Civil Rights Legislation

Civil Rights: Rights of full citizenship and equality under the law.

13th Amendment

Abolished Slavery

14th Amendment

Guaranteed Equal Protection Under the Law

15th Amendment

Gave African-Americans the right to vote

•Dred Scott (1857): Declared African-Americans were not and could never become citizens of the United States

•Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896): Declared segregation was legal as long as the facilities offered both races were equal. Became known as the Separate But Equal Doctrine.

•Brown vs. Board of Education (1954): Declared that segregation by race was unconstitutional.

Little Rock Nine were nine students who attended Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas despite violent protests.

Students were initially prevented from entering the formerly racially segregated school by the Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.

Finally, President Eisenhower ordered the Governor to allow the students to attend. The students had to be escorted by the Arkansas National Guard

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

• Baptist Minister• Nonviolent resistance• Youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize• Assassinated in 1968

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

• Refused to give up her seat to a white man• Arrested• Montgomery Bus Boycott

Malcolm X- Born Malcolm Little (1925-1965)

• Advocated black pride and economic self-reliance•Black Muslim Minister• “X” symbolized rejection of slave names•Once a powerful member of the nation of Islam

•Changed ways and was assassinated

President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

• Proposed the Civil Rights Act• Assassinated in 1963

President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973)

• Pushed for passage of Civil Rights Act of 1965•Pushed for Voting Rights Act•Nominated the first African-American to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall

Civil Disobedience: A peaceful way to object to a law considered unjust.

Sit-ins: Protests which involved African-Americans sitting at lunch counters and refusing to move until they had been served.

Marches: peaceful forms of protest in which African-Americans and sympathetic Caucasians marched together to show unity.