text of the decisionbeforehand.

The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board ofEducation of Topeka, Kansas that it was unconstitu-tional to separate schoolchildren by race. TheBrown decision reversed the Court’s decision inPlessy v. Ferguson.

Integrating the Schools

The Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Edu-cation called on school authorities to make plansfor integrating—bringing races together in—public schools. The Court also ordered that

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1909 National Association forthe Advancement of ColoredPeople (NAACP) founded

Sept. 4, 1957 Nine AfricanAmerican students try toattend Little Rock Central High

1948 Truman issuesexecutive order endingsegregation in the military

1954 Supreme Court rules segregation in

public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education

1957 Southern Christian Leadership

Conference (SCLC) founded

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Segregated by law

Local districts decided(not exercised by Wyoming)

Segregation prohibited

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Segregation in United States Schools, 1950

Map Study

School segregation was treated differently in various parts of the United States. 1. Region In how many states were

schools segregated by law? 2. Analyzing Information In what region was segregation predominant?

250 kilometers0Lambert Conformal Conicprojection

250 miles0


integration was to be carried out “with all delib-erate speed”—as fast as reasonably possible.

Some school systems across the country inte-grated quickly. However, in parts of the South,local leaders vowed to keep African Americanchildren out of white schools. Some peopleformed organizations to fight integration. A clashbetween the federal government and these statesseemed unavoidable.

Confrontation in Little Rock

In 1957 a federal judge ordered Central HighSchool in Little Rock, Arkansas, an all-whiteschool, to admit African American students.Arkansas governor Orval Faubus opposed inte-gration. He called out the state’s National Guardto prevent African Americans from entering thehigh school.

On the day the students were scheduled tobegin school, armed members of the National

Guard blocked the school’s entrance and turnedaway nine African American students. One ofthem, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, recalled thatwhen she tried to squeeze past a member of theguard, “He raised his bayonet, and then the otherguards moved in and raised their bayonets.”

For the first time since the Civil War, a South-ern state had defied the authority of the federalgovernment. Although Eisenhower had somedoubts about the Brown decision, he believed itwas his duty to enforce the law. The presidentwarned Faubus that if the governor did not admitthe students, the federal government would act.

When a federal judge ruled that the governorhad violated federal law, Faubus finally removedthe National Guard. Eisenhower sent hundreds ofsoldiers to Little Rock to protect the students.Shielded by the federal troops, the nine AfricanAmerican students finally entered the school.

Gains on Other FrontsWhile school integration continued,African Americans made other advances in

securing their rights. More and more took part ina movement dedicated to securing fair and equaltreatment.

Thurgood Marshall In 1967 Thurgood Mar-shall—the great-grandson of an enslavedperson—became the first African Americanjustice on the Supreme Court.

ootnotes to HistoryF

Elizabeth Eckford (center) braves the insults of white citizensto enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

How did President Eisenhower respond to the crisis in Little Rock?

PicturingHISTORY NAACP button

824 Chapter 29 The Civil Rights Era

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

On the evening of December 1, 1955, RosaParks boarded a bus in downtown Montgomery,Alabama. Parks, a seamstress, was secretary ofthe local chapter of the NAACP. She found anempty seat in the section reserved for whites.

When white passengers entered the bus, thedriver told Parks, an African American, to moveto the rear of the bus. Parks refused. At the nextbus stop, she was taken off the bus by police, ar-rested for breaking the law, and fined $10. Theepisode could have ended there—but it did not.

to HISTORYEyewitness Rosa Parks’s arrest led African Americans in

Montgomery to put into effect plans to boycott—refuse to use—the city’s buses. The boycott orga-nizers hoped to hurt the city financially and forceit to alter its policies. They had strength in num-bers—almost 75 percent of the bus company’sriders were African American.

At a boycott meeting, a young Baptist minis-ter came forward to speak. Not widely known atthe time, Martin Luther King, Jr., made an im-pact on the crowd. He declared:

“We’re here because first and foremost,we are American citizens, and we aredetermined to acquire our citizenship tothe fullness of its meaning. We aretired—tired of being segregated andhumiliated, tired of being kicked aboutby the brutal feet of oppression.”

The boycott upset many people’s daily lives,but the African Americans of Montgomery pulled together to make it work. Students hitch-

hiked to school; workerswalked or rode bikes totheir jobs. King helped or-ganize car pools to shuttlepeople from place to place.

Some white people inMontgomery struck back.Old laws were dug up to arrest the boycott’s lead-ers. In January 1956, ex-tremists exploded a bombat King’s house, causing

damage but no injuries. The attackwas only one of several violent incidents.

The bus boycott lasted formore than a year. City officials arrested King andother leaders at different times, but AfricanAmericans held firm. The local bus company lostthousands of dollars in fares, and downtownbusinesses lost many of their African Americancustomers. Finally, the Supreme Court settled thematter by ruling that the Montgomery bus segre-gation law was unconstitutional. In December,the boycott ended.

MoveTowardEquality

CAUSES� 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested� 1955 Montgomery bus boycott begins� 1957 Conflict at Little Rock� 1957 SCLC is organized� 1960 Students stage sit-ins� 1963 March on Washington, D.C.

Chart Study

African Americans faced many obsta-cles in their struggle for equal rights.Analyzing Information What protest followed the arrest of Rosa Parks?

EFFECTS� 1962 James Meredith enrolls at

University of Mississippi� 1967 Thurgood Marshall appointed to

Supreme Court� 1968 Shirley Chisholm elected to House� 1972 Barbara Jordan first African

American woman from a Southern state to serve in Congress

Causes and Effects

Rosa Parks on the Montgomerybus


Martin Luther King, Jr.With the victory in Montgomery, King be-came a leader of the civil rights movement.

He followed the tactics of A. Philip Randolph,the nation’s most prominent African Americanlabor leader. King was also strongly influenced byMohandas Gandhi, who had used nonviolentprotest to help free the nation of India from GreatBritain. In keeping with his beliefs, Gandhi usedprotest methods based on civil disobedience, orthe refusal to obey laws that are considered un-just. King applied the same techniques to thestruggle for African American rights in the Unit-ed States.

In January 1957, King and 60 other ministersstarted a new organization called the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference (SCLC). TheSCLC elected King as president.

The SCLC leaders emphasized nonviolentprotest. They suggested ways to react to tauntsand jeers and showed civil rights workers how toprotect themselves from violent attacks. TheSCLC also discussed how to identify targets forprotests and how to organize people for support.In taking these steps, the SCLC prepared AfricanAmericans for the struggle for equal rights.

Biography

Section 1 Assessment Section 1 Assessment

Activity

Composing Lyrics Write song lyrics to be sungat a civil rights march. Base your lyrics on thestory of Rosa Parks and her courage the night ofher arrest.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify NAACP, Brown v. Board of

Education, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., SCLC.

2. Define segregation, integrate, boycott, civildisobedience.

3. Name the Supreme Court decision thatbanned segregation in education.

Reviewing Themes4. Civic Rights and Responsibilities How

did the Montgomery bus boycott end?

Critical Thinking5. Demonstrating Reasoned Judgment Why

do you suppose Martin Luther King, Jr.,thought nonviolent protest would be themost effective way to work toward civilrights?

Martin Luther King, Jr., standsin his office near a portrait of

the Indian independence leader, MohandasGandhi. How was King influenced byGandhi?

PicturingHISTORY


By 1960, the crusade for civil rights had be-come a national movement. Against thisbackground, the nation prepared for a

presidential election. The Republican candidate, Vice President

Richard M. Nixon, pledged to continue the poli-cies of President Eisenhower. The Democraticcandidate, John F. Kennedy, promised new pro-grams to help the poor and the elderly. He vowedto “get the country moving again.”

Election of 1960For much of the campaign, polls showedNixon in the lead. One reason for this was

the fact that Kennedy was Roman Catholic. NoCatholic had ever been president, and manyAmericans feared that if Kennedy won he mightshow more loyalty to his church than to his coun-try. Kennedy answered by stressing his belief inthe separation of church and state.

John F. Kennedy

Kennedy came from one of the country’swealthiest and most powerful families. His father,Joseph P. Kennedy, was a successful businessleader and the American ambassador to Britainduring World War II.

John Kennedy joined the United States Navyduring World War II and was assigned to active

Biography

John F. Kennedytakes office aspresident

Kennedy isassassinated

Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed

1963President Johnsonannounces waron poverty

1961 July 1964

1960 19641962 1966

1964

Kennedy and Johnson READ TO DISCOVER . . .■ what John F. Kennedy planned for America.■ how the nation responded to Kennedy’s

assassination.■ what new programs were created as part of

the “Great Society.”

TERMS TO LEARNpoverty line MedicaidMedicare

They stood together on the inaugural platform:43-year-old John F. Kennedy, tanned, vigorous,and coatless despite the subfreezing weather,and 70-year-old Dwight D. Eisenhower, wearinga muffler, looking like a tired general. The ap-pearances of the two men, a generation apartin age, symbolized the change of leadership.Kennedy’s speech promisedso much: “Let every nationknow . . . that we shall pay anyprice, bear any burden, meetany hardship, support anyfriend, oppose any foe toassure the survival and the success of liberty. . . .”

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Section 2Section 2

1960 presidential cam-paign items


duty in the Pacific. When the Japanese sank thePT (patrol torpedo) boat he commanded,Kennedy saved the life of a crew member byswimming to shore with the injured man on hisback. The rescue effort led to navy and marinemedals for Kennedy but also aggravated an old back injury he had. The story of the rescuewas later described in Robert Donovan’s bookPT 109.

Kennedy’s political career began in 1946when he won a seat in Congress from Massachu-setts. Six years later, he was elected to the UnitedStates Senate. The young senator wrote a book,Profiles in Courage, which described difficult polit-ical decisions made by past United States sena-tors. The book became a best-seller and received aPulitzer Prize. After easily winning reelection tothe Senate in 1958, Kennedy began campaigningfor the presidency in 1960.

A New President

The turning point in the 1960 election camewhen the candidates took part in the first tele-vised presidential debates. Kennedy appearedhandsome and youthful. Nixon, who was recov-ering from an illness, looked tired and sick.Kennedy spoke with confidence about the future.Many viewers thought that Kennedy made a bet-ter impression.

In November, nearly 70 million voters turnedout to choose between Nixon and Kennedy. Forthe first time, the people of Alaska and Hawaiitook part in a presidential election. The resultswere extremely close. In the popular vote,Kennedy won 49.9 percent, while Nixon received49.6 percent. In the electoral vote, Kennedy gaineda greater margin over Nixon—303 to 219 votes.

The New FrontierOn January 20, 1961, snow covered Wash-ington, D.C., and icy winds whipped

through the city. Still, thousands of peoplestreamed to the Capitol to see John FitzgeraldKennedy become the thirty-fifth president of theUnited States. He offered the nation youth,

energy, and hope. In his Inaugural Address,Kennedy spoke of a new era:

“Let the word go forth from this time andplace . . . that the torch has been passedto a new generation of Americans.”

The young president promised to face the na-tion’s challenges with determination. In closing,Kennedy roused the American people to action:

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask notwhat your country can do for you—askwhat you can do for your country.”

Domestic Policies

Kennedy drew up plans for the New Frontier,a group of proposals involving increased govern-ment spending on social programs. One bill hesent to Congress called for more federal funds foreducation. Another bill aimed to help poor peopleget jobs. Reluctant to commit to Kennedy’s ex-pensive, untried programs, Congress failed topass most of these bills.

President John F. Kennedy


Another area of concern for Kennedy wascivil rights. The president wished to help AfricanAmericans in their fight for equal rights. At thesame time, he worried that moving too quicklywould anger Southern Democrats in Congresswhose support he needed to enact legislation.

In 1963 Kennedy decided to ask Congress topass a bill guaranteeing civil rights. The Houseapproved the measure, but it stalled in the Senate.Meanwhile, the president left on a campaign tripfor Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy AssassinatedOn November 22, 1963, Kennedy arrivedin Dallas with his wife, Jacqueline. As the

president and the First Lady rode through thestreets in an open car, several shots rang out.Kennedy slumped against his wife. The car spedto a hospital, but the president was dead. Shortlyafterward, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnsontook the oath of office as president.

The assassination stunned the nation. Televi-sion networks broadcast the news almost withoutinterruption for the next few days. Millions ofAmericans numbly watched the funeral.

In the midst of the grief came another shock.The day of Kennedy’s shooting, Dallas police hadarrested Lee Harvey Oswald and charged himwith killing the president. Two days later, as

police moved Oswald from one jail to another,Jack Ruby jumped through the circle of police of-ficers and journalists and shot and killed Oswald.

Rumors that a group of enemies had plottedthe assassination swirled around the country.Soon afterward, President Johnson appointedEarl Warren, chief justice of the United States, tohead a commission to investigate the Kennedyshooting. After months of study, the WarrenCommission issued its report. Oswald had actedon his own, it said. The report did not satisfyeveryone, however. Many people believed the as-sassination was a conspiracy, or secret plot.

The “Great Society”Soon after becoming president, Lyndon B.Johnson outlined a set of programs even

more ambitious than Kennedy’s New Frontier.He called his proposals the “Great Society.” In aspeech he explained his vision of America:

“In a land of great wealth, families mustnot live in hopeless poverty. In a landrich in harvest, children must not gohungry. . . . In a great land of learningand scholars, young people must betaught to read and write.”

Johnson had acquired great skill as a legisla-tor during his 22 years in Congress. He used thisskill to persuade Congress to launch programsthat would make the Great Society real.

The War on Poverty

In January 1964, President Johnson declared“an unconditional war on poverty in America.”The first part of his plan for a Great Society consisted of programs to help Americans wholived below the poverty line—the minimum in-come needed to survive. A program called HeadStart provided preschool education for the chil-dren of poor families. Upward Bound helpedpoor students attend college. The Job Corps of-fered training to young people who wanted towork. Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)

Lyndon Johnson takes the oath of office after the assassination of President Kennedy


was a kind of domestic peace corps of citizensworking in poor neighborhoods.

Among the most important laws passedunder Johnson were those establishing Medicareand Medicaid. Medicare helped pay for medicalcare for senior citizens. Medicaid helped poorpeople pay their hospital bills.

Helping Cities and Schools

Other parts of the Great Society targeted thenation’s crumbling cities. In 1966 President John-son established the Department of Housing andUrban Development (HUD), which helped fundpublic housing projects. Another program,Model Cities, provided money to help rebuildcities.

Schools received a boost from the Elementaryand Secondary Education Act of 1965, whichgreatly increased spending for education. UnderJohnson, the amount of federal money spent oneducation more than doubled.

Civil Rights

Although raised in the South, Lyndon John-son was not a segregationist. He believed that the nation must protect the rights of all Americancitizens.

When Johnson took office, he vowed to turnthe civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed intolaw. In early 1964 he warned Congress that he

would accept nothing but success: “Weare going to pass a civil rights bill if it takes allsummer.”

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964in July. The act prohibited discrimination againstAfrican Americans in employment, voting, andpublic accommodations. It banned discrimina-tion not only by race and color, but also by sex, re-ligion, or national origin.

Amajor force leading to its passage came fromoutside the nation’s capital in the form of growingsupport for the goals of the civil rights movement.

President Johnson passesout Medicare checks to

senior citizens in Beaumont, Texas.What was the purpose of Medicare?

PicturingHISTORY

“Thank you” gift to LBJ for Medicare

Section 2 AssessmentSection 2 Assessment

Activity

Creating a Poster Choose one of PresidentKennedy’s or Johnson’s programs and make aposter supporting or opposing it.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify John F. Kennedy, New Frontier,

Lyndon B. Johnson.2. Define poverty line, Medicare, Medicaid.3. List the new government programs that

Johnson created in his “War on Poverty.”Reviewing Themes

4. Individual Action Describe Johnson’spolicies regarding equal rights.

Critical Thinking5. Making Comparisons If Nixon had won

the 1960 presidential election, do youthink he would have created his ownGreat Society? Explain.


Anew wave of civil rights activity sweptacross the nation in the 1960s. Early ac-tions targeted segregation in the South.

Segregation existed in the North as well, but so-cial patterns rather than laws provided the mainobstacle to integration there. In Northern citiesand suburbs, African Americans and whites oftenlived in different neighborhoods; as a result, theirchildren often attended different schools. SoonAfrican Americans expanded their goal to fight-ing discrimination and racism in the North aswell as in the South.

Growing ProtestsWhat four students began in Greensboro inFebruary 1960 quickly spread. High school

and college students staged sit-ins in nearly 80cities. A sit-in is the act of protesting by sittingdown. By the summer of 1961, more than 70,000activists—African American and white—hadtaken part in sit-ins. Sit-ins were staged through-out the nation against stores that practiced segre-gation. Store managers wanted to end thedisturbances and the loss of business. Graduallymany stores agreed to desegregate.

The sit-ins helped launch a new civil rightsgroup, the Student Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee (SNCC). Civil rights activist EllaBaker was a guiding spirit behind SNCC and oneof its organizers. Earlier, Baker had played impor-tant roles in both the NAACP and the SCLC.SNCC was a key player in the civil rights move-ment for several years.

1960 1965 1970

Freedom Ridersmove through the South

More than 200,000people march in Washington, D.C.

Martin Luther King, Jr.,is assassinated

1961 1963James Meredith enrolls at University of Mississippi

1962 1968

The Struggle ContinuesREAD TO DISCOVER . . .■ what actions African Americans took in the

early 1960s to secure their rights.■ how radical voices emerged in the civil

rights movement.■ why riots erupted in some cities.

TERMS TO LEARNsit-in interstate

On February 1, 1960, four African Americanstudents walked into a store in Greensboro,North Carolina. After buying a few items, theysat down at a “whites-only” lunch counter.When a waitress questioned what they weredoing, one of the students replied, “We believesince we buy books and papers in the otherpart of the store, we should get served in thispart.” They were refused service, and the foursat at the counter until the store closed. By theend of the week, hun-dreds of students hadjoined the protest.Angry whites jeeredat the students anddumped food onthem. The protestersrefused to leave orstrike back.

SThetoryteller

Section 3Section 3

Supporting the sit-ins


Freedom Rides

The Supreme Court had ruled in 1960 againstsegregated bus facilities. Another civil rightsgroup, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),decided to see whether the ruling was being enforced.

On May 4, 1961, a group of African Americanand white CORE members left Washington, D.C.,on two buses bound for New Orleans. They calledthemselves Freedom Riders. The bus trip wentsmoothly until it reached Alabama, where angrywhites stoned and beat the Freedom Riders.

Television and newspapers broadcast reportsof the beatings. Robert Kennedy, the UnitedStates attorney general, asked CORE to stop theFreedom Rides for a “cooling-off period.” COREleader James Farmer responded: “We have beencooling off for 350 years. If we cool off any more,we will be in a deep freeze.”

Violence and Arrests

The Freedom Riders pressed on, only to meetmore violence in Birmingham and Montgomery,Alabama. There were no mobs waiting for theFreedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi. Howev-er, police, state troopers, and Mississippi Nation-al Guard units were everywhere. As the Ridersstepped off the bus and tried to enter the whites-only waiting room at the bus station, they werearrested for trespassing and jailed.

Despite the violence and the jail sentences,more Freedom Riders kept coming all summer. Inthe fall the Interstate Commerce Commissiontook steps to enforce the Supreme Court ruling,issuing new regulations that banned segregationon interstate buses—those that crossed statelines—and in bus stations.

Gaining MomentumAfrican Americans continued to applypressure to secure their civil rights. Their

actions came during John Kennedy’s presidency.They spurred the president to take a more activerole in the civil rights struggle.

Integrating Universities

In 1962 a federal court ordered the Universityof Mississippi to enroll its first African Americanstudent, James Meredith. However, Mississippigovernor Ross Barnett, with the aid of state po-lice, prevented Meredith from registering. WhenPresident Kennedy sent federal marshals to escortMeredith to the campus, riots erupted. A mobstormed the administration building armed withguns and rocks. The marshals fought back withtear gas and nightsticks. Two people were killed,but Meredith succeeded in registering. Federaltroops were stationed at the university to protecthim until he graduated in 1963.

Another confrontation between state and fed-eral power took place in June 1963—this time inAlabama. Governor George Wallace vowed hewould “stand in the schoolhouse door” to blockthe integration of the University of Alabama inTuscaloosa. President Kennedy, acting on the ad-vice of his brother, sent the Alabama NationalGuard to ensure the entry of African Americans tothe university. As a result, Wallace backed down.

James Meredith (center) becamethe first African American to attend

the University of Mississippi. What action did thefederal government take to make sure thatMeredith could enroll?

PicturingHISTORY


Birmingham

In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.,and the SCLC targeted Birmingham, Alabama,for a desegregation protest. Police arrested hun-dreds of demonstrators, including King, but thedemonstrations continued. National televisioncarried vivid pictures of police setting snarlingpolice dogs on unarmed demonstrators andwashing small children across streets with thepowerful impact of fire hoses. President Kennedysent 3,000 troops to restore peace. Then, in June,he proposed a new civil rights bill that would out-law segregation throughout the nation.

March on Washington

To rally support for the civil rights bill, MartinLuther King, Jr., and the SCLC organized a mas-sive march in Washington, D.C., on August 28,1963. More than 200,000 people, of all colors andfrom all over the country, arrived to take part.

to HISTORYEyewitness

Emily Rock, a 15-year-old African American, de-scribed how she felt at the march:

“There was this sense of hope for thefuture—the belief that this march wasthe big step in the right direction. Itcould be heard in the voices of the peo-ple singing and seen in the way theywalked. It poured out into smiles.”

About 6,000 police officers stood nearby, butthey had nothing to do but direct traffic. Therewas no trouble. Proceeding with great dignityand joy, the marchers carried signs urging Con-gress to act. They sang songs, including one thatwas becoming the anthem of the civil rightsmovement: “We Shall Overcome.”

Late in the afternoon, Martin Luther King, Jr.,spoke to the crowd in ringing words of his desireto see America transformed:

“I have a dream that one day this nationwill rise up and live out the true mean-ing of its creed: ‘We hold these truths tobe self-evident; that all men are createdequal.’ . . . When we let freedom ring, . . .we will be able to speed up that daywhen all of God’s children . . . [will] joinhands and sing in the words of the old . . . spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last!Thank God Almighty, we are free atlast!’”

The Prize For his nonviolent pursuit ofequal rights, Martin Luther King, Jr., won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

ootnotes to HistoryF

Police in Birmingham,Alabama, used high-pressure water hosesagainst civil rightsmarchers. What roledid television havein advancing the civilrights cause?

PicturingHISTORY

Poster advertising 1963March on Washington


Freedom Summer

Congress did not pass Kennedy’s civil rightsbill until after his death. President Lyndon B.Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, finally per-suaded Congress to pass the bill. The Civil RightsAct of 1964 outlawed discrimination in hiringand ended segregation in stores, restaurants, the-aters, and hotels. Yet in many states, AfricanAmericans still could not vote. Poll taxes andother discriminatory laws prevented them fromexercising this right.

During the summer of 1964, thousands of civilrights workers spread throughout the South to helpAfrican Americans register to vote. They called thecampaign Freedom Summer, but the workersfaced strong, sometimes violent, opposition.

The Right to Vote

The next year SNCC organized a majordemonstration in Selma, Alabama, to protest thecontinued denial of African Americans’ right to

vote. Police attacks on the marchers again drama-tized the cause.

President Johnson stepped in. On March 15,1965, in a televised speech, the president urgedpassage of a voting rights bill. “About this therecan be no argument,” he said. “Every Americancitizen must have an equal right to vote.” Threemonths later Johnson signed the Voting RightsAct of 1965 into law. The act gave the federal gov-ernment the power to force local officials to allowAfrican Americans to register to vote.

The act led to dramatic changes in politicallife in the South. In 1966 about 100 African Amer-icans held elective office in the South. By 1972 thatnumber had increased 10 times.

Other VoicesBy the mid-1960s, the civil rights movementhad won numerous victories. Yet a growing

number of African Americans grew tired of theslow pace of change and bitter over white attacks.

March on Washington, 1963AmericanMemoriesAmericanMemories

Button honoring the march

Button celebratingthe March onWashington

NAACP hat

What Was It Like? On August 28, 1963, morethan 200,000 gathered at the Lincoln Memorialto call for civil rights reform. What was thetheme of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, address?


Separatism

Malcolm X, a leader in the Nation of Islam (orBlack Muslims), emerged as an important newvoice for some African Americans. Malcolm Xcriticized the civil rights goal of integration, de-claring that the best way for African Americans toachieve justice was to separate themselves fromwhites.

Malcolm X gained increasing support. By1965, however, he had begun to change his ideas.Instead of racial separation, he called for “a soci-ety in which there could exist honest white-blackbrotherhood.” Soon afterwards, he was killed byan assassin from a rival group among the BlackMuslims.

His fiery words and passionate ideas, con-tained in his autobiography and other writings,continued to influence the civil rights movementafter his death.

Black Power

Other African American leaders embracedmore radical approaches. Stokely Carmichael,who became the leader of SNCC, advanced theidea of Black Power. This was a philosophy ofracial pride that said African Americans shouldcreate their own culture and political institutions.Carmichael and other radicals called at times forrevolution, a complete transformation of society.Although rejected by such groups as the NAACP,which saw it as a threat to law and order, the ideaof Black Power had a great impact on the civilrights movement.

Violence EruptsIn Oakland, California, a group of youngradicals formed the Black Panther Party. A

chief goal of the group was to protect the AfricanAmerican community from police actions thatPanther leaders considered brutality.

The Black Panthers symbolized a growingtension between African Americans and urbanpolice. Large numbers of African Americans inurban areas felt frustrated over poverty and un-employment. The Panthers demanded reformsand armed themselves in opposition to the police.Several armed clashes with the police occurred.

Cities Burn

The first major urban riots since the 1940stook place in the summer of 1965 in the Watts sec-tion of Los Angeles. In a week of rioting, 34 peo-ple died and much of Watts burned to the ground.National Guard troops were called in to end the

In 1964, after a lengthy tripto Africa and the Middle East,

Malcolm X called for closer ties betweenAfrican Americans and African people inother parts of the world. How did MalcolmX’s ideas change during the early 1960s?

PicturingHISTORY

LinkingPAST & PRESENTLinkingPAST & PRESENT

Honoring King

In 1983 Congress made the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a national holiday. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January.


uprising. The Watts riot was the first of a series ofracial disorders that hit cities in the summers of1965, 1966, and 1967.

In 1966 rioting broke out in more than 40Northern cities, including San Francisco, Chicago,and Cleveland. In July 1967, 5 days of protests,looting, and burning of buildings in Newark,New Jersey, ended with the deaths of 23 peopleand more than $10 million in damage. The nextweek, a massive uprising in Detroit shut the citydown for several days until the National Guardand the army could restore order.

President Johnson named a commission of of-ficials and scholars to study the causes of the riotsand to suggest steps to improve conditions. Thereport of this group, the Kerner Commission,warned that “our nation is moving toward twosocieties, one black, one white—separate and un-equal.”

The wave of urban riots devastated manyAfrican American neighborhoods. The riotsended—but not before one last burst of rage.

King Is Assassinated

On April 4, 1968, racial tension in the UnitedStates took another tragic turn. On that night inMemphis, Tennessee, an assassin shot and killedDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s assassinationset off angry rioting in more than 100 cities. Fires

burned in the nation’s capital, just blocks from theCapitol and the White House.

Thousands of people attended King’s funeralin Atlanta. Millions more watched on television.All mourned the death of an American hero who,the night before his death, had said God “has al-lowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve seenthe promised land. I may not get there with you.But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a peo-ple, will get to the promised land!”


Activity

Creating a Visual Biography Use photographsand drawings to illustrate a poster on the life andaccomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify Freedom Riders, James Meredith,

Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Actof 1965, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael.

2. Define sit-in, interstate.3. Describe actions taken by African

Americans to secure the right to vote.Reviewing Themes

4. Groups and Institutions How did thephilosophy of radical groups such as the

Black Panthers differ from that of MartinLuther King, Jr.?

Critical Thinking5. Drawing Conclusions Why did riots take

place in so many of the nation’s cities dur-ing the 1960s?

Family and friends mourn at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The eyes of the nation focusedon James Farmer, a principal orga-nizer, and other Freedom Riders asthey filed into police vehicles inJackson, Mississippi. The FreedomRiders were arrested for “disobey-ing an officer” when they refusedto leave the whites-only waitingroom in the bus station. Busloadsof black and white civil rightsworkers continued to pour intoJackson until the facilities werefinally desegregated.

4

Attorney GeneralRobert Kennedy strug-gled to stop the racial vio-lence when mobs attackedthe Freedom Riders inBirmingham and Montgomery, Alabama. To restore order, Kennedy sent out hundredsof federal marshals, and the governor ofAlabama called out the National Guard.

3

Tired of violence and fearing moredelays, the original group of FreedomRiders completed the last leg of thejourney—from Jackson to NewOrleans—by plane.

5

On May 14th, a white mob ambushed the bus in Anniston,Alabama. They stoned the bus, slashed tires, ripped luggage, andthrew a firebomb into the bus. Theangry whites tried to block the doors,but officers waved their guns andfinally dispersed the mob, allowing the Freedom Riders to stumble out.

2

[Martin Luther] King emergedfrom the office looking veryweary. He called me to him andsaid, ‘Jim, the attorney general asksthat you halt the Freedom Rides andhave a cooling-off period to give himtime to work things out.’

‘No, Martin,’ I replied. ‘I won’t stopit now.... We will continue the Rideuntil people can sit wherever theywish on buses and use the facilitiesin any waiting room available to thepublic. Please tell the attorney gen-eral that we have been cooling offfor 350 years. If we cool off anymore, we will be in a deep freeze.The Freedom Ride will go on.’

—From James Farmer in Lay Bare the Heart: AnAutobiography of the Civil Rights Movement, pub-lished 1985.

7

FreedomRiders

❝

❝

Segregated wait-ing rooms, restau-rants, restrooms, andbuses still existed inthe South in 1961,despite court orders tointegrate facilitiesserving interstate pas-sengers. On May 4th,13 Freedom Riders inWashington, D.C.,intent on challengingsegregation, boardedbuses bound for theDeep South.

1

837


The effects of the civil rights movementreached well beyond the African Americancommunity. Women, Hispanics, Native

Americans, and people with disabilities all foundinspiration in the struggles of African Americans.

Women’s Rights In 1961 President John F. Kennedy createdthe Commission on the Status of Women. It

reported that women—an ever growing part ofthe workforce—received lower pay than men,even for performing the same jobs. In 1963Kennedy convinced Congress to pass the EqualPay Act, which prohibited employers from pay-ing women less than men for the same work.

Voices of Change

In a book called The Feminine Mystique, BettyFriedan gave voice to the frustration that a grow-ing number of women experienced. Friedan’sbook described how many women felt disap-pointed in a society that expected them to bewives and mothers but did not support women inother roles.

Uniting for Action

In 1966 Friedan and other feminists—ac-tivists for women’s rights—created the NationalOrganization for Women (NOW). NOW foughtfor equal rights for women in all aspects of life—in jobs, education, and marriage.

Congress passesEqual Pay Act;The Feminine Mystique is published

1963

1960 19701965 1975

National Organizationfor Women is created

American IndianMovement protestsat Wounded Knee, South Dakota

1966 1973

Other Groups Seek RightsREAD TO DISCOVER . . .■ what steps women took to claim their civil

rights.■ how Hispanic American groups organized

in the 1960s and the 1970s.■ why Native Americans took action to

improve their lives.

TERMS TO LEARNfeminist Hispanic

Mexican American farmworker JesseLopez de la Cruz had labored for decades inthe grape and cotton fields of the Southwest.In 1972 she began working for the UnitedFarm Workers Union. Cruz made speakingtours, trying to bring women into the union.“Women can no longer be taken for granted—that we’re just going to stay home and do thecooking and cleaning,” she told her listeners.“It’s way past the time when our husbandscould say, ‘You stay home!You have to take care ofthe children! You haveto do as I say!’”

SThetoryteller

Section 4Section 4

Women’srights button


NOW launched a campaign for an EqualRights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution.The amendment stated that “equality of rightsunder the law shall not be denied or abridged bythe United States or by any state on account ofsex.” Phyllis Schlafly and other opponents of theERA warned that the amendment would upsetthe traditional roles of society and lead to thebreakdown of the family. Some people arguedthat the amendment was unnecessary because theConstitution already provided women with ade-quate protection. In the end, not enough statesratified the amendment to make it law.

Women Gain Opportunities

Despite the defeat of the Equal RightsAmendment, women progressed in a number ofareas in the 1970s. In 1971 the federal governmentoutlawed discrimination against women in theworkplace. This law, along with the efforts ofmany businesses, helped women begin to makeadvances in the world of work. Women gainedmore job opportunities, and more women rose tohigher-level jobs in their companies.

Changes in education benefited women aswell. Most of the nation’s all-male colleges anduniversities began admitting women. Morewomen than ever before entered medical schooland law school to become doctors and lawyers.

Women also made progress in the politicalarena. Many women gained local and state offices. Several women won seats in the Senate

and the House of Representatives and appoint-ments to the president’s cabinet. In 1981 PresidentRonald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connoras the first female justice of the Supreme Court.

Hispanic AmericansIn the 1960s the rapidly growing Hispanicpopulation sought equal rights. The term

Hispanic American refers to those Americans whohave come, or are descended from others whohave come to the United States, from the coun-tries of Latin America and Spain. From 3 millionin 1960, the Hispanic population in the UnitedStates rose to 9 million in 1970 and to 15 million

LinkingPAST & PRESENTLinkingPAST & PRESENT

Women and Sports

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Americanphysical educators still argued that women’scompetitive sports were “unfeminine.” An athlete such as Babe Didrickson Zaharias wasunusual. By 1990, however, nearly 2 millionfemales were active in sports—an increase of600 percent in a 20-year span! Besides female athletes, what other groups faceddiscrimination in the early 1960s?

ERA opponent Phyllis Schlafly

Women march for equalrights

ShannonMiller

Present

Past

Babe DidricksonZaharias


by 1980. Although they share the heritage of theSpanish culture and language, Hispanics are a di-verse group with different histories.

Farmworkers Organize

By far, the largest Hispanic group in the Unit-ed States comes from the country of Mexico. By1980 more than 8 million Mexican Americanswere living in the United States.

The fight for rights started among MexicanAmerican migrant farmworkers. These people,who planted and harvested a large share of thenation’s food supply, faced great hardships. Themigrant farmers did backbreaking work, laboringfrom dawn until dusk for low wages. When onejob ended, they had to travel from farm to farm insearch of the next job.

In the early 1960s, migrant workers formedunions to fight for better wages and working con-ditions. Their leader, César Chávez, organizedthousands of farmworkers into the United FarmWorkers (UFW).

The union went on strike and organized na-tionwide boycotts. Consumers across the countrysupported the UFW by refusing to buy grapes,lettuce, and other farm produce under boycott.The success of the boycotts enabled the UFW to

win higher wages and shorter work hours formany farmworkers.

The union boycott was followed by emergingpolitical power among Hispanic Americans. Inthe years that followed, Hispanic Americanswould join together in an organization called LaRaza Unida to fight discrimination and to electHispanics to government posts. The League ofUnited Latin American Citizens (LULAC) wonsuits in federal court to guarantee HispanicAmericans the right to serve on juries and to sendtheir children to unsegregated schools.

Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans, another major group of His-panics, come from the island of Puerto Rico, acommonwealth of the United States. They areAmerican citizens who have made major contri-butions to the United States.

In 1970 the first representative to Congress ofPuerto Rican origin, Herman Badillo, was electedfrom New York City. After four terms, Badilloserved as the city’s deputy mayor. Baseball all-time great Roberto Clemente performed heroical-ly both on and off the baseball diamond. In 1972Clemente died in a plane crash while deliveringrelief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Because Puerto Rico is not a wealthy island,many Puerto Ricans have migrated to Americancities in search of jobs. By 1970 they made up 10percent of the population of New York City. Aswith African Americans, though, they often faceddiscrimination in their job search, leading to nowork or work for low pay. Many of the childrenand grandchildren of the Puerto Ricans who ar-rived in New York in the 1960s migrated toneighboring states, but many Puerto Ricans re-mained centered in New York City.

Cubans Arrive

After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, dictatorFidel Castro established a Communist govern-ment and seized the property of many Cubans.More than 200,000 people opposed to Castro fledto the United States in the 1960s. Thousands morecame in the 1980s.

César Chávez led the UnitedFarm Workers during the

1960s. How did the UFW help MexicanAmerican migrant farmworkers?

PicturingHISTORY

In the 1973AIM takeover

of Wounded Knee, NativeAmerican leaders RussellMeans (left) and DennisBanks (right) protested broken treaties and civilrights violations. Whywas Wounded Kneechosen as the placefor the AIM protest?

PicturingHISTORY

These immigrants settled all over the UnitedStates. The largest number of Cubans settled insouth Florida, where they have established athriving community.

In 1975 Hispanic people and other groupswon a victory with the extension of voting rights.The new law required that registration and votingbe carried out in other languages as well as inEnglish. This was designed to help those citizenswho might not read or speak English. Electionmaterials, for example, are available in Spanishand English in many states.

Native AmericansThe years after World War II were a time oftransition for Native Americans. Starting in

the early 1950s, the federal government urgedNative Americans to leave the reservations forwork in cities. Federal policy also tried to weakenthe power of tribal government.

This policy did not improve the lives of Na-tive Americans. Many could not find jobs in thecities. Those still crowded on reservations en-joyed few jobs or other opportunities. More thanone-third of Native Americans lived below thepoverty line. Unemployment was widespread—as high as 50 percent in some areas. A 1966 studyrevealed that Native Americans suffered so muchfrom malnutrition and disease that their life ex-pectancy was only 46 years.

Efforts to Organize

In the 1960s Native Americans organized tocombat these problems. They demanded politicalpower and independence from the United Statesgovernment. Native Americans also increasinglyemphasized their own history, language, and cul-ture in their schools. The National Congress ofAmerican Indians (NCAI) sought more controlover Native American affairs.

In 1961 more than 400 members of 67 NativeAmerican nations gathered in Chicago. In a Dec-laration of Indian Purpose, these delegates assert-ed that Native Americans have the “right tochoose our own way of life.”

The federal government recognized the Na-tive Americans’ issues. Congress passed the Indi-an Civil Rights Act of 1968, which formallyprotected the constitutional rights of all NativeAmericans. At the same time, the new law recog-nized the right of Native American nations tomake laws on their reservations.

A Supreme Court decision in the 1970s reaf-firmed the independence of tribal governments.Other court decisions confirmed Native Ameri-cans’ rights to land granted in treaties.

American Indian Movement

Believing the process of change too slow,some younger Native Americans began takingstronger actions. In 1968 a group established the

Wounded Knee button


American Indian Movement (AIM),which worked for equal rights andimprovement of living conditions.AIM was founded by Clyde Belle-court, Dennis Banks, and others. Later,Russell Means became a leader.

AIM carried out several protests.In November 1969, for example, AIMwas one of the Native Americangroups that took over Alcatraz Island,a former federal prison in San Francis-co Bay. AIM wanted the island toserve as a cultural center. The incidentended in June 1971 when the groupssurrendered to United States marshals.

In the fall of 1972, AIM members occupied theBureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.They demanded the lands and rights guaranteedIndians under treaties with the United States.They surrendered the building after the govern-ment agreed to review their complaints.

In February 1973, AIM seized the town ofWounded Knee, South Dakota, the site of the1890 massacre of Sioux by federal troops. In theearly 1970s, Wounded Knee was part of a largeSioux reservation. The people there suffered fromterrible poverty and ill health.

AIM leaders vowed to stay until the govern-ment met demands for change and investigatedthe treatment of Native Americans. The siegeended on May 8, but it focused national attentionon the terrible conditions of Native Americans.

Americans With Disabilities

People with physical disabilities alsosought equal treatment in the 1960s and the

1970s. Congress responded by passing a numberof laws.

One law concerned the removal of barriersthat prevented some people from gaining accessto public facilities. Another required employers tooffer more opportunities for disabled people inthe workplace. Yet another asserted the right ofchildren with disabilities to equal educational op-portunities. As a result of these actions, peoplewith disabilities enjoyed more job opportunities,better access to public facilities, and a greater rolein society.


Activity

Making a Protest Sign Create a sign that youmight carry in a protest march to either supportor oppose the ERA.

Checking for Understanding1. Identify Betty Friedan, National

Organization for Women, Equal RightsAmendment, César Chávez.

2. Define feminist, Hispanic.3. Explain what migrant farmworkers did to

earn more rights.Reviewing Themes

4. Continuity and Change What rights didNative Americans gain in the 1960s?

Critical Thinking5. Stating Problems Clearly Why do you

think people with disabilities felt the needto work for equal treatment in the 1960sand 1970s?

Since the 1960s, people with physical disabilities have demanded better access

to stadiums, restaurants, and other public buildings.How has Congress responded to their protests?

PicturingHISTORY

Elementary, my dear Watson.” DetectiveSherlock Holmes often said these words tohis assistant when he unlocked the key to

a mystery. Holmes would examine all the avail-able evidence, or facts, and draw conclusions tosolve the case.

Learning the Skill

Drawing conclusions allows you to under-stand ideas that are not stated directly. Followthese steps in learning to draw conclusions:

• Review the facts that are stated directly.• Use your knowledge and insight to devel-

op some conclusions about these facts.• Look for information to check the accuracy

of your conclusions.

Practicing the Skill

The excerpt on this page was written by Martin Luther King, Jr., after he was arrested inBirmingham, Alabama, for peaceably demon-strating against segregation. King began writingthis letter in response to a newspaper ad in which a group of white min-isters called for an end to the demonstrations. King’swords attempt to explain tothe white ministers his useof civil disobedience.

After reading the excerpt, answer the questions,which require you to draw conclusions.

“We know through painful experiencethat freedom is never voluntarily givenby the oppressor; it must be demandedby the oppressed. . . . For years now Ihave heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings inthe ear of every Negro with piercingfamiliarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost alwaysmeant ‘Never.’ We must come to see,with one of our distinguished jurists,that ‘justice too long delayed is justicedenied.’”

—Martin Luther King, Jr.“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 1963

1. How does King say that freedom is earned?2. What were the African Americans “wait-

ing” for?3. What happens to justice if it is delayed?4. What conclusions can you draw from

King’s overall tone in his letter?5. What evidence could help prove your

conclusions?

Critical ThinkingCritical Thinking

Drawing Conclusions

Drawing Conclusions Read a newspaper ar-ticle about a criminal court case. Use the factsin the article to draw a conclusion about theinnocence or guilt of the accused.

Applying the Skill


Martin Luther King, Jr.

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder InteractiveWorkbook, Level 1provides instructionand practice in key social studiesskills.

Reviewing Key TermsOn graph paper, create a word search puzzle usingthe following terms. Crisscross the terms verticallyand horizontally, then fill in the remaining squareswith extra letters. Use the terms’ definitions as cluesto find the words in the puzzle. Share your puzzlewith a classmate.poverty line integrateMedicare boycottMedicaid sit-insegregation Hispanic

Reviewing Key Facts1. What Supreme Court case abolished

segregation in schools?2. What was the main goal of President

Kennedy’s New Frontier program?3. Summarize the philosophy and goals of

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Critical ThinkingMaking Generalizations

During the 1950s and 1960s, many AfricanAmericans worked for equal rights.

1. Why do you think the civil rights move-ment gained momentum during this era?

2. How did television affect the struggle forcivil rights?

Time Line ActivityCreate a time line on which you place the followingevents in chronological order.

• President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act• Supreme Court bans segregation in schools• President Kennedy is assassinated• Montgomery bus boycott begins

Reviewing Themes1. Civic Rights and Responsibilities Accord-

ing to Thurgood Marshall, what constitu-tional amendment was violated byallowing segregation in schools?

2. Individual Action Summarize the goals ofJohnson’s Great Society.

3. Groups and Institutions How did the ideaof Black Power differ from Martin LutherKing’s goals for the civil rights movement?

4. Continuity and Change Summarize theimpact that the African American civilrights movement had on other minorities.

Skill Practice ActivityDrawing ConclusionsRead the passage below and answer the questions thatfollow. Remember to review the information and addyour own knowledge before drawing any conclusions.

Malcolm X, a strong African Americanleader, bitterly and regretfully recalled his youth-ful efforts at straightening his hair in order tolook more like a white person:

“This was my first big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of thatpain, literally burning my flesh to have itlook like a white man’s hair. I had joinedthat multitude of Negro men and womenin America who are brainwashed intobelieving that the black people are ‘inferi-or’—and white people ‘superior.’”

—Malcolm X, Autobiographyof Malcolm X, 1965

1. What reason does Malcolm X give forstraightening his hair?

2. As an adult, how did he view his youthfulactions?


Assessment and Activities


3. What conclusion can you draw about theviews of many African American peopletoward white people at that time?

4. What statement from the passage supportsyour conclusion?

Geography ActivityThe map below shows the route that the Freedom Rid-ers took in 1961. Study the map, then answer thequestions that follow.

1. Movement What direction did the routefollow from Atlanta to Montgomery?

2. Location Where did the Freedom Ridesbegin?

3. Location In what city did the entire routeend?

4. Movement About how many miles did theFreedom Riders go by bus?

5. Movement About how many miles did theFreedom Riders travel by airplane?

6. Region Through what states did the Free-dom Riders journey?

Cooperative ActivityHistory and Citizenship With members of yourgroup research to find out how many people ofdifferent ethnic backgrounds live in your county.Make a graph to illustrate your findings. Thenchoose one of the minority ethnic groups to re-search. Prepare a written report with illustrationsto provide more information about this particu-lar ethnic group in your county. You may wantto find out if members of this ethnic group havesettled in one particular area of the county, ifthey have formed special clubs or organizations,or if they observe any special holidays.

Technology ActivityUsing the Internet The United FarmWorkers are still active today. Searchthe Internet for information about this organizationand create a brochurethat explains its goals.


HHiissttoorryy JJoouurrnnaall Reviewthe chapter for datesimportant to minoritygroups. Create a time line that tracesthe progress of African Americans,Hispanics, Native Americans, andwomen in their struggle for equalrights during the 1950s and 1960s.

ActivityPortfolioPortfolio

ATLANTICOCEAN

Gulf ofMexico

Mis

siss

ippi

R.

Ohio R.

Pa.

Md.

N.J.

Va.

N.C.

Ga.Ala.Miss.La.

Ark.

Ill. Ind.

Ky.

Tenn.

Ky.

Ohio

Pa.

W.Va.

S.C.

Mo.

Fla.

Del.Washington, D.C.

Greensboro

Atlanta

AnnistonBirmingham

MontgomerySelma

Jackson

NewOrleans

LittleRock

Nashville

N

S

EW

Freedom Ride route

Travel by plane

Route of the Freedom Rides, 1961

200 kilometers0Lambert Conformal Conic projection

200 miles0

Departed May 4, 1961

Arrived May 13Departed May 14


Arrived May24 and 25


0

5

10

15

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