The Civil Rights

Movement

Jackie Robinson baseball promotional booklet

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947, when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. After serving as a lieutenant in the army during the war, Robinson, an All-American in football and baseball at UCLA, played with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American Baseball League until he was signed by the Dodgers in 1945. Moved from the minors to the majors in 1947, he earned "Rookie of the Year" honors and later was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

(Collection of Michael Barson/Past Perfect)

Drink Coca Cola

White Customers Only!

Signs like this were common in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

(Library of Congress)

Early Early MovementMovement

President Harry President Harry Truman desegregates Truman desegregates army (1948)army (1948)

Brown v. Board of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Education of Topeka, KS (1954)KS (1954)

Emmett Till caseEmmett Till case

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycottA member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since 1943, and the organization's secretary, Rosa

Parks had protested segregation by refusing to drink from fountains labeled "Colored Only" and by climbing stairs rather than using segregated elevators. Her act of protest against bus segregation inspired a whole black

community to join her cause and sparked the massive nonviolent civil disobedience phase of the struggle against white supremacy. ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)

Early Early MovementMovement

Montgomery Montgomery Bus boycott Bus boycott (1955)(1955)

Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1957Act of 1957

Martin Luther King, Jr. outside courthouse with wife, 1957When Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) and other African Americans, including twenty-three other ministers, provided support and leadership during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott they were indicted by an all-white jury for violating an old law banning boycotts. In late March 1956 King was convicted and fined $500. A crowd of well-wishers cheered a smiling King (here with his wife, Coretta) outside the courthouse, where King proudly declared, "The protest goes on!" King's arrest and conviction made the bus boycott front-page news across America. (Corbis-Bettmann)

Little Rock--white student yelling at Elizabeth Eckford, September 4, 1957Elizabeth Eckford, age 15, one of the nine black students to desegregate Central High School, endures abuse on her way to school. Forty years later, the young white woman shouting insults asked for forgiveness. (Wide World)

Sit-in--Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963The sit-ins of 1960 started in Greensboro, NC initiated the student phase of the civil-rights movement. Across the south, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and other students challenged segregation by staging nonviolent demonstrations to demand access to public facilities. Their courage and commitment reinvigorated the movement, leading to still greater grass-roots activism. (World Wide)

Dogs turned on Birmingham demonstratorsThe ferocious attempts by local authorities in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Eugene "Bull" Connor, to repel nonviolent black protesters using fire hoses (capable of 100 pounds of water pressure per square inch), electrically charged cattle prods, and police dogs were shown nightly on television. Tactics such as these made white supremacy an object of revulsion throughout most of the country and forced the Kennedy administration to intervene to end the crisis. (Wide World)

ProtestProtest Freedom Riders Freedom Riders

(1961)(1961) James Meredith James Meredith

enrolls at Ole Miss enrolls at Ole Miss (1962)(1962)

Birmingham, AL Birmingham, AL bomb attacks bomb attacks (1963)(1963)

March On March On Washington (1963)Washington (1963)

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 1964Surrounded by an illustrious group of civil rights leaders and members of Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Standing behind the president is Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (Corbis-Bettmann)Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The Movement The Movement SlowsSlows

Civil Rights Act (1964)Civil Rights Act (1964) Freedom Summer registration Freedom Summer registration

(1964)(1964) Voting Rights Act (1965)Voting Rights Act (1965) Watts Riots (1965)Watts Riots (1965) Malcolm X assassinated Malcolm X assassinated

(1965)(1965) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

assassinated (1968)assassinated (1968)